Most of the times writing travelogues is tedious but is still exciting as I remember all the fun things happened at the trip or trek and write it as juicy and funny as it can get. This time even before we started to Bhuntar from Chandigarh, Vani and Paras made fun of me for taking videos on Gopro.
Day 2 (12th August) : After devouring Parathas for breakfast, we waited at the bus stop for the trek guide from Bikat Adventures to pick us. It was 5 of us from starting point and the other 2 were to join us at Kheerganga which is the next point. We waited for Rekha who reached just that morning at Bhuntar. While we waited, she remembered that she forgot to pack the flip flop and we went for a small town shopping for the flip flop. She wanted to go for Blue, I said YELLOOOOWWW!! She smiled and took yellow. Back at the bus stop, we sat down and took as many selfies as we could! Every time she telling me that she looks sexier than I am. I denying. Meanwhile a woman who held a Godess Durga statue and some incense sticks came to us, expecting some donation. I gave Rs 10 from Niranjan’s pocket generously !! Then started the verbal tease.. Vani said I will be getting some extra blessings because of the donation! They made fun of me that there will be an extra globe of oxygen around me to save me from AMS!. They said Goddess will shower me with O2 for the trek. As light as we could take AMS that moment, my whole life turned after a few days!! Even now the word AMS gives me shivers while I type it!!
We started from Bhuntar at 9am along the beautiful valleys of Manali- Kulu - Manikaran. On our left were deep and vast Valleys and on the right high mountains. Drive was not at all smooth. Teasing each other , laughing and chattering we reached a place where we halted for a small break. Our destination was a small Dam near Barshaini over the Parbati River at Pulga. The place is called Tosh from where the trek starts. We distributed our packed lunch among ourselves. It was sandwich, chocolate and a fruit drink in tetra pack. Started out as a moderate trek, it was about 12.30pm. This was about 13km trek on day 1 and its a steep climb into a beautiful mountain in Parvati pass. Chilling weather and quite crowded for a popular place “Kheerganga" that is, some of us were bit slow since it was day 1 and after a rocky journey from Bhuntar to Barshaini. Vani and Paras were on the run. As much as their expertise was , they were quite fast in climbing. We were catching up and stopping by for photos and water often. I was not prepared for the trek. I had time, but I had personal matters to attend. With mothers health deteriorating, I had to visit her frequently. Mother was in ICU for almost 3 months. There was no time to plan a workout or even go for a walk during these sleepless nights and tiring days. I was to cancel this trek. Mother was out of ICU but still not fully recovered. She is surviving stage 4 Lung cancer. I was skeptical about my Trek to Parvati pass. Slowly as I saw mother recovering, I was bit hopeful. I Called up Vani then and said I did not know what to do. I also needed a break from continuous hospital environment, but I was not all that confident to be away without network and reachability for 10 days. She suggested me to drop the plan and being home for mother was important. Even cancelling flight would not return me anything , for we had booked much earlier and a flat 2500 cut on that was returning hardly any money. So I did not cancel the flight. Few weeks later mother got discharged and her health was better. Thats when I decided to go ahead with the plan and put trust in God.
They said we will make sure you post the vlog and write about the trek. I promised them! I will make the VLOG and I will post the trek details. Unfortunately, I am writing this only for Vani’s sake and will make the VLOG for her, dedicating this to a true mountaineer who sacrificed her life thinking about the fellow trek mates and gave up her life in the quiet mountains of Himachal in the arms of Parvati Pass.
It was on the 11th Of August '17 early morning 6am Niranjan and I left from my flat at Begur road in a taxi and at the same time, Vani left from Whitfield in a KIAS. She rang to us and said she has got avalakki from home for us so we need not worry about breakfast. All excited about the tough trek of our lifetime , we could not wait to meet her at the airport. Our flights were different as she had booked for the trek much before we both had to get early bird discount!. We could not meet her at the airport. Our flight was via Hyderabad and hers was via Mumbai, she reached Chandigarh by 1.45 pm and our flight got delayed by 1 hour 30 minutes. We texted into the Watsapp group we had created that we will reach Chandigargh by 3pm. Paras, another friend was to join us at Chandigargh. Vani waited for us at the Chandigarh airport and the moment we saw each other, we hugged each other in excitement. So thrilled were we. We had arranged for a cab from Chandigarh to Bhuntar which was the trek start point.
