Prashant

The rains were round the corner and since long we had not been to our sojourns. We had postponed the trips for last couple of months due to expected new arrival in my family and as soon as he was at home and started settling down, I thought of venturing out once again.

चलो पहाड़ बुला रहा है।

यहाँ पग प्रयाण को तत्पर
वहाँ खड़ा वो दुर्गम भूधर
चुनौती दे क्या चिढ़ा रहा है?
चलो पहाड़ बुला रहा है।

छोटे-लंबे कदम बढाकर
पादप-पाहन पे धूल उडाकर
पहुँचना जहाँ वो श्रृंग खड़ा है
देखें हम हैं या तुंग बड़ा है

उत्थान-अवसान की राहें लेते
कभी चट्टान को गलबाहे दैतै

बस एक बात ही सुनते जाना
चलो पहाड़ बुला रहा है।

Today, as the Indian Cricket team was writing history by defeating Australia in third test in a row, some changes were happening in my life too. Something very pleasant.

विहगम, विहसते व्योन पे
चमकते चाँद के चरण-तल
तिल की तरह का तारा
कि
कहा नभ ने, लगा काजल की कोर
हनु पे स्मितप्रभ शिशु को,
"हाय! नज़र ना लगे किसी की नेरे शशि को!"

Two hectic months went by and no trekking could be planned. The last one anyway had gone flat. So we planned once again.

It was after a break of 3 weeks that we got together to scale another height - only to find that half of the team was not available. But the enthusiasts persisted and we went ahead with our planning. Couple of guys chose to sleep with their phones switched off and the number plummeted even further.

The two neighbors seldom have things going in tandem. I am talking about us and our neighbor country, Pakistan. However there has been some degree of similarity on both sides of the border lately.