Such a Long Journey (here's hoping) - Darius Mistry

I'm heading to Himachal Pradesh tomorrow.
On what is bound to be a very challenging trek/hike at Spiti and Lahaul Valleys respectively. (provided the Rohtang pass is not still blocked of course.)

I'd like to think that inside all of us, there's this thirst to be something, to do something, to stand up and be recognized as an individual. In some minute way, this trip means that to me. I'm not going to lie, this is probably the worst weather I'm going to see in my life. I'm all set for it, packed enough warm clothes, jackets, gloves, windcheaters etc. Yet there's another kind of cold that I can't seem to blanket too well. It's that initial tingle of excitement that runs down your spine when you realise you are at the edge of a very high consequential cliff. You have to take the plunge, if you want to be honest with yourself, and to know yourself for the individual that you are. In the eloquent words of John Locke, "It's a leap of faith."

Whoever I have met this week, who knows that I am going has asked me a lot of questions about this trip. The one that I find common on everyone's lips though, is why. It's a simple answer really. I want to know myself. I want to be able to stare into the abyss and know that I can handle it. I want to be moved. I want to be able to recognise people around me for what they really are, outside their shells of comfort that they live inside of, in the hustle and bustle of the city. Somebody a lot smarter than you and me once said, that you don't know somebody until you really know them. And it is when you can grab onto somebody's hand at 12000 feet, and pull them up a rather steep climb, sometimes put your life into their hands and ask them to put their lives into yours, is when you really could 'know' somebody. I intend to get to know as many people as I can on this trip. Only then can I know myself. Because you have to look at yourself through the eyes of other people around you. And god knows there's going to be the time for it.

Do you know of that tingling feeling of bliss, that envelopes around you like a force sheild on the eve of a long awaited moment. I'm there right now. Nothing could destroy me right now. And then once it arrives, on predicted time, the ultimate nirvana, the "fuck yeah" moments that you privately have with your own mind, is without description.

I'm going on this trip if for anything, to get a taste of those "fuck yeah" moments.

Here's hoping there will be plenty of them. I arrive back in town on the 7th of May. Whether or not it'll be in one piece, remains to be seen.

Catch you all on the flip side...