We picked Paras from Sector 49 and drove to University to have late lunch. As though we had not seen food, we gobbled 4 or 5 parathas and Lassi in University campus and started to Bhuntar. On our way we stopped for Tea and Pee break and later for dinner. We reached Bhuntar by 12pm and desperately needed sleep as we were tired of the journey and had to start early morning for the trek.
Day 2 (12th August) : After devouring Parathas for breakfast, we waited at the bus stop for the trek guide from Bikat Adventures to pick us. It was 5 of us from starting point and the other 2 were to join us at Kheerganga which is the next point. We waited for Rekha who reached just that morning at Bhuntar. While we waited, she remembered that she forgot to pack the flip flop and we went for a small town shopping for the flip flop. She wanted to go for Blue, I said YELLOOOOWWW!! She smiled and took yellow. Back at the bus stop, we sat down and took as many selfies as we could! Every time she telling me that she looks sexier than I am. I denying. Meanwhile a woman who held a Godess Durga statue and some incense sticks came to us, expecting some donation. I gave Rs 10 from Niranjan’s pocket generously !! Then started the verbal tease.. Vani said I will be getting some extra blessings because of the donation! They made fun of me that there will be an extra globe of oxygen around me to save me from AMS!. They said Goddess will shower me with O2 for the trek. As light as we could take AMS that moment, my whole life turned after a few days!! Even now the word AMS gives me shivers while I type it!!
We started from Bhuntar at 9am along the beautiful valleys of Manali- Kulu - Manikaran. On our left were deep and vast Valleys and on the right high mountains. Drive was not at all smooth. Teasing each other , laughing and chattering we reached a place where we halted for a small break. Our destination was a small Dam near Barshaini over the Parbati River at Pulga. The place is called Tosh from where the trek starts. We distributed our packed lunch among ourselves. It was sandwich, chocolate and a fruit drink in tetra pack. Started out as a moderate trek, it was about 12.30pm. This was about 13km trek on day 1 and its a steep climb into a beautiful mountain in Parvati pass. Chilling weather and quite crowded for a popular place “Kheerganga" that is, some of us were bit slow since it was day 1 and after a rocky journey from Bhuntar to Barshaini. Vani and Paras were on the run. As much as their expertise was , they were quite fast in climbing. We were catching up and stopping by for photos and water often. I was not prepared for the trek. I had time, but I had personal matters to attend. With mothers health deteriorating, I had to visit her frequently. Mother was in ICU for almost 3 months. There was no time to plan a workout or even go for a walk during these sleepless nights and tiring days. I was to cancel this trek. Mother was out of ICU but still not fully recovered. She is surviving stage 4 Lung cancer. I was skeptical about my Trek to Parvati pass. Slowly as I saw mother recovering, I was bit hopeful. I Called up Vani then and said I did not know what to do. I also needed a break from continuous hospital environment, but I was not all that confident to be away without network and reachability for 10 days. She suggested me to drop the plan and being home for mother was important. Even cancelling flight would not return me anything , for we had booked much earlier and a flat 2500 cut on that was returning hardly any money. So I did not cancel the flight. Few weeks later mother got discharged and her health was better. Thats when I decided to go ahead with the plan and put trust in God.
