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| See our little camp site? Feel humbled and proud
at the same time. |
If we did not take anything away
from the trek, we can call ourselves brain dead. There was so much to
understand, grasp and internalize; I sometimes think that had we not been so
engrossed in ourselves and our comforts we would have been able to take away many
more lessons of life. All you had to do was to keep you ears, eyes and most
importantly your mind open.
Humbling experience
The most profound effect of the
entire journey on me and surely on all my friends as well is the good loss of
our egos; such was the humbling experience within the realm of the grand
Himalayas. It doesn't take much thought and intelligence to understanding how
small we are in the greater context, just looking at the soaring mountains and
the deep valleys, just realizing how much effort and struggle it is for us tiny
little beings to cross a mountain range and also seeing milky white band of our
galaxy in the dark night sky. But what hits you more is not the part that we
are small but the part that we matter so little in the grand design of the
nature.
And then you start thinking about
our petty problems, our need to control the environment around us and our
bloated ego; and you realize how very futile it all was and is. If this does
not make you feel elated reminiscing the small things in life, saddened about
all the hurt you have caused to your dear ones and all the opportunities you have
lost to make the life of the ones you care that much more worth living; then I
am sorry but I have to say that you have lost it as a human being. This really
forces us to think about what roles we play and why or to whom we matter in the
gigantic playground; that we surely start making our utmost little effort to
make the world a better place for everyone that we can.
A proud feel of achievement
Once we embraced the humility,
the doors to the pride of achievement opened easily. Just as we saw how very
little we mattered in the grand scheme, we realized how much our actions and
achievements mattered in our little context within us, the people we cared for
and the people who cared for us. We were filled up to the brim with this sense
of pride every step we took, every story we told and every reaction we
received. We felt hungry for more achievement and at the same time satisfied
for the value we added to everyone around us.
Then we began to think about what
man has achieved in this grand scheme of the world, with every little step
taken by everyone, with every progress man has made understanding the natural
laws and utilising the knowledge to make further progress.
Confidence in the Indian democracy
As we traveled through these
remote interiors of Uttarakhand, the engagement of the people of Uttarakhand
and the contributions made by the Indian government towards progress and
betterment of the local communities was quite apparent. For the evidence, we
saw drivable roads being made to improve accessibility to the remote parts and
to create jobs for the local folk; we heard about the various schemes the
government was running to help improve the education levels of the community;
we witnessed the progress made by various hydro power projects run by NHPC and
Jaypee Associates; we saw the work being done by the BRO (Border Roads
Organisation) in ensuring that the roads are drivable and any determent to that
through landslides was addressed right away;
and we also felt the solid presence of Indian army for protection of our
borders.
The involvement of people in the
polity and administration of the state and their active participation was
clearly evident through their conversations and actions. The responsibility
carried by the Panchayats and the wise investments of the funds provided by the
government as also visible. This gave us a lot of confidence that Uttarakhand
and India definitely has bright days ahead thanks to the empowerment created by
the democratic government. The only
feeling was that this needs to be accelerated significantly.
A renewed sense of responsibility towards the greater context
And last but not the least of the
takeaways was the renewed sense of responsibility we all have as citizens of
India towards the greater context. While we make progress bringing better lives
and better environment to ourselves, we must be careful not to cause
irreparable damage to the nature in the process. The progress needs to be in
harmony and not in conflict. We must ensure that while we expand our existence,
it does not come at the cost of the nature, the forests and the wild life.
While we move towards better living for ourselves, we should improve the
natural ecosystem and not make it dirty or damaged in any way. It is our duty
to preserve this pristine beauty while we make it more convenient for us to
enjoy it and we must never forget that.
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