Trek to Naneghat and Learning for Life!

I lead a sedentary yet 24x7 lifestyle of a consultant. I like to indulge in epicurean delights. This lifestyle is perfect to make me an indulgent sloth during the weekend. Last Saturday was different, I decided to push myself and enroll for a company trek. Travel is my only respite from the rigors of the corporate life and I decided to make most of my last month in this state. I did some basic research online on the destination Naneghat and non-nonchalantly put in my application and fee. My co-located coworker friends, thought I was far too quick to take an independent decision and we quickly realized that  it wasn't going to be fun if some of us do not go together. So I left it to them to decide the fate of my application. Either all were going or none. Luckily all of were prompt to organise ourselves and met on time for the T-day. Only thing was, that Mumbai rains were playing havoc since Friday night and were showing no signs of halting. 

On the day of the trek, I realized that too many people like me wanted to climb Naneghat at 3000 feet! It was a relief to see some familiar faces too. I was a bit sleepy from last night's movie marathon and my overall laziness was evident from the fact that I decided to wear my worn out Nike pair instead of buying some specific trekking footwear. So far so good, except I had no clue about the actual trek conditions. As my co-trekker, Karsten writes in his blog : it started as if it were a walk in the park to become more tedious.  Ultimately we had to walk through a steeply rocky and slippery pass to reach the peak.  The peak was a rendezvous with the clouds!

Image from: Sanket Sangwikar's blog

Learning from the Trek:


1. You are on your own, even if you are with people with the same goal. 


You may or may not be alone, but you are on your own. Each of us are responsible for our own actions and their reactions or implications. We learn this the hard way but I think if this fact is embedded in our minds, we trust ourselves and our judgement far more than if just think "Oh, I am bound my my circumstances or dependent on choices of X, Y or Z."


2. You can far do better than you think. 

There is a  general tendency to under-promise ourselves and avoid "raising false hopes" with oneself. Self- belief is one thing and the capacity to generate self- belief in adversity is quite another capability. Yes, you may fall sometimes, but you have outdone your beliefs in the past more times than failure! Isn't it?

3. The last mile is the toughest

Atleast for me,  I thought I did pretty well, considering the conditions, but I was drained when it came to the last mile. I was the most stressed at the foot of the peak (was feeling cold, hungry and wet). And there came the help from friends. The motivation they gave me to carry on and see the zenith was worth mentioning!

4. Timing matters

I wouldn't say we were well equipped for contingency. We started late around noon and reached the peak in 3 hours or so. While coming down the hills, it was sun-set already and we found ourselves huddled in a group, with only one torch in between 10 of us!We had no guide with us and no maps, compass or equipment. We just had our primordial instincts to rely upon. As one of my team mates put it, we realised in time we are lost, for our own good. It was timing that we quickly found our pathway (run over by rains) and got back. 

I am glad, I trekked. I am glad I could experience the amazing surprises that life brings to us!