Hiking - The Vertigo Sponsored Stream Crossing Cramping Camp Version

While surrounded by mountains, lush green cedar and fresh blossoms of rhododendron sprinkling a little of pink every now and then in the landscape, going hiking is never far away. So, while I was home this time, despite the murderous blood bath and the body’s self vengeance, I was very glad that my brother graciously dragged me out despite being a girl with his friends, (which I’m pretty sure must be thinking that this is one weird girl) and took me hiking.

Now when people say hiking it’s usually the long fun walks, scenic beauty, cliff selfies and beautiful sunsets with joyful captions accompanying them. This hike was however not exactly one of those very frequently seen posts. But I highly recommend doing this to anyone who goes there or is nearby the area, you won’t regret it and it is so beautiful, quiet and just the nature all around you.

What I was expecting was a simple walk in the mountains and finding a spot near the river to just sit and relax and have a good time. But instead, what was waiting for me there was the realization that vertigo has ruined my capabilities of being able to get myself up and finding my way around rocks and the ups and downs of the path that come in the way while in the wild, and that my fear of flowing water is still as bad as it was before. Growing up around brothers in my extended family and spending almost every summer vacation in school hiking all the time, I’ve always avoided saying things like “pick me up” or “pull me up this rock” or asking for any kind of help even if I’m struggling. If they climbed, so did I, if they slid, I slid, they jumped, I jumped. Well, at least as best as I could. But ever since my brain decided to lose its ability to balance, I’m finding myself making excuses, incapable of doing things which were easy for me and asking for help, which is very frustrating for someone who has never asked for help so frequently ever. And it angers me to see other people doing things that I would normally do, only if my body allowed me to. Instead, I just stand there and envy them for being so carefree and living the moment.

Yeah, they walked that pipe

But bless my brothers for still making me do things as always and helping me without me having to ask for it. It doesn’t help with the fact that I need help, but it makes it easier since I don’t have to ask to be helped. And that’s where I come to the part about how he made me cross a stream since I couldn’t go through the way they hopped and crossed like playing a game of hopscotch or otherwise famously known to us as stapoo.

I had to cross this. It looks shallow, like there is barely any water, it wasn't though

So, when the crossing part came, I stopped, sat on a rock and watched them hop effortlessly and cross over to the other side. My cousin called out saying come along and when I said I’m fine being on this side, he came to me and said, let’s cross it together, while I blankly stared at him thinking about stepping in flowing water. So, we got our shoes and socks off, jeans pulled up as far as they would go and he dragged me despite my constant objection to the water being deep. He kept convincing me that it’s just fine and that he’ll hold my hand and cross it ahead of me to let me know where I can keep my foot next. And hence we started to cross and sure enough, the water rose up to our thighs and I was on the verge of having a panic attack. The folded jeans were wet, the rocks were obviously very slippery and the water was awfully cold, though the sun was still up (but it should be kept in mind that we had to go back and in doing so cross the stream again in the same fashion with no sun to dry us this time). Despite all this, he made me cross it, we had a wonderful time, and it was gorgeous, with lovely weather, solitude, and good company.

After having spent some quality time with nature and interesting conversations, as the sun was setting, we decided to head back as well and hence the panic attack came back of crossing the stream again. With the water still being cold and no sun with dropping temperature and being in wet jeans till your thighs, it’s not a very good combination. To explain the feeling as best as I can, let me just say, you all know the feeling when you put an ice pack on your skin, and then feel the area go numb if you keep it there for too long, right? Well now imagine that happening to both your legs, with the ice pack all over them and it’s not being removed. And add walking downhill and uphill for like 3 kilometers with cold winds and constantly dropping temperature causing frosty weather. Now, if that isn’t living life to the fullest by freezing yourself, then I don’t know what is!

It was so cold

Frost walking = DONE.

