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[glutterandgallivant]

It goes on...

Have a perfect pair of working lungs, still I couldn’t breathe. I feel like someone has tied a rope around my neck so hard that I’m unable to breathe. I’m shivering, I’m trembling, I’m exploding inside my head trying to figure out why. I’m unable to walk with all the stabbings in my back, unable to breathe with the rope squeezing my neck, have a knot which is pulling me from inside, I’m broken unable to stand still. I’m broken that I started to fade away. 

I’ve lost interest in almost everything, I breathe without existence, I walk without will, I answer for what I’m being questioned. 

“I’m fine”, does that really mean am I fine? Just letting the world know I’m existing. Guess these are the symptoms of officially being depressed. But why? why me?

I have a loving family, I have so much gratitude for their ceaseless support and for how they treat all that I do as undertakings of their own. I have super good friends who are nothing less than a family. Yet I feel lonely at times, sitting inside a dark room, staring at nothing but the darkness. 

I can't eat and I can't sleep. I'm not doing well in terms of being a functional human. To be honest, I’m a open book however a private person at the same time, not sure what it is being quoted to not fall under both extremities. So if you think I really should speak to someone about this, I don’t think I can. When I myself can’t understand what’s pulling me down I can’t expect other people to figure out what’s going on. Or may be everyone experiences it at times without any specific reason? I’m not really sure...

Planned to meditate starting today, shift my focus by reading books, watching series or whatever I could do even if it costs burning the kitchen :P I’m not giving up. Even if I’m broken or shattered, expecting others to pat my back now and then to tell me it’s okay, you rock!! keep going, I’m going to re-build myself with all the positive inner voices.

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.” 

[glutterandgallivant]

My First Trek..

During the first week of December 2018, I took a step that changed my life.

By reading different trek experiences, digging into different treks ran by different trekking communities, desiring for a tent stay to journeying in Himalayas is what I do to kill my time for few months back then. December is when I decided that I should do it, I should take my first Himalayan trek by March.

So my next decision was to figure out which trek it is. Is it Kedarkantha? Or is it Dayara Bughyal? Or is it Brahmatal?. Brahmatal was the last choice among the other treks I’ve listed out, but considering trekking in March Bramatal was the only good option among others. I started to read more about Brahmatal, and the more I read the more I started to fall in love with the place before I even visited it.

I started hitting the gym in the morning, managed two of my best friends to hop in with me and it further extended to another two(friend of friends) joining us. I was on cloud nine when I completed my first 5km jog in 35-36 mins with my friend who was constantly motivating beside me whenever I stopped to sip water or needed a break. From booking our flights to and fro Delhi followed by our train journey to Kathgodam, our stay in rishikesh everything was looked into and my excitement for the trek increased day by day. It was all “Yay!!!” moment for me. Whenever I feel low or don’t feel like going to gym, a picture or facts on whatever I read about Brahmatal flashes my mind and I instantly get back to the “Yay!! I’m going for a trek” moment.

There was only a week left for the trek when my friend started falling ill and we are yet to buy our trekking gear. Finally I decided to visit Decathlon store with two of my friends, Aarthy and Savitha. Aarthy came to help us pick the right gear(she went to Kedarkantha during December, had she informed earlier that would have been my first trek) and Savitha on the other hand is all clueless on what to buy as much as me. Then came my sick friend Vivek who was all sluggish af to buy his trekking gear. Finally each of us purchased and swiped Aarthy’s credit card with a smirk on our face. 

Meanwhile I received an e-mail from my trek co-ordinator that we won’t be reaching the summit stating the bad weather condition and instead replaced a day with our visit to Kukhina top.

The day before my trek, Vivek called to inform me that he wont be able to make it to the trek and asked me to cancel his part on behalf of him. I started to feel numb and all my mixed emotions started to gush from my toe to face. I started to remember the time when he made a surprise visit to my office and how I convinced him to join the trek, though he was reluctant to show his excitement I always knew he is looking forward to this whole trip. Well, I made up my mind or at least thought I did and proceeded to cancel all his bookings after re-confirming with him that night. 

So finally the day is here!! 

Day 1: Delhi - March 16th

We boarded the flight to Delhi after formally introducing ourselves and finally landed Delhi around 4:30-5 pm. Following that we boarded the Metro to reach the Chandni Chowk station, got down checked in our baggage in the cloak room and came back near Paranthe wali gali in Chandni Chowk. The minute I landed there I planned to binge eat whatever I find and I executed it :P Every food vendor in Delhi has some special history and unique taste which is hard to find elsewhere. From soaking in with paani poori to sweet tasting big fluffy rasagulla to stuffing myself with Paranthas and tanking myself with Lassi I ate whatever I could find and did a little bit of cloth shopping in between. 

