Gar Firdaus Bar-ru-e-Zamin Ast, Hamin Ast, Hamin Ast Hamin Ast

(Written in 2011)

It was about an hour before the dawn. At 1700 meters (5500 feet) above sea level, it’s quite cold, though in late May, compared to the summer heat of Indian plains. At this small village of Gaurikund, in Rudraprayag district of Uttaranchal, the day has already started. This is a narrow strip of land beside the river Mandakini. About 30 to 40 meters wide. At one side, the mountain standing like a wall, at another side of this channel, the river is roaring. It is hardly 25 meters wide here. At the other bank of the river, another mountain is standing. No other way to go. At one end of this narrow channel, the motor-able road has ended. No cars can go northward from here.

One can reach Haridwar at plain land through this road at the opposite direction, which is around 235 kilometers away in south west. The same road narrowed down here, since there is not enough space. It becomes a walk-able ally, paved with rough stones. Houses made of wood and sometimes rugged concrete and bricks stood both sides of this road for about 700 meters. That is Gaurikund. Around 90% of the houses are either Dharamshalas or hotels. Don’t even think about any star rated hotels or air-conditioned facility with western type sanitation. Gaurikund is India’s very own. Everything here is so much Indian. One of the holiest shrines of the Hindus, is only 14 kilometers away from this place. The devotion, spirituality, the faith do not care about anything from this point. At the time of Mahabharata, the Pandavas along with Draupadi went to haven through this place. Shankaracharya came here, and died around 1300 years ago. Very little has changed since then.  At this early hour, there are so many people around. Tea stalls are already open with lots of smoke. The devotees will start walking from here, for the last 14 kilometers, to Kedarnath. By these 14 kilometers, they have to climb at an elevation of 3600 meters. Along with the tea, you can get the traditional breakfast at North India, puri – sabzi, and surprisingly, Maggie, perhaps the most famous instant noodles in India, may be the mark of a change here.

The stones of the narrow road are slippery with the dew. Walking at this early hour require a lot of attention. Otherwise one may end up with a few broken bones, if not more. The trek to Kedarnath will take approximately 8 to 10 hours, depending upon the speed of the climber. But one should not hurry at all. “Hurry” at this height and terrain, can be fatal. The expert climber, climbs very slowly, by keeping the energy saved as much as they can. People have already started walking. No need to get confused about which way to go. There is a feeble off-white track, like a scratch over the lush green mountains. That is the road. The only road to move forward.  The pilgrims just need to follow it. At one side of it, standing the mighty Himalaya. At other side, the right side of the road, it is the deep pit of around 500 to 1000 meters. And at the bottom, it is the river Mandakini flowing towards south. The mountains around, are lush green. The woods and plants are alpine in nature. During the winter, these places will be covered under snow. People started walking. Many of them are with sticks. These sticks are available on rent of Rs.5. When you come back, you return the stick, and get back Rs.2. But there are other options available rather than walking. Lots of ponies and mules are available. The operators, the horsemen are largely not from this area. If anybody can take a look at their faces, can identify them as Gorkha and Kumayoni, not Garhwali. They can be easily identified by their mongoloid features. There are some other horsemen too, with straight nose without a ridge. Long eyes and fair skinned. They are almost all Muslims by religion and their Hindi accent is somehow similar to the Kashmiris. But Kashmir is far from this place.

The horse ride to Kedarnath can be extremely painful, if anybody is not familiar with the horse riding. The horsemen will not go with the horse to Kedarnath. They will help the pilgrims to ride on the horseback, and then an expert slap at the back of the horse. The poor animal will start walking immediately, and will stop only at Kedarnath. The riders will get angry over it, will be frightened, even will take a vow that this is the last time they are riding a horse, since the animal will always follow the wrong side of the road, towards the pit, and will always follow the obstacles in the road which are most difficult to cross.  Sometimes it will not even walk straight. But will move diagonally, with respect to the direction of its face. The whole trek, till Kedarnath is always full of three sounds, the roar of the river Mandakini, the high pitch chants like  “Byom Byom Bhole” and ” Jay baba Kedarnath” and the screams of helpless women over the horsebacks. Their male companions left them with the horse and choose to walk themselves, since a horse ride for one person, one way will costs around Rs.400. Other options to go to Kedarnath, runs using raw manpower. One of them is Dandi or Doli. A chair, fitted with two wooden logs to carry it.  One can seat in the chair, and four men will carry them. The four men, called “Qahar” in local dialect (“Behara” in Bengali), always take steps in rhythm. I was just looking at them. Particularly, when taking a turn, while climbing, it it very difficult, and all the steps and movement of these 4 men, should be perfectly synchronized. And believe it, they are always perfect. Another way to reach Kedarnath is through Kandi. It is a round shaped basket, made of cane or bamboo slits. One seats inside that basket and the basket then hanged from a bamboo or wood. One career person takes this in his shoulder, and walk. This, may be, the most primitive form of using human muscle power. One can only hope, one day, this scene will not be seen anymore.

