What I learnt from the hills ...

As a family, we have always believed that we learn lot more by traveling than in the class rooms, it gently augments our knowledge,while meeting new people, their different culture, food and new landscapes. It needs you to step out of your comfort zone and lose yourself in the less used roads, it’s not easy neither is it tough.

This vacation it was the North-Eastern states inviting us. Having visited many coastal places and few of Himalayan ranges earlier, this time we wanted to experience rains in the famed Cherrapunji and the Scotland of East. Booked our travel tickets to Guwahati and arranged for a car to expedite three out of the Seven eastern sisters’ states, that is to Meghalaya, Arunachala Pradesh and Assam.

 Meghalaya means ‘the abode of clouds’ nestled amidst the Surma Valleys with its highest peak being Shillong. Majority of the population are from the indigenous tribe Khasis, very warm and friendly. Mesmerizing landscapes consisting several waterfalls, beautiful orchids, wild flowers and ferns.Cluster of clouds racing with each other to nowhere was like some graphic artist's work of imagination. Nature seems to have accidentally spilled vibrant colours from her palette. Arunachala Pradesh was equally awesome with beautiful scenes and grandeur of the monasteries speaking volumes of the traditions and its past. People of this region are also great hosts, their soft voice and readiness to help their guests to make them feel at home, actually adds up to the experience lot more.

Despite months of planning to travel this region, like for an apt time in which all four of us could take a break from our profession and studies and finally a suitable weather to visit the place, we had to face few unexpected challenges. To our fortune or misfortune, we were into a not so pleasant surprise, as the region had its early monsoon and we had to face the wrath of the nature in form of heavy rains and especially the landslides which occurred every 50 meters of our travel and finally a major one at the end, due to which we were stranded for one whole day in a village along with many others.Thanks to our army who took charge of the situation and made us proud of them and the vacation a memorable one.

This vacation of ours has taught has many lessons, it has nudged us gently to look around and experience life. Given us an opportunity to peep into lives of all kinds of people and understand that our challenges are minimal when compared to those of others. To highlight few of them:

·        Be prepared: To pack small, but include everything food, water and medicine. Be ready to start and pause at any time as it’s the nature that decides when you can move and not you!

·        To expand the bandwidth of our memory and write down the experiences as nature has so much to exhibit. It teaches us to be in present.

·        Okay to have health issues like a little ache here and there or a feel of nausea in the hills (might also be because we are new to fresh air and environment). Keep moving from small things

·         Constant view and news of landslides every now and then will definitely scare you but this kind of fear of uncertainty helps you in your spiritual journey.

·        To make best of things like, for instance not to be choosy of food and eat what you get without complaining.

·        Travelling around the hills teaches you to be more patient and to leave your comfort zone as the weather is unpredictable and to some extent you are quite unsure if you will survive to tell your stories

·        Helps us prioritize, while planning to buy things as you have eat and carry light.

·        Widens our perception of life and helps us in our spiritual journey

·        Gives us a chance to appreciate other culture and mannerisms

·        To be more curious, as in a new terrain you are given a chance to understand the local customs, food, language and religion.

·        How the army unselfishly protects us from the enemies by not only being away from their families but also in the unpredictable weather and in minimum amenities.

·        We learned that army don’t just protect us from the enemies but also pawn their lives to protect people on vacation. This has taught us to be less selfish.

The above are just a few, there are many more lessons we learn from our travels, especially the travel to hills and mountains. Because of the last and major landslide, we had to trek the small wild hill down and up, amidst the heavy rains. The army men along with the local people helped us in the trekking and provided us food and water. It makes us small when we realize that we enjoy our freedom at the cost of such people at the border. Yes, as one of the board by BRO in the curves read, ‘Expect the unexpected”, we learned and experienced more than we expected, in our vacation this year.

As Gustave Flaubert rightly quotes, ”Travel makes one modest. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world”, travel especially to the wild like to the hills and mountains makes you and your problems so small that you, those few days amidst the nature gives you fast track growth which even the best of universities cannot share with you.