Then we marched towards the end of the street to witness the awestruck beauty of the historic fort - The Red Fort. We stood there clicking few selfies in front of it whilst a random trespasser asked us if we are from Andra/Telegana. We hesitated to reply him as we sensed some negativity going around and out of thin air he started to curse the current ruling party when a Police Officer came to check on the situation of him disturbing us. We vanished from the place in a blink of an eye when he pointed that we belong to his hometown as well. Wait. What?

Delhi - Kathgodam -> Ranikhet express

 The worst train journey I’ve ever had in my life. 

When all my friends moved from RAC to confirmed seats they were allocated in the same compartment except for me. So I moved to my seat and settled myself in upper berth where two guys were lying on each other smoothing towards my right, a guy staring continuously lying towards my straight and another person who was throwing wrapper in my place towards my left. I in-turn threw the wrappers including the paper waste I had back to his place, started to stare the guy back who wasn’t resting to blink his eye and ignored all the gay drama going on the other end. (Get a room idiots!!)

Day 2: Kathgodam - Lohajung - March 17th

We reached Kathgodam by 5am, refreshed ourselves and looked for our cab. The place was too cool and I wore my jerkin immediately after placing our luggages in the car which will take off around 6:30 when the fellow trek-mates arrive. So we took a small walk rambling to the start and end of the street and finally started to Lohajung.

I had egg maggi and lemon tea for my breakfast while my friends had masala noodles and bun omlette. Later we introduced ourselves to rest of the crew and parted in our cars to reach Lohajung.

Initially we were passing a stream with crystal clear water which accompanied us to lead to the freshly blossomed rhododendrons. Driving past that we saw the snow capped mountains covered behind large green mountains smiling at us from distance & atleast I thought it whispered “Welcome Keerthana!!” 

We reached Lohajung, met your trek leaders, unpacked our bags ate our dinner(tasty rotis with paneer mutter masala and dal ~=p) and dozed off real quick.

Day 3: Lohajung - Khukina Top(Wan village) - Lohajung - March 18th

This day planner was a replacement of cancelling our summit day so I wasn’t much excited about it. All I had in my mind was 3km up and 3km to the down returning back to our base camp, an excursion kind of day. But I was proven wrong on the very few minutes. While most of them started to walk fast, my pace was very slow enjoying my path towards the snow, and few stream walks. Savitha and Divya seem to have disappeared in about 20 minutes as they were focusing towards their trek and I got to know about Vicky (Savitha’s friend) who had the same pace as mine. Soon we reached a spot, gathered around and had our packed lunch. To be frank, I hated the lunch however the view I was surrounded by made it the best lunch I’ve ever had. 

Few locales were celebrating Holi with drum beats while we clicked few pictures and started to descent our way back to the basecamp. On the way down, we witnessed few locales whose backyard was full of mules and the young faces were fresh and active. My hyperactive photographic ass started to ask them to pose for my photographs which they did :) A few seconds later, I tried to strike a conversation with my broken Hindi to a young girl who expressed her wishes to move to a city life surrounded by big buildings and I wondered how many of us from the city crave to live in the mountains with a view like this but there she was with an unadulterated smile on her face dreaming about the city life.

The grass is always greener on the other site, isn’t it?

With this thought I descended, petted a dog on the way and drank Black Coffee for the first time :) 

Day 4: Lohajung - Bekaltal - March 19th

Started my day with a bright smile on my face. My bag was heavier than I thought and I couldn’t reduce it despite my repacking efforts. Had a mild back pain the other night and asked Savitha to apply an ointment to ease the pain. Divya told me to offload the backpack considering the weight however I was reluctant to do it. The start 20 mins was very steep and my backpain started to show up gradually increasing on every step. I didn’t want to offload my backpack, and tried to move forward but I was pulled back and finally I gave in and sat in the corner to rest when I knew I couldn’t carry the backpack with the backpain. My friend Vicky and Asst trek leader Afreen were walking beside me (Well, I was technically the last trekker) and a local guide took my backpack. Though my pace was not normal, I was not pulled back either so I started to self motivate and took every step I could. Though I asked my friend Vicky to carry on, he was accompanying me throughout every step for which he later got a day bell awarded to the best trekker of the day :D We reached the Khopdalia tent (I reached the last) and I sacked in to have a small sleep. 

