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

Pranita a perverted genius

Bulldozer begins its work at Sawan Pranita was a perverted genius. She had Machiavelli’s brain, Octavian’s relentlessness, and Levin’s intellectual calibre. She could have worked wonders if she wanted. She could have created a beautiful world around her. She had the potential. Yet she chose to be a ruthless exterminator. She came to Sawan Public School just to kill it. A religious cult called Radha Soami Satsang Beas [RSSB] had taken over the school from its owner who had never visited the school for over 20 years. This owner, a prominent entrepreneur with a gargantuan ego, had come to the conclusion that the morality of the school’s staff was deviating from the wavelengths determined by him. Moreover, his one foot was inching towards the grave. I was also told that there were some domestic noises which were grating against his patriarchal sensibilities. One holy solution for all these was to hand over the school and its enormous campus (nearly 20 acres of land on the outskirts
9 comments
Read more

Machiavelli the Reverend

Let us go today , you and I, through certain miasmic streets. Nothing will be quite clear along our way because this journey is through some delusions and illusions. You will meet people wearing holy robes and talking about morality and virtues. Some of them will claim to be god’s men and some will make taller claims. Some of them are just amorphous. Invisible. But omnipotent. You can feel their power around you. On you. Oppressing you. Stifling you. Reverend Machiavelli is one such oppressive power. You will meet Franz Kafka somewhere along the way. Joseph K’s ghost will pass by. Remember Joseph K who was arrested one fine morning for a crime that nobody knew anything about? Neither Joseph nor the men who arrest him know why Joseph K is arrested. The power that keeps Joseph K under arrest is invisible. He cannot get answers to his valid questions from the visible agents of that power. He cannot explain himself to that power. Finally, he is taken to a quarry outside the town wher
19 comments
Read more

Levin the good shepherd

AI-generated image The lost sheep and its redeemer form a pet motif in Christianity. Jesus portrayed himself as a good shepherd many times. He said that the good shepherd will leave his 99 sheep in order to bring the lost sheep back to the fold. When he finds the lost sheep, the shepherd is happier about that one sheep than about the 99, Jesus claimed. He was speaking metaphorically. The lost sheep is the sinner in Jesus’ parable. Sin is a departure from the ‘right’ way. Angels raise a toast in heaven whenever a sinner returns to the ‘right’ path [Luke 15:10]. A lot of Catholic priests I know carry some sort of a Redeemer complex in their souls. They love the sinner so much that they cannot rest until they make the angels of God run for their cups of joy. I have also been fortunate to have one such priest-friend whom I shall call Levin in this post. He has befriended me right from the year 1976 when I was a blundering adolescent and he was just one year older than me. He possesse
8 comments
Read more

Kailasnath the Paradox

AI-generated illustration It wasn’t easy to discern whether he was a friend or merely an amused onlooker. He was my colleague at the college, though from another department. When my life had entered a slippery slope because of certain unresolved psychological problems, he didn’t choose to shun me as most others did. However, when he did condescend to join me in the college canteen sipping tea and smoking a cigarette, I wasn’t ever sure whether he was befriending me or mocking me. Kailasnath was a bundle of paradoxes. He appeared to be an alpha male, so self-assured and lord of all that he surveyed. Yet if you cared to observe deeply, you would find too many chinks in his armour. Beneath all those domineering words and gestures lay ample signs of frailty. The tall, elegantly slim and precisely erect stature would draw anyone’s attention quickly. Kailasnath was always attractively dressed though never unduly stylish. Everything about him exuded an air of chic confidence. But the wa
9 comments
Read more

Nakulan the Outcast

Nakulan was one of the many tenants of Hevendrea . A professor in the botany department of the North Eastern Hill University, he was a very lovable person. Some sense of inferiority complex that came from his caste status made him scoff the very idea of his lovability. He lived with his wife and three children in one of Heavendrea’s many cottages. When he wanted to have a drink, he would walk over to my hut. We sipped our whiskies and discussed Shillong’s intriguing politics or something of the sort while my cassette player crooned gently in the background. Nakulan was more than ten years my senior by age. He taught a subject which had never aroused my interest at any stage of my life. It made no difference to me whether a leaf was pinnately compound or palmately compound. You don’t need to know about anther and stigma in order to understand a flower. My friend Levin would have ascribed my lack of interest in Nakulan’s subject to my egomania. I always thought that Nakulan lived
16 comments
Read more