Once upon a time when I dared

by Sayali S (India)

I didn't expect to find India

I am going to start my essay with the most cliché beginning ever: this trip changed my life, but I think every single trip in your life takes you to someplace you have never been before, changes the way you think, you act. It opens up your mind. And there I stop my cliché introduction. Because this trip was nothing like this. This trip was like a daring act for me. And I am going to write about how proud I am of myself for having done this trek for the next 700 words. I had not been trekking or travelling for leisure for over 2 years, all thanks to my studies. So last summer, I worked relentlessly for two months, saved up the summer job salary and found a suitable weekend overnight trek nearby. Over the course of the week leading to the day of the trip, my anticipation of finally going back to the mountains rose high up the neck and settled only when I finally reached the base village on the evening of the trek. The trek was up the rugged mountains of Sahyadri in Maharashtra, to the fort Rajmachi. Monsoon was around the corner and all the greenery at Lonavla station alone calmed me, and fuelled me for the journey ahead. This is where I met with the team. After a round of introductions, we got in the vans that drove us to the village. At around 8 pm, we started ascending in the pitch dark wilderness, only trusting our perked-up senses and fellow strangers. One hour into the climb and lo and behold, we are welcomed into the muddy, slippery, thick and damp darkness by a colony of fireflies! Apparently it was the mating season for the soft-bodied, bioluminescent bugs, hence they were all out in the open, flying around. There was a sudden hustle among all 30 of us to catch a close look at every single bug, practically enveloping us with that little glimmer, as it would streak past us. The shine of stars above and the shine of the bugs around us was enough light to finally reach the landing on the top of the mountain, that we touched around midnight. We had a quick dinner with heavy sighs and aching limbs. But the thought of finding more fireflies(as us city birds would seldom see one ever), we walked down to a nearby pond that reminded me of a Van Gogh quote: the sight of stars makes me dream! I refuse to believe that the starry sky above, its reflection in the placid lake below and all those fireflies around us was not me dreaming. But then again, it might have been real as I criminally lack imagination. We walked back to our accommodation and soon, almost everyone was asleep. But I couldn't possibly shake that beautiful sight aside and sleep, and so went out in the courtyard where some of us were still awake, talking, and the next thing I knew, I had joined those complete strangers for night full of loud laughter, lots of playing card games and teasing and talking till the break of dawn. All through the night, we all were certain that our odd group, including a banker, a teacher, a university student, a mother would never meet each other ever again. But we'd all dared that night and climbed together up to a mountain that felt so close to the sky that night(mostly because it was full clouds due to the oncoming monsoon, however, we chose to believe otherwise), and felt an understandable warm solidarity for each other. Next morning, enticed by the beautiful weather, we decided we wanted to walk up to the nearby fort- Shrivardhan- and thus the party proceeded at 6:30 in the morning, passing around inside jokes and high-fives like long lost friends. We were back just in time for breakfast and those sleeping last night were now awake and all ready to leave. During the journey back home, I couldn't stop smiling, remembering that I dared that summer to go on the trip and stay up all night and make friends, and feel so alive in those few hours. Mission accomplished!