16:02 hrs, 15,218 steps, 5.1km, Lobuje - Gorak Shep - EBC - Gorak Shep.
We just completed Everest Base Camp. It was amazing. Just ate Wai Wai for the nth time. Divya, Milan, doctor saab are next to me. The guy from Holland (whose sprain doc fixed) is across. So is Gyan - he's eating Wai Wai too. A couple of medical students from Virginia are also across on the other side. Am also sipping lemon tea for the nth time.
I started with a moderate back ache on my left side. I popped an Ibuprofen 250 and carried on. Amazingly, the pain vanished the minute I reached BC. I was really, really happy. Amit and I were playing the fool as we reached. He had eye issues and a head ache. As we reached, I disappeared on a whim. Skid down on the side to the river. The Sagarmatha? Source of all there is in the plains below? I touched a glacier - part of the Khumbu - I think I slid down one without realizing it. After paying my respects to the Sagarmatha, I felt like taking a dump and I did. I guess it's the highest point I ever did one (my record woah! :)). While trying to pull myself up, I slid down ice and hurt my right hand a bit. I put a quick band-aid and figured a way to pull up and join the group. There were some fun photos. Doc saab was maha excited - it was so nice to see him. I called, texted family, friends (phone worked!). Nana suggested that I meditate and I did for a few min. And we had to leave. The trek back was fast, full of energy. It was simply amazing. On the way, Milan, Divya and I were suddenly happy to be united.
*
I realize the same thing again and again every time am in the Himalayas. Just a little more every time. It does its life's work slowly and unhurriedly - yet with a rigid determination that's as hard as the mountains. It does its work methodically. And it does it again and again. Untiring. Uncaring. Unstopping. Because it does what it does, it sustains all life (quite literally) in the plains. The water I saw and touched today will reach the plains in the distant future and sustains life there. No one there will know it, realize it or give thought to it. And it doesn't matter. The Himalayas doesn't care. Going further back, Eurasia and India collided, created the Himalayas that change weather patterns and life around. Everything seems so, so small - so really small in front of it all. Yet everything matters and everything is so, so big - every life from the lady bug to the yellow flower to mine. Whatever's outside is inside. Whatever's inside is outside. Bliss.
We just completed Everest Base Camp. It was amazing. Just ate Wai Wai for the nth time. Divya, Milan, doctor saab are next to me. The guy from Holland (whose sprain doc fixed) is across. So is Gyan - he's eating Wai Wai too. A couple of medical students from Virginia are also across on the other side. Am also sipping lemon tea for the nth time.
I started with a moderate back ache on my left side. I popped an Ibuprofen 250 and carried on. Amazingly, the pain vanished the minute I reached BC. I was really, really happy. Amit and I were playing the fool as we reached. He had eye issues and a head ache. As we reached, I disappeared on a whim. Skid down on the side to the river. The Sagarmatha? Source of all there is in the plains below? I touched a glacier - part of the Khumbu - I think I slid down one without realizing it. After paying my respects to the Sagarmatha, I felt like taking a dump and I did. I guess it's the highest point I ever did one (my record woah! :)). While trying to pull myself up, I slid down ice and hurt my right hand a bit. I put a quick band-aid and figured a way to pull up and join the group. There were some fun photos. Doc saab was maha excited - it was so nice to see him. I called, texted family, friends (phone worked!). Nana suggested that I meditate and I did for a few min. And we had to leave. The trek back was fast, full of energy. It was simply amazing. On the way, Milan, Divya and I were suddenly happy to be united.
*
I realize the same thing again and again every time am in the Himalayas. Just a little more every time. It does its life's work slowly and unhurriedly - yet with a rigid determination that's as hard as the mountains. It does its work methodically. And it does it again and again. Untiring. Uncaring. Unstopping. Because it does what it does, it sustains all life (quite literally) in the plains. The water I saw and touched today will reach the plains in the distant future and sustains life there. No one there will know it, realize it or give thought to it. And it doesn't matter. The Himalayas doesn't care. Going further back, Eurasia and India collided, created the Himalayas that change weather patterns and life around. Everything seems so, so small - so really small in front of it all. Yet everything matters and everything is so, so big - every life from the lady bug to the yellow flower to mine. Whatever's outside is inside. Whatever's inside is outside. Bliss.
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