“What is life without love but an empty road? What is a man without principles but a wandering animal? What is society without empathy but a broken bridge? For what we have endured alone has made us villains or heroes, but what we are is a mere fraction of what we could have been. And what has happened made me a wandering animal on an empty road, heading towards a broken bridge.”
Shaambhala शांभाला
On a cloudy winter day at a renowned Chinese martial arts school, our story unfolds. The school’s tranquil surroundings were surrounded by misty veil, creating an aura of mystery and excitement. The chilly air added a touch of anticipation, as if the elements themselves were aware of the remarkable events that were about to happen. The martial arts school had 1000 students. The scene starts with the highlights of their training, gradually showcasing the scale of the people present, which was huge. To connect with them, a short story of two guys from different groups within the academy is depicted. These two guys are trying to be the best among the 1000. A little backstory about their characters and their competition with each other is revealed.
One day, during an assembly at the academy while the class was in full strength and training, with one teacher teaching and guiding their daily drill, two guys walked towards the stage. The shot was taken from the back, and we could only hear the audio of their conversation while they walked towards the teacher on stage. One of them was a charismatic and good-looking guy with black hair, around 30 years old, and the other was his student, there was an 18-year-old guy who had a curious look on his face, but his right hand was covered in a plaster cast. The cast made his hand bent and he had to use an arm holder around his neck to support it . The teacher said, “Aaj main tumhe ek chhoti si test dena chahunga. Humne 1 saal jo training ki hai, mujhe dekhna hai tumne kitna sikha hai. Kya tum ready ho?” The student replied, “Nahi, bilkul nahi. Aur aap is chhoti si test ke liye mujhe India se China lekar aa gaye? Ek toh maine aaj tak thik se breakfast bhi nahi kiya, sir.” The teacher responded, “Good, mujhe laga hi tha tum tayar ho.” The student thought to himself, “Lagta hai ye phir se apne aap se baat kar rahe hai.”
The scene continues as they reach the stage. An Indian teacher stands beside the stage, shouting (due to the noise and the Chinese tutor instructing through the mic) to the tutor teaching on the stage, saying, “Oy oy Jacki, oy Jacki hi, as you told me, I have brought my students for our friendly competition as we discussed.” The tutor, named Huang, responds, “What? Who’s Jacki? My name is Huang, and I don’t even know who you are. Get out of my academy; I am busy training.”
Karan (the teacher) doesn’t listen to Huang and jumps on the stage, which was at a 10-feet height, in a casual jump. Everyone there, except Arjun (the student), was a little confused about how Karan made that casual jump. Karan jumps on the stage and takes the mic from the tutor, starting to speak. Huang is shocked and thinks to himself, “What just happened?” He realizes that Karan took the mic and is speaking to his students. Huang rushes back to Karan to take the mic back, but Karan runs around the stage, speaking. After struggling a little, Karan stops Huang with one hand and continues speaking. After hearing Karan’s words, Huang lets Karan speak with a grin on his face. Huang has realized who Karan is.
Now, a flashback: Exactly one year ago, Huang was visiting Bharat (India). He was in Delhi and had brought his students to compete in martial arts with Indian kids. Huang was in the stadium, sitting in the audience chair, bored and already knowing the outcome of the matches. He mumbled to himself but loud enough to be heard, “Why did we even bother to come here? My students are not going to learn anything here. My students are crushing these other kids.” At that moment, a little kid tears his notebook, which was also not a pretty sight to watch. Karan happened to be passing by, carefree and eating fries in his hand. He overheard what Huang was saying, quickly went near him, and shoved all the remaining fries in his mouth at once, staring wide-eyed at Huang. Huang was confused, looking at this Bhartiya (Indian) guy acting weirdly. As Karan finished his fries, he asked for the bottle in Huang’s hand in an angry tone, saying, “Jackie, give me the water.” Huang pointed his finger to himself and asked, “Huh, are you talking to me?” Karan replied, “Yes, give me that water.” Huang responded, “What? Who’s Jackie? And get your own water.” But Karan’s mouth was burning as he had eaten all the extra spicy fries at once, and now he was thirsty and badly in need of water. So he asked again, but now in an apologetic tone while breathing fast, “Jackie, please give me the water, please.” Huang, without saying anything to Karan, handed the bottle to him and got up to leave. But as Karan finished the whole bottle of water, he called Huang in an angry tone, “Jackie, stop right there. Apologize for what you said about my Bhartiya kids.” Huang replied sarcastically, “Huh, that will not change the fact that my students are sweeping the floor with these pathetic martial art students.” Karan, even more angry, yelled, “Aaa, you Jackie! I am a citizen of Sangrila, and I will not take this anymore.” But as soon as Karan realized he used the word Sangrila, he put his hand on his mouth, shutting himself up. He spoke to Huang again, but now in a peaceful tone, “No, no, I am a Bhartiya citizen, and it is not acceptable for me to let this go. I will train a student for one year, and I challenge you that my one student against all of your students will have a competition. Do you agree?” Karan extended his hand to shake Huang’s hand and finalize the deal. Huang started laughing, and while laughing, he agreed to the challenge.
Huang said to his students (in Chinese), “My dear children, I have gifted you a prey today. Finish this little Indian pig in the glory of your master.” The whole school cheered with evil smiles, anger, and satisfaction, as they finally got a prey. Every student shouted, “Bring him to us; I will finish him.” The students fought among themselves, debating who would get the prey. Amidst the commotion, Karan went to the shivering Arjun and said with a pleasant smile and a soothing voice, “Arjun, ye tumhari pariksha hai aur vijayi bhava. Aur mere taraf se ye gift, aur bas sirf iss fight tak simit hai ki tumhe dono haath use karne ki permission hai aur BAJRANG mantra bhi istemal kar sakte ho, par pure challenge mein sirf ek baar.” Hearing Karan’s words, Arjun rejoiced with joy and became cheerful and confident. As he approached the crowd of 1000 students, he made sure to maintain eye contact with them. With a very casual attitude, he removed his hand from the arm supporter and forcefully broke the cast encasing his hand. He stretched and flexed his joints, as if his hand had been perfectly fine all along and the cast was just there to restrict him. As he got closer to the students, the plaster cast fell off behind him without him even noticing. Feeling a sense of relief for having freed his hand, he continued moving forward and said to himself “Finally, main dono haath use kar sakta hu, yes. Aur BAJRANG mantra bhi. Aaj toh meri lottery hai.” Arjun was excited now as he moved, he chanted something, and his expressions completely changed before he reached the arena. Seeing arjun fixing his hand without breaking a sweat the crowd was shocked and some said with a shock “Just who is this guy” and a wave of fear spread across the crowd watching the brutal attitude of arjun. But later some students cheered from the crowd “oy oy, what does not matter if he has two hands now. More bones for us to break, lets break him” and the whole crowd again cheers up and charges towards arjun shouting “ya, break him”, “lets put his whole body in a real cast now”, “lets go”. And the scene ends with Arjun calmly walking towrads to crown and the crowd charging towards ajun with full speed.