Since I was not at all prepared for the trek, my pace was quite slow, but was catching up. We stopped at Rudranag for lunch and the place somewhat scared me. I am not a person who fears water, but never in my life I have seen a river that fierce !! The loud noise of water fall widening as it flows towards the bottom of mountain from the top was too harsh. When we stood on top of the bridge underneath which the river flew, my legs started shivering. I was scared. I felt the bridge may break any time. Quickly we took pics and started to climb. We finished the trek by 4.30 pm and reached Kheerganga. This is a very popular place. A lot of people Trek to kheerganga to enjoy the weather, pictorisque beauty , hot water spring and a “herbal” remedy which every person in Manali(Malana) comes for!! Many small shacks as you may see in Goa to sit and chill, with very loud trance music selling hot food and beverages with Bob Marley printed / painted all around seen all over the mountain covering entire place. We pitched our tents and went up to the hot springs to freshen up. First time did I see the hot springs and the place was so divine. This place was partitioned for men and woman and strictly no naked bath was in-scripted all over. We went to the woman side and dipped our feet into the hot water. It was a pool of hot water as well as the pipes were flowing with hot water. We saw there was a cave right behind these springs and I had heard a friend say that there was a Baba who had left all his things in this cave and locked the cave. There was no way we could get into the cave. I was cold and did not feel like going higher. Paras, Vani and Rekha climbed to visit the temple on top. I Waited for them to come down. We went down and met two more trek participants Deepak and Ateeq who came directly to Kheerganga. After tea and snacks we spent some time inside the tents before we hit the sack.
Day 3 (13 August ’17) Next morning was the trek from Kheerganga to Tunda Bhuj. Trail was through a really thick forest both the sides while Parvati river flows along the Spiti valley with fiercely. Along this trail were all the tiny strawberries that grew, we plucked and picked a handful and ate. This was the place of my great fall! I was talking and there was a tree root on which I kept my heel not so firmly! I wonder what kind of logic must have been running in my head to place a feet that way, a single feet on a big tree root and there I slipped down, rolled twice and directly into a bushy support which if not there would have been a fatal fall for me. I sank there , the roots and shrub so strong to bear my weight(Since I had the backpack also, it had added to the weight), I saw people on top looking at me petrified. I wanted to laugh because at that moment I didn’t know the severity of the fall. If the shrubs weren’t there, it would have been worse for me since it goes directly into the valley few hundred feet down below!!
Some porters and Paras helped me up.. When I came up , I got shoutings from Niranjan and Vani. I was a bit careless until then, as I didn’t gauge the possible outcome. I made fun, said that the 10 rupee I gave to the holy-woman holding Durga idol saved me!
We stopped for snack break and took a group pic here.An elderly shepherd man was also walking along with us. Day 2 was also moderate trek. The place around was lush green, this probably was the last stretch of greenery.
We camped at Tunda Bhuj and after pitching tents and having refreshments, Vani, Niranjan, Rekha and I walked to the other side where the other team had camped. We returned as it was getting very cold and dark too. We took lot of selfies on top where there was a small shrine and saw a Baba residing there.
We had dinner by 8pm and called it a day.
Day 4(14th August) was the trek from Tunda Bhuj to Thakur Kua. We took packed lunch and started by 8am as per the plan.
This day is quite challenging as we crossed a landslide and a tricky section. Crossing this patch was quite scary and looked tough for me. After crossing, the place was little rocky but not too hard. We stopped to eat packed lunch and it was very sunny. Vani hadn’t eaten good since the trek had started. She said that is usual for her in Himalayas. She was tired. It was strange for I was relatively newer in these mountains and she had done close to 15 Himalayan treks. I assumed it could have been the lady problem she had that made her weak. It was a flat land and we camped. We played card games inside Kitchen tent as it was very windy. We had dinner, Vani again had only some sweet and very little rice with green chutney that Aunty had made for her.
We started day 5 (15th August’17) on time and this was quite tough a trek as compared to all other days. Day 4 was Thakur Kua to Odi Thatch. For what I read from the net it was to be the most thrilling day of our lives. And yes for sure. It was the most adventurous climb on the day. It was 14th August 2017, I was high on energy. I was scared as well since there was absolutely no practice.There are 2 bridges which we cross and that was the main attraction of the day. Vani seemed little dull and she was little slow. I had gained some momentum and was faster! May be I was too excited. It was a feather in my cap, this trek, since I had been planning it for about 3 years and always felt I am too novice for this much adventure.
