This is a true story of how as my friend P would put it "Tung Fort in Tungi, mein baj gayi Sen ki pungi" and is precisely why I'm climbing stairs like a newborn giraffe trying to find its feet (saw it on Animal Planet, I do watch educational TV sometimes) and to be honest I absolutely emphatise with it. Every muscle in my body is screaming blue murder and my complexion (or whatever is left of it) is sulking because the SPF 30 goo (read sunscreen) that I purchased did nothing for my skin and I've returned with a brown-orange hue.
For the past six months I was like an invalid thanks to the horrible knee pain, which the doctor tells me is due to Vitamin D deficiency, and I've been reduced to limping badly, wearing flat shoes, sun bathing (with my clothes on, don't let your imagination run wild) and popping tablets that have me running low on Vitamin M. It is only in the past couple of weeks that I've been able to go back to my old life and I promptly bought myself a new pair of heels as a treat and was looking for more ways to celebrate when M a common friend mailed me the details of a trek to Tung Fort. I scanned through the details and it said it was an "easy" trek and gullible me took the bait. I registered for the trek and followed their instruction to the T on the checklist of items to carry on the trek, which was as follows:
- light cotton track pant-full /shorts – to be worn
- cotton t-shirt – to be worn
- water bottle ( 2 ltrs)
- glucose powder
- good trekking shoes
- walking stick - optional
- extra one pair of clothes - optional
- Napkin
- carry everything in a back pack
- camera and binoculars – optional
- sun cap
- sun goggles
- sun screen cream – optional
By the time I had finished, my list read as follows:- Jeans
- Two T-shirts (one for a later in the day)
- Jacket
- Shawl
- Extra pair of socks
- 2 bottles of water
- 1 bottle of soft drink
- glucose powder
- Walking shoes
- Two small towels
- 4 mini bars of chocolate
- Sunglasses
- Sun Screen
- Sanitizer
- Shower Gel
- Beautifying Body lotion
- Face Tissues
- Wet wipes
- Lipstick
- Compact powder
- Napkins
- Wallet
- Mobile phone with earphones
By the time I had finished packing the bag was quite heavy, but I told myself that the water I had packed was making it heavy and once I drink it off the bag will be light in no time. When we arrived at the base camp we were handed one lunch box each and my already overflowing bag was bursting at the seams, quite literally. It was only when I reached the base camp when the enormity of the situation hit me, the trek was to be up what looked like a sheer rock face to the top where a flag was posted and I realised this trek was no easy thing, there would be some hard core rock climbing involving some heart in mouth moments when one miss step would mean a free fall of a few hundred feet.
I must admit the climb up was quite easy and though panting like a dog I managed to do it in good time, but the descent was anything but a disaster. My heart was somewhere in the region of the back of my mouth throughout the descent and at a few places I said what I thought were my last prayers before I meet my maker and forgave everyone who has sinned against me. As if my shoes sliding over the rocks was not enough my backpack developed a rip and by the time I returned to base camp it was torn beyond repair. At places I was on all fours, at others my leg turned to jelly, the worst was when I was sliding ignominiously on my bum rather than walking and cursing myself for having opted to torture myself in this fashion on a Sunday afternoon, which could have been better spent lazing in front of the TV.
In hindsight now that I have this trek behind me and I'm thinking clearly I can see a clear analogy between how I approached the trek and how I approach life. In much the same fashion as I overloaded my bag with things I might need, most of it useless (Beautifying body lotion, what was I thinking ???) I tend to clutter my life with things that I think are important. I think about event as "I'll do this when this happens" and don't realise that I'm losing out on so many things while waiting for the perfect things to happen. What I really need is to break free from my shackled way of life and give it a chance to surprise me.
P.S.: Whilst this has been an educational trek, I second the thought put forth by another girl I met on the trek, she shares my sentiments and was so moved by the experience (she had a tough time climbing up), when asked jokingly what she would do in case she were develop the rock face as a realtor, pat came the reply "One escalator by the side and one shaft going straight up the middle". She also suggested telling the organisers to have another category of treks in addition to the normal "Easy", "Moderate" and ''Hard", she wants a "JALSA" trek for other jelly legged individuals like us. For my international audience a little translation, JALSA means "enjoyment" or "party", so the trek would be something on the lines of a luxury walk :-).
