Mountains, first.
Lovers, second.
I remember the first time I was travelling to North India, my brother said to me, "you'll go crazy when you get to see 'em snow clad mountains". I was like, " OKAY, whatever that means🙄", my mind unable to absorb it at that time.
The first time I saw snow mountains, I was flying above them. From my window seat, all I could see was a vast stretch of what looked like white and grey elevations and dents in the earth. Clouds hovered above them, making them look like some sort of an inaccessible paradise. As we kept descending, they kept becoming mightier. And along with that, more and more real. I remember wanting to know what it would feel like to be in their presence.
The second time I saw them, we were chasing them in a car. Passes, forests and rivers, all guiding us towards them. I could see them in the distance, their peaks shining in the sun and their magnitude, simply leaving me stunned. The thought of getting closer to them every minute was the most exhilarating experience of my life.
The third time I saw them, I was right in their lap. They looked like tall, gigantic formations that seemed like they could never be conquered by a tiny human being like me. But that's what made it all so intriguing and challenging. I told my brother, let's keep climbing, until we can't. The journey at the foot of this particular mountain valley was much simpler than what lay ahead. For the first few minutes we could easily walk towards our destination and click pictures along the way. But as we started going higher, the difficulty level started going up too. Since we had gone there soon after the onset of monsoon, the peaks and glaciers at the top had already started melting, resulting into countless waterfalls and streams on both sides. We had to plan each of our steps carefully to ensure that we don't trip and fall. Our shoes started getting muddier, our legs started feeling weaker, our breaths, heavier. As if that wasn't enough, it also started pouring down. When it became almost impossible to hike any further, we happened to meet a man who was returning from the top. He told us we to this little cave only a few metres away below the peak and wait out the storm there. We made up our minds to go there and marched in the direction he had shown us. Dragging ourselves through the dirt, cold and the raindrops coming at us at full force, we somehow managed to reach the cave.
When I looked down from there, I realized that a trek which had begun with sheer recklessness had somehow ended up teaching me that nothing is impossible if you have enough determination and perseverance. I realized that irrespective of how beautiful these mountains looked from afar, it was indeed a treacherous task to climb them. And as I took in that incredible view from the cave one more time, I also realized that it was all still worth it.
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