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| Pandu Pul (one of a lifetime experience to cross) |
The first bridge is Called the Pandu Pul-1, it was very scary and a risky affair. Porters were struggling to get all of us safely cross the ridges.From here the rocky and risky patches started. All of us successfully crossed this Pul and then continued to ascend. Vani asked trek lead if she can offload her luggage. Sarthak was looking for a porter who could carry extra luggage. It was not so easy because this was rolling camp and they were carrying everything from participant tents, kitchen tents, toilet tents , grocery, stove etc. He said he will arrange after a while.
At this point I was quite tired and wanted to rest.
But there was no chance since the boulders could roll down and hurt the fellow trekkers following trail. From here it seemed that Vani and Paras were a bit slower. They took fewer more breaks but were catching up. We then started to second boulder. This one is called Pandu Pul-2. This is a higher boulder which is right across the Parvati river. There is a steep climb of about 30 ft and then decline. We climbed and got down this tricky boulder carefully. As we stopped a bit to rest and take group photos , she was least interested. She had closed her eyes and was resting. When we begun to leave, the porters dropped the kerosine drum hard and it started leaking. They quickly fixed it with whatever plastic and cloth materials they had and we started our climb again.
We stopped for lunch. She threw entire packed lunch from her Tupperware. She ate a small piece of chocolate and slept on my lap for some time. After this it was complete desert and "walk in park" as Sarthak called it. We went to the beautiful meadow in Odi Thatch. It was so vast and flat. We happily pitched tents. Vani and I had tea and some snacks.
I was jumping in joy and could not contain myself as the toughest part was done. This meadow was heaven!! The ground was carpeted with all sorts of tiny flowers. I pulled her and said come lets do macro photography. She laughed! Said she was least interested in photography but still would come along. Somehow after I showed her about 8 different flowers, she got excited. Said she would never bother to see such small flower in Himalayan trek and thanked me. We were talking all things and I said this trek is a breather for me as I had been running at the hospital for about 4 months and it was very stressful. I also said how scared I was about mothers health. She said it is hard to lose loved ones, that she also fears loss of loved ones. I dont know why but after that we spoke quite a lot about death!! We went inside tents to play Uno for some time. We had hot dinner to call it a day. She had eaten a bit with Chutney pudi that Niranjan had got. Everyone gave their share of Kheer to her so that she eats some food.
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| This was our last campsite. Next camp was supposed to be at Mantalay. |
Day 6th (16th August '17), she took too long to come out of tent.We were having hot tea and then woke her up. She came with a swollen face. It was much more compared to her usual face cut. Sarthak took Oxymeter reading and it was very low. She could hardly walk and complained giddiness. Sarthak called all participants and declared that the trek will be aborted and we should decline down immediately. We started packing our bags and saw Vani and Sarthak were talking something. She must have thought about all of us and convinced him to wait for longer. After some time , Sarthak took Oxymeter reading and it showed some progress. Since we had one buffer day, we decided to use that day. We walked around and sat in open to get acclimatized. She was not too good nor too bad. She spoke slowly and she seemed very tired. We kept giving her liquids and after lunch she slept outside as it was not good to sleep inside tents in high altitude. (As per trek lead)
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| After the acclimatisation walk, when we rested. |
By 3pm we took her inside tent. We sat by her playing cards and she was not much interested. She just rested. I kept giving her warm water to rehydrate. I don’t really know if I over did it. I did everything that was told to me so that she gets better some how. I am guilty of not having any knowledge of AMS symptoms and the remedy. Maharaj made some Upma and I fed her that too. He said we may have to take her down at night. It is out of his experience. He was the only senior person there. All others were very young, don’t even ask the porters age, I don’t remember seeing even a single man over 20 years age there! Sarthak had given her diamox at around 3.30-4pm, but I recently discovered it takes at least 24 hours for it to work. He also gave another pill of which I don’t remember the name. It was supposed to make breathing easy.
