It was a cold day in the month of December 2008 in Hyderabad. I was in
school, wearing my sweater, feeling the warmth of both my sweater and also the
warmth given by my teacher while she was explaining the internal components of the
sun. Beside me was a student who had transferred recently from another school who
had mixed feelings of nervousness, and excitement. I introduced myself and got to
know that her name was Haripriya. She told me that she had recently shifted to
Hyderabad due to her father’s transfer. She wanted previous class notes and started
copying them from my notebook. Then suddenly, *tringggg*, the school bell rang, the
teacher took attendance and left us to lunch. We went for lunch, and asked her to
join me. She had brought some parathas and curry, but due to the winters of
Hyderabad, it was edible but not hot. I told her that we can share my lunch as my
mom usually packs extra parathas that too in Freshwrapp. Then we had hot parathas
preserved by Freshwrapp and bonded over them and told her that you have a friend
in me.
It was a calm evening on 24th March 2016, I was watching the movie
Inception for the 3rd time in my hostel room, when suddenly my friend said that we’ll
go on a trek to Kumara Parvatha near Mangalore that weekend (26th March). I gave
a thumbs up and me and 5 others started planning about it. Kumara Parvatha is a
13km trek(one side) with 6km forest and 7km on a hill. I had never done even a
small hike and I took this as a challenge. We brought glucose, biscuits, water and
bananas and on the morning of the 26th we started the journey. We started with a lot
of enthusiasm and went along the route while taking selfies, making jokes, talking
with other hikers along the way. Then about halfway to the journey the gravity of an
uphill 13km started to creep in. Me and my friends started taking longer resting
breaks. I knew I had to motivate them and myself somehow. The challenges we
faced was both physical and mental. The fatigue, the stress, the constant sweating,
the pain in the legs all started to come along with mental challenges like the thought
of quitting it midway.
But, through constant motivations like, ‘you will get more than 100 likes on
your instagram if you take a photo at the top’, the feeling of accomplishment of doing
something difficult, the view one would miss if they hadn’t been to the top, the ‘Eye of
the Tiger’ music, the jokes and laughter etc., we had regained our lost focus and
kept moving forward. Finally through all these challenges we had reached the top,
and it was the greatest view I had ever seen in my life. It was like a sea of hills going
as far as the horizon and touching the sky. It is one of the views which stay in your
mind for a very long time. Our entire fatigue and stress got evaporated and we just
stared at the beautiful view without talking for a long time. Then our senses came
back, congratulated each other, took more than a 100 pictures and started the trek
downwards.
That journey made me and my friends realize that, life is always an uphill, you
would face many challenges but with perseverance, focus and determination, we can
accomplish anything and everything. Whenever I face a tough task I just remember
that trek and view and that motivates me that after the hardships the end would be
beautiful.