Walking & Peaking (Walk towards the peak-10)

Dear All

Before writing about my specific trekking experiences of Dhyana Yatra Tour - Oct 2007, I have to re-emphasise once again on my bad shaped body & the mental blocks I always had for physical exercises.....!! I have recorded on this laziness quite frequently in this series but this needs a special mention in this particular posting as I am going to cover the cramps and leg pains, the mental calculations & physical exhaustion - in this piece....!!

I had walked on 4 days....to and fro Kedar on consecutive days and to and fro Gomuk on another set of two days.....!! Without adequate practise, I fully realise my experience of this tour had become slightly dominant with pains and suffering more than pleasant memories but I dont regret it.....(this is a realy problem, right ??...I mean, the justification mode!!)

We were adviced to have a small backpack holding the warm clothes and rain coat & I started quite briskly holding the bamboo stick that was available aplenty in the lined up shops....which was extremely important for trekking - particularly the novices like me....I still remember that I was slightly amused at the end of the first kilometre at Kedar that it "seemed" to be quite easy & realised the utility of the bamboo stick....though I had started gasping for Oxygen by the time I sighted the sign board showing that I had completed the first kilometre...

The mind started working from that moment and was pushing the eyes to search for the signboards and I started realising the state of my body from 5th kilometre onwards...I could clearly see that the legs get stiffened if I sit / take rest and decided to stand still in a corner of the path ....whenever I was exhausted....!!

After touching the seventh Kilometre, the kind hearted authorities had placed the signboard at the end of 500 metries but it seemed quite longer than the 1 kilometre space that I travelled in the first half....I could see many of my co-passengers overtaking me and few of them deciding to hire a horse but I was not the one to budge and to compromise (I just had 200 rs with me.....that never struck me as I can always borrow from some one of our group....!!)....The right leg, starting from the hip joint to ankle became heavier and heavier and I was limping the last two kilometre just with the energy of the other leg.....

During the initial phase, so much of thoughts were running in the mind and I started wondering if my creativity was taking away huge chunk of the energy levels. So many sentences were coined in the head trying to verbalise the pain & lamenting about the lack of fitness.... (the title to this piece "walking & peaking" was infact conceived during this walk.....which is quite ironical....I was actually drowning but the mind is coining great words to describe it !!)....

I infact remember that when I touched the end of some curve in the path - hoping that I could sight the top from there, I felt like crying to only see that it only lead to another huge streatch making the mind more tired than the body.....I also remember that I had a childish satisfaction to turn back and see once a while to see "how much I had covered"....from the earlier resting point.....It was clearly more a mind game and all my efforts to make it appear "smaller and easier" failed miserably....and I was looking quite jealously at few humble souls who were "just walking" without any ripple of thoughts and without calculating too much....as I was doing....!!

Gradually I started settling down with the pace and the rhythm of the chanting that was going on inside my lips (as adviced by Sadhguru - I was chanting "Shiva Shambo" continuously during the walk) , I could find few of the stretches passing by quite effortlessly as I forgot every thing else except the body movements associated with the walk...It would be a lie if I said that I just melted with the Mantra...(like few people told with lot of sincerity...I had it only in patches) and the distance of 14 km appeared to be extremely long in my experience....shattering all my convictions & persuasions to lift my spirits...

The experience of the second trekking was much more painful as it was quite longer than Kedar and the big difference is that it was quite scenic to look at the mountains on the way to Gomuk than the Kedar visit which was more like a tourist spot....!!

I was amused at the fitness levels of some of the volunteers and the teacher who travelled with us - walking quite effortlessly and who were able to be normal even after reaching the final destination..they needed no rest or relaxation.....Theoretically I can convince that "its all practise" but in the corner of the mind, I do long to reach that physical fitness levels....!!

When I look back on those long four days during the tour when we were trekking, I can distinctly remember the groaning and moaning more than the few moments when I felt walking like a machine without sensing the pain.....!! To summarise this posting on trekking, I realise that I have to go a long way- though some how I reached the prescribed destinations....!!

suchoo