WhiteMagic Adventure Blog
When Things Don't Go As Planned By Vandana Trivedi
When Things Don't Go As Planned By Vandana Trivedi
While there are many blogs which talk about the trials and tribulations one encounters on a summited and completed trek, I don't know if there are many out there which talk about treks which don't go according to plan. If you do end up being part of such a trek, you should gear yourself to understand these unplanned experiences but moreover embrace the outcomes bestowed on to you by Mother Nature. 
I happened to be on one such trek, where nothing really went as per plan. This post is not really about elaborating the planned schedule vs what actually happen. This is about the human responses to expect when you are a part of a group that is on a trek that doesn’t go according to plans. 
It was my first trek, I landed in Ladakh wanting to go back home. It was the first time I was going to be away from my family, away from my work and my clients for such a long time. It was the first time I wouldn’t have my mobile phone to stay connected. "Staying connected” is a farce, but then I only realized what “staying connected” truly meant much later on the trip. 
From wanting to unwind the trekking plans, to grudgingly setting off on day one, it was a hesitant initiation into the days ahead. Camping out for a first timer comes with challenges of its own, mostly in the mind. 
And then, as you leave the last traces of civilization behind, the tranquility of the nature overtakes your senses. It is like a meditative trance that you are pulled into, sometimes so surprisingly fast that you are in a bit of a shock, at your own quick transition from clinging on to the world as you have built around you to surrendering to the world that was always yours to adopt. 
You soak in, you scramble up hills, you trudge along paths, you meditate, you reflect, you huff and puff, you amble along. You are one with the flowing streams, the milky waterfalls, the refreshingly blue skies, the pleasingly green pastures, and you want to just carry on, not break this soul stirring experience, not succumb to the aches of the body, not allow the peace to be disturbed, the flow to be broken. Mother Nature has her ways, has her messaging. There are occasions when the most well planned treks may just have to be reworked, modified or plain aborted. It comes as an unbelievable disappointment. Sometimes the disappointment is manifested as intolerance, intolerance to everyone around you. One starts questioning if there was enough done to save the trek, if there was enough attempted to salvage the trail. Questions that need to be asked, as much they need to be answered. And sometimes the disappointment manifests as a shell within which one just withdraws, quiet, upset and deeply let down. It requires a certain amount of respect to Nature, to be able to understand her ways. It requires a certain amount of inner peace to appreciate the raging elements outside. It requires a certain amount of humaneness to empathise with each others feelings. It requires a certain amount of good fortune to be spiritually awakened amidst the unpredictability of the day ahead. And most importantly, it requires a certain amount of large heartedness to make the most of every minute that you spend out in the lap of nature, whether its for a day, a few days, a few hours or a few moments. Sometimes a fleeting moment may leave a memory of a lifetime. One just has to feel it from within. One just has to keep the door and window to the soul a little ajar, to let the feeling creep in, and before you know, it just envelopes you, leaving you healed and reborn.
P.S.: I thank Sanjeev at White Magic for making me feel that way, for helping create a complete experience out of a truncated trek. Sanjeev has his ways, sometimes clear, sometimes puzzling, but all the time aiming to make you better than what you were when you began the trek. For a beginner, as well as for repeat trekkers (as validated by a few people in my group), he added value, on our techniques, and refused to take the easy way out. He refused to lend a hand on a tricky descent, he rather spent a longer time teaching the right way to land your foot safely on a descent. A longer time on the trail would have been enriching, but then Nature has her ways, and there is always the next time. And I encourage all nature lovers and adventure seekers to truly leave behind the baggage, and soak in. After all, what the next step in the trek unfolds is Nature’s way, and it is Nature’s way to shed the irrelevant and embrace the grandeur, however short or long the experience may have been for.