Jai mata di!

I went on a "pilgrimage" to Vaishno Devi (for the non-Indian folks, it's one of the holy spots up in the Himalayas in Kashmir) recently. Now while I'm not into all that religious stuff at all, I'm extremely receptive to the idea of trekking up/down mountains, so I agreed to go.

We flew to Jammu and then drove to this place, Katra, from where the route to the shrine begins. As it was, our group consisted of a bunch of seniors in their fifties and sixties, and not exactly jumping at the idea of doing the 13 km trek, so it was decided that we'd take the helicopter up to the mountain, from where it was a 2.5 km walk up to the top. My first time in a chopper, and I must admit there's quite nothing like the feeling of hovering a few thousand feet up. Definitely something worth experiencing at least once.

Anyway, so we flew up, and as luck would have it, clouds blew in and the chopper service was suspended for the day. We had to walk back down.

A little way on, it started pouring and we had to step under a canopy (you don't want to be wet and cold with 10 kms of slippery downhill road to go, trust me). That's when I saw him. A man, probably in his 30s or 40s, a leg missing and moving along by propping himself on a stick. No shirt, nothing on his feet, just a small bag slung across his