'I could feel the baggage I carried become lighter with every step I took and every gust of wind blown.'

Contributor: Ambesh Singh

"To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life."

The reflections on the journey of so many people I grew so close to, in the 3 days, haven't really left me with much to say but I'll still try to pen down my thoughts. 

I came to the Padh-Yatra with my motive. It was a selfish but genuine one. I just wanted to be with myself and let nature do its magic on me in the brief interval I was there. That was probably why many of you mentioned that I was really silent on the yatra. But I think even the little I talked to you guys helped me along in my thoughts. After all, aren't we all as much a part of nature as the mountains are?

Cervantes rightly said that the journey is better than the destination and it was very evident on our yatra. The times when we wandered without any purpose just looking to absorb as much as we could from the mountain air around us was probably the best time for me. The barefoot walks took me closer to my roots, the times sitting in solitude staring in the beauty of the hills, sharing my secrets with the valley which gave me a starry sky to sleep under and the long walk on the leaves with just my thoughts helped me become a humbler person and have a clearer head. I could feel the baggage I carried into the journey become lighter with every step I took and every gust of wind blown.

So here's a thank you note. Thank you to the mountains and thank you to the grass. A thank you to the millions of stars we slept under. A thank you to the path paved by us and by hundreds of strangers who traveled the same road. And of course, a thank you to the strangers I met on the bus stand and became one with, as I understood myself better in the arms of mother nature.