Inside a trekker's mind

A recent foray into a trekking trip has given me full privilege to call myself a trekker. Trust me it is not something which I would die for. So why did I ever sign for it? Because I am a sucker for new experiences. I am not adventurous. I just love to meet new people. I love to look forward to a situation and say, "Now what does this have in store for me?" and most importantly I start getting this weird feeling if I stay inside my house for more than certain hours and hence this trip. Once again, like the Jim Corbett trip, I did not anticipate anything much about how everything is going to be. Atleast , the experiences we had, they were far far beyond my anticipations. So trekking requires you to walk .... a lot!! and when you walk, you think .... a lot! So here are a few things that went inside my mind at many different instances when I started walking/trekking :

1) So when you start walking, you are all full of energy and zest. You give pep talk to scared people around. You never let others know that when the co-ordinator said, "Today we will trek for some 20 kms" the voice inside your head went, "Oh shit! How the hel will I do that?"

2) Anyway, the trek starts. You are doing pretty okay. The one constant thought in your mind is, "Pls Dont get weak in front of soo many people!" You can walk, you can walk. Be strong." Pep talking to your self and enjoying the breath taking beautiful scenery around, you soon realize you have covered quite a decent distance. The peak is still far but so is the starting point.

3) Then comes a point when although you have covered a considerable distance, the peak still refuses to come. All the walking makes you super hungry. All you can think about is food! What will these people give us to eat? What would have mom cooked today? What do I really feel like eating right now??? Still the peak has not come. Now you are so hungry that you are no more hungry.

4) You reach the peak of the trip. Explore a super fantastically mysterious cave. You see bats and think about vampires and the days when you sat cosily inside your room and watched the Salavtore brothers in The Vampire Diaries. Oh and by the way you also think about how cool it would sound when you narrate your friends back in office that you semi-explored a cave!

5) Then comes the time to start walking down. Even the ending point teases you by being far far away. Then you have this weird feeling of walking on a tread mill which just cannot stop and there is no emergency stop button. You walk and walk and walk. You become slow and wonder if the guy behind you is getting irritated by your slow speed.You say a "Sorry dude, I cant help being slow" in your head and keep walking.'

6) The first trek ends and there is food. It looks like a reward. It makes you understand the value of food. It does not matter that the food is white rice, that it comes under the food group of fast carbs and that you should be limiting its intake. You just EAT!

7) After you eat and just set your bums on a seat in order to relax, the co-ordinator calls you for the next set of trek. 8 kms he says. Achivable your head says. Although you are bloddy tempted to skip it as some of the others, you still dont want to miss out on the experience and you say, "What the hel! Lets do it"

8) The second trek is rock climbing till a decent distance. You are almost on the verge of asking someone to drop you back. But then you tell yourself, Finish it now that you have started it. There are big rocks, its cold, its slippery. You are doing your best and then --- you have your first big fall. Embarrassingly in the clear line of vision for everyone. You get up as quickly as you fell and then you see that had you fell a little inclined, you would have been having a one too one with the ultimate manager -- God! You dont stop. Because you know that if you do, it would be difficult to start.

9) You are dead tired. You feel weak and then you command your legs to be on auto pilot. You command your brain not to feel anything. Its windy and bloddy cold. After some point you stop acting brave. But then you find the peak and suddenly you actually feel proud of yourself.

Over the other days, several other thoughts cross your mind.You thank God for the experience.For the lovely time. For the games and laughter and non stop chit chatting around the camp fire. For the new friends. But one thought that never crosses your mind is regret. You never regret the decision of going to an amazingly beautiful place. At the end of it all, you only cherish the memories! :)

Dont be the best ...

There is a fight out there ... to be the best. In everything! Best student, best employee, best friend, best mother, best teacher --- Mediocricity is not the name of the game. Thats what my MBA instructor used to tell me. Everbody seems to be running towards the "Best Someone" trophy. A few grab it and rest are left behind. How much of life do we really experience in this race? A little breather may not really kill anyone. I was and maybe still a part of that race. But I am okay if I am not the best. I have mentioned this before. I wanted to come first in my class in school. I wanted to be a topper in college. Today, all of us are leading the same lives. I am doing pretty well for myself and seriously it probably does not matter that i never came first. Yes maybe if I had been an IIT or/and IIM passout, I may be drawing a bigger salary. But still I would have been going to the same 9-6 job, would have still waited for the weekends and cribbed on sunday evenings. I would have still worried about my taxes, complained about my manager, hung around with friends and longed to go home.

It is okay if you are not the best. People make mistakes. The topper was the topper because she made made lesser mistakes in her answer sheets than anybody else in the class. But you really dont learn anything if everything goes smoothly in life. What matters is that you give your best. What is really important that at the end of the day when you go to bed and analyse your day, you should not regret and say, "I didnt do that work properly because i felt lousy doing it!"

Take a chill pill! There is probably not much of a difference between the "best" and you.