The best part of all this except for the famous “bucket list” things getting checked is that the various sounds you hear and appreciate when you’re out in the wild give you an experience that can’t be explained in any way to do justice to the feeling it brings. The gushing water, the whispering leaves, the sunlight playing and dancing through the trees, it is divine. Having lived in varying climates and terrains which includes almost a dessert, mountains and near the sea, the love for those peaks will never be outdone by anything else. The overwhelming feeling their sight brings is always the same but increases every time I see them. The solitude, the tranquility, the gorgeous sights, the cedars and pines, it is pure transcendent beauty.

Here are some links to the videos and photos I took while being out there.

The sounds and scenes

The frosty yet beautiful night

The rhododendrons

If anyone is around the Nainital area, go find this solitude instead of doing the usual boring touristy stuff. Everyone does the usual roaming around, shopping, eating and taking selfies. Try stepping out of the crowd, find a local, or ask around, some people are really nice and they’ll tell you places no tour guide will take you and no seasonal tourist would ever go to. And trust me these are the places to see. Go out, explore, feel the nature, feel the wind, the aroma, the heights and the vast expanses of verdure. 

Happy Hiking. 

Kafka on the Shore and the piano that brings back weird memories of reading it.

With such a long time no see or write, I’m finally coming back with a kind of a book review. So here it goes, I hope it’s not too dreadful.

Every time I have Chopin’s Nocturnes playing, Kafka on the Shore plays in my head in loops. I know I said “it plays in my head” like it is a movie I saw some time back and am just thinking of the scenes. But it is a book, a wonderful book, which at first had me hating it but the line saying that silence is actually something you can hear sold the book to me and I kept reading it. The story builds up around you and is something you can gross your roommate out with saying things like, “a mad man in leather boots and big hats kills cats and preserves their heads and eats their heart while it’s still beating” or “hey, it rained leeches today like it rained fishes a few days back”, if you know what I mean (an inside joke for the weekly fish market and it's "aromas"). But this book has had a profound effect on me in ways that only happened with books of older times. It kept me awake, it kept me reading it till I fell asleep and then wondered why was the light open at 4 in the morning. It gave me nightmares and weird dreams which I couldn’t explain at all. And whenever Chopin plays every time I am listening to music, it just comes up from the deep crevices of my mind in the forefront while working on something else and there I am just sitting and thinking about this weird cat talking man with a bizarre world around him and this un timely or un common bond he develops with a random truck driver who stays with him through everything in his dying moments, no matter how irrational he had to be, he stuck with him and never left his side even though he knew nothing about him. And on the other hand there is Kafka and his delusions which somehow come true. All the things he thought about the cursed life and the thing his father said of defiling his own mother and sister.

This book compels you to try and keep up with so many narratives going on. For a person who is as lazy as I am, if I could stick through it and finish it somehow and appreciate its art then anyone could read it and be enthralled by the world that Murakami creates with all the stories interwoven together in a way where it keeps the reader going even with the feeling that, “this is too much with all the stories so abruptly coming up and ending, leaving us with a mixed feeling within our heads.”

Another personal achievement for me while in the process of reading this book was the deadline I had for finishing this book, which was supposed to be Christmas Day, but with all the house hunting, thanks to the hell I live in, I couldn’t make it and then finally thought that I had to finish this year with this book and not take it unfinished into 2017. So somehow I pulled through all the exhaustion of house hunting, moving in bits and pieces and everything in between, I finished it on the 30^th somehow and felt as if I had nothing left to do. That is something I don’t always feel when I read something, but this book left me feeling with no purpose. So a big thanks to my friends who thought of finally, gifting me a book. I was literally shaking with the surprise visit anyway and then seeing the book had me reaching for support and not fall down (seriously). I also have to thank Shubham for introducing me to Murakami and Kafka on the Shore. For all of you, who aren’t yet exposed to the world of Kafka on the shore, go get it ASAP and float in a virtually bright and colorful world that Murakami paints with his stories. And a very big thanks to Ashish for opening up the world of Chopin’s Nocturnes to me. Happy reading!