Skip to main content

Gomukh and all


When I took up my present job in Delhi at the age of 41, leaving my previous job in a romantic place like Shillong, what I really wanted was a nice place to live and enough money too.  It didn’t take me much time to find the present place and job which fulfilled both conditions.  An excellent campus (a school) with more greenery than most schools in Delhi can afford. 
What Providence (I am an agnostic, please) gave me was better than what I had expected.  A green campus, enough place to move around even in the kitchen of the accommodation that was provided, and – best of all – a cool environment all along the scooter ride from where the city ends (Chattarpur).  I used to love those scooter rides.  Even my wife did!
That was 11 years ago.  Today, I wouldn’t like to go out of the campus.  The moment I step out it’s the devil of a dust that greets me anywhere.  Gone are the days of a nice environment.  The environment has been killed.  The marble industry took over the road from Chattarpur to Fatehpur Beri.  Industrialists of other hues too grew in stature – by-products.  Too many cars ply on the road now.  For the sake of those cars the roads are constantly under repair.  Dust is a by-product and it does not affect those who sit in air-conditioned cars.
The area is becoming DEVELOPED. That’s important.  Development is important.  Otherwise the government will fall.
Where do I go from development?
I am going to the Himalayas.  No, I’m not going to ascend Mount Everest at this age.  Nor am I going to become some Nirmal Swami. 
I am going to Gomukh (13,200 ft).  For a trek with a few of my students.  Granted by my school.  As a gift for my services.
The next blog will be after I return (rejuvenated) from Gomukh.

Comments

  1. SidSeptember 30, 2012 at 2:31 PM

    I have been to Gomukh . Thats because its enroute to the Shivalinga peak. The best part is that even if you manage to get a dip in the bone-chilling glacier at Gomukh, you wont fall sick probably because the microorganisms cant live at such high altitudes. But the locals have even attached some story with it.
    I am happy for you. The trek especially from Bhojbasa to Gomukh is very scenic. Though sir, I should warn you that rain might play spoil sport and make the way slippery.

    Enjoy sir!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AditiSeptember 30, 2012 at 3:06 PM

    All the best, Matheikal. I am sure that you will enjoy the trek,though I understand that Gomukh itself has become a disappointment and it is hard to believe that it could be the source of Ganga.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AmitAagSeptember 30, 2012 at 5:35 PM

    Bon Voyage Matheikal! I second Aditi as a good number of my friends have been to Gomukh and I hear it from them too. Nevertheless, compared to dusty hot plains it sure will be a heaven! Enjoy the divine mother nature:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. D.NambiarOctober 1, 2012 at 1:15 AM

    Have a great trip. I look forward to hearing about the trek.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Deepa GopalOctober 1, 2012 at 2:22 PM

    Wish you a fab and safe trip:)

    ReplyDelete
  6. mandakolathurOctober 3, 2012 at 4:09 PM

    Now, I am sure to get a poetic description of the last 18 or so kilometers. I, along with my wife, went up to Gangotri but could not muster up the courage to go up to Gomukh though we had planned for it.

    Now I will know what I missed.

    RE

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Break Your Barriers

  Guest Post Break Your Barriers : 10 Strategic Career Essentials to Grow in Value by Anu Sunil  A Review by Jose D. Maliekal SDB Anu Sunil’s Break Your Barriers is a refreshing guide for anyone seeking growth in life and work. It blends career strategy, personal philosophy, and practical management insights into a resource that speaks to educators, HR professionals, and leaders across both faith-based and secular settings. Having spent nearly four decades teaching philosophy and shaping human resources in Catholic seminaries, I found the book deeply enriching. Its central message is clear: most limitations are self-imposed, and imagination is the key to breaking through them. As the author reminds us, “The only limit to your success is your imagination.” The book’s strength lies in its transdisciplinary approach. It treats careers not just as jobs but as vocations, rooted in the dignity of labour and human development. Themes such as empathy, self-mastery, ethical le...
3 comments
Read more

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl
47 comments
Read more

Mahatma Ayyankali’s Relevance Today

About a year before he left for Chicago (1893), Swami Vivekananda visited Kerala and described the state (then Travancore-Cochin-Malabar princely states) as a “lunatic asylum.” The spiritual philosopher was shocked by the brutality of the caste system that was in practice in the region. The peasant caste of Pulayas , for example, had to keep a distance of 90 feet from Brahmins and 64 feet from Nairs. The low caste people were denied most human rights. They could not access education, enter temple premises, or buy essentials from markets. They were not even considered as humans. Ayyankali (1863-1941) was a Pulaya leader who emerged to confront the situation. I just finished reading a biography of his in Malayalam and was highly impressed by the contributions of the great man who came to be known in Kerala as the Mahatma of the Dalits . What prompted me to order a copy of the biography was an article I read in a Malayalam periodical last week. The article described how Ayyankali...
14 comments
Read more

The Irony of Hindutva in Nagaland

“But we hear you take heads up there.” “Oh, yes, we do,” he replied, and seizing a boy by the head, gave us in a quite harmless way an object-lesson how they did it.” The above conversation took place between Mary Mead Clark, an American missionary in British India, and a Naga tribesman, and is quoted in Clark’s book, A Corner in India (1907). Nagaland is a tiny state in the Northeast of India: just twice the size of the Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh. In that little corner of India live people belonging to 16 (if not more) distinct tribes who speak more than 30 dialects. These tribes “defy a common nomenclature,” writes Hokishe Sema, former chief minister of the state, in his book, Emergence of Nagaland . Each tribe is quite unique as far as culture and social setups are concerned. Even in physique and appearance, they vary significantly. The Nagas don’t like the common label given to them by outsiders, according to Sema. Nagaland is only 0.5% of India in area. T...
13 comments
Read more

Rushing for Blessings

Pilgrims at Sabarimala Millions of devotees are praying in India’s temples every day. The rush increases year after year and becomes stampedes occasionally. Something similar is happening in the religious places of other faiths too: Christianity and Islam, particularly. It appears that Indians are becoming more and more religious or spiritual. Are they really? If all this religious faith is genuine, why do crimes keep increasing at an incredible rate? Why do people hate each other more and more? Isn’t something wrong seriously? This is the pilgrimage season in Kerala’s Sabarimala temple. Pilgrims are forced to leave the temple without getting a darshan (spiritual view) of the deity due to the rush. Kerala High Court has capped the permitted number of pilgrims there at 75,000 a day. Looking at the serpentine queues of devotees in scanty clothing under the hot sun of Kerala, one would think that India is becoming a land of ascetics and renouncers. If religion were a vaccine agains...
8 comments
Read more