A chill runs through my body, crossing my spine, and within touching distance of my brain. I can only feel the cold water massaging my bruises, playfully interacting with platelets busy constructing a clot. I can sense a relieving burn crawl over my scratches, and it is extremely refreshing. Suddenly all the tiredness faces an existential threat. I feel a rush of energy pass through my body. Water can do that to you. Chilled water can do it better. A super chilled waterfall after an injury-laden trek tops it all. It can pump life in you within seconds and make you feel alive.
A couple of hours back…
Ah, the beautiful landscapes around Kemmangundi (Karnataka), and the soothing winds blowing on this hilltop. Why should we leave all this and go for a trek? Down-treks are easier these guys tell me. I have never been a trekking person – up or down – nothing excites me. I am just going on this one to keep my friends happy. I have been told about this particularly scenic Hebbe falls some 8-10 Kms down the trek. Waterfall!!! So much pain and trouble just to see a waterfall. I am not the kind of person who would trade relaxation for effort on a holiday. Or maybe I am?
We start the trek as a cheerful, semi-drunk, happy high sort of a group. Few beers had been gulped with an afternoon barbecue featuring my Ajwain Flavored Paneer Tikkas, but it’s the sights and sounds around which have made me high, or so I think. As with most treks in India, this one starts as a dusty and dry trail. Being a down trek we had already started slipping and losing control over the trek.
A few minutes into the trek and I start laughing rather unsympathetically over a friend slipping. Before I realize I trip and start rolling down the hill. A chill runs through my body, full of fear, of injury, or even death, and I close my eyes. Darkness. Till Infinity.
As I open my eyes caught in a thorny shrub, with distant voices of my friends falling on ears and prickly and intense pain running through my body I realize it isn’t that bad. My friends come rushing on and apply their healing dosage of Water, Antiseptic, and a healthy serving of trekking gyaan.
Right now I feel terrible. Ashamed. Dead-like. Tired. Fail. Stupid. Maybe a mix of everything.
And a few moments back…
I am slowly realizing the extent of damage- a number of scratches, a couple of cuts on knees and elbows, and countless small bruises all over my body. But somehow I know I am walking towards something special. I don’t know what it is, but the afternoon heat metamorphosing to the pre-evening chill, and the dusty lanes transforming to Hulk-Green surroundings are giving me signs of things to come. All of a sudden through those green leaves I spot Hebbe Falls. I can smell the wet scent of earth, and hear the profound sounds of a waterfall. I had lost sense of all my senses sometime back. But as I stand in front of the waterfall, I have regained them, feeling every bit of the waterfall. I throw my bag and jump in.
beingdesh 
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