The HE did it Saturday

As the last day dawns there is nothing really left to do. The 8 kilometers backlog is easily completed walking in Kishangarh town and we are all up and packing to shift base for the last time. We incidentally whenever we have gone to the temple stayed in a resort which is ahead of the temple ,It is comfortable , small and cosy, with huge lawns and the owner is known to us. This time however I have preferred to stay in Kishangarh because I did not want to miss the thrill of seeing the temple first time as I walked towards it.

We start rather late since we are expecting friends from Delhi to join us. We start round 10 am and cover the 5 kilometers from the city to the main highway in a few minutes. How perspectives have changed since we started!! A few months back walking 5 kilometers would have represented a pinnacle of achievement- now it is just brushed aside casually.

Also whenever we leave a motel all of us carefully pour the water left over in any bottles we have consumed into another one to carry in the backpack. One of my companies sells reverse osmosis water purifiers and I often used to tell clients “you will waste at best 20 liters a day, how does it matter?” Now I am sure I will tell them to collect it in a bucket to water the plants.

The perspective on money has not changed though, since we were doing this trek on a virtually unlimited budget. In the end we will have spent some Rs.12000 per walking day. Looked at like this it does seem a total waste incurred on a whim. There is a school I support in Himachal Pradesh where some 128 children trek upto 10 kilometers every day to be there just because they get a square meal every afternoon. I could have fed them for 7 months with this money. But then any who ask this question or those to whom this does strike are also guilty of the same. We all do prioritize – I don’t think of those children every time I get into the car or switch on the air conditioner or have a meal outside the cost of one such of which can feed all 128 of them for a week ! I brush aside this guilt with the opportunity cost of discovering oneself argument and walk on.

We are joined from Delhi by Arun a very close fried of both Mangesh and me , whose car had broken down so who drove some 700 kilometers that day back and forth to be with us for just two hours and in a Maruti 800 too. His wife has been advised not to travel since she has an eye infection but somehow when she joins us her eye pops open .”Miracle , Miracle ”shouts her daughter. For the Lord I guess just another day at work.

Apoorva’s in laws Vijay and Archana join us a few minutes later. It is of curse sheer injustice to address them thus , since they are also amongst our closest friends. In the hierarchy of Indian families we are supposed to address them as Bhai sahib and Bhabhee jee or something. If I tried doing that I am sure Vijay will beat me up and Archana in her soft cultured voice will tell me “ye apne achaa nahee kiya neelesh”. We all walk in proper kafila towards the temple stopping to refresh ourselves with a glass of water just a few meters before it.

The temple is now in view .I would love to add the ‘excitement mounts’ part but actually it doesn’t - we just walk on just stopping for the kids to shoot a video of us striding in. We have decided to walk in together hand in hand but when we reach the gates we do not know what happens – we suddenly find ourselves in the courtyard – and Aakanksha who has been extremely tense in the last few meters bends down to put her head at my feet- I lift her up and embrace one of my closest friends - who has done so much to egg me on when I was near collapse , with the calm pats on the back, her “come on Papa you can make it” her obstinate refusal to ever let me carry the back pack when she was around and her ever readiness to massage my feet even when she was in extreme pain – and as she hugs back the crying begins.

Suddenly everybody is hugging everybody else and everybody has tears streaming down their faces. We have arrived ! We walk into the garba griha and everyone starts ringing the bells- Sarita calls Apoorva and Rohit and I just say “Apoorva” and hold the mobile against the bell I am clanging feverishly, Sarry calls my sister Vandy and her didi Sunita. From Pune to Vadodara to Switzerland (where Apoorva Rohit currently are) the bells clang out that there is a God and he DOES take care of those that have faith in him.

As Sarry and others prepare for the Arati I sink into a corner – the trance I go into is deeper than ever as I talk to HIM and tell him that at this moment I surrender to HIM all the positive karma if any I have accumulated during the trip. “idanna mamma” it was never mine anyway .I tell him that he should do to me exactly as he has set out to do without letting this come in the way.- this positive karma was just an aberration- HE should do only justice and judge me on the basis of what I make of my life later rather than let this outweigh my negativity which I will have to fight myself. I have told this to Sarry on the way too and told her to judge me only on the basis of what I have been to her not letting this interfere with anything. I want to go back with neither a sense of achievement nor a sense of loss at having completed something so important with nothing left to do. The walk was not to a destination –it was a journey – a tool to help me travel inside and how far I travel inside is something I have to decide. Let the journey begin !!!!!