To be continued… (notes- write about the fight in detail and the fight should be all technical and totally logical with some mystical elements of mantras)
The blurred line of morality
Sometimes the line between right and wrong is so blurred that you can’t even tell what’s what. Even though others’ actions hurt, and you want to take revenge, believing in karma and just sustaining things is tough at those times. One is always inclined towards wants rather than needs, but focusing on making the right choice takes guts. The mistakes you make have consequences; everyone knows that. But when others make mistakes and you have to endure those consequences, it can be earth-shaking. All this leaves you at the blurred point of the line between right and wrong. Although it’s hard to see what is right and what is wrong, you will have to catch that small light showing the right and make that decision, which is opposite to what you want, but the one which is needed. That’s the rule to follow karma.
“Torna Moonlight Trek”
Elevation – 1,403 meters | Difficulty level – Tough | Trek time – 3 hours |
I wrote it like a story. Hi there, my name is Amey Ambekar, basically i am from akola (there is another guy who is named similar to me as ameya in this blog please ignore him and keep your whole attention towards me). Lets start the story, it was 4th of june, the start of the monsoon, i went to pune for some work and after being done with the work, i had the weekends free. I have always imagined how thrilling the treks would be and i was even more curious about the night treks. I was in kothrud at the movement, later that day around 6pm i met my friends manthan and utkarsh, after some chats i threw up an idea, if they were free that night we shall go for a moonlight trek. So it was decided, manthan used to live in the college hostel and asked his hostelmates that if anyone is intrested to trek and apparently six of them agreed. Manthan and utkarsh are my friends from hometown and so is sahil. I called sahil and told him that we have to go for the trek he immediately replied with a yes. There were also these two friend of mine from hometown Ameya and gaurav. So we were 12 guys in total who went for the trek (me, sahil, utkarsh, manthan and manthan’s eight hostel mates). So We decided to go to torna fort for the trek, we packed essentials charged our phones, took out the bikes and at 11pm we departed for the location. Torna was close from pune, 60 kilometers from where we stayed. On the way to torna you will encounter ghats through the journey, i had a clue that if we were lucky we would be able to see fireflies on the way, afterwards at one spot on the way along the ghats we stopped to stretch our legs but as soon as we turned our heads towards the valley we saw fireflies, it felt amazing watching them and at the movement nobody talked everybody was just staring at them. In the complete silence, the golden twinkling light that the magical bugs emitted really calmed my mind, the pleasant soft wind and watching fireflies was just a perfect combination,we stayed there for about 15-20 mins and then we moved towards torna (i could hear, torna was calling me towards it ). We reach at the trekking point at 1am, there is parking space available so we parked our bikes there. I suggested that we should take some petrol with us, as it rained the day before so i assumed everything must be wet and we could use the petrol to burn the bonfire. Then at the start point everyone gathered, everyone introduced each other and i gave some cautions before we started the trek although i was also a first timer but still I wanted to lead them and encourage them also the best thing they followed my lead, as we were trekking at night so i told them there might be snakes or other animals so be aware, always stay close. We started at 2:15 am, it was all blacked out as there were clouds so no moonlight. And as i told you we were first timers we didn’t even took torches with us, we were dependent on our mobile phone’s flash, so our one hand had the Mobile flash and the other had courage and backpack on the back which had water bottles and snacks. While I was leading the trek, i had sahil right next to me (sahil is a very skinny guy, like 6″ feet tall and weighed 48 kg only, at first i thought he would be scared and everything but he turned out to be brave and was right next to me), other were following us. As i waved the flash to the right and left to have a view, on the right there were these dense bushes and on the left deep dark valley, my mind had mixed feelings thrill, joy, excitement and peace. It was not even 300 meters we had crossed and we had a thrilling encounter, i was walking holding flash taking heavy breadths and saw something crossing our path what i saw had me goosebumps (now here’s my opinion about snakes, i fear them the most and i really mean it), i think it was a cobra crossing our path ( cobra because it was long, dark black, his skin reflected the flashlight which had fall upon him by the Mobile which i was holding. It was thrilling as well as it felt beautiful to watch cobra pass by). I immediately stopped everyone by a shout “thamba” which is a Marathi word for ‘stop’, told them not to make a move, the cobra crossed peacefully and we took a breath after that, that really scared me. After we caught a breath we moved again even after the cobra incident i was still leading, then after some other mountain creatures also made appearance one of them was the orange back and White stripped frogs i think they were poisonous too but they didn’t bother us too much we kept moving. We kept moving along with trek talks and shouting our slangs, it felt to be alive more than that i felt to be alive after long time, the cold wind, heavy breaths, that feeling in my heart made me feel complete. After walking for about 35-40mins we took a halt at safe spot where we could all sit ,rest up and drink water. While re-hydrating at that spot, we all enjoyed the view we were not on the top but still the view was great, ranges of mountain, on one-side beautiful lake view and on the other side ranges of mountain, we could see sinhagad from there, the red light from the tower on sinhagad caught our attention, sinhagad looked mesmerizing, like a black big shadow behind the dark clouds ( i have been to sinhagad but at daytime, along with its thrilling and devotional history sinhagad had a great view too but its very crowded at times, people have ruined its natural beauty ) We all nearly chugged half a bottle of water, at that spot cold heavy winds were passing we started to feel a little bit cold, i was wearing my tracks, a full sleeve t-shirt and layered it with another shirt, Ameya came to me and said i don’t feel well its very cold out here although he was wearing a sweater so i took off my shirt and gave him to wear it ( that was illogical because i was feeling cold too but still i wanted him to get rid of the excuses and encourage him so i did that). After relaxing for a while we moved again everyone wanted to rest more but me, sahil and two other friends wanted to move forward, so i told others that we are moving, i thought they might also get up watching us go, so i went froward with the other three with zeal but that’s where i went imprecise, after walking for 15-20 mins we discern that the rest of the group were not following us, as it was no network zone so we were not able to contact them so we four decided to wait for the rest to reach us. There’s this quote.
