Bedani Kund, Snow Point and Goa, 13 May 2007

The next day did indeed bring in a brighter day. It brought in the sunshine, better health, happier kids and the view of the majestic Trishul right outside the tent—erasing the nightmare personified by the several puke-filled packets lined up. All through the trip, we had a several groups within our larger group, probably borne from the varying degrees of prior proximity and the ensuing closeness that comes from being misinformed as a group about the trek itself. Giovanni’s group was fuming. As he explained: that while he had learned that he could wash his hair with a mere tea-cup full of water, his heart was pained by the whole experience of not being actually prepared for the hardships that this trek had put us through. He was fed up. He had had enough. He was not staying one more day in Bedani Kund. He wanted to move down to Camp IV and that was that.

The temptation was to do the same, after what we had been through the day before. However, as Preeti said—there was the snow that we had promised the children. Could we live with the fact that we came up all the way to 12,000ft to just turn our back on all the experiences that it holds? And that too with Giovanni for company? This was the best final word she had and we stayed on banishing any chance of having regrets later. As the dissenting group walked away, Manish promised us the tour of Bedani Kund, and the snow so after breakfast we began our walk to Bedani Kund, where they say the all-powerful Devi used to descend to bless her people.

Manish asked the girls to lead and told them about how timeless and holy the Himalayas are. “If you ask for something with a true heart, you will be blessed with it”. We walked into the walled area and prayed at the temple of Parvati. One of the locals handed me some yellow flowers to put at the feet of the tiny statuette of the Goddess. A little ahead was a temple dedicated to Shiva. Usually this entire area is full of snow. It is only in these couple of months that you can actually visit. There were patches of snow all around the wall, and the girls jumped into them and threw snowballs at us. The sheer joy on their faces made me thank Preeti and thank god for giving me Preeti as a friend. They loved it! There was no trace of last night’s pain as Meena whooped and hurled the biggest snowball she could make.

These were ancient grounds and we knew as we walked along the ledges dotted with little purple, blue and yellow flowers that we were blessed to be here and that we might not ever come here again. The views were those that cannot be captured by any cameras. To stand at the edge, look at the lofty mountains and their frozen rivers draped across like sashes, to feel the cold breeze and breathe in the freshest air ever, to see the star-spangled night sky—these are not things a photograph can record. We took pictures nevertheless and began our walk down back to the camp.

That’s when we bumped into Goa. A very very sunny group of people, who came down the same track that we heavily trudged from Tol Pani to Bedani Kund, with light feet and a song in their hearts. Liz and Lien who were watching both Hyderabad (us) and Goa (them) walk down the same slopes could clearly make the difference. They said that the only one who looked energetic among us was Preeti using two walking sticks and a yellow raincoat around her waist—“like Superman on Skis,” they guffawed. Goa swung in with Appa, their over-enthusiastic group leader, who promptly had a bath in full view (vitals protected) of all around at 12,000ft. We checked later that the water had been heated—duh. The Goans were complete with arms around their partner of choice, their T-shirts (in one case a chap with a wife-beater vest on), and cowboy hats over monkey caps. We stood gaping at them like bag ladies till hunger made us join them for a Cholay-Bhature lunch.

Then came the matches. The men from Hyderabad and Goa were pitched against each other in a Volleyball match and the girls in a Throw ball match—complete with cheerleading. While Goa won the men’s round, the Hyderabad girls gave it back big time to win the Throw ball match. And we can proudly say that Lien was one of the winners—so much for being sick! She jumped in and smacked the ball down hard, with our girls and us rooting from the sides.

The view, the togetherness, the fun, the learning—all at 12,000ft—priceless. The pain, the fatigue, the discomfort—everything else can be forgotten. The girls were having a whale of a time and that mattered. That evening, dinner was a relaxed affair (with paper plates, even Aparna relented as they were bio-degradable). For lunch time, I had rolled out a couple of very much done-up stories on the Roopkund lake, complete with hidden treasure and facts about carbon dating to unsuspecting kids. At night, Ayesha narrated some much better stories with the skill of a Scherazade and then after a moments of privacy under the star-stricken sky (only ones looking down at us were Orion, The Great bear and others starry friends) we all gathered to watch what to us was entertainment, considering the absence of multimedia etc—Preeti getting into her sleeping bag. It was hilarious—somehow she never could slip in with the smooth elegance that she always displayed in life. We used to wear all that we could that included multiple pairs of socks, gloves, shirts, sweaters and even jackets as it was cold and then slip in but Preeti stood vanquished before the sleeping bag. She would struggle and wriggle and look awkward enough to thoroughly entertain us and then glance down enviously at her little Nayanika, who would have neatly slipped in and looked so comfy in there. While the daughter made sleeping in a sleeping bag an art, for the mom, it was rocket science! Bah—to be defeated by a sleeping bag!

Even though we might not have slept as soundly as we wanted to, we were rested. We were rested in the knowledge that people who mattered to us had got back their strength, that we had been tough enough to get this far and that we were tough enough to tackle anything that came our way. C'mon life--bring it on!