The day was Saturday and I had plans for first night trek with my group ‘Parvatarohi’. It was a long weekend so we had the luxury of an extra day with us to rest before the hectic office schedule. This trek was to ‘Kalwantin Durg’ in Panvel range of Maharashtra. It is one among 350 other forts in Maharashtra with a medium level of difficulty at around 2500 ft height.
The trek, unlike previous ones, started on time. We gathered at the starting point and the guide gave us some instructions to follow. Thereafter, the group of 35 got divided into smaller chunks due to varying speed of members. It was getting warmer while ascending as there was no breeze. But to our respite, a cool breeze started blowing and ascending became a lot easier. We stopped occasionally to capture some pictures and take rest. Soon, we were at the base village, our first destination and the stop for the night. We gathered our breath and started freshening up for the dinner. I was having dinner cooked on Chullah after a very long time and it was delicious.
After the dinner, it was the time for light walk, photography and playing pranks. While walking out of the hut, I noticed a sight that was full of innocence. There were two three kids of the locals who came out of the hut to play as there were too many of us in that small hut. While we were told to be very careful as there were scorpions and other nocturnal insects, they were running bare-footed without the fear of any shattered glass pieces or night insects. They were just running around in their own world.
While seeing them, something struck my mind. I started thinking about the past one year of hard work that I had put in for getting into some top B-school. While walking down the memory lane, the end goal, that I perceived to be true, was getting more and more blur. There was not even an iota of doubt regarding the worth of the amount of time and money spent but, I couldn’t figure out where it landed me in my life.
All I wanted ever was to be unique, dream chaser and rich. How could I be unique if I was just following the plethora of people getting frustrated in the first two years of career after college and looking to get out of there as soon as possible? How could I be a dream-chaser if I quit the dream of a venture that I built when it wasn’t getting instant success? Or, what benefit of being rich when I can’t even take out time to meet parents or go out on weekends with my friends? All these questions started buzzing around my head. I needed to lay down low and analyze everything and I did so. I moved away from the group and lie down with my eyes looking towards the clear sky lit with a full moon.
In that moment of meditation, I realized that I was just too serious. I made it a matter of life and death and started feeling like that there’s nothing to life beyond a b-school. The job could have been very much easier, if not doable, had I taken it just like any routine task. Rather than moving with the crowd, I could have diverted all my effort to my venture and persevered with it. A little music started playing in my head and it was Bob Marley’s “Get up, stand up; don’t give up the fight!”. I opened up my eyes to realize that I had fallen asleep and the guide was there to give a wakeup call.
I realized that when you look closer, you actually start losing sight of the bigger picture. The view of kids playing tension-free on that beautiful fool moon night, surely made an impact on me and only time will tell if it lasts for long or not.