Nothing seemed to have helped. They decided to take her down to a lower altitude. 4 porters, Sarthak and Vani were to descend down. As it was already getting dark and the path was risky for all others to descend, they asked us to trek down the first thing in the morning. All were petrified. I prayed to Sai that she should be fine by morning once they go to lower altitude. I got into the tent and tried to slip on to my thermals, but the oxygen was so low and I took about 30 minutes to wear my thermals with a lot of difficulty. I could sense that discomfort myself although I did not do any physical work other than wearing the thermals. It was late at night (may be 2.30 Am) and I was not getting sleep. I saw a light around the tent, must have been one of the trekkers who went to use toilet. I too wanted to go out, but waited for a while for him to go. I waited for 30 minutes, the light was still moving. I came out of the tent to see Paras walking with his water bottle , who was not getting sleep either . He had terrible head ache. I gave him a balm I usually keep next to me all the time inside my sleeping bag. He applied and said he won’t be going to sleep any sooner as it was difficult for him. He said he ll move around for longer and asked me to go back to sleep. I used toilet and tried to go back to sleep. I was having hard time to sleep. At around 4 am there was too much noise outside. There were few dogs (which you will see in pics ) and they were circling around some place crazily. It was very scary. Half sleep, Vanis health and the dogs acting weird scared me even more. I just wanted to run away some place. I wanted to get out of the mountains. I fear a lot of unknown things. There has been several unexplainable incidents which has made me timid. There won’t be any logic for such things. I was very scared, I put my head outside tent to see outside, it was false dawn, there was so much light of the stars and sky was spread with zillion stars and even that scared me. I saw a white mountain far away and that looked monstrous. I went back and did not want to think about anything else. My head and heart was pounding.
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| This was the last picture of Vani from my camera. |
Day 7 (17th August 2017) morning, first thing I asked Naresh-the trek guide, if he has heard anything from them. Naresh said if anything unfortunate had happened, two porters would have come back. I was bit relieved. I wanted to run down. We started trekking down from Odi Tatch to Thakur Kua. We had to go through the same tricky patches. Our breath was heavy. I wanted to go down and hug her and say everything is alright now. I wanted to shout at her for not eating through the trek and being fussy. We always looked up at her, for this was her may be 15th or 16th Himalayan trek. She knew her body needs well and if she said she didn’t want to eat, she was okay not eating and surviving on sweets and fried things. (I remember previous evening she said she would have eaten had they provided Bhajiya / Bajji)
At a certain point we saw two porters were coming back!!! I don’t want to say a thing here!! My mind never suspected a thing. I just thought they are here to help us. Some one came and took my backpack. As it is I didn’t want to get rid of it since it was light. But he took. I asked porter how she is, he said she ate and she has been feeling well. And then we went another 1 or 2kms. We saw Naresh had reached earlier and Sarthak was there with porters. We were asked to sit down. I didn’t want to assume anything here either. Then Sarthak broke the news. She had left us and reached the place she loved the most. She had taken her last breath in her beloved place. She had tried to book this trek twice before, the first time she booked, she had an encounter with elephant and had to cancel. Then again she booked this for second time, and this time uncle(her dad) had to go through knife and get his leg amputated. Finally she came here and went into the stars and forever. It was a shocker for all of us. I held Niranjan and cried. I had no clue what was happening. In few minutes I forgot what happened and there was a short period of memory loss. Then again, after few minutes I remembered she had gone and cried. All were hurrying to get us down the mountain before anything else happens. Her body was kept in a tent. I did not dare to go. I did not and could not have seen her. I was going psyched. Looked around, everything was looking white and washed out. I saw Niranjan went to see her.. I collapsed by the rock again and wanted to sit there. Thakur Kua had swallowed my beloved friend. She was sleeping in my lap previous evening and today she was gone. Forever. She was not there. No one knew how to react and what to do. Aiyo!! I was screaming and crying and then in minutes I don’t know what was happening. I remember the elderly man (cook) , holding my hand and dragging, I was running behind him. Everything was white. White tall grass, white mountains , white sky and l was running. Whenever tired I would stop and then the reality would hit right across the face. They did not have a stretcher and may be she would have survived if they had. She should have listened and gone down the previous day. They put the body on a stretcher and trekked along. I could not see that stretcher with the maroon blanket covered. I was not able to look at her body.. When she came closed I turned towards Niranjan and held him. I could not have seen that. All my senses and emotions were shut. Not able to buy the fact.
