Endurance

How far would you go?
How much pain are you willing to take?
How much suffering are you willing to endure?

What are exactly, your limits?

These were the questions put up by my chum, he has this fervor for expediting.
I don’t know. I will probably never know, I can only believe.

Then I went on this hike, we never decided to get lost, but it nonetheless happened. I didn’t volunteer to find those limits, I didn’t go in for the struggle, I did this for the cerebral activity that travel brings along.

We found ourselves lost with not enough water for 6 hours and it became a grueling fight for survival.

We didn’t plan that much to save ourselves, just the basics, reach the top of the hill and allow us to be found. Drink the smallest amount of water possible and pray.

It was during this time, I realized my ‘inner voice’, it wasn’t a sound or a dialogue, it was pictures, me planting that beast of a tent, at a place where I’m above the city I started from. Of course, all of this happening after we were safe and thirst being taken care of.

It was this feeling with the image that I was chasing, the view from the top, surreal and calm.

“A bit more far than here, some more pain than I’m already in, the suffering isn’t that huge and I can’t really afford to care about those limits.” – I felt gravity in my chest.

That’s what I think got me through.
This is me being rescued from the pain of hiking 8 more kms after dusk, 14kms done after dawn and also, it’s what really got me through.

I did get to see that view next morning when I unzipped my tent.

#Safarnama

 

7 Responses

  1. Amazing and beautifully described. That memories got revived again, the kind of situation you were in, struggling for survival and survived, and the way you explained, It’s amazing. Keep it up!

  2. Amazing and beautifully described. That memories got revived again, the kind of situation you were in, struggling for survival and survived, and the way you explained, for all that

Leave a Reply