“Mountains have there way to deal with overconfidence” by Nemann Buhl
i will take you through this quote literally, So as i said the rest of the group showed no sign of reaching us, we shouted, tried waving the flash light but nothing worked as we were far away from them, one person among us four suggest that we should head back and bring them with us but i told him don’t worry they will get to us in a short time, just wait. The spot where we stopped was good enough to burn a Bonfire, as we had the collected petrol with us, we gathered together bunch of sticks, tree branches, pored a small amount of petrol on it and boom burnt the bonfire and as we all know along with bonfire comes awesome stories, rahul (one of the guy) knew the history of torna and the story of torna came up. Torna has a amazing story, It was called “Prachandagad” ( ‘prachanda’ is a marathi word for ‘Huge’, massive) It was built by Shaiva panth around 13 century. How did torna got the name ‘torna’ from ‘prachandagad’ is a great story, it was the first fort captured by the great Shivaji Maharaj in 1646 at the age of 16 and because when you climb torna you will find this flowers which looks like Torans (Torans are used to decorate the doors in Maharashtra) so Shivaji Maharaj renamed it as “Torna” (This is all i remember rahul telling me, how does he knows all this well he took a picture of emboss before we started). Well having done with the stories, do you still remember that quote, right? After a few movements rest of our crew arrived, well not all of them yeah that’s right not all of them, three of the guys were missing actually. I asked them what happened?, where are they ?, didn’t you insist them to come ?, why did they stay ? (Actually three guys stayed were Utkarsh , manthan, and kamlesh)
They replied that utkarsh was not able to continue he told them that he thinks his Blood pressure levels are increased ( he weighs 115kg so i might consider it true) and manthan didn’t wanted to continue as well ( i think manthan stayed because of Utkarsh, i think he didn’t want to leave Utkarsh behind ) and kamlesh had a problem with his hand he said his hand was shivering too much ( well i personally think he was faking it because he is a fit guy i think he just needed a reason to stay ). I heard all of this, i couldn’t handle it and i told the rest of the crew that i am going back and i am gonna get them if not at least i am gonna get them supplies and settle them to a safe place ( as it was a windy there and trust me it seemed like the winds had a intention to freeze us ). I took the petrol bottle with me and a extra t-shit from sahil and a blanket from gaurav and some snacks, one guy druv agreed to come with me, rest of the crew told us we will wait here until you come back. So me and druv started to go down towards them, while the downward trail i realized that druv is actually fast, faster than me ( I think he was into some kind of sports, i don’t really know him that much as he was hostel mate of manthan). We reached the spot but they were not there, we looked at each other’s faces, then we shouted there names, they shouted back, you won’t believe these brats went to a peak near that spot which had the greatest exposure to the winds. We went to them, i tried to convince them really hard especially to Utkarsh but nothing worked, then after that i told them at least take this supplies so they took it and i told them not to stay at that full exposure spot instead i found them a place behind a big giant rock which was covering the winds, checked if there were any creatures or anything, druv collected some sticks and then i use the petrol and we burned them a fire near that place. And also one another good thing happened they were going to stay there until we reach them back from the trek, so i told them not to wait for us as soon as the sun arrives get to the village and get yourself something to eat. Funny thing, Utkarsh had a knife and he made a spear out of it, how you ask, well he took a hard and long stick and at the top it he kinda fix it there with the help a knot with his handkerchief. Then after waving hand to them, me and druv went back to the rest of the group, on the way back druv was really fast i don’t know why was he in such a hurry, and so while coping up with him i got myself a deep cut on my right hand (i think it happened while crawling, i guess it was a sharp rock) , i sucked the blood and split it, i was not knowing that its that deep but when we arrived to the team i realized that the blood is dropping everywhere from the cut, it was bleeding continuously, sahil put some cold water on the wound, the dirt surely went away but the bleeding continued. And then again rahul came into play, luckily he was the guy who used to eat tobacco (is it me or it really feels like its indeed a different kind of rahul, usually guys named as rahul are not likely to do such stuff i mean eat tobacco ) so he had chuna, i don’t know its safe or not but he applied chuna on my cut and it stopped bleeding and i knot a handkerchief around my hand. Thus, this explains the quote.
After that we continued, the trek got stiffer and stiffer, at several points it felt like the peak is near, but the trail continued we took halts, i gave up the lead for 20 minutes and gained back my stamina and started to lead again and i also went shirtless thereafter as i was sweating too much, i kinda loved leading rather than following from behind, i guess following was not really thrilling enough for me. We had amazing trek talks, halts at remote spots, “I believe that if you don’t derive a deep sense of purpose from what you do, if you don’t come radiantly alive several times a day, if you don’t feel deeply grateful at the tremendous good fortune that has been bestowed on you, then you are wasting your life. And life is too short to waste“. Srikumar Rao(It feel real, i mean doing the trek, passing through the remote paths, the winds, getting hurt, trek talks and everything else as well, this made me feel real, made me feel alive after so long ). After a trek that last for 2 hours 45 minutes we reached the peak at 5am. It felt so cool out there, looking at the view from the wall that covered the entire fort was amazing.
At 5am it looked kinda scary as it was still dark, we climbed at a wall watched the view for a bit, after that everyone went to the right side of the fort, but i stayed there, I needed some me time, it was great. The sun was about to show up, i went to the left, stayed near a corner the view was mesmerizing, the cold winds made me put on my shirt, it was so cold out there. I sat at a spot, the cold and speedy winds were piercing through me, and we could literally see clouds, at that time it was complete silence and peace, i closed my eyes, spread my hands like leonardo dicaprio does in titanic and suddenly i was in a different place far away from all the urban stress away from the people, i felt the air, the winds, the aura of that, it was just amazing. Then sahil came to me and gave the worse news of the century he said the snacks are all gone they ate them all while i was having my alone time, anyways the time was worth it, afterwards we took pictures and everything there, from around the peak’s corner, we shouted our names and heard the echo.
