Making Sense of Mountains(2) - Called By Hills

Both: The book & the journey of booking the trek happened in parallel. It was like one was feeding the other.

This is the second non fiction book which was on my list after reading 2 heavy (BIG) books - {The Loneliness of Sunny & Sonia and then Railsong} books which spans a generation and are sprawling with multiple characters I decided to switch track. 

This is a book like nothing I had read before. A book written so beautifully - that I could visualise every line of the book in my mind. In some sense its a small book - but I read with elongated pause just imagining what I had read about the house or the dogs which started staying with her & her husband, hoe she made a space in the mountain almost like occupying the forest without permission - And how the mountains & their people accepted her. Of course after much doubting and testing. 

A book which tells about the same place (near Ranikhet) but covers an expanse of 25 years +. I have stayed in Bangalore for last 20 years & the story all my friends and relatives have heard is that “Indranagar (where I stay) 100 ft road had 1 store and now….can’t count”. But beyond this my imagination can’t stretch because I never really lived here - with 10 hrs in office and frequent travel Indiranagar was just a place of convenience.

But for Anuradha Roy it was a slow process of adaptation, understanding the nuances of the hills, the people, the plants, the animals (wild or pet) bureaucracy and of course development. The animal - people divide and her last chapter hauntingly titled “The wounded Mountain” - A closing chapter so poignant that it almost made me cry.

I can still visualise how her dog disappeared and the despair of not finding her, or how the foxes disappeared not to be seen as the roads being built in the mountain pushed them away and away. No one knows where.

As we were moving from Dehradoon from where we were picked to be taken to the base camp at Katgaon, we were stopped several times because roads were being made - I could see 10’s of JCB’s boring their hard steel spikes into the mountains and removing rocks, landslides where the rocks got loose, or large swathes of land just not there because during rains landslides would have just broke that part of the mountain.

One part of my  mind was crying at the devastation being cause because pf people like us who need the roads & one part of the mind was rejoicing that at least I am able to see the mountains. I am not sure my next generation or there next will have the opportunity.

This is kind of dichotomy which I carried with me as 25 of us drove towards our base camp.

Is it a problem with choice or Pull of our senses ?

The old books, cloths, shoes, jackets which we were receiving from people coming in to give were across our table. We were doing our fist preloved sale aka 2nd hand products which we had received from our previous collection drive. 

Needless to say my eyes were lit when I saw a Murakami book “First Person Singular” (one of my favourite author), a book on climbing the Annapurna peak (I had just come back from ‘Har Ki Dun Trek’ and my mind was filled with mountains, The inside story of GUT(my last 1 years work on changing my food habits to get the gut going), How do you live ? By Genzaburo Yoshino (A book written in in 1937 and was translated in Japanese in 2021 and inspired Hayao Miyazaki of Ghibli Studio to make his last film - The Boy and the Heron, Now Ghibli is and Miyazaki are my gold standard in animation) and lastly, Sum - A book on after life (maybe the B/W picture on the cover - otherwise no RATIONAL reason). 

I picked all of them and kept them aside.

Now I am a person who is very very diligent of what book I read or movies I see - there has to be a strong reason. Why ? because I am investing my 1 hr every working day and few hrs in the non working days to read - experience - feel them. Which otherwise I could have done so many other things. And I don’t mind investing any amount in a book if I want to read it. 

But here I was with an array of books which I could read and give back and it will be sold in the next PRELOVED SALE. This was my rationalization. Everything you see above in (is the rationale).

But as I drove back home, the other side of the brain kicked in::

But these were meant for needy people 

Which needy person (read maids / security guards who bought) reads Murakami. Blah

But if the rich person bought these books then money would have gone to trust.

Hardly any fiction / non fiction book were bought, only children books were sold. Anyway there will many more sales opportunities after this. People can buy them.

I tie myself in these ideological ruminations. Sometimes (like today) I ask myself - do we really need to get into these mental debates ? Will it make me a better person? Am I judging myself hard or trying to be perfect ? What is perfect anyway ?

But when the questions come - It pours.
For once I thought I will pour it out on paper blog 🙂

& Not look for an answer.

Self Quote “Most questions about life do not have multiple choice answers.”

Making sense of the MOUNTAINS (1) How it all started ?

I don’t know where to start. With all the anxiety of the pre trip planning and ending with the excitement of eating, chatting, joking with a group of trek mates, who were unknown 7 days back but now feel like we are a group of BFF’s.

There is so much to write factually and there is so much to mull over that I don’t know where to start. I guess it will take a few days / months for some of it  to surface and and some of it to be absorbed.

Like Eagles says in one of there songs (In Hell Freezes over)…this is how it all started.

Lets begin before the beginning.

A naive me in Ladakh dreamt of doing Chader Trek excited by the stories of walking on a frozen lake. But then Covid stuck and we were locked in for almost 2 years. In those 2 years and after that many things happened but the trek. Ladakh was the first time I experience nature like I had never done before and if I was 

Solan - Shimla - Beginning of the Himalayan journey

22 and 23 both years I spent considerable time in Shimla - Solan. I understood the mountains through the programs we did for the teachers who were working in small communities spread across far - flung areas. Their past, the secrets of traditional herbs, their dresses, festivals, aspirations , difficulties.  But what stood out was their love and kindness. One such experience was - On a small hike, when me and friend got lost they not only showed the way but opened their house for rest and tea. But then I saw the hills burn from our window - not able to do anything. How the mountain cried, vegetation disappear so does the species. We thought of doing many treks across nearby mountains but none materialized. This March / April the choice was to go for a meet being organized at Shimla and then navigate my way for a trek. But looking at the locations and itinerary I realized - it can’t be both. 

And that’s how a trek was decided

Why “Har Ki Dun” ?

This question was asked by the trek lead to all of us and the simple answer was “It called me”, there was no strong logic, which peak to climb - but the only thing which I could connect was what Arjun (founder of Indiahikes) says in his video of it being a trek of self discovery - spiritual etc. 

Does visualisation work ?

The pic above says its all. I joined this session being done by my friend to create a visual board for 20 26. It there on my soft board from Jan 1st.

1 bucket List done. Thanks to my lucky mascot JO. More Soon.