Sunday, May 24, 2015

The Lady with Grit

Being a government clerk for all of her life in a bank,its hard to take on an adventure trip.To take your body out of comfort zone and push yourself(specially the weight including the rucksack) everyday,is not easy..
Last year in may, i took part in  youth hostel's Chanderkhani pass trekking programme exactly at the same time. We were group of sixty people from all ages and different walks of life.
I was there with two of my best friends,abhishek nathany and my camera .
After two days of acclimatization in Seobagh base camp we headed towards our first destination malana village.
On third day, we started our trekking around 9 am and while all were in hurry, me and my friend was in complete lazy mood, in fact we were last. After two hours of trekking we saw this lady,sitting on ground totally exhausted and high on breathe. a potter was there to help her and also carrying her rucksack. we also helped her and motivated a bit to move forward and she asked us to stay with her during the trekking. Though it made us slow but we happily accepted to help her only because we need a reason to be behind all of them, lazy and enjoying the nature. After taking fifteen,twenty steps she used to take rest and then start again in quite depressing mood. By looking on her condition we thought she can't make the whole track and may return from the first or second camp. but if she complete the whole track it will be a great achievement for her. its a wonderful idea to capture her journey through photographs and make a wonderful series on it. so we tracked her everyday ,took pictures of her without letting her know. Sometimes she carried her rucksack on her own and sometimes she gave it to the potters. Though the cool breeze of Himalayas and the peaceful environment itself was working great to heal anything in our bodies. Everyday as we were climbing up she was looking more tough,more agile and finally she did it.
 Here is her whole journey through photographs which depicts her mental states in different times. She struggled a lot to reach till the summit and when returning she fell down miserably but all good when your finish the task.
Overall it was an experience of lifetime and i always miss the moments there.

















As i look back,we are all lives in the same mental state,initially afraid and full of self doubts but it all about consistent efforts which brings out the best within.