Travel Stories
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."
"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.
Disappointed over not been able to capture the great Himalayan Monal, I was just treading behind the entire group. So behind that even Kamal ji (our trailing trek guide - I will come to his story later), was way ahead. Suddenly, I took a sharp turn in the forest trail, and saw hundreds of sheep just going downhill through a different trail. I sat and started clicking. He came up from behind me and asked, "Aap film bana rahe ho?" ("Are you making a film?"). I said no. I told him that I missed the Himalayan Monal a few moments ago. He said, "Toh kya hua? Ab aap bhed ki photo le lo. Yeh lo photo" ("So what? Now, you click the sheep. Take a picture now.") As he said so, he waved his stick (on his right) in the air and whistled. Half of the sheep which were still uphill, looked straight at me and into my camera.
It was a crazy encounter. He continued his descent, humming.
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