Yatra, ahoy!

 What do you expect when you want to trek all the way up to Kedarnath? Be it, for that matter, Kedarnath, Yamunotri, extremely tough treks, though Gangotri and Badrinath are slightly less arduous? I do not believe in religiosity at all. Yet I would say that this journey has to have a certain gravitas. Surely, it cannot be a picnic where you 'enjoy', satiate all your senses, right?

Right now, however, everyone has made the whole of it in to a 'trip', a picnic,  though they will not admit it even to themselves. At the four sites themselves, there is utter chaos as most "devotees" are busy filming themselves, that is to say, they are making reels, they are video-shooting, they are taking selfies, rather than experiencing the unique feel, the special moment.  

I would not know what others would think, but, for sure, personally I would not require plush hotels with plum rooms, and dozens of items for breakfast to dinner, not to mention the constant eats all along. I would look for a safe, secure place with minimum basic necessities, right? Nor would I be in to constant joking, talking and yaking and yaking, shrieking as shrilly as possible to prove how one is unique and special, bragging all the time about the places one has managed to visit all over the world, okay? If a 'yatra', a pilgrimage, cannot make you either humble or serious, it is a sheer waste of money, right?

How should be the tour leader? I was truly grateful to mine when he hand-held me for some fifteen extremely difficult steps at Rishikesh. I personally told him so, too. Equally did I thank anybody and everybody who helped me even in the smallest way because I genuinely believe that a holy trek has to be genuine in both, the purpose behind it, and the actual execution of it. 

Well, at the Yamunotri, just because I thought I would rather use a horse (as I was very uncomfortable with the notion of using human labour, a 'doli' or a 'pittu', a notion I had to negotiate as I realised that the labourers were ready to work hard to earn their livelihood, instead of begging! Luckily, moreover, I am not terribly heavy. I was ready to walk along in difficult patches even when they are literally fleet-footed), I was literally singled out in a terrible way. I was made to ride all alone, on a mobike with a stranger, supposedly the horse-wallah, who then suddenly put me in to a pittu, and simply did the vanishing trick!!! 

Absolutely all alone at an unknown place, I was at a loss for a few minutes. Then I approached an officer who initially tried to throw his weight about. Soon he arranged a horse for me which was a pony with a young lad in his late teens as the person guiding the horse. I managed a rapport with both,  the horse and his owner. Incidentally, he was a Hindu lad, while the original guy whose credentials were extremely unknown (those riding a doli were given an I-card, while I had none!) was a Muslim. 

Without any religious prejudices, which I honestly do not believe in at all, I felt as if I was at the receiving end of an Indore treatment! Why, how, I am at a loss to know at all. Again and again throughout the ride to and fro the shrine, horses were made to stampede in the route of my pony. One felt as if there WAS almost a plan to make me fall! Two who fell in the deep ravines the very next day are still missing!

What I felt funny about was a lady on the same 'trip' laughing it off, amusedly hiding behind her meagre chunni, near the Yamunotri temple. There was not any credi(ta)ble explanation forthcoming, while others sniggered, of course, behind his back, that when  I insisted on the horse in an innocent way, I was unknowingly reducing the amount of  his "cut" with the doli-wallahs. I would rather like to disbelieve such an ugly suggestion! But then I am always bad at guessing/interpreting the ways of the world, however brilliantly I might analyse Congreve's play!

His utterly fallen face could be his sense of regret. May be! Yet another instance was my fast on June 21, in memory of Papa. I had informed months in advance. I also insisted that I carried the potato savouries, dry fruits from home itself. Yet some tasteless potato chips were served, and I was told not to eat up everything!!! Crazy if such awful responses are supposed to be 'fun'. Nobody has any business to mock at another's remembrances, right?

Yet again, at Kedarnath, there was this special pooja after 10 p.m. I had specifically asked the tour leader where I should wait it out. I followed his instructions to the t, even when the guruji he had hired asked me to wait somewhere else, actually near the hotel which he owned, too. I informed the tour leader yet again that I use the Idea network which does not work there! Sure I did not know this stuff earlier. Otherwise  I would have gotten myself a temporary Jio membership! I waited in that horribly crowded area for minutes on end, checked everywhere, could not find him. Finally I requested a stranger to call him up. He would not even pick up the call. At last, somehow I was located, and the whole adventure was treated as "okay!" stuff with a shrug!

Really unexplainable, truly inexplicable was the behaviour at Mana village. I had to negotiate the pittu rates myself. Of course, others did suggest that the bother was not taken seriously as he could not get a cut. Well, I cannot be so cynical!

But he, the cleaner, the driver, the trio suddenly decided to park the vehicle somewhere else. All the three, otherwise calling themselves "mushtanday" (ageism was terribly rampant on this 'trip'! Equally conveniently it was forgotten that I was charged more for a single room!) were enjoying themselves. I called up thrice, plus once more from.a stranger's mobile). No specific location was indicated. The bus was actually parked somewhere else. I waited near the spot where we were initially dropped. When a couple from the 'tour', who, too, was not able to locate the bus, came along at the spot, I joined them. Extremely insensitive and arrogant was the response! This time I decided to speak up my mind. I was told not to disturb the mood of the 'tour'!

I think, the ultimate power that controls this big ( and bad) business called the big (but bad) world had an extremely bénéficient attitude towards me. So I must, and sure would, make genuine, deep and creatively worthy contributions literally every minute every which way!

Pratima@Not even a drop of the terrible Himalayan rains, neither the falling avalanches would destroy my  yatra. All these horrible calamities happened immediately after my pilgrimage of the place was completed truly  in a divine way. Only once was there a small little traffic jam, compared to the horrible ones lasting hours on end. The traffic jam, too, happened after returning from Badrinath. 

 I am back home, safe and sound, and in one piece. Cannot thank enough my parents whose memory was my eternal protection! Jay Chardham!