I went trekking in west Sikkim right after my JEE MAINS result came out in the month of June,2013. Although I had qualified for JEE Advanced, I didn't cancel my trip and I don't regret that.
It was my first trip without my family and I was acquainted with only two people out of the 18 members in our team. The trip didn’t start off as smoothly as I had expected. We didn't have confirmed seats, so we had to travel all the way to NJP sitting beside the train lavatory. We started our trek from Hilley and that was the last place where we had electricity and proper sanitary facilities. We had to stay in tents and sleeping bags were our only saviours from that cold weather. There was no network coverage so we couldn't even contact our family for more than three days. We assisted in cooking and serving food in that chilly rainy weather. Though I was feeling home-sick, it was fun helping people whom I barely knew for 2-3days.
The chirping of the birds and the splendid scenery acted as a motivation for us to keep going as it was an exhausting walk with a 15 kg rucksack, in the rain and through dense forests. We also had to drink water from the flowing streams. The journey became worse when we reached Sukhapokhri.
We had just taken a lunch break when suddenly I found a leech on my hand. After a brief moment, I found another inside my trekking shoe. I got a little scared but I had to continue as there was no way I could run back home. That day when I was having my dinner, I saw something fall on my plate from the top of my tent. When I pointed my torch at it, to my horror, I realized it was a leech and I start panicking. On that night, I slept in my sleeping bag after spreading salt inside it and covering my ears and nose with cotton.
I think that was the worst portion of that trip. When we reached the topmost point of our trek, Singalila Pass, we found a temple of Lord Shiva. When we rang the bell the sound echoed all over the hills and that was mesmerising. I felt an inexplicable rush of joy.
After that we started to descend and we reached Phalut where there was a trekkers' hut. There we got electricity after almost four days. The weather had become clear by then and we witnessed the beauty of nature. We got a clear view of the Kanchenjunga range and in that moment I forgot everything bad that had happened in that trip.
The best gift of that tour was the village Gorkhey. Not only for its scenic beauty, but also because of the warm welcome we had got there. We were complete strangers to them but they treated us like their own family. They did not possess the luxuries of urban life but they were smiling as if they had everything. I feel they are the richest as they have the ability to love each and everyone, even people whom they’ve never known.
Obviously, I did not qualify the JEE Advanced exam but I learnt a lot of valuable lessons from that trip. I learnt how to help each other selflessly, how to overcome fear and most importantly how to love people unconditionally.