The differential people!

Emotions and feelings are central to our life. They allow us to exist and achieve the fullness of our personality by motivating us towards that which is good. Everybody has different story/situations/problems to deal with. As its aptly said ,

“We're all in the same game, just different levels.

Dealing with the same hell, just different devils.”

No matter how good an individual is to others, there will be situations where he/she may be taken for granted ,called obsequious , or maybe on grounds of hypocrisy called “fake” .People are so limited to thinking conventionally and judging , that they can never open up to new and different approaches to life. People (including friends) want to see you happy, but not happier than themselves.

Whether it’s about following a religion, choosing a career ,consuming alcohol, smoking, choosing to love , sexual preferences , etc it’s all an individual’s choice. Everybody knows what is good for them, we all are wise enough to take our own decisions. The fact that, they can think and come to a conclusion has a thought that initiates it, that itself has its own meaning.

It’s when we get to the social world that things really get gnarly. A lot of our thinking is for bonding, not truth-seeking, so most of us are quite willing to think or say anything that will help us be liked by our group. We’re quite willing to disparage anyone when, as Marilynne Robinson once put it,

“the reward is the pleasure of sharing an attitude one knows is socially approved.”

And when we don’t really know a subject well enough, in T. S. Eliot’s words,

 “we tend always to substitute emotions for thoughts,”

and go with whatever idea makes us feel popular.

                                

“Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They're not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

― Apple Inc.

Where the trail ends

Trekking through the Sahyadri Range that connects Katraj to Sinhagad.The trek stretches about 25 km along 17 hills on the Bhuleshwar Mountains of the Sahyadri Range and ends at Sinhagad fort.

  This trek has become very famous in Pune  because of the cool breeze, view of Pune City, Pune in Moonlight, Millions of Stars, the trail which goes up and down,etc.

             I was looking forward to this trek from a very longtime finally so I and one more friend of mine decided to do it despite our engineering viva which was scheduled in just two days.

THE PLAN :

1.Gather at Swargate.

2.Catch a bus which will drop us to Katraj New Tunnel by 19:00.

3.Reach the destination in another 6 to 7 hours.

             Almost 70 people participated including a family, majority of them were teenagers and a few employees who get a off on weekends.A torch was an essential utility on trek

THE EXECUTION:

          The bus reached the new Katraj Tunnel.I took a deep breath and started walking followed by my friend's advice to always be in the leading group so that we get more rest. It was 7pm just after the sunset and the view from Katraj Tunnel top was very beautiful thanks to the sunset and shades of orange color which spread all over in the sky. We were introduced to our group leaders and then we took off  with Shiv Garjana which is always done by Yuvashakti trek leaders before we start.

          The first 2 hrs of the trek consisted of climbing up a hillock from one face,getting down it from the opposite face,walking on the plateau connecting that hillock to the next one,again climbing up n down n so on .The moonlight lite our away and the weather was awesome, very pleasant and refreshing. It felt rejuvenating as it was an escape from my hectic engineering schedule.The cool breeze ensured that we were not sweating which didn't feel exhausting at all(at least initially).

                  

Reaching the top of the first hill was a great feeling. The breath-taking view of Pune city added to its worth. We could see the southern part of Pune lite with yellow and white lights from the streets and the houses giving a blinking effect. To add to it, the moving lights of the cars and trucks on the Pune-Bangalore highway looked like flames of fire in the hill. 

       I was looking for the beacon from a very long time in order to locate the fort ,after climbing and descending a few hills we could see our destination "Sinhagad Fort" .Now this beacon was the only compass we had, whatever happens we have to just walk toward the beacon.

         It was necessary to synchronize and make sure everyone is together as it was a big group.We had been continuously walking for about an hour and half and deserved a small break.This was the advantage of being fast throughout the trek. The people ahead got more time to rest as they had to wait for the remaining to join back. Yeah, I was one of the former. :P .When we looked behind we could easily figure out where the last person was as everybody had their own torches and it was easy to locate the last glowing torch. We used to descend and climb one hill and wait for others  and see nothing but moving torches.It looked like white ants were walking through :P as nobody was visible.

         On the 10th hill I guess(by now I lost counts as I was exhausted) we waited to re-group.Later, the group leader announced we could have dinner at this point. By now we had covered a lot and the view looked awesome and mesmerizing. We could see khadakwasla dam surrounded by lights and the yellow lights from the neighboring village and most probably we located the NDA too. By now everyone gathered at that point.People were so exhausted that they hardly had dinner for about 10 minutes and slept there itself :D. as they couldn't resist sleeping.

         Then we began walking again after 1 hour or so. I thought after a nice dinner it would be less tiring but the exact opposite happened, after covering one hill it started getting very exhausting. By now only 5 hills were left and the climb had become tough and crazy. People from other organisations had also started the trek and a few pro trekkers from that group also joined us :P(they started almost 2 hours after we initiated our climb) so we were actually the slow ones.

              My friend clicked this on the way

Animal bones on the way :D.

          Somehow we finished the tough part and reached the road in the Sinhagad Ghat by 5:30am.One of the group leader mentioned it was the end of the trek and that a jeep was waiting for us to take us at the foot of the fort.We had some poha and tea and then took a bus and reached our nearest destination.I reached home after 45 min (had to drive my car from there) almost dead.

“THE END”

It was a great achievement to walk 20 km cover 17 hills truly worth the efforts . I would recommend  this trek for those who would like to test their stamina and will-power. A perfect endurance test!