Nanda Devi by Sandeep Madadi: An Excerpt
A couple of months later, on a cold, wet winter morning, I was sitting edgily in our battered four-by-four, waiting for the road blockade to clear in the landslide zone of Badrinath. Our adventure had seemed jinxed right from the start – by bad weather. Our high spirits were damped by the gloomy weather that set in the moment we arrived at Haridwar. Clouds hung around for the better part of the day while showers popped up from time to time all along our journey to Joshimath which was along the banks of the five prayags – the sacred confluences of the river Alakananda. Heavy rainfall triggered deadly landslides, blocking our path time and again. Our lives were perilously balanced between the river or a gorge on one side and a rock face on the other. At the last fading light, we found a non-descript hotel to spend the night just ahead of Karnaprayag. To start very early in the morning to make up for the lost time was our resolution for the day. The new morning dawned brightly and everything went well, until this blockade. As our agonizing wait continued, it did cross my mind that if we had overslept a little, we wouldn’t have been sitting here.
But if it makes one wonder, what the hell this Kafir (unbeliever) was doing on this Hindu pilgrim trail, stranded along with scores of pilgrims returning from the sacred shrine of Badrinath. We took a detour from Joshimath to Badrinath, partly because we had a rest day before our trek, which we felt could be utilized to explore Badrinath. Well, that was what I told my friends before making this last-minute change in our itinerary. But in reality, I tricked my over-protective father that I was going on a pilgrimage to Badrinath. As a good, God-fearing Hindu, how could he deny his son’s path to salvation? He did not know that it was one more lie on my path to hell.
The shrine at Badrinath, with its brightly painted facades, looked more like a Buddhist monastery. It took another ‘Chipko Andolan’ kind of protest in the 1970s led by the environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt to resist the unsolicited generosity of a large corporate house that tried to construct high scaled concrete walls, enveloping the sanctum sanctorum. Sanity prevailed in the end and this pahadi style heritage monument was saved from becoming yet another ‘Birla’ mandir.
It is the spiritual presence of the Himalayas, which adds to the aura of these shrines. Pilgrims hardly venture beyond Badrinath, but I was far more interested in the throne room of gods (Himalayas) than the gods themselves. For centuries, ascetics found refuge in those caves amidst high-snow peaks and performed penance to please the gods. ‘Follow the faith regardless of wherever it leads’ is their motto. If legends are to be believed, once Pandavasknew their hour had come they renounced all their worldly possessions and tread this path to heaven. Why perform years of penance when you can reach for heaven? Some ascetics must have felt the same who ventured as far as the Swargarohini icefall, never to return. Those poor souls would have been in for a rude shock when thundering avalanches poured from Chaukhambacarrying them to heaven or hell, unlike Yudhisthir (the eldest of Pandavas) who was escorted to heaven by the chariots of Indra. As much as I would have liked to stray away from the pilgrim crowd and take a dip in the glacial waters of Satopant Tal (lake) nestled in the lap of majestic Chaukhamba, we were woefully short of time. To be honest, a full-blown high-altitude trek like that would have certainly taken the wind out of our sails. The steep trail of the Sanctuary, which we hoped to hit the next day, demanded fresh knees and I was sure that we were going to need every bit of energy we had in store. People say that seven steps leading to heaven (tread by Pandavas) are visible from the lake. Hopefully, that’s going to be another story for another day. I hope the lake is as blue as it has been in my dreams. Someday, I shall find out; when I get there. I hope.
It was high time; so we left the pilgrim trail. With each passing hour, our hopes of reaching the base camp ‘Lata’ began to fade. Men and machinery from BRO were waiting, but before they could step in to clear debris and boulders, a fresh landslide would occur, shooting stones onto the highway. After an eternal wait of six hours, it was such a relief to see the road clearance work begin and in no time, we could see the vehicle moving ahead.
Two vehicles were allowed to cross the landslide zone, one after the other, while the rest of us anxiously waited for our turn. Suddenly we saw a huge boulder rolling down, which would have crashed the car if the driver had not applied brakes. ‘That’s it. We are done for the day,’ I said to myself, resigned to our fate, but the road was still wide enough to let the car pass once the boulder settled on the highway. Soon it was our turn. We were holding our breath, peeking out of our car window, hoping to outrun the cascade of rubble, if any, descending our way. With his foot flat down on the accelerator, our skilful driver screeched round the hairpin bends, just scraping through the landslide zone of ‘Lambagad’ before the inevitable happened, blocking the highway for the day.
I was glad that we were not sold down the river by ‘Baba Badri Vishal’, the presiding deity of Badrinath. But I was still a tad disappointed with him, for not letting us get a glimpse of ‘Nilkantha’ which was hidden behind the clouds; another stunningly beautiful 6500 meters Garhwal Himalayan peak towering over the temple town. According to the folklore, earlier, there was no such mountain and a path connected the two great Hindu shrines of Badrinath and Kedarnath by which the same priest would perform daily rituals in both the temples. This continued until one day, angered by the sins of the priest, Lord Shiva stood in the form of a mountain, blocking the path.
We survived the scare of landslide and were on our way to Lata, en route Joshimath. Maybe, we had just passed the first litmus test posed by Nanda Devi.
Published with permission from Rumour Books India
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