Leader

"I was there in Kashmir. In the month of July, in the year 2016. I was leading a mixed group of foreigners and Indians and we were doing KGL (The Kashmir Great Lakes Trek). It was getting dark and we were about to camp. Suddenly, I got the news of Burhan Wani's death on my walkie-talkie. All trek leaders were supposed to take their teams out of the valley and back to the city immediately. We were put in a jeep. I drove. I asked my team to maintain utter silence and keep their heads low. I drove fast, keeping the car away from the main roads, swerving through the kachcha roads (dirt roads) into the darkness, with the only light being the headlights of the jeep. The whole route was filled with big boulders, some of them could come up to my shoulder. But I drove fast, as fast as I could. To this day, members of the group still call me up to thank me for getting them to safety that evening."

We had reached our campsite after trekking uphill for 3 hours, through intense rain. Bhagwabasa. Our last campsite en route Roopkund. Touted as one of the windiest campsites in the country, at approx. 14,100 ft, it was freezing (real feel of -5° in the month of June, at mid-afternoon). We just rushed into our tents and packed ourselves in our sleeping bags. Suddenly, a voice comes, "Arrey Jawaanon, sab so gaye kya?" ("Have all the brave hearts slept off?"). Dashod ji, if it hadn't been for him, the warmth of his smile, his extremely funny and interesting travel stories and an unconventional way of pumping up the entire group, at least I would have stayed inside my tent. That evening, we spent almost 4 hours, chilling and talking in the freezing cold, on the eve of our summit climb.