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Shampa Ghosh
An experience with a Natural Extravaganza'
September 14, 1989, at about 05:00 hrs, we were standing and shivering at Zero Point' when there was very little clairty all around. The name 'Zero Point' very rightly describes the position. It is at an abrupt end of a very narrow ridge, whose three sides slope down with a very steep gradient into the valley. Straight in front of us was the Chhanguch Peak bathed in milk white snow and standing above her attentant peaks Nandakhat, Panwalidwar and Baljouri on the left, whose foot being separated from our ridge by River Pindari, which is more a trickle of water than a river. In between Chhanguch and Nandakhat crawled up the Pindari Glacier capped above by Trail's Pass.
It was most probably a few minutes past five The Sun God was rising behind Chhanguch that had a halo around its peak and streaks of rays struck the tip of Baljouri first and created a dazzling saffron effect which gradually changed colour and size with the tick of very second. Few minutes elapsed and Baljouri was a proud onwer of a resplendent golden crown. Next was Panwalidwar and ultimately Nandakhat had the identical effect. Finally all the three peaks glared at us as if molten gold was being poured on them, which slowly and proportionately engulfed the respective peaks. It was a drama and the most dramatic part was that the sun was not yet in sight. This drama or a drastically dramatic change every minute, as
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one may like to emphasize, proves rightly Shakespeare's saying, "this world is a stage". Ofcourse the very next line says, "where every man has got a part to play and mine is a sad one," and out here, right now it was Sun God's and Nature God's role and theirs is a spiritually spectacular and stupendous one. All of us stood dumb - I felt breathless, may be skipped a beat, the shiver in the cold did not have any effect, eyes were wide open without a single flip - the surrounding was incredibly pretty and Nature played havoc with colours the mountain tops were the play grounds - they were being bathed with golden, saffron, red, white, yellow, pink colours which were changing now and then like a chameleon. All were quite and the term 'noise' was applicable to the trickle of the River Pindari, the fiercely blowing cold wind, clicking of cameras and at times of sudden sigh due to haevy breath. Right at the end of the ridge, on which we were standing was a board with the inscription, "Zero Point...aagae khatra hai" and two small triangular saffron flags were fluttering wildly whispering messages of peace into the serene wilderness. On the whole it was an inexpressible perception. To believe it or to sense the magnificiant touch, the tenderness, the emotion, one has to confront the very environment. Photographs and mere words are never sufficient enough to depict the Divine display.
On my return to this more materialistic world, I automatically recall the words of Eric Shipton - "He is lucky who, in full tide of life, has experienced a measure of the active environment that he most desires. In these days of upheaval and violent change when the basic values of today are in vain and shattered dreams of tomorrow, there is much to be said for a philosophy which aims at a full life while the opportunity offers. These are few treasures of more lasting worth than the experience of a way of life that is in itself more satisfying. Such, after all, are the only possessions of which no fate, no cosmic catastrophe can deprive us; nothing can alter the fact if for one moment in eternity we have really lived."
With this lifetime experience of mine I would tell everyone "go out on the Himalaya and listen. You will hear much. The wind will hold for you something more than sound, the streams will not be merely babbling of hurrying water. The trees and flowers are not so separate from you as they are at other times, but very near; the same substance, the same song binds you to them. Alone amidst Nature, a person learns to be one with all and all with one."
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