Bekaltal is a ten minute trek up from the tent and we started by evening. My friends thought of letting me rest, but I guess something woke me up and everyone were leaving to witness the Bekaltal lake. I immediately wore my trek shoes and started with them. The path was entirely surrounded by Oak trees, I was certainly sleepy and active at the same time (guess the backpain was a bit subsided by then). The Bekaltal lake was half frozen and very very beautiful. 

We had our dinner sometime later, got to know everyone names through a small game and went back to sleep.

Day 5: Bekaltal - Khorurai - March 20th

Since our summit was cancelled due to bad weather, we were trekking to Khorurai via Jhandi Top instead of Brahmatal lake. I offloaded my bag and was superactive today. After our breakfasts, we packed our lunch and started to walk. On the way Savitha, Vicky and I were chit chatting and as the time went by we reached the Jhandi top. Fortunately we got our signals and everybody video called their family after halting for few minutes. We captured many pictures here and took few boomerangs (including Baahubali backstabbing scenarios). Later we had our lunch (I guess Vicky fed me and savitha mostly to shut our trash talking mouths). I was really happy and even experienced the snow slide which I missed the previous day. My pace was good and I didn’t want to speed it up either. 

We reached the basecamp, got to know a few other trekkers and witnessed the sunset together. Best times!! Best times!!

After few minutes, Savitha and I were upset about each other (not really sure why, but leave me and her alone for a day and what else do you expect? we were really at each other’s neck :D). I started to miss Vivek more, and few drops of tears started to roll down my cheeks which I didn’t realise. Thankfully I was alone in the tent and no one noticed :D I left to the dining camp to have some soup, and Vicky was already there clueless among the Hindi speaking trekkers. Soon everyone started to mingle and they made me to sing Rowdy Baby!! :( :P After sometime everybody joined in and we had our dinner together. Aashay (our trek leader) narrated few stories about Mt Nanda Devi and Mt Nanda Ghundi, we were about 5-6 trekkers listening to them hoping to hear about atleast one mountain ghost. To our disappointment we got to know only about a nuclear reactor planted in Mt Nanda Devi. As the chitchats prolonged, we shared about our crushes, childhood love stories and finally bitching about Savitha as she did me. The night ended on such a fun and memorable note.

Day 5: Khorurai - Lohajung - March 21th

Holi hey!!!!!! The typical Balam Pichkari moment <3

Imagine waking up from a tent, stepping outside on the snow when the fellow treks color our face and make you dance to your own tunes letting your hearts out. This was my morning, and this is why this trip still stands so special to me. 

With a heavy heart, we started to descend to our basecamp witnessing the beautiful rhododendron trees throughout. We sat in a circle during a rest point and Aashay asked us what we were grateful for. I didn’t get a chance to speak there, but I wanted to yell “This, this moment”. I had this subtle feel, “oh, I wish this moment would freeze, wish it never ends”. Guess every trip has one of those moments on why we needed it in the first place and this was mine.

We reached our basecamp, packed our bags and were ready to leave the next day.

For some reason I isolated myself during the dinner, guess I was missing the idiot again and the damn bloody tears started again. I didn’t want anyone to find out, so I sat in a place and had super good custard missing my friend in the dark. Later, I called Vivek and somehow speaking to him made me to weep my heart out and this time in front of Savitha, Divya and Vicky. I was pretty embarrassed later but felt light after speaking to him. I always have my mixed feelings towards myself, and hate to be a teary eyed person. But this idiot made me cry more than thrice so gradually the missing turned into anger B-)

Day 5: Lohajung - Rishikesh - March 22nd

We bid farewell to everybody and started to Rishikesh. A fellow trekker Rhea joined us to Rishikesh and we booked her the same hostel as us. On the way  Savitha and I realised we were badly sunburned (result of no cream attitude) and tried applying all kinds of oil. Meanwhile my hair started to worsen considering the climate, I had become Season 10 Monica all of a sudden with a sun burned face :”>

We reached the Hostel which was really good to be quite frank and my first Hostel stay experience. Everyone were smoking weed and pot in the dinning area of the hostel and seeing the No sex with sound instructions made me feel like Queen Kangana’s Amsterdam experience. Savitha, Divya and I took a girls night out walk to buy some products to soothe our skin while Vicky was enjoying rather a view I’d not like to discuss in public :P

Day 6: Rishikesh - March 23rd

The Bungee jumping day!! I thought of overcoming my fear of heights by taking a leap but fate has something else planned for me. 

