My heart deceived me and I fell for the charms of the snow covered ranges, though I knew that its risky to walk through the snow clad paths, especially when the snow melts in the day and then the evening wind freezes it again to form ice…. Ice which is the cause of anxiety and is as notorious as girls for ditching and deceiving the ones who love them….. still my heart deceived me and compelled me to walk through the rocky path…..

I could see the water frozen in between the rocks….. a warning for me to cease my steps and return back ….. I had over-confidence in my abilities and excessive trust on the spikes of my climbing shoes….  Adjusting the load of my back-packs on the shoulders I continued my ascent…… a foolish determination and a lunatic thought crossing my mind, obliterating the logical reasoning…. A simple thought, How the landscape would look from the top of the hill….. how the wind would feel when I reach at the top, the spot where I could see a small flag, most probably hoisted by the Buddhist monks or some Tibeten devotee …..

Each step had to be very calculated and precise, I had to balance out the pressure on each foot due to slippery ice on the rocks….. causing my calf muscles to work harder and my toes started feeling the responsibility of my 75 kgs they had to carry…. In such one day climbs which have no base cams in between, the most important thing is the return journey… time has to be calculated and schedule to be followed very religiously, so that you have time and energy to return back to the base before it gets dark….. If I walk at this pace I would certainly fall short of time to return back…It was below dignity for me to return back in between the track I had selected so I increased my pace, took longer steps and kept my eyes on the top …… the flag waved at me, encouraging me to tread faster ….. the hills patted my back while an eagle mocked my limitations as a human being…… The massive Sutlez river looked like a stream giving me the idea how high I had hiked. But still I had a few miles to go on…..

The extremely small green turned brown patches of grass smiled at me, bucking me up, while they swayed with the northern wind, giving the hint of icy winds ahead. The thoughts of breaking my journey started strengthening…. A signal that made me aware of the limitations of my strength and patience cum stubbornness… I was trained to abstain from such thoughts and keep walking… to look at the horizon each time such negative or escapist thoughts come to your mind…..  When my mind could not compel me to shun the climb, it started giving me pseudo pains in my legs and shoulders… I smiled at the efforts of my mind to shake my resolve…. I knew after some time fake hunger, thirst would follow the suit and come upon me, just to make to sit and rest, and then reasoning ability would stand before me, trying to convince me to bow before the mighty hill and stop my climb…..

Low oxygen, low air pressure and wind …. All these are fake obstructions…..  I reminded my-self and found my shadow enlongated to a much longer length than I had expected….. so I was late as per my calculated time schedule….. I must turn back….. Ah the hill man in me shook my head and kicked my back…. I have to walk no matter what happens….. I can’t bow down, I am a hill man and I would walk till I drop dead…. Yeah in this climb drop dead meant the real death, because if I drop from the path, I would drop at least 400-500 meters before my body meets the first rock…. And then I might roll on the rocks painting hem all red with my blood…. Shut up.. shun the thoughts of death..  have to reach the flag , the top and see the landscape from there …..

I saw a saffron clad Lama at a little distance and I paced my steps to reach him…. He smiled at my smile. He touched my fore-head and back of my neck…. Gave me a small root of some plant to eat…… I walked while I chewed it….. All the pain and the hunger and thirst disappeared, including the negative thoughts …… by evening I reached the top, more than 4 hours later than I had calculated…..

And there I saw for the first time in my life the miracle…… A Lama lay on a rock covered with ice…… he had a wet water soaked cloth on his body….. the ice melted and the cloth also dried in a hour or two….. while I sat there bewitched …. They offered me to stay for the night as it was quite risky to go descend the hill…. We ate the rice and dal with some raw vegetables soaked in boiled water. They had built the three small rooms there just to have the solitude to meditate…… and they had the ability to bring water from the Sutlez River, which flowed at the base of the hill…. How do they bring water to such a height….. I asked and I just got to see their smiles as reply….. I saw wooden containers filled with water in one of the rooms, where they had stored some wood and rice etc for eating …. I wished to talk to the monks, but I found them too busy in their routines to disturb them…. We exchanged glances and a few smiles and they replied all my question in the shortest possible manner and when I tried to make them reveal any secret, all I got was their smile……

Soon I drifted into my slumber, and had a series of great dreams… generally after such climb either people sleep too soundly to remember dreams or they dream of falling from a height, generally, but I was amused to recapitulate that neither I dreamt of falls nor any other night-mare…. I slept a sound sleep and dreamt of flying in the air, feeling light and weight-less……

Next morning was the dawn of my dreams….. standing at the top, at about 4200 meters from the sea level, I could see the horizon and the hills meeting, the sun bowing before the high hills to help him tread the tops….. the naughty breeze defied the warmth of the sun and kept on playing with its coolness…. Just like a naughty child frolicking in mothers lap….The mountains seemed to be changing colors with the each step of sun rise… the miraculous nature and its magical phenomenon, which were beyond the ken of my apprehensions….. the reward of yesterday’s toil was before my eyes.

Next miracle was on its way when I saw a very small mass of air rotating on its axis, can say a miniature of whirl-wind….. I saw in all my awe and then the Lama did something more magical…… I am not sure what I am going to describe actually happened or it was just some hypnotism or black magic that he did….. Well I saw the mass of air following his hand movements and danced as per his instructions…. And later he blew a little wind from his mouth and the spinning mass of air disappeared in the air it-self.

Coming back to my senses, I felt a bit frightened with their magical abilities and his smile clearly reflected that he read what I thought !!!!!