 As there are some changes took place in last few hundred years in this region, like the availability of instant noodle, now, a helicopter service has started a few kilometer south of Gaurikund to Kedarnath. In just a few minutes, the pilgrims can reach near the shrine. But, with the comfort, there attached a cost of a few thousand rupees per head. It is still dark, visibility is low, but there is no fog at all. It is a clear morning. Moving head to right, which is the east, one can see the sky is slowly glowing over the mountain tops. Pilgrims are walking slowly, some of them are bargaining with the horsemen or the Dandi-walhas, the tingling sound of the small bells, knotted with the crest of every horse. The knocking sound of hooves over the stone making this early hour of the day amazing, sometimes it feels, this is far away from our known world. No sound of petrol or diesel engines or honking or any other types of mechanical sound from the world we know. It’s totally different from modern urban India. The tea stall owners, the famous “chaye-walhas” are calling pilgrims for a morning tea. The tea is much thicker with milk and enriched with cardamom. The aroma of “Masala Chaye”, the smell of smoke from the stalls, scent of fresh flowers, odor of cow and horse dung and the beautiful aroma of “Agarbattis”, the aromatic smoking sticks, is making the atmosphere incomparable to anywhere else. Almost every place in India, specifically the holy places, has a smell of its own. The smell you get at Daswasyamedh Ghat at Varanasi, or the smell you get at Thirupathi at Andhrapradesh is different and very own to these places. Like them Gaurikund has its specific smell too.

At the beginning of the journey, it’s not very stiff climb. But as one gets nearer to Kedarnath, the road becomes tougher and much stiffer. While walking, one can get thirsty very soon. If you have a flask full of tea, it’s better to drink that instead of water. The road to Kedarnath, paved with rough chunks of stones all through. There are some places, where the authorities, tried to put a steel fence. But in most of the spaces, they have already disappeared. There are places beside the road; where there are some small stalls. But the road is just a narrow passage, and there is not much places to build a stall everywhere. Sometimes, small mountain streams are flowing over the road. The water of these streams is freezing cold.

After a few kilometers of trek, one will definitely get tired. And the more fatigue he or she will feel, the road will become more and more stiff, and that is the challenge here. Halfway to Kedarnath, at a distance of 7 Kilometer, a small “chati” (temporary small village over the mountain, where people take rest and sometimes halt at night) is there called Ramwara. One can take some rest here, and have some snacks and tea. The age old tea stalls can offer rice curry, roti or puri sabzi and India’s favorite snack, the instant noodles. The tea, much sweeter than the plain land, gives instant energy. But the pilgrims do not have the liberty to spend more time here. If they do that, then the fatigue spread to the mind, and ultimately, it will be either too late to reach Kedarnath, or it will harm the mental strength of the pilgrim. This strength is the key to climb at this height rather than the physical strength. The woods have vanished before Ramwara. At this altitude, only some bushes and grass can grow. No big trees around. Down below the pit, the river is flowing. The water looks like milk, because of the bubbles in the water. After one leave Ramwara, can see the mountain pick of Kedarnath. The pick looks shinning white with snow. It’s hard to stare at it for long time, the eye may not see other things properly due to the temporary blindness caused by the glitter. The sky here is deep blue in colour. One may refer the colour as royal blue instead of much familiar sky blue that we use to see in plains. 

For more than fifteen hundred years, Kedarnath is attracting people from all over India. Nowadays, anybody can notice, a significant number of foreign travelers visiting it. But what is the factor that is driving people for so long time? Religious factor is one of the driving factors that is for sure. But that is not all. There are so many people visit Kedarnath each year, who are not religious and not even believe in the existence of an almighty god. And there are more religious people who never been to Kedar than who visited the place. It is not only a pilgrimage. Kedarnath is a place, where a person can taste adventure, natural beauty, a true Indian culture and above all, spirituality. Yes, that is the word that can define Kedarnath. Spirituality is not about being religious. Spirituality is relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. It evolves inside of a human being as a feeling. And sometimes this feeling gives intense joy and happiness, which is not related to anything materialistic. 

When started the journey, people were talking to each other, laughing and some enthusiasts were frequently chanting as “Jay Baba Kedarnath”. But after a few hard hours, fatigue has started to take its toll. Everybody is now silent and tired. Serenity and devotion are the forces that driving everybody rather than physical strength. The Kedar peak is mesmerizing all. At this altitude, the air is much thinner. One can feel the problem while breathing. After facing so much of suffering, Kedarnath is just a few steps away. The goal is to reach there. At this place, within this atmosphere, environment and natural beauty, no one will ever notice the physical pain and any other kind of sufferings. The mind will feel the tranquility, the joy that cannot be compared with anything else. The inner most part of our mind will say, “Gar Firdaus Bar-ru-e-Zamin Ast, Hamin Ast, Hamin Ast Hamin Ast” (If there is heaven on earth anywhere, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here).