I stood there, saw the yellow mark. They asked me to focus on the yellow mark alone and take a jump. Don’t look down they said. But my curious ass and mind peeped down and I started to shake, however I wanted to jump too. I wasn’t sure about the belt so I came back and sat again, asked the person to tighten it. While he did, he tightened it so hard that my back pain started again. I was already demotivated with the heights and the very thought of jumping alone. And the person advised me not to take the jump considering the pain might increase or worse, permanent till I get the right treatment. So I backed out. I was relieved and embarrassed at the same time. But I guess that’s for the good, the jump might have definitely increased my back pain. So the Bungee experience is until next time!!!

The back pain started to reduce slowly, and we proceeded with the river rafting. This was a super cool experience, altogether. We had a small cliff where we could jump directly to the river in a break spot of rafting. That seemed very small from a distance, but I started to panic when I reached the top of the cliff. Savitha was reluctant and ready to push me, so after delaying everyone’s time from my panic expressions, I stepped forward and they pushed me. :( Unfortunately there is a video of this being used as a blackmail tool.  

Day 7: Rishikesh - Delhi - Chennai - March 24th 

We started to Haridwar early morning 4am to board our Shatabji train to Delhi. I slept during my entire train journey and was annoyed most of the time by the lady who sat behind. She let her kid scream loud near by ear, and stretched her legs towards my side bars. My every single train journey is annoyed by these kinda passengers, not sure if this is happening only to me though!! We reached Delhi, had juicy burgers in McDonalds and left to Airport immediately.

Vivek came to the arrival point to my surprise to pick me up. We dropped Savitha in her home and headed to mine. 

This trip was a whole Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani package but sadly, I didn’t get to have a Ranbir Kapoor :( 

[glutterandgallivant]

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In the depth of the oceans you will search love like mine, while I found peace within the waves. - Ventum #glutterandgalivanttravels #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #mountain #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #chennai #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #walkwithindia #sochennai #beach (at Juhu Beach, Ecr, Chennai) https://www.instagram.com/p/B6Kd8IthSRU/?igshid=19inlxjvltnvj

[glutterandgallivant]

Life above 13000 feet. . . Day 3| Buran Ghati| Excursion to Chandranahan lake #glutterandgalivanttravels #mountain #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #janglik #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #walkwithindia #himalayas #india https://www.instagram.com/p/B541OfSBt__/?igshid=1jwc4ltn5fbff

[glutterandgallivant]

Day 3| Buran Ghati| Litham campsite . . Litham was full of surprises. . The trail, vicinity, campsite everything was magical... . Atleast once in our lifetime during our childhood when we were asked to sketch a scenary, we would always end up drawing a series of mountains and a stream flowing in center of them in a bright sunny day which rises in between the mountains. Just imagine the same scenary with added snow sprinkles on the mountain top in front of you. Such view is the Litham campsite in Buran ghati. The entire trial was so beautiful, but I could emphasize only on the campsite view. . . I was so grateful that we got to stay there for two days. #glutterandgalivanttraveltalks #glutterandgalivanttravels #mountain #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #janglik #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #walkwithindia #himalayas #india #himachal #shimla (at Litham, Himachal Pradesh, India) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5LJoSShmp_/?igshid=a7turvw4x2w3

[glutterandgallivant]

They say the road of life is long and winding. So it’s important to mark the milestones along the way.  . . Day 3| Buran Ghati| En route Litham #glutterandgalivanttravels #mountain #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #janglik #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #walkwithindia #himalayas #india (at Himachal Pradesh) https://www.instagram.com/p/B45I2z_hymL/?igshid=k6wwmh66102h

[glutterandgallivant]

Spot the sheeps!! 🐏💚 Day 3| Buran Ghati| Dayara Campsite #glutterandgalivanttravels #mountain #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #janglik #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #walkwithindia #himalayas #india (at Buran Ghati) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4w_1RQhH2C/?igshid=1i1u5acusn9k6

[glutterandgallivant]

Day 2| Buran Ghati| Dayara Campsite . . Struggling to get ourselves inside our ponchos post covering the backpacks, we set off around 8 in the morning from Janglik. Being on my second Himalayan trek I found the trial to Dayara to be the most beautiful first day trek compared to Brahmatal. An article I read few weeks back in Indiahikes about Buran ghati described the beauty of this trek as "if someone had taken out the best views of all himalayan treks and stitched them together", and I began to vouch on this very thought on my first day. Crossing the ancient village, we entered into Dayara meadows covered with wide range and variety of flowers interspersed everywhere. . . After reaching the campsite fully drenched by rain, we played Mafia in our dinner tent and finally sank into the cozy sleeping bag. #glutterandgalivanttraveltalks #glutterandgalivanttravels #ihtrekstory #mountain #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #janglik #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #walkwithindia #himalayas #india https://www.instagram.com/p/B4jwm4Rhqtw/?igshid=qz6ji6jwx495

