On - Shitting II (Walk towards the Peak - 6)

Hi Gowri

It was a wonderful trekking of close to 20 Km from Gangotri to Gomuk....scenic and not too steep....We started from the base (Gangotri) by around 11 AM and expected to reach a place called BHOJWAS by evening for a halt....We were supposed to stay in tents for the whole night and leave at 6 AM next day morning to complete the last 6 KM trekking to have a glimpse of the Ganges at where it originates....

Being not so fit, I was one of the last to reach Bhojwas, literally limping and taking support of one of a friend from Pondy who kept driving me for the last two kilometre as it was getting darker...and we are supposed to reach our tents before the temperature gets bad.....This person is extremely fit and he had been to Dhyana Yatra the previous year too...

He had the wisdom to prompt me to have my stomach cleared in the evening despite the leg pain as it could be too freezing in the early morning & we had to leave the place at 6 AM to Gomuk....After reaching the tent, both of us moved towards the Ganges river along with a torch light and I had the peculiar experience of "standing and shitting"....as my legs would not bend.....!! I was groaning in pain and it was impossible for me to bend my knees and I was thinking about few old and weary beggars whom I have seen in Railway station whom I have crossed without much of emotions....Here I am tasting the pain and suffering of such unfortunate souls.....who dont even have the luxury of imagining that its all "temporary".....that I had.....!!

After ensuring that I would not suffer the next whole day due to heavy stomach, I limped towards Mother Ganges and cleaned up me with ice cold water......!! I was finding slightly uncomfortable with a feeling that I dampened my thermal wear pants (I guess during the main process as well as clean up process) but the tiredness and pain took me over.....and I went to sleep cuddling in the cot (cot was shared by two of us...8 cots and 16 people in each tent).....without any sense of aversion about the dampness OR the hot air exhaled by my cot-mate....!!

Of the entire trip, the tent stay was the only horrible thing in my experience.....there was so much of mental resistance due to the lack of dried up clothes (we did not carry too much of cloth in our small bag as it could make the trekking difficult) & the horrible chilled air.....& I just hated the inability to even sleep...with so much tiredness...

Later we were told that the climate was best...and it was quite common to have heavy rains and winds during this journey with particular reference to this night stay.....We were told that we were one of the luckiest batch of this tour....!!

Suchoo

ps:- I am giving below, with lot of responsibility, of my earlier posting on this subject so that you can "appreciate" them better when read in totality......SO that you are not mislead by "bite size chunks"....SO that you get the full picture.....So that ......


On Shitting (Walking towards the Peak - 5)
Why it is so urgent to prioritise "on Shitting" before writing "on Eating" ?? Is this not a paradox and showing my true colours (or my true odours) ?? Is my perversion oozing out even in such simple acts of prioritising ??Any thing we eat gets out (quite effortlessly for few but for few poor souls like me, with lot of struggle) on the next day and becomes a part of mother earth & is it not better to talk about the destination before the origin....Isn't it logical to "begin with the end in the mind" as Steven Covey says in his World Famous book (7 Habits of highly successful people)Such a long prelude is written not to make you laugh but its just that.....my first "piece" is yet to be delivered....I am moaning in pain.....Yes.....here it is down and out of me....Read through....!!For a long tour like this, there are people who are hesitant to even think off, because of their shitting patterns and their discomfort with the toilet facilities available.....with special dimensions on climatic conditions (in a tour like this) and "time slots" (considering it is a huge number of group)I took it in stride and I did not really mind about these apprehensions....and where ever we stayed (the hotels / Dharmashaalas we stayed in Badri and Kedar were with primitive facilities only) I was contented to ensure that I am not shitting above the shit of some body else....I was so accomodative, you know....particularly during the onward journey which I had in train (I am travelling in TN express after a full 9 years - I have been going to Delhi quite frequently between 2001 to 2003 but not by train) , on the second day travel, I entered the Western Style Toilet quite eagerly by 10.30 AM in the morning...wanting to experiment that adventure....of shitting with "jerks" and "balancing acts"....Good going...to put it crisply...I particularly cherish that moment when I (as usual) was struggling to find a techniqeu to wash myself with the tap ....when I spotted a water bottle (the simple one - 1 litre mineral water bottle of Aquafina) some one placed near the Wash basin in the toilet....I snatched it with all eagerness and with a great level of gratitude, I came out with full satisfaction that I am quite clean (at least outside) with the support of that old bottle which I reverentially kept back so that my successors will use it...I bow my head to that gentle man who placed it there.....and I am really getting moved with this wonderful world and people around me...Inspite of the bombs that explode and the lives that get trampled up, it is really wonderful that we have some "movers" in this world who do things for the future.....without making a fuss about it.....Now, I am sure the reader (s?) of this travellogue are convinced of my abilities of getting connected with abstraction.....and inspite of the title, I do make sense to you all....and not a 100% pervert ??This long musing on shitting cannot come to an end with this single episode ?? How can I forget that wonderful shitting I had on a place called BHOJWAS which is after 15 KM of walk from Gangotri on the way to Gomukh ?? How can I hold myself without explaining the grace of Mother Ganges herself wiping me off after my shitting in open air....??The next posting will continue which is NOT "on Eating" but "On Shitting - part II".....Let me take a break here....I normally dont shit continuously and need lot of pauses in between...suchoo