Then something amazing happened, we heard a little sound something from the downside, soon we realized that it was Utkarsh manthan and kamlesh shouting and we shouted back but we were not sure, so i asked sahil to turn on the flash and wave it and Utkarsh and others waved back, it was so cool to do that ( we thought the ancient people must also use to do this but only back then there were no flashes so they must have used firetorch. Then the movement arrived for which everyone was waiting for, the “sunrise”, trust me it was breathtaking, one of the best that i have ever seen in my life and we were literally in clouds.
(some pictures after sunrise, the the sun was not so clear as it was cloudy )
It was so cold out there, then everyone gathered and collected some flammable things but everything was a little moist but with the help of petrol we burnt a born fire there and got ourselves warm, indeed my prediction was right and finally carrying petrol paid off. After that we explored the fort, its interesting, the fort covers a very vast area and also has a route to rajgad. The fort has temple namely “Menghai Devi Mandir” also know as “Tornaji temple”
Visiting this temple was really helpful for me and interesting fact about this temple there is a elder couple (aaji aajoba) who visits the temple at weekends to provide the tourists with poha and black tea, having a hot black tea at that clod place really helped and also the poha that helped with my apatite. Trust me at such height and extreme weather its the best thing you will ever get and also there was kaaya (the dog), as i am a dog person i really adored kaaya.
After that we roamed around for a while and took pictures. Here are some pictures of me enjoying the view and faking some candids and also some real candids are there and also selfies.
( How can you spot me, well i am the one who’s more handsome, just kidding i am the one who is wearing the green military shirt and the other one is sahil). Then after everything wrapped up, we started the down trail, it only took 1 hour 30 minutes to reach to the point from where we started. After that we reached our home at 12 pm, and I don’t know about others but i slept till 6pm. Now, time for budget talks, it only cost 300 rupees per person maximum as the only charges were the petrol charges, and the snacks, poha charge 30 rupees and tea charged 10 rupees, don’t travel with those online groups they will charge you unnecessarily around 1200-1500 inr, go with them unless you are new to the city or anything like that.
Tips – carry this one thing for sure when you travel, that is “excitement”. And also carry torches with extra batteries, lots of snacks and water bottles, also bring a camera if you are a fan of photography, trekking shoes ( i will recommend it but i personally hiked with my casual shoes ) also carry some flammable fluids like petrol or kerosene and just be aware and be safe.So that was it, i hope you like what i wrote, stay tuned for more.And in case if you wanna reach me then this is the number to call on +91-9130649833 . And also you can track me on Instagram id- @i_amey_ Let me know how you feel about this blog.and as they say in Marathi “लवकरच भेटू” (see you soon).
The Talking Can
Just assume you, I and a group of our friends went camping and we are sitting around a bonfire beside our tents under the moonlight and its winter. And one of our group member suggested that we play a game of ‘the talking can’, now whoever holds the can will have to tell his/her life-changing incident or his/her story. The one and only rule is that everyone has to play. Unfortunate or fortunately all insisted to make me go first, I tried to draw their attention towards you but it didn’t work. So I had to go first.
I said ‘Okay, I will go first but let me share a little something with you first’
Have you experienced that incident when you like a beautiful girl that you admire the most, the one you think could share the icecream with the same spoon with you and you kinda want to talk to her but you are afraid of the consequences because you don’t know what she really thinks about you and also if she doesn’t like icecream and to slap yourself correctly that everyone likes icecream. So eventually one day you build up the guts to talk to her. You find her with her friends in your classroom when its a off lecture, you get up from your bench and start walking towards hers and just when you are two three steps away from her your brain shouts ‘abort! abort! abort the mission immediately’ and you retreat immediately to your bench then there’s your heart convincing you ‘go man, you can do it or at least to it for the icecream’. You go again and then 3,2,1 you are back to your place again. Then your heart and brain yelling at you on the same time (heart ‘go Ranbir Kapoor go, you are the opener’) (your brain ‘oye shammi Kapoor baith ja chup chap), finally you tell both of them to shut the fuck up, I am me and I am going. And you go and talk to her and you end up knowing she’s into you too, although she doesn’t like icecream but she likes redbull more and you be like ‘I don’t mind sharing the same redbull can with her’.
So you may find this short story irrelevant in the main tale but some of you in some part of the story will find it relevant and you will tell yourself ‘Well, the one who found the relevance of the short story to main tale is me, aren’t I the smartest’
Now hold your breathes or don’t because I am starting the main event.
Once upon a time it was a sunny Monday or maybe Tuesday, I am not really sure about that, I just remember it was sunny.
‘4….. 3… 2… 1… ready or not here i come’ 11 years old me yelled enthusiastically. It was my turn to seek, well to be precise it was my congestive 3rd turn to seek, it happens when you play with other nine brats also one of them was my cousin ram. So after seeking for the 4th time I suggested to play cricket for a change although that was also another game in which I sucked, not too much but enough to spend 90% of the time fielding. That day instead of playing on the ground we all decided to play gully cricket. We had bat and ball but used the wall by roughly marking stumps on it by scratching stones against the wall. Motha Rushi was batting, yeah ‘motha rushi’ because we had two ‘rushi’ so we assigned them the prefixes ‘chota’ and ‘motha’ (chota means small and motha means big). So my full time rival was batting and I was fielding near the boundary of Ingle kaku’s house. Ram bowled a long ball and the next thing I saw the ball was in the sky making its way out of our so called stadium with audience of three stray dogs and one cat straight to the house behind me. Obviously he was out those are the gully cricket rules you can’t hit the ball in someone’s house as the owner will keep the ball and also be lecturing us. I had to go to the mission ‘recover the ball’ and I was making up reasons in my mind that I would through at Ingle kaku in order to get the ball. But someone yelled from the other end of the boundary ‘They aren’t home today’ and I was so relieved. I climbed my way to the entrance gate and I saw the ball aside the small plastic pipes near the flower pots. I was happy that I found the ball and went to grab it as soon as I did that I heard a hissing sound coming from the pipes and a saw a black tail. I grabbed the ball tight cause obviously that’s the first the snake would want from me and I ran, climbed the gate in record breaking speed and didn’t look back and ran for 50 meters yelling ‘saap’ ‘saap’ ‘saap’ and I almost peed my pants. Back then I feared two things the most first was Mahadev from the movie ‘Diler’ because of his third eye and second was snakes. Everyone gathered and I told them what happened. The first thing Motha Rushi did after hearing me was took his ball from me, although I didn’t get to bat but I knew that was not going to happen. Elders gathered and called the snake catcher, the guy came and caught the snake in no time, he kept it in a empty plastic jar with holes in it although I was pretty sure that it was the jar of sonpapdi. As the sanke-guy was letting everyone to have a look at the snake I also went there. As I saw it was strange but I didn’t feel any fear or thrill whatsoever. It was hissing loudly and continuously then they went away taking the snake with him. I felt strange that I was not afraid, I went home with that feeling. Later that night after having dinner watching ‘beyblade’ I spoke about the strange feeling with my parents and they told me maybe that the fear of mine was not anymore and later I slept. And then I found out it was not gone the fear was not gone at all. There were snakes in my dream, snakes everywhere around me. Even when I was awake that night I saw illusions of snakes. I didn’t sleep at all that night nor did my parents because of me. That night I changed the rank of snakes to first in the fear-list.