[glutterandgallivant]

Day 1| Buran Ghati| Janglik| Broken Bridge . . We started from Shimla in a shared cab and reached Janglik around 5 in the evening. I had no clue that we would be stopped near a broken bridge. Generally, the cabs would drop us directly at the basecamp but this was totally different but worth it experience. We needed to climb down the slippery bridge, cross the Pabbar river and reach the basecamp after a short trek. . . When I got up to the top of the bridge I just realized I was wearing a flip flop 😂, but thanks to Sandeep Bhai our local trek guide I managed to get down safely without tumbling. . . So do read the long descriptions of your trek or get ready to get yourself surprised. Im definitely the latter. 😂 . . Have you experienced any surprise trek trials like this with your flip flop on? . . #glutterandgalivanttravels #glutterandgalivanttraveltalks #mountain #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #himachal #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #walkwithindia #himalayas #india #indiahikes (at Janglik) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4K_pkQhRld/?igshid=gyp1rw0mp1br

[glutterandgallivant]

Somewhere in Shimla ♥️ #glutterandgalivanttravels #mountain #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #uttrakhand #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #walkwithindia #himalayas #india (at Shimla) https://www.instagram.com/p/B4DNX1Hhsnf/?igshid=1cvipw8kbbxy0

[glutterandgallivant]

It was a conference call a few months back. "We are going to Buran ghati, get ready" was the end of the conversation. It's been a while since I travelled and my soul started to yearn for it. So you'd know what would have been my decision. It was a difficult trek, I could manage I thought. If you would have read a post of mine during my last Brahmatal trek experience I would have mentioned about my back pain. Well it's been playing hide and seek with me then and there which eventually became my biggest enemy during this trek. However it was completely due to my negligence and "you can manage, it will be alright" attitude that I was unable to enjoy this trek to my fullest. The view, the trial and the people I met, everything amazed me. If I was prepared, how better I would have connected with everything I thought when I fumbled with my trekking pole during my last day while descending via Dayara. I was constantly going back to my bitch attitude of trekking again sooner to come and visit here often when I decided to do my next Himalayan trek only after strengthening my back. But I stood by this during my Dayara descend when I was ashamed of how weak I am and still I stand by not doing any long treks anytime sooner. Till then I'll be vacationing as usual and going for short weekend treks in between my crazy work schedules but it's a pause for my long moderate/difficult trek plans. ~In the picture, I'm staring at the drove of mules grazing the grass whilst standing in front of a view which is not my desktop wallpaper. More such images and happy stories of Buran ghati coming up!!~ (at Buran Ghati) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3-Hd-NB6Xo/?igshid=ta1l9rbbg3ag

[glutterandgallivant]

A view which makes you jump, roll over and slide at the same time. 💙 (at Himalayas) https://www.instagram.com/p/B2V69JVh1Qt/?igshid=1voqdjrp3m3kj

[glutterandgallivant]

Dreams. Everybody has them. Some good. Some bad. Some you wish you could forget. Sometimes you realize you’ve outgrown them. Sometimes you feel like they’re finally coming true. And some of us just have nightmares. But no matter what you the dream, when morning comes, reality intrudes and the dream begins to slip away. ~XOXO GG (at Waterfall Aviary) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1bFSuuBO4V/?igshid=tydb5m15dtki

[glutterandgallivant]

On some days I feel like I have the whole world at my feet and most of the days it's like there's a rock bottom, then 50 feet of crap, then me. But then, you cannot stop the waves however you can learn to surf. Learn • Live • Hope https://www.instagram.com/p/B1GZQz7B6f1/?igshid=7mrut99fvl61

[glutterandgallivant]

No matter what, just keep going. ✨ #glutterandgalivanttravels #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #mountain #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #uttrakhand #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #sun #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic https://www.instagram.com/p/B0lUYo8hzZd/?igshid=tgjc0170jqpi

[glutterandgallivant]

You can live a full life on an empty stomach. Chicken cravings ❤️ Tangri kebab. (at Palmshore Restaurant Medavakkam) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0Qb5sTB8HN/?igshid=cpqvfse6l6mn

[glutterandgallivant]

Just keep shinning and smiling. 💛 #glutterandgalivanttravels #kerala #photography #photooftheday #traveldiaries #traveling #travelblogger #travelphotography #mountain #camping #trekking #travel #trekker #travelgram #explore #adventure #trek #tree #wanderlust #incredibleindia #travelholic #_soi (at Munnar Flower Garden) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0JptgUB5Kv/?igshid=vs8s6zy8rfeu