We somehow made it to Tunda Bhuj. We were all tired as we had already covered over 20kms. We were to camp at Tunda Bhuj to continue the trek next morning. It was getting dark. We camped there, all numb , not able to digest the fact. We could not believe fate had gotten us there in that condition. We spent night, just wanted to run again in the morning. They had taken the body down to nearest hospital by then(Mandi) No network whatsoever, we had to trek down few kms more to get bsnl network.
Day 8 (18th August), 7am we started to descend to Kheerganga. At around 10.30 am we got faint signal. We were almost close to Kheerganga.Already terrified, and all more feared I prayed God that there was no news from Home. I was not reachable for 5 days and last I had spoken with mother was when we left from Bhuntar. I just waited for all sms to be delivered and took a sigh of breath since there was no sms from home. And now was the other challenge, whom to call??!! Who knew what had happened? We saw there were few messages from friends asking if were okay, due to the tragic landslide that had taken many lives before two days! I called up mother as I just wanted to hear her voice. The moment she picked up call and said hello I took a sigh of breath and at that state of mind I thanked my stars that I could hear her voice. We then called another friend to know how much of info they had. It seemed like Bikat Adventures had called her family and said she was serious and to start immediately. We spoke with her brother in law Sujith who now is a very good friend, who informed that Usha(Vani’s sister) and himself are starting from there. We informed that it is better he comes alone and not with the family since it might be too hard for them to take. We spoke with Sayeesha who was also about to start with Sujith, although he had never met Vani even once! We said we will be here until all the formalities are done, so it is okay if Sujith comes alone. We trekked down from Kheerganga and by then, everyone had known about the incident in and around Kheerganga. They were identifying us as the batch which went to the trek where the mishap had happened. Guys from Bikat wanted to evacuate us as soon as possible. It was getting sunnier and we had to trek down to Tosh from Kheerganga. We reached the Dam at Tosh by 4pm and there was a jeep waiting for us. It was a 3 hour drive from there to the nearest town Mandi and then Kulu. We reached Kulu by 6.30 pm and reached a hotel. Niranjan and I were on constant calls with friends updating them. We waited for Sujith to join. Sujiths flight was to reach Bhuntar at 6 am on the 19th August. Once he arrived we explained him everything to our knowledge.
Day 9 We went to the Mortuary at 9am to see the body. She was lying on the slab of mortuary with hands folded across the chest. Niranjan, Sujith and I entered the mortuary not being able to believe what we were seeing. Within moments our lives had changed. We were there staring at our dear friend as she lay there motionless and gone beyond reach. We cried and cried at what was lying ahead of us and we were helpless. I did not know what was next. I am sure Niranjan and Sujith were also in the same state not knowing what next. We had not informed the family yet. I am sure there were all prayers and poojas happening at home for her safe return and we only wished that it worked! It was late. It was very very late. The body had turned to purple and when I touched it was colder than ice. The police man asked me to check if there were any suspicious wounds! I checked all her body, there was nothing. But there was a friend in there just two days ago who was now no more ! Bikat wanted us to hurry and get out of HP before they get into any trouble. An advocate from Bikat was rushing me to go to DC office and get some permission letter. I lost it on her and shouted. She was there just so that we don’t get any time to think and react!!!
We first met DDMA Kullu to see if they can arrange airlift till Delhi or Chandigarh to catch Bangalore flight. They said the CM himself had come in cars since the Chopper had broken down. Mrs Harkanchan Kaur from DDMA Kullu was very helping. She was available throughout and ran around to hurry up the process. At Kullu Govt Hospital, there were 2 Anästhesist who would not do post mortem. So they asked us to take the body to Mandi. Meanwhile we had to vacate the hotel, and also we had to take a certificate for the coffin that the coffin was fit to be used in aircrafts. While Sujith went with the body to Kullu, Niranjan and I checked out the hotel, hired a cab from Kullu to Mandi at 3pm. We got the coffin certificate on the way and went towards Mandi. Coffin was already smelling since it was 3 days post death. And the smell was inside us, in our mind and body too. We could not even drink water in the condition that we were in, leave alone eating. Already having trekked 80kms , Niranjan and I had totally worn out physically, on top of that, losing her had made us totally blank mentally. We were just moving around without being able to think anything. It was just three bodies running around here and there with her dead body. It was 6.30pm when we reached Mandi Govt hospital. The cab driver was so understanding and waited for us in the cab with our luggages since we did not have any place to keep all our luggage. We arranged ice for the body and got a room for ourselves. There was not even a single moment to mourn or cry. We had got herculean energy to run around do everything without a single morsel of food or water for days. We waited for the sun to rise and get the postmortem done the next morning.
