Trek and Fear

Another adventure awaited us, this time we would conquer Hadsar and Bhairavgad and our fear of tigers. We did a little bit of research of our own to prepare ourselves, as well as have a small narrative of what we were gonna truly face over there. But as luck had it even Google could not find out enough information about Hudsar and that really worried but anyways, the plan was now set in motion but not on the time that we had even eventually planned on.

Ahhh why can't we control time? Wouldn't that be wonderful!!!! 

Cursing our punctuatily, we eventually reached the village that was at the starting point of the treak and served as our base camp where we parked our bikes at one of the villager's home who was also kind enough to guide us with the routes we were supposed to take.. Now we had 2 options in front of us the first one was the Khutiche Marg that took 30 mins to reach the fort and the other Mahadvar Marg which obviously took a lot more time as compared to its counterpart. We were also instructed to reach the fort before it gets dark, we already started late plus sun was near the horizon who clearly racing against us to see if it sets down or we the fort first. To add to our misery this Khutiche Marg had a twist and it was that we had to use a stairway with ropes and rods that aid us to climb it. Generally, I would have been excited but we were racing against time as things can get nasty after dark... If a Locale advises you on something, you should definitely pay heed to it.

We were hurrying to reach the fort in between we met a villager who is going back to the village and instills the worst fear you can have in a jungle that is "There might be tigers up ahead. Be careful!". Now this simple yet horrific sentence sent shivers down our spine, we were shaken for a minute but started to reconsider our options. Should we back trek down to the village and be called cowards or we finish the trail we had started. Never ever call a man a coward that we fuel him with such instincts that he would try to imagine how he would take down a tiger who suddenly leapt in front of him. We did exactly that for a few minutes but we started fighting along the way, blaming each other for being late and the typical "Tu-Tu Mai-mai" in the dark. We were scared and literally used to clench our fists when we would hear the winds rustling against the leaves, surely thinking it was a tiger and we have to face it now but alas to our disappointment it had to be the wind messing with us. Time is an important metric. 

I learnt that the hard way on that day and I swore a promise to never get late again for a treak at least but as we say "Promises are meant to be broken". We completed our trek and reached the outskirts of the fort. We were advised to take refuge for the night in the temple that was inside the fort and we would explore the fort tomorrow as it was too dark to see anything anyway. As soon as I stroked the rod on the ground for a better grip to climb, the ground beneath me shook, the boulder snapped out of its place revealing heaps of red ants pouring out of it. We had our fair share spine chilling adventure and we were in no mood for another for one so we decide to go to the fort tomorrow morning and set up tent for the night. We merrily set up a tent for the night without having a single clue about how big of a nightmare the oncoming night would be for us.... See if you sow a fear in a person's mind it would definitely wreak havoc on him until and unless he decides to face it but this wasn't the case here, I was dealing with my mind who used to convince me that the shadow falling on our tent was of a tiger and not of the tree who were dancing with the wind. The wind was the real culprit here, once it blew so hard that our whole tent was shook and my soul creeped out. Thinking it was a tiger, I venture out of the tent to investigate it but still no signs of tiger anywhere, except its fear in my mind. We decided to stop venturing outside the tent at any cost as it might be unsafe and suddenly we started hearing hymns and bhajans coming from the village below us. The sound was faint at first but it slowly grew as the night grew till the point where we could hear it perfectly. This was the best thing that happened that night as the hymns soothed us. We became relaxed and didn't even know when we fell asleep. That night I truly understood the power in God's name. The rest of the trip however was not as much as spine chilling as the night was but it was adventurous to explore Hadsar and Bhairavgad and continued to complete our trek without any more fights!! 

Note: Take the Mahadvar Marg on the way down as it is not advisable to take the "Kutiche Marg".

Now I truly believe that ‘’ victory is beyond fear’’….
To be honest I don’t know if there is a victory or not but this trek definitely made me fearless for lifelong now.