9 years later….
January 2019
I moved to pune to pursue the degree that every third guy you know is pursuing thats bachelor of engineering, well to be precise Bachelor in mechanical engineering. Sometimes I wonder why would I punish myself to pursue this boys degree where I can’t find a single female even the cleaning staff is filled with hairy men and guess what I pursued three years Diploma in mechanical engineering but I stay in a two bedroom apartment with three cool and one shity roommates namely they are Ameya sopley (the old monk guy), Mayur kale ( the guy whose parents pays 27 lakhs tax but the guy lets himself being robbed from treats to others), Anvesh talla ( the ideal south Indian guy) and rahul shamal (this is that guy you would want to slap for no reason at all) and also there’s others Kuldeep pandya, vaishnavi gharote, kritika saini ( classmates of my roommates and now they are friends with me too) who keeps visiting our place. All four of them are in final year of their mba and will be leaving for their jobs in the month of April.
Keeping all those frustrations aside lets begin with the tale or maybe a pursuit of overcoming your fears. And maybe I will try to define fear as we move forward.
It was 7 pm in the evening. I was sitting in the living room and talking to our friend vaishnavi (common friend who used to visit our apartment and brain wash us about feminism). We were talking about solo treks, I told her that I want to go for a solo trek and how great it would be. She replied ‘First let us complete this night trek that you planned and forcefully made us agree to go with you and the I think the person who talks about solo trek never actually does it’. ‘Its not true actually its brave thing to do and maybe it will be a very different experience. Anyways, I will get everything packed by 9pm and we will be leaving at 10pm sharp, you just call kuldeep he and ameya went to have chai near campus’ I replied. We a group of 5 were planning to go to rajgad for night trek.
Suddenly kuldeep and ameya enters along with them was a guy named pratik (a friend of Kuldeep from udaipur). They were in a hurry to tell us something but I interrupted them by saying ‘You know everything, right? and we are leaving at 10pm, so get your bike’s tanks filled fuel and wear some comfortable clothes which will make easy for you to climb and also wear shoes compulsorily I have two torches which I bought when I went to raigad’. They replied ‘ yeah, we know that but listen to this, there’s 50% off at crazy cheesy cafe lets go there first and then we will think about the trek there’. Vaishnavi agreed to that in no time and responding that I said angrily ‘look if we go there I know for sure you guys will cancel the trek’. ‘So what! its 50% off man and to be honest we are not that interested to go’ they replied.
‘Okay! but I will not be joining your pizza party, now I will be going to solo trek’ I told them. They replied sarcastically with a grin on their face ‘ Yeah! Yeah! we know you would be going alone at night time. Listen we are going to dinner now and we will be back in an hour or two so don’t you do anything stupid till then’ and they left.
I started packing and also took out my brown leather jacket, wore a red tee on which ‘high on life’ was printed and a track pant. Then I went down to the grocery shop bought some snacks and I saw redbull cans in the top shelve of the fridge in that shop, I took out one can and thought tonight I would be getting some wings then I had a look at the piece at its bottom then I saw some soft drinks in the other shelve in the fridge and took one out and saw its price and then after deep thinking for long period of 0.001 sec and according to the law of conservation of limited pocket money. I took three cans of soft drinks in the price of one redbull and then I told myself wings are not that useful to be honest. I went back to the apartment filled three bottles of water and packed everything in my college backpack which was kinda going to serve its purpose as I always carried only one notebook in it for the five subjects. So I think it was happy that it must have felt that its full. Finally everything was ready then placing the backpack on my shoulders and all of the sudden I felt something and that feeling made me sit on the chair, I don’t really know that if that feeling was fear or thrill but I felt fear and enthusiasm at the same time and to be honest I adored that feeling. I told myself ‘don’t overthink it, lets go it will be awesome’ and I stood up wore my shoes and was about to open the door and as soon as a touched the door knob it opened automatically and for a movement I thought ‘the universe is helping to go for this hike’ but the voice ‘where do you think you are going carrying all this stuff?’ broke my thought. It was ameya and the group who went to crazy cheesy. ‘Like I told you earlier, I am heading towards Rajgad’ I replied. ‘Yeah, Yeah ! but its not 10pm yet you got time to spare so till then you can kill the time with us’ kuldeep insisted and to that I said ‘okay!’ then I took out shoes, kept the bag on the couch and we all sat in the living room. Conversations of their extremely tasty dinner started and I told ‘Don’t you worry guys, I am going to do something more exciting and meaningful tonight’. So the conversation shifted towards the trekking thing and everyone started mentioning the hurdles that I would be encountering during the trek. Things such as ‘what if your bike stops in the mid-way’, ‘what if some muggers mug you’, ‘ aren’t you scared of the darkness’ and I resolved all of them with not so convincing answer if my bike stops, I am ready to push it to the nearest village and I will get it fixed'(yeah like there would be any repair shops open in the middle of the night) ‘ muggers will be able to mug me out of my things but they can’t mug me out of my will to pursue’ , ‘ and let’s just say that I am a strong adult and I am not scared of the darkness anymore’ . After that tiring question answer session I went to the kitchen to quench my thirst with some water and then I went to my bedroom to do that thing you know that movie thing where the guy has a pep talk with himself and does some incredible stuff, so I wanted to go look in the mirror and tell myself ‘You are awesome! you can totally do this’ but before I could give myself a pep talk ameya enters the room approaching me and he told me few things and he left the room. And suddenly I got sweating and those things indeed made me unpack my stuff and also put my leather jacket back in the closet and afterwards I distributed snacks and drinks with the people in the livingroom. And while having those snaks vaishnavi repeated what she had said earlier ‘the person who talks about solo trekking never actually does it’ and I replied with my silence and a smile but I surely didn’t miss to enjoy the snacks and drinks.
