Reunion

We had a week time with us before parting our ways again. It was Dashami’s night when our sloshed minds planned a sudden trip to Manali. We were grown up enough that we didn’t let this plan cancel by our parents’ pressure. We made our tickets, luggage’s and other stuffs ready within the next 48 hours of the plan.

It was 5 in the morning when we left our home for the trip. Everyone among us had the Yeh Jawaani Hai deewani feeling. Our flight was in time but we were running late yet somehow managed to reach the airport in time. We seated in our seats with our enthusiastic souls that we tamed within our ribcages. The excitement we had in us was beyond explanation. A week ahead of us with treks, camping, adventures, vacations and most importantly with friends. It was the dream we were fulfilling at our twenties that we dreamt when we were twelve. And then finally the flight took off our trip began with ten smiling faces.

We arrived at Kullu having a different level of joy. Therefrom we took a train to Kasol where we had our first night stay, so we couldn’t waste any second more and had to hurry. We distributed ourselves into two groups, the boys arranged for a little food and car to take us to the station while we girls collected the baggage’s. We didn’t expect such mature content from the guys, they managed to take care of us with each of our favourite snacks. The train journey was about 4 hours and it was already 4 in the evening. Our tired legs needed rest and our body need sleep but the comedians in our group didn’t let our batteries die, they charged it up by their silly and double meaning jokes and kept us on power saving modes.

Reaching the inn was the best part of the day until we hopped into our beds with our tired souls. We had two rooms, each one for boys and girls. It was already cold and the temperature decreased to 11 degrees. Aritra bought life to the dinner with his bottle of Oak smith he bought all the way and we dozed off to sleep after a while.

With the rising sun, rose our adventurous week. Our safari took us to a greater altitude. The curvy way up the mountains among the snow and therefrom our trek started. The low-lying lands between snowy mountains awaited us. We reached there about one in the afternoon. ‘Are we going to camp here?’ Remarked Esha while stepping down from the jeep looking around the scenic view. A long ‘Yes’ exclaimed Sreeja. The next two hours we spent assembling us and our belongings then constructing our tents. Half and hour and we were dead tired, thanks to the boys who took over the task ad let us rest peacefully, yet rest didn’t mean relaxing we prepared the campfire and our dinners. It was already evening when the boys finished up the tents and came down to rest. We were shivering with cold and them, roaming around with barely a shirt. ‘You will catch cold wear a jacket atleast’ said Esha to Adi but his savage reply made us all laugh. He said,’ I am too hot that even princess cold cannot catch me’, Srinjoy started roasting Adi and it continued. The campfire burnt in between and we sat encompassing it. Opposite to me sat Pragya with the bag of Sparkling water bottles and Aritra beside her both starting to prepare together. Koushiki and Esha made videoes of us and this trip, little vlogs. Sreeja and Kinjan together roasted me. And I laughed shamelessly. We looked up and found the heavenly bodies casting their twinkling light on us and as far as we could see. Our five tents placed in a circular way and we sat with our bonfire in between. Behind us laid the Large Peaks of the ranges some snow covered shining under the moonlight. Agnik switched on our Bluetooth speaker that froze and we danced to some good tunes until we were unaware of the time.

We got into our tents at 4 in the morning after watching sunrise and then after sleeping for two hours we headed for our climb up the mountains. The trek guide introduced us to another group of seven members. Half way up the Alps and our legs started to freeze. ‘is it a long way from now?’cried Sreeja. ‘ you can sit down alone at the camp if you want to’ teased Adi. We began our climb again. The hike was fun and adventurous we. At the farthest sight our eyes visualised hues of blue, green, white, brown among nature. We were already 3000ft above the sea level and climbing yet more. The snow covered paths gave us more enthusiasm and energy to climb more up. All of us knew by hook or by crook we had to reach the summit. ‘ I feel like Bunny from YJHD’ exclaimed Adi from above we ignored as usual. The inclined surface with a rucksack on our backs weighing more than 20kgs made our backs ache at a point of time. The climate decreasing to 0 degrees and less as we went up froze our souls. The guide and the boys halted for a while reaching before us. I panted and looked for a place to rest my tired ass and to my astonishment I found Aritra gulping his favourite drink raw. Adi, Agnik Kinjan Srinjoy stood around him waiting for their turn like a thirsty traveller seeks for water Admist the desert. The girls too joined, I thought of joining too being left alone. Two sips down my food pipe and I started feeling warm after resuming the trek. We had still a long way to go before dark.

We reached the summit at sunset. The breath taking view gave us goosebumps. The snowy peaks were covered with red and orange hues shining brightly, the clouds floated from above and through them as if we could touch them, the blue hued mountains stood pridely between them. We planed a red flag with our names written on it with a marker on the snow, leaving our presence there. All eleven of us stood at the edge of the mountain, held each others and promised to meet once in a year with the setting sun. We experienced goosebumps as we stood among the majestic peaks. We never saw this day coming.This friendship of more than twenty years, coming home this year, this unplanned trek, this climb was worth it all. Lastly, we wanted to experience the heavenly milky way galaxy with our naked eyes, so we went in search for it at night. We walked a long way hunting for it, we could barely see the stars due to the clouds. Esha and Koushiki almost lost hope, Pragya and Sreeja sat being tired. Me and Adi continued to stroll. When we both also lost hope and was about to head back to our tents, Kinjan came to us with the light of hope. ‘ the clouds are clearing due north if we walk more 5 kms it will be worth it. Lets go’. We started walking and after about half an hour of struggling in the snowy paths the clouds finally disappeared above us. I fell on my knees staring at the sky, it was not just a night sky. It was the milky way galaxy. Some of us broke into tears. Cold breeze blowing past us in the dark and the ten of us laid on the snow with a burning flame in our hands stargazing at the night sky. We laid there talking deep and enjoying the view above us. we knew this time wasn’t coming in another seven births and lived the moment to the fullest, forgetting all our worries, sadness, problems and issues. The next morning we had to come down, this time we were going down with ten hearts and minds full of everlasting memories.

The trek was over with the blink of an eye and we were coming home the next day. Homecoming was sad, leaving the mountains was sad most importantly seeing my friends for the last time until next year maybe was the saddest part. None of us knew when we were gonna meet each other the next time. When we were gonna sit together laugh our hearts out. We sat together in the compartments while our journey back. While I was filing my album with the best photos of the trip, Adi snatched the album from my hands and with great excitement showed it to everyone. He thought there would be something that could embarrass me but he was wrong. Infact after turning each page he stood rejoicing it. The album had our photos since 2007 when we were two years old. 18 years and 18 billion memories, captured in it.