Day 10(20th August). The doctor came to do the postmortem and asked for some materials from us, like white fabric, salt and few jars to keep the samples. Niranjan and Sujith got the required things. After about 1 hour, it was done along with embalming and then the doctor asked Niranjan and Sujith to help move the body back to the coffin. As if what was happening around was not enough, the guys went to keep the body back and returned crying! They saw her in such gory state God Forbid this should not happen to any friends or relatives! They went to a corner and cried. I could understand but was helpless, No one was ready to help here. For the policeman it was a daily thing and the guy from Bikat was ALSO THERE.
We asked Ambulance driver for the help and got none. He was rude and unruly. He did not want to lose the Sunday and wanted to get rid of us soon. Somehow after the PM we moved the body to the ambulance and started to Chandigarh. Since there was no space in Ambulance for us and luggage , we hired a cab. Niranjan and I in cab and Sujith in ambulance.While we were travelling to Chandigarh, the coffin was moving around a lot inside the ambulance and we had to stop at a place for ropes. He gave us tea and made us sit.
Sujith was uncomfortable inside the Ambulance for obvious reasons. He was alone there with the body. Hence after a while Niranjan joined him. Fortunately , this cab driver was very kind, he also had his wife along and they were driving to Chandigarh to attend a funeral of a relative.
Since it was a Sunday there were no flights from Chandigarh, we had to go to Delhi to board the flight and the Ambulance driver clearly refused from dropping us to Delhi. We hired another ambulance. Kind Cab driver agreed to drop us till Delhi. In Chandigarh, we moved the Coffin from one Ambulance to another. The other ambulance was very small and there was no space to sit for Sujith. There were 2 people already in front seat.Hence Sujith joined us in the cab. The other ambulance was faster and they went way ahead of us. We reached Delhi at around 1am Monday morning (21st August) and another man in Jeep came to help(!!) us. He said he knows Cargo and can help in moving the body easily. All he wanted was some money. He asked Rs 5500 for the help!
We politely denied and asked him to go. He was rude and still took Rs 500 to go. At the cargo, the next flight was at 6.30am and we showed them all the papers. We realised that the police had forgotten to put the seal at Kullu!!! Airlines directly denied to take the body. They said go to the Delhi police station to get the seal. At 2 am Sujith and I entered Police station while Niranjan was in cab looking after luggage. It was a horrifying experience to visit police station at that odd hour. There were no female police. The inspector made me sit in some room and asked Sujith to meet someone else. It was very scary. I could not believe I was in Delhi and also In Delhi police station at 2am!! Police said they cannot change or put a seal on the reports, but they can attest a record saying we seem genuine. Inspector called Kullu Policeman to enquire and Kullu police Said that he had left the seal in Kullu and gave the reports in Mandi which was 3 hours away. We finally managed to get the reports and then went back to the Cargo. While all this was happening, the Ambulance drivers so kind, were quietly waiting all night long with the Coffin inside. They showed utmost patience, they need not have waited for us, they could have simply left the Coffin n gone, but they were there till 5am until we got all the records from police.
We paid the Ambulance guys and thanked them, and we were now little (more or less) sure that the Coffin will be sent this time! But to our shock, we found that the coffin was leaking and airlines denied to take the coffin since it could infect all the other passengers on that flight. And also, since the body was in the same Coffin even before PM, the box was smelling!! We now had another challenge. By this time, we thought Vani had no intentions of going back to her place. She loved Manali so much she took her last breath there. Our plan was to finish the trek on 21st August and stay in Zostel Manali, which was her most favourite place. She would say that she wanted to roam about the streets while I wanted to party there for 3 days before we boarded the flight back to Bangalore. Manali was the place she always wanted to go and her wish was fulfilled. She took her last breath on the 17th and somehow with all the things going down south, we were still in that region for 3 days even after her demise.