Then after nearly 4 months
30th May 2019
There I was yet again sitting in that same livingroom but some things were changed now. My roommates, they left after completing their MBA, they got jobs in different companies across different states in India. Yes! of course, we said our goodbyes. I found some new roommates, they are fron engineering sector and they all are cool too but not as handsome as I am but that’s not their fault, I mean one can compete me anyways. So they moved in around 20th may just after our end-semester exam. All of them went to their respective hometowns.
That evening, while I having chai at my regular chai place the sun was slowly hiding behind the hill and a feather came from somewhere floating in the air and landed on my shoulder and a most random thought struck my mind and I started thing that how it might feel like to have a pizza at the edge of a mountain enjoying the view.
I didn’t go home in the holidays after the end-semester exam. I thought in childhood whenever holidays started me and my family use to go somewhere outside my hometown and now that I have grown up when the holidays starts now I go to my hometown and that’s the irony. So I stayed in my apartment thinking what should I do. Three days passed since others left and I was all alome there. At that night I watched ‘friends’ and went to sleep.
And the next morning when I woke up I finally decided to go for thing I always wanted to do and for which I almost went for but didn’t actually but this time I was certain. Yes that solo trek. This time I didn’t think of anything else, I only focused on the thought of having pizza up there and how hungry I was. I ordered a large pizza from dominos and while the dilevery guy was reaching my place I arranged everything I needed on the table and also four water bottles and yeah I took my roommate’s lighter too.
This time I didn’t need any pep talk with the myself in the mirror instead I waited for the pizzas and then when it arrived I asked the delivery guy for extra oregano and clicked this picture and then I quickly put everything in my bagpack, wore my shoes and before leaving I shouted ‘Ganpati bappa, Morya!’. I went to the parking, put one water bottle in my moped’s dicky (a black hero ‘pleasure’) hopped on it and started navigation to Rajgad on google maps. It was 60 kilometers from pune. There are two routes to reach there first one is from the katraj highway and the other one is from the ghats taking you from khadakwasla. I choose the second one, it was carzy sunny out there maybe 45°. On the way I stopped at a grocery store and saw redbull but you already know the law. Yeah! I took three cans of soft drinks and moved forward, crossed khadakwasla and enteredthe ghats. Now let me give you a very important piece of advice, always save the maps offline. I know the Google maps works fine but how could it work if there’s no network. So while riding in that heat on top I lost signal and took a few turns on my own by guessing. After some time along the ghats I found two pedestrians, a elder brother with his younger brother, the younger one was carrying some luggage. I asked them about the directions to Rajgad and also game them lift, along the way we talked about native people and I also learnt about that area much more.
Then on the way I droped them at their village. They gave me further directions and after moving a kilometer or two my phone caught singnal and country music started playing in my earphones, I moved on a short bridge and river on both of its sides, the water across in the river created a cool bliss around the whole area and I was riding on that bridge enjoying the music and piercing my way through that cool bliss and I thought how stupid I was back then, you all must be curious about the things that ameya told me back then which made me not to go for the hike. Those things were ‘look amey, no one will stop you from doings this but just give it a thought again, you are going there all by yourself I know you must be thinking its a brave thing to do but there’s a tin line between being brave and being stupid. Tell me one thing you are wearing tin track pants, what if there are snakes and a snake comes from nowhere and bites you, what will you do and there will be no one help you. Just think about it’. Apart from all the jokes and everything, I respected those guys and I know they love me. After hearing about snakes, everything from the childhood came rushing towards me and I couldn’t stop picturing this scene in my mind the scene of me trekking and moving forward and a snake coming from bushes and biting me. That imaginary scene kept playing in my mind repeatedly in loops and the prior feelings of fear and enthusiasm were completely consumed by fear only which resulted in stopping me from hiking.
But I kept moving forward with the google directions as the network was live again and I reached the village near Rajgad and I was able to see the mighty mountain on which stood the prestigious walls of the fort but still the route to the starting point of the trek was unknown and I kept moving further the village and unfortunately took a wrong turn at that point maps couldn’t help anymore, so after realizing that I took a wrong turn I went back to the village and stop by a breakfast place there and asked the natives about the direction They had to explain me the route as it was complicate to reach there. There was path behind the village which lead to the starting point and as soon as I took that path I found out the one thing that the villagers didn’t tell me, the road was under construction and the path was covered with a thick layer of murram over it. I struggled going through that murram but at one point it was so thick that the bike got stuck. I had to push the bike through it and my legs went in the murram til my ankles. After a kilometer of pushing the bike I reached there.
Finally I reached the starting point, I parked my bike under the shade of the tree and also saw three other bikes parked there. After that exhausting pushing in that sunny day I opened the dicky and took out my backup water bottle and drank some water but the water turn hot as it stayed in the dicky for quite some time. I sat on the bike taking some rest and as I looked down at my feet my white shoes turned into brown I guess it was because of the murram.
I looked at the entrance of the trail and also started thinking how will I do that. The entrance was a short path surrounded by trees and bushes, there were plastic bottles and some other garbage was thrown there, it was kind of scary.
In such situations I do a thing that really helps me. I closed my eyes, took two deep breaths, opened my eyes, stood up and just went for it. As I entered and started walking for about five minutes I found myself surrounded in dense woods and there was complete silence, as I was walking I could here dry leaves cracking under my feet. After walking for some time I saw a board, a board which didn’t scared me at all, well maybe a little bit.
