DRIVEN BY FAITH

It's about a journey which can be completed, only if you have faith in the Almighty. It was going to be just me and Prateek. I was assigned the tricky job to arrange the tickets. Well I got one for 340 bucks and I was assured that it will take us straightway to Katra while most of the operators provide service only till  Jammu. Yes,, you got it right, we were heading to Vaishno devi. It's a 10 hour drive from Chandigarh and you can opt for private bus operator starting from 250 bucks and prices can go up to 500 bucks for a volvo.

            We were about to start our journey that's when I realized that I had slept only for 3 hours the previous night. We started at 9 in the night with a mutual agreement that taking a nap while traveling is a curse. Being the off season we found that more than half of the bus was empty but, there was a pretty young girl who had the sleeper right next to our reclining chair seats. She closed her compartment and opened it only when we reached the destination but, Prateek kept fantasizing that she's peeking through the glass door and that's the way he is.

                                                                                     Well we savored

every possible lays and bingo flavor while Prateek kept narrating his playboy adventures from his childhood all of which occurred to be true because of he being  such  a  smooth operator even today. Now it was around 5 and Prateek was the first one to breach the agreement, but I was still wide awake. As I glanced out of the window there was no sign of sun yet. Now it became hard to keep the resolution so even I went to dreams. I was facing the window and the moment I opened my eyelid, it was dawn and I saw a mountain lit by thousands of small bulbs, it was magnificent. Prateek was awake by then and enjoying the view. It was around 6:30 and within an hour we were at katra and being an off  season we had plenty of options to stay, that too at  throwaway prices.

                         

So we got spruced up and had our breakfast

and by 9 and we set off. We were confident that with our athletic bodies we will finish the 9 hour journey in 5 hours. Prateek started taking giant steps which were making us breathless quite frequently. We were just on the footsteps of 14 Km long arduous trek and I started  feeling exhausted. Though there was chilly breeze blowing but we were sweating in those jerseys and jackets and maybe because we were too aggressive. But I kept going and within few minutes we saw the destination and it was our very own CCD. Actually we were still more than 12 Km short of our actual destination but I desperately needed a halt. There were blowers blowing inside and while enjoying my ice tea I started feeling dizzy partly because of the aggressive trekking techniques of Prateek and partly because I didn't got sufficient sleep. I said to Prateek that I will not be able to make it either let me sleep here for 2 hours or we will go back, and I rested my head on the table. While making an effort to sleep I thought we were doing this all wrong, as if some divine voice was putting words into my tired brain and the next moment I stood up and said 'let's go'. I was feeling vitalized and I insisted to be more composed and after that there was no looking back and that's when I realized that how some of the children and elders are able complete this strenuous journey with such an ease.

           

Well we reached ardh quari which is at 5 Km from starting point and we were fortunate as there were no long queues, another perk of off season. This time we got to go through the cave which despite being very narrow  let every possible hulk pass through it. How ? Faith i guess............

The journey so far was not anything less than spectacular but it was from this point  that the beauty took a whole new dimension. There's another perk of visiting in the off season that the ambiance was serene there were many patches where it was just me and Prateek and the mountains and sun and the birds. I must admit that my composure strategy worked better than Prateek's aggressive plans .We were covering miles with ease and wherever the sight went the view was breathtaking. We were about to reach the destination and sun had started painting the sky with various hues of the bold colors. By 6 or 7 we were at the milestone that stood testimony to the fact that we had done it.

But i would say that journey is always as important as the destination and if you have faith in the almighty you can conquer anything literally 'anything'.

                       

Photographs Courtesy

Prateek Singh
(checkoutwhazzup.blogspot.com)