At 5am , with Airlines denying to take the leaky Coffin, we 3 were totally devastated. We were giving up. After having come this far, we were still not able to send her body to her parents. We had failed despite of all efforts. It is not a joke to carry a body by road covering a distance of 500kms! We somehow brought the body and here we were again helpless. Airlines employees were kind too. In a matter of 5 days we had seen all kinds of people. People who could go out of their way to help us, people who were selfish and money minded , people who were chickening away from responsibilities, one incident as this will give away everyones real self. The Indigo airlines employees stayed back after their shift had got over, just so that we could still include the coffin in the 6.30am flight. They gave us the contact of the Coffin guy who makes Airlines quality coffin. I called the man at 5am disturbing his sleep. He was cursing for waking him up. I asked him to replace the coffin, he said he will come at 7am! I said flight is at 6.30 and he has to come immediately. He said he will charge extra for that.We agreed for that as well. He said Coffin alone costs 12k. We said we are fine with that. And finally he said do you have some one with you (men) or he should get some helpers to move the body. I didn’t want these boys to be troubled again moving the body, hence I said he better gets some boys. He said we will have to bare the charges for the guy who would come to move the body from one Coffin to another!! We agreed. Meanwhile we had lost our mind. We went to the Cargo lounge of Indigo where not a single person was around and we three just stood in a circle holding hands. We could sense that her presence was around, but none of us said even a single word. We cried that she is not willing to go back home! We prayed and requested her not to be so adamant. We knew that she was there around. Her presence was so obvious there. We almost decided on taking a help of a priest and do her final rites since Manali was her most favourite place and her destiny was it.But we also knew that we were not the right people to do the rituals. We came down and then touched her coffin and prayed her to go home and be sent rightfully. We decided that, untill she reaches home we will not even have water. We had not booked our flight tickets back to Bangalore. We were not sure how long all this would take. We decided we will book Bangalore tickets only after she reaches her home in Bangalore. At around 5.30, this man came in a jeep with the coffin and he was alone! He was asking Sujit and Niranjan to move her body again! Again this time, these boys went to help and found that there were flies also inside the coffin now! The Indigo guys who had stayed back post their shift quickly did the paper work and put the coffin into the flight just on time.!. Once we were sure that the flight took off, we booked our flight to Bangalore at 11.30 am through one of Sujits friends. We then went to passenger side of the airport and waited. After we boarded the flight , we got another thought!! How to face the parents. We could not muster the courage to face them. What to tell them? Their dear daughter who went to witness the splendour of white mountains decided to stay there! As we took a cab from Airport to her flat in Bangalore, the fear and anxiety started to increase. We were all devastated. Same clothes since 7-8 days since we were on trek and had not changed, we had not seen ourselves in those days. As soon as we reached, Usha came and hugged, my legs almost collapsed, there were no words to console a friend who had lost her loving sister, her parents were on the diwan, totally shattered, eyes shooting blood of all the crying since 4 days. They wished and thought she would be back, with some injury or hurt , but she would be back. She came back in a coffin, all wrapped in white cloth! Alas! They could not even see her face for the last time. They were so understanding and practical even in that state! They asked us not to share anything if it hurt! But it was our duty to tell them! No one else knew the sequence of events that happened.
It was not a small thing to take. Everyone was shocked. This was not expected for a trekker who had done more than 15 Himalayan treks and one of the toughest Himalayan Cycling Expedition.She was an avid trekker, she was born to explore as many mountains as she could. As she always said "I miss the white mountains so much when I have not trekked the Himalayas for long", she belonged there!
Loss of a friend is something unforgettable. Every small thing related to her, places and pictures remind us of her. We don’t say anything to show how much we miss her, because deep down we know, she has reached the place she was destined to. And how many get to go peacefully in the arms of those vast majestic white mountians? Is not it a dream and destiny of a true mountaineer?
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| Vani Maradi - "One true Mountaineer "! |
