ebony_nivory

A year comes and a year goes by. Much like a day rolls by. Does it excite me like a crazy optimist or scare me like a floydian, I couldn't say as I slowly become inert to these changes as I release what is 'now' is what truely 'is'. What 'was' is gone and what will be doesn't bother me.

Devoid of all the trauma it has caused, What has happened has only made me strong and wiser to live only in the moment. A lesson that sounds easy to understand but hard to exercise.
I write this more as a log to myself, a marker to realise all the moments that I came face to face with and got through. Each one of them adds another bit to the jigsaw puzzle called 'I'.
Guess it sounds too monumental, no I didn't move earths, ride the skies, I got through my hurdles and in my small universe, its my own way of riding the skies and moving earths :).

Have you ever come across a situation where you had dreamt of it before and woke up from it thinking what a bad dream that was and assuring yourself, atleast you won't have to face it maybe for a long time to come by which time you would have made your point to yourself and your life?
But then in a jiffy, the very next moment you are already facing the situation, that bad dream is right in front of you. You are not prepared and almost stripped down to the bare minimum in your mind's defenses for that instant. My reaction to it was to brace myself with the reality. Accept it. Raise the defense to never let something hurt you so much. Open my eyes and understand the double standards of people and how much of a low life they can be. Accept it. Use that energy and that anger to help build the wards for myself to make me stronger, safer.
In this way my year has been very eventful. My dreams have come true. All the nightmares I mean. And all I could do was to say 'Thank you'... errr for all the fish?

All the strength and energy that I had gathered through the year came to much use when my family had to brace itself with the news of my mothers illness. Though I am breathless at the end of most days, I sometimes amaze myself that I have been presented with a situation as such and I am actually somehow making through it. Something I couldn't have imagined even in a hypothetical situation. There is much further to go and more evil to beat. This year has added ten years to me. If that makes any sense!

All the hatred and horrid things and ill luck to all the people who caused me pain! Hope you rot in hell! Much bad wishes to all those who didn't stand by my side. Booo to all those crazy situations that piled one upon the other without even giving me a breather! But above all just wanted to tell 2011... "In your face..."

But I do remember my angels. Those precious few who were by my side like a rock. Who added to my strength and energy. Who help me be me.
I am sure next year is going to pose much more challenges and I am already ready for them. I am going to face it head on. That day will come some year when I will look back at the year and say... well there was a year where i didn't have to get into the boxing ring with!

"Among the Himalayas". I had always tried to imagine how I would feel among the Himalayas. But how it feels when you are actually there falls short of all the imagination. It is a pure, pristine and un-perturbed experience. The part of Himalayas I visited was the green ranges that fell under Sikkim. Just the mention of that state brings a smile to my face after. With the recent earthquake, it is quite sad to realise the only road that leads to the most beautiful North Sikkim was badly damaged. But with many army posts up in north Sikkim, we can be sure that BRO (Border Road Organisation) will do its best to mend these roads quickly.So let me write this entry about the visit to Lake Gurudongmar as a tribute. For North Sikkim.

Most places in Sikkim is within 150 Kms radius, but its all hills and no valleys almost literally. Its like how when we were kids, we painted mountains that are V shaped with the sunset between them, they are at a high inclination. Its only lush green himalanyan ranges with no railway tracks and no flat lands for airstrips. Sikkim is divided into 4 districts, North, South, East and West. To travel to North Sikkim, we need to get a permit done, (yes, even if you are an Indian) as this area leads to regions that are shared with the china border and are heavily patrolled.

After getting our permits in Gangtok we headed off on our day's journey towards North Sikkim. Our route was Gangtok -> Mangan -> Chungthang. From Chungtang we could either branch to Lachen or Lachung. Believe me when I say I had no idea what was in store, it was like a surprise from nature. All through our drive River Teesta was by our side down below in the narrow valley. Water from everywhere up in the hills would flow down in numerous waterfalls to join Teesta, lined with tall trees and wild orchids hanging from them, we reached Chungthang by evening in an amazing SUV drive. Chungthang is a pitstop which is a confluence of 2 rivers Lachen chu and Lachung chu (chu- river). They join to flow to-gether as Teesta. That day we would head to Lachen following Lachen chu and retire in Lachen. The plan next day was to leave early (really early at 4 am) to Lake Gurudongmar, which was 4 hour drive from (and I would say above) Lachen. Lachen is around 2600m.

So when I woke up at 3am in the morning to get ready to leave for Lake Gurudongmar which is at 5100m (17,100 ft) there was talk from everyone about how AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) might hit making people not even strong enough to get out of the transport to get to the lake, we were a little apprehensive. But that didn't last long, as soon as we came out of our rooms all ready to leave, we saw the first glimpse of a snow capped mountain looming above the huge green hill that Lachen perched on.

It was like a white and gray giant much bigger than the green giant. That sight was magnificent. After half an hour into the climb in our SUV, the snow capped mountains started surfacing like they were coming out of hiding. The golden sunrise hitting the peaks with picturesque frames that teesta was creating with the mountains and valleys all along the climb only made me just keep the camera down and absorb in as much as I could.

After 3 hours we reached the last civilian settle-ment at Thanggu at 14,000 ft. A was a small village of a 100 people or less made up of civilians and soldiers. A nice lady served us hot soupy maggie with tea for breakfast in her kitchen at 7 am. It gave us the warmth that we were yearning for. After breakfast as we climbed up the vegetation on the hills changed to very short shrubs and hills covered with colourful flowers. Our next stop was the millary cafe called Cafe fifteen thousand. The name says it all, a cafe at 15,000 ft above sea level. After a few minutes break there we set off on last leg of climb to the plateau at 17,000 ft, After a long open drive through the plateau, we reached Lake Gurudongmar.

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