Reclaiming Connect with Nature: Ayan's Reflection from Padh Yatra

       Contributor: S.R Ayan

Its 10am in the morning, I could hear horns brazing, people shouting and running helter-skelter for their daily wages, invisible black dust deposits filling into my nostrils and my perspiring skin longing for some coolness in the air. Fast forward to 10pm in the night, I could hear the grasshoppers singing, the shoes rumbling against the ground, silence and calmness around and cool air flowing through my skin. This difference sums up my experience at this year’s Padh Yatra.

Padh Yatra (Walking pilgrimage) is organized yearly by the wonderful team of Youth Alliance to assist the participants reclaim their connect with the nature, to provide them the reflective space to reunite with their inner selves and bring about the much needed pause from their daily hectic lives. This was my second Padh Yatra with them and Oh boy!!it was exhilarating.

Padh Yatra never seems to be as simple as it sounds i.e. you dont just carry a backpack and start walking amidst the forests, the Universe seems to bring about its challenges whenever the Yatra begins, atleast for me. The journey from Mumbai to Kasara started with a challenge, the entire team reached Kasara at the specified time but for me - I missed a couple of direct trains, did all sorts of jugaad and reached 2 hours late making people wait but on the brighter side, helping them experience the local Kasara station life.

After a 2-2.5hr drive over some patchy roads, we reached Hotel Sandhan in Ratanwadi village where we freshened up, recharged our batteries and geared up for the night. Just around the sunset, we formed our circle sharing our reflections and saw one of the best sights ever…the rising of the moon over the hill. Then it began, my first night trek, we walked..climbed..exhausted ourselves and finally reached the top at Ratanghad after a long long 3.5 hours beautifully led by Siddhant and Vaibhav. The journey began at around 10pm and we reached around 1.30am.

I underestimated the rigour of the trek and physically my body gave up at a lot of places and after about 3000 feet, my mental strength and the group around me especially Rishabh pushed me one step at a time. Rishabh with his humility and entrepreneurial attitude was remitting intellectual vibes during the entire trek, he was one of the very few who had a brilliant combination of both mental and physical strength to endure the journey. We reached the base of the summit with great exhaustion, quickly rolled out the tents, pitched them and went into a deep slumber only to be woken up early to see this….

If the ascent in the night was a challenge, we had another thing coming during the descent. In all my trekking/mountaineering/rock climbing experience, I always knew that climbing down a hill/mountain is more challenging than climbing up the same across all types of terrains. After our customary group pic at the summit, our local guide started cooking breakfast for us promptly assisted by Anirudh who had an ineffable energy within him to keep the group and the guides moving with relative optimism. His thoughts and discussions did distract many of us away from our physical pains.

The descent began and we started taking a lot more breaks than required due to the overarching sun above our heads draining our bodies. Vani displayed the true form of grit as she battled ankle sprains and bruises to nudge along without any assistance. Riya with her benevolent nature and her delightful banter with Vani provided some soothing relief and distraction from our painful limbs. Heat has a funny way to react on humans and due to this, tempers were running high closer to the end of our journey.

Shivangi twisted her leg, bore the maximum brunt of the heat and pushed every single inch of her physical strength with her indomitable spirit and “I am just joking” remarks. We finally made it to the village and pitched our tents on the banks of the river flowing near the Bhandardhara dam. There was freshness in the air, calmness in the mind and a sense of achievement within all of us. I missed out on songs, talks and a lot of fun in the evening on the river banks due to my physical exhaustion.

The next day, we went towards the entrance of the Sandhan valley, heard the stories of its magnificence, embraced its richness and absorbed its beauty. I had some deep reflective discussions with Rachit who lead the entire team with his calm vigor. He ensured the well-being of every single person in the group, did not lose his calm or patience even during challenging times.

I have always preferred Padh Yatra over any other form of trek/expedition because of the sense of belonging that we get from the team and the nature in the Yatra that they chose to go with. Yes, this was another challenging experience like the previous one but this is something that we can overcome in presence of the natural spectacles. We come with the sense of being large in our everyday lives but here in the grandeur of wilderness is where we understand that we are nothing but mere spectacles in our gargantuan surroundings. Although the group helped each other, it in fact was the magnificence of the nature around that kept us in awe and propelled us to reach our destinations in quietude.

A big shoutout to Siddhant and Vaibhav from Marvel Adventures team for being super cooperative and understanding during the entire Yatra. Thanks for the stupendous life skills.

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