The trip to the valley....(contd)

So, we left Haridwar towards The valley of flowers. The journey was from Haridwar to Shikhardham by road transport and then a 15kms trek through the Himalayas. The journey was breathtaking. We were constantly by the side of the ferocious Ganges till we reached Devghar , where we had to take a deviation from the main road towards Shikhardham. I simply cannot describe by words how the travel was... yeah by the way, we were travelling by bus. There werent any major road blocks as described ny some of the localites except for the 2 hr delay due to a landslide. The traffic was low when compared to the roads leading to Badrinath. Ani managed to hold back his nausea only until we reached Shikhardham, he almostly involuntarily crossed the highway as soon as we reached our base camp and puked the hell out of himself. Meanwhile, myself and Anni had been into the beauty of our journey so much that we didnt give time for our brains to react to the somersaults the food were doing in our bellies. We, reached there by 7:00 pm and the gates that lead to Bhyundar were closed. They would open at 6:00 the next morning, and we planned to leave by 7:00 am. It was told to us that the trek would take a minimum of 5 ½ hrs, and we did take that much. Anni was all excited about beating this conventional trek time, but he eventually settled to the stipulated time. That night, after many nights was amzingly peaceful. I mean, considering the events we had been through we were definitely tired. All three of us went into deep slumber only to be awaken by the chill air through the open windows at 6:00 the next morning. We all got prepared for the trek by 7:00 and were ready to leave. SO, finally Bhyundar it was.

The first 5 or 6kms of the trek was definitely exciting, but the excitement fell away very soon when we found ourselves panting for sufficient oxygen. We took snaps of each other, meanwhile Anni slept for another half an hour before we resumed our trek. The path was treaded by thousands of tourists who had been to this place before us, so we were lucky to have a readymade path to the valley. We saw many sages on the way, and yeah they were really sages. Their face seemed to radiate some kind of warmth ,some kind of brilliance.....we even started to imitate them by being calm, not cracking mindless jokes and such stuff. After about 6 hrs, we were at the gates of the valley.The security gave us each a first aid kit and let us into the valley. At first, the valley seemed to contain no flowers at all, considering our expectations. But as we went deep, around 1km or so, we were dumbstruck....there was this huuuuuuuuuuugggggggggeeeeee area of the valley covered with a spectrum flowers. I’ll bet my life, you cannot have a more majestic sight than this one. I had tears in my eyes....tears of ‘its beautiful’.....tears of ‘humans are soooo tiny’....taers of ‘we made the right decision’.....I was not the only one who experienced this....both Anni and Ani second me on this. This filled us with so much of energy and enthusiasm that we wanted to trek further.

“Hey....shall we climb this hill and have a better panoramic view of this place!!!!”, said Anni.”Agreed”said both myself and Ani. We climbed the hill for like 2hrs....we really wanted to get a better view if there was any. As we had emptied all our snacks on our way....we were running short of fuel in us and Anni was the first to be the victim of extreme hunger. “Guys....i cannot climb further....ufff...ufff....i need something to eat....i dont know my insides are starting to shiver like hell....please get me something to eat....”, cried Anni. I panicked at this situation and started looking for any available fruits. This was truely a dumb idea. Every fruit in some valley in the himalayas might not be edible. I found these apple sized pink berries. “Anni...take eat these...you might feel better....we better get back to the gate...its already 4:00pm...”, i said comfortingly.Anni ate those berries and found instant relief. I was the geinius of the moment. “Hey.....its okay...i fine now....lets atleast get to the top of this hill....we wont be coming hear anytime later as i know”, Anni called. “yeah man lets do it”, Ani said.”But guys, look ahead what if one of us feels horrible as Anni did and we were to struggle our way back”, I retorted.”Come on doc....lets give it a shot...according to you we shoud have been in Badri right now”, Anni said. I thought “That is the whole point, we should have the adventure of our lives”. “Ok...”,I said.

We reached the hill top in the next 15mins, when Anni started feeling a worse pain in his body. His muscles started twitching like a fish out of water. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGHHHHHHHH.........”, Anni cried.”Wats happpeennnninnngggg”, Ani said loud. I was about to wet my pants. It was the most horrific scene i had ever seen. Anni was wriggling on the ice floor like hell. I knew instantly that the berries were taking its toll on him. Why did we come here....whyyyyyyyyy......why did those guys in train told their story to us......whyyyyy is this happening.... were some of the thoughts going through my head. “God....please help us.....we will never get ourselves into this kind of situation anymore”, Ani was literally praying aloud with folded hands.After few minutes, Anni’s twitching had reduced considerably, he was now just shivering. His face had gone completely pale and lifeless.To be honest...for a moment i thought he would die...The thought of our hometown came to me and the stress of the entire trip took a toll on me too...i collapsed...all i remember after that is being woken up in hotel back in Shikhardham.
After i went unconcious.....this is what Anni claims to have happened......
“Ani....please helpppp.., im dying...ican feel that”,whispered Anni shiveringly when incidently even Ani collapsed and went unconcious.These are the moments in life which can have neither prior predictions nor future ‘ i had expected this’statements. After a minute or so....when Anni was almost ready to give away his fight to survive, a sage appeared from nowhere out of Anni’s sight. “What happened child”, the sage’s voiced echoed Anni’s almost numb ears.”Am i going to dieeee??????”, whispered Anni with tears rolling out of his eyes.”Hahaha....ofcourse not...ofcourse not.....i wanted you to feel what real pain is and try to appreciate the life you have rather than crib about it everytime”, the voice echoed more clearly this time. Anni was shocked to hear this...”Who are you???and how do you know i hate my own life”, Anni asked this time not whispering. “And how am i feeling better as you came here”,Anni asked,”Who are you????”.”Iam for you to find out my boyyy........i am always with you....you have to only recognise me.....”the voice echoed the entire valley,”There are millions of creatures around you who have a life worse than what you experienced minutes ago......you are very lucky to be born as a human being with such ‘facilities’......utilise the oppurtunity you have been given to find the ultmate truth....”,and the voice died away.The sage then held Anni’s hand and lifted him up.Anni claims that, the entire world around him felt warmer in the chilling weather, every other sound died away giving room for absolute silence.....it was then he heard something that he cant say, he cant express but he felt an unimaginably huge gratitude towards Him for giving him this life. The sage started to fade away...Anni couldnt open his mouth....as the sage started to fade away light which seemed to be emanating from trillions to candles engulfed the three of us and that is what Anni remembers.

“Heyyy....what happened...whattttt happened...”,I was screaming at the top of my voice the next day at the hotel in Shikhardham.It was then Anni narrated this incident to us. None of us spoke for some time after he completed. May be i was not qualified enough to witness Him......i thought.The journey back was a lot happier and contended. We, specially Anni had experienced what most of the people of our age would ever dream of. We cherished every little incident from that day. This was what we called ‘THE TRIP TO THE VALLEY’. Hope you people have a similar trip. Be careful...dont pick out any berry just to fill your stomach.