Lessons From Hemkund

  

In Oct 2009, we (all, except my husband FJ, who is Sardar by birth), went to Hemkund, a popular pilgrimage site for Sikhs.

Hemkund is one of the most sacred Sikh shrines, located in the Himalayas at 15,200 ft, within a setting of a glacial lake surrounded by seven peaks. 

It is accessible only by foot from Govindghat on the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway in Uttarakhand.

The journey of 530 kms from Delhi is long, bumpy,meandering and nauseating. 

As all of Uttarakhand is part of the himalayas, the landslides, hairpin curves and queezy guts are inevitable.

On reaching the small village 'Govindghat', we started the 1st part of the trek.

13 kms to the base camp in Ghagaria, traditionally named after the dress code "ghagras" worn by the women folk of the place. 
Totally void of electricity (and thankfully tv) the little village lights up on generators. The village is  operational only 4 months a year due to climatic limitations and the generator is operational only 4 hrs a day! 

The first lesson learnt was concern for electricity.

Next day we had an ardous ascend of 6 km to Hemkund , averaging  3 1/2 to 4 hrs for common man.
Please note : city-jans or city-beings are not to be confused with localites, who are low cal and light. 

There are no sleep over arrangements at Hemkund and so one has to leave by 2PM to make it back to Ghagaria, the village of ghagras, by nightfall.

Being a place of pilgrimage, services such as horses, palkhis, pitthus are amply available. 

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Some Lessons and Observations from Hemkund.

• In the mountains, the rich are weak and the poor are strong.                               The rich can hardly walk, while the so called poor can walk on, and on, and on.

•  2 minute walk for a ''Pahadi (the human mountain goat) is equal to 20 minutes walk for a ''City-jan''.    

• Never believe a Pahadi when he says that the next tea shop is just 2 minutes away!

• Tons of horse shit are part of every pilgrimage in India.

• Intermittent  "Relieving" spots selected by man and animal (humans and horses in this case), are highly "Reviving" as the ammonia shoots up the olfactory nerves through the nose, leading to immediate brain stimulation and action, translating directly into muscular contraction and enforcement of (other wise 'inconceivable') greater speed to run away from the pungent smell.  

• Lack of humility and respect for any being could get you rolling down the wrong side of the mountain.

• You may think and feel you have walked a long while, covered many a mile as your legs get heavy and fatigued. But that is not to be.  A lot more than you imagined is left to be covered to the final destination.

• In short, 1 km feels like 10 kms in the mountains. 

• Whether one is on horseback, palkhi, pitthu or foot..... Sab ka bura haal hota hai !

• Just like the Maruti service stations,  Maggi noodles are available at any altitude.

•  Any food tastes good after a tough trek in the mountains. All fussy eaters should be asked to trek before they eat.

• As the pilgrims transcend towards their ultimate destination through the clouds, forcing each leg to go on through the grime and sweat, with aching back,  legs and neck, a halo seems to descend upon them because now they are steamed out of their energy and ego.

• This means that Humility is achievable at great heights.

• Thanks to the Uttarakhand Govt, lack of cellular network brings you closer to God, Nature, Man and Animal.

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