After viewing that non-scary board I switched on the JBL in the side pocket of my backpack and started playing cheerful songs. While moving up I saw some other boards too, boards about native birds species, insects and butterflies and also saw some of them along the way which was actually cheering me up. I think just after twenty to twenty five minutes of trekking I was already starting exhausting. I sat under the shade of a tree and ate a oreo. After eating that one I was left with one more oreo, two bourbons, two wafer packs and a kitkat. I wanted to eat more than one oreo but I though I should conserve them for later and eat a little-little portion along the way and I stood again and walked for another ten minutes but again I got tored and sat under a tree and yes of course, I ate of of the remaining snacks there in one time except the kitkat.
I put the wrappers in the side pocket of my backpack, drank some water and started walking again. The woods started becoming less dense with my every step and after another twenty minutes the trees started disappearing and the sun was in action. And I was wearing jeans, a tee and a cargo shirt on it and a hat, the hat helped me a lot by protecting me from the sun but I was getting exhausted minute by minute, took out the shirt and kept that in the backpack and I kept moving, sweating, talking way more halts and started thinking that will I be able to pull this through and it will be night when I descend, should I go back and i was demotivated. While carrying those thoughts in mind I encountered three men who where coming back from the fort, they must have gone for night trek last night. I turned off music on the speaker and asked them that ‘how further is the peak?’ and one of them said ‘you just completed 20% of the trek, its way up from here’ and that was the last thing I wanted to hear, man! that was seriously demotivating. The same guy asked ‘are you going solo? and are you going for night trek?’. I said ‘Yup, at least I think I am gonna’ and he replied ‘don’t worry, its easy, you can do it and also the view from up there is splendid’
I don’t know why but I was filled with energy all of the sudden, he’s words sounded pretty normal but I was motivated and fearless. And we shake hands and they left, I played some rock music and started trekking again. Soon the dense woods fade away and so did their shades. I took less halts now, still the peak wasn’t any near. The only thing protecting me from the heat was the hat, after walking on the rough path some stone made broken staris started to appear I sat on one of them, opened a can of ‘thumps up’ and chugged it down. Then I started climbing stairs carry bagpack on my shoulders and it didn’t took a lot of time for me to realize that I carried too much things with me, so a tip ‘always travel light while traveling solo’.
Soon the broken walls of the fort started appearing and it appeared that I was succeeding and I came in front of the first gate the ‘pali darvaja’.
Still there were many stairs to climb but it was easy now as I was getting excited to see the fort and various thoughts emerged in my about the history of the fort and how the warriors in that period climed this fort carrying their heavy shields and swords and how many battles must have been fought on this fort and this was the same place where Chatrapati Shivaji maharaj stayed and he waited right here before the capture of Kondana (current Sinhagad) by Tanaji Malusare. This fort was first called as ‘Murumdev’ fort but In 1645 Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj captured this fort and name it ‘Rajgad’ and also this was his first political center. Thinking about all these things, I didn’t even noticed that I had reach the fort.
The view from up there was just amazing. When I entered I saw there holes made in the wall of the fort and I put my prestigious car in that hole to click a mandatory picture that I always click of that car everything when I travel to a great destination.
After clicking that picture I went further and the first thing that I saw was this pond.
Can you imagine a pond up there at that height, a potential source of drinking. Of course, it wasn’t clean but after boiling and straining it, it could be drinkable. On the left corner of that pond were these small stairs, I took them and up there was a viewing point I guess the guards of the fort used that spot to keep an eye down below to patrol. Anyways now that spot was for clicking pictures and selfies and while clicking a picture of my mustang with the view I noticed something or rather I saw something which indicated that the trek wasn’t completed yet.
I explored the area searching for the route to climb to the peak and where I was, there were small huts around that area but they were locked and no sign of a single human beign. While roaming there I came cross the board of direction.
The directions were not clear as the actual place had a confusing paths, I don’t know but I have this skill to navigate, even if the paths are confusing I just fix a point of direction in my head and find my way accordingly, so I took a chance and went on the path to the left.
So, I walked on that path. Again the density of trees and bushes increased. On the right was the rock and on the left was a deep valley, the bushes were not that dense as I was able to view the beautiful view of the valley. I was a stiff path and very scary too, everything I heard the sound of something crawling through the bushes I was scared, on the right side I saw various lizards too, they were scary too. So to fade off this fear I decided to do one thing and that was to break the silence . I started to vlog, yeah you heard me, for the first time in my life I started talking to my camera in the phone and it worked, the embarrassment made the fear go away. So if you are scared, just do one thing do something embarrassing enough to make your fear go. But soon I was at the end of that trail and I saw some very small stairs.
And as soon as I reached there I heard some crawling in the bushes behind and it didn’t stopped, it scared the hell out of me. I thought it was the reptile which I was scared off. I turned back and laughed, it was a pigeon and thought ‘chalo koi toh hai yaha’ ( at least someone’s up here). I was hoping to meet someone on the top as I didn’t encountered a single human begin on the fort, I thought they must be on top. So back to the trail, the stairs were very risky on its right was the hill and on its left was death itself. If your feet slips from there consider yourself dead. But too help the greatest help by the government was there and that a shaking unfixed metal rod for support. So after climbing those stairs of death, I thought my quest world be over but no! Rajgad planned something different. After the stairs came the rocks, literally rocks to climb.
I was already drained and I didn’t have any equipment to climb at all. I think Rajgad was testing me before it could reveal itself. After resting for a bit and making my mind I decided to climb those rocks, the thoughts of falling down or slipping strike my mind continuously. Thought that no one will even known where to find my body, I will be lost, all these things kept hitting my mind but you known what now I think that was the test, the test to defeat these thoughts, the test to achieve victory on your mind, the conquest to be the king of your mind. I used my formula ‘The two deep breath’ only this time those might be the last breathes that I was breathing. And Defeating those thoughts, carrying shear will I climbed those rocks and I witnessed Rajgad. When I saw the fort’s gate the ‘bale killa’, I felt it was alive, I mean the fort was alive, I stood there in front of the gate and felt the soul of the fort.
It was a scary feeling but at the same time it was exciting too and it made my feel tremendous respect towards the fort. And carrying that respect in my heart I entered the fort, it felt like the fort gave me the permission to entered. I know it sounds stupid but I had this weird smile of excitement on my face. Finally I was on the peak, I climbed my way up to the top. As I entered the gate of ‘bale killa’ there was a small temple, the temple of bhavani mata. I removed my shoes, entered the temple, prayed and came back. I was vey excited, adrenaline was all over me. I wanted to explore the entire area up there. I clicked some pictures.
Trust me the view from up there was breathtaking, one could view the entire region from up there at the height of 4,514 ft and it took me two hours to get there. I could see other forts, the ranges of Sahyadri. It was still noon when I reached there, Explored the entire place and yet no sign of any human but what I found was this structural remains some broken walls and in the middle of the fort stood straight the saffron flag of maratha. Also there were these two ponds there just like the one I saw earlier only these were bigger.
I have that in monsoon these ponds get filled with those fishes called as ‘doctor fish’ which provides natural pedicure. After roaming around for while it was time to fulfil my dream that ‘pizza dream’ so I found myself a place, it was some kind of watch tower kind of place. Anyways it offered me its shade, chugged some water and there it was right there in my bag that pizza, I took it out sprinkled some oregano and chill flakes on it popped a can of coke, sat on the edge and of course I took a picture of that arrangement.
Then after settling down and I had the first bite and realized something very important, the pizza was cold. I should have thought this through before making a joke of myself, no one was there but now as you hear this act of supreme stupidity you can control your laughter. But keeping all those things aside I was very hungry and that pizza helped a lot with and seriously think about it no human must have done this, I might be the first one. So I see this as an achievement, so joke’s on you my friend and in my defence the coke was cold too. It was still sunny and I wanted to wait for sunset so to pass time I started exploring other corners of the fort, walked on the wall of the fort for a while. After some time the sun was settling down, I started collecting dry sticks for a bonfire. I collected them at the edge where I could view the ‘suvela machi’. I placed two rocks at some distance in middle of them to place dried sticks there and I fought to tell you I was carrying some camphor cubes with me I placed some of them with the sticks and lit it with the lighter, put the boiling pan on those rocks, poured some water and coffee in it and made myself a cup of black coffee and it was almost sunset.
The sky turned itself into shades of saffron, I sat on the wall with cup of coffee watching the most beautiful sunset that I ever seen in my entire life. My friend they say magic isn’t real but that moment right there was in front of my eyes was magical. It was just perfect, at that moment my entire life flashed in front of my eyes, I saw the what I learnt, the lessons, my arrogance, my anger, my mistakes and in that moment I forgive myself for all that was wrong in me and filled my heart with peace. I felt the connection with nature, with the sun, with the wind and more than that the I felt connection with myself, the true me and truth of who I was. The mountains, the sky, the birds, the winds it all connected to me, I witnessed a something divine which I will cherish throughout my life and I was evolved by that moment.
Soon the sun went down and I told the sun ‘phir milenge dost’. I drank the coffee, washed the pan and cup put those in the bag and took out the torch and before I reach the ‘bale killa’ gate, it was already dark. As I started descending my heartbeats increased as the entire area was dark. But I was able to see just enough by holding the torch in my mouth with teeths as I had to use both my arms to descend those rocks and stairs. After that I could walk, so now holding the torch in hand I started running. It was night time now and I had was the torch to my the way out. We all know one can descend easily as compared to climb. I reached near that board of directions. But everything there was pretty scary now. For a while I couldn’t find the way out as it was all confusing in the dark but eventually I found it. Just before leaving the front gate of the fort I was worried and a bit scared. It was completely dark, no moon or stars (so next time go for night trek when its full moon). I had to descend the path which I barely managed to climb. At that time I thought I will not make it home, as dramatic as it sounds it was, I tookout my phone and texted sahil ‘tell my mom I love her and you know where to find me’ ( untill now no one else knew about this besides sahil and me but now I am revelling this secret). I stopped and now you can guess what I did, yup! I took two deep breaths and just like that started descending. I remember there were times in the descend where I couldn’t hear anything because of the winds. The torch was automatically switching off and there were times when I could hear every single heartbeat. The crawling sounds in the bushes gave me Goosebumps, the sounds that the animals made from the wood which I never heard before scared me a lot, the path with dense trees and bushes, every time when a branch of a trees touched my back or my leg I was terrified. All of my senses were in act, I slipped two times landing on my butt but I didn’t stop walking. After about an hour I made it. Yeah! I did. I quickly went near my bike but I couldn’t my keys and right there was again a huge problem how would I start my bike. But guess what I had left my keys to the lock of dicky, actually I got lucky no one took my bike. I started the bike and went to the village and stopped. Now, I will tell you a little secret that I haven’t told anyone before. I don’t know why but when I stopped at the village, my eyes were filled tears and I seriously couldn’t stop crying. I cried and yelled I did it, I did it’. I guess I was very emotional at that time and why wouldn’t I be, I conquered my fear and I made my dream come true. It just felt I achieved something.
After that I went to that breakfast place the same one that I had mentioned earlier and I washed my face, had some chai there and there was this kid who had served me chai I gave him my the kitkat which I was saving to have after the trek.
And then I went to pune, I met sahil and you know what he didn’t view the text but then he read that in when I was there and he started laughing. Well that was pretty embarrassing. And that’s that.
Now I know that fear, nervousness, anxiety, insecurity or whatever you may call that state of mind. Its all relevant to the situations, there’s no escape from it, actually its all natural, well its human. These feelings will come again I mean there’s no permanent solution to it, its the universal truth. So if you are looking for a permanent solution then please stop because its not there, so stop harming yourself in pursuing that because no one can help you. Instead just focus on yourself because the person who will help you is you and the answers you are looking for are right there within you. On the contrary I find it nice to have those feelings again because I know I will conquer them again with the strength within me and if I don’t conquer it then I will try again, I will stand and face them again and again until I win. And so can you my friend and so can everyone else just believe in yourself and keep getting stronger.
So there it is, that was my story and did you found the relation of the first story about that boy and girl with this major story ? If you did find it then keep that to yourself, it will be like our little secret and if you fail to find the relation well keep looking for it. Here, I am passing the talking can to you. So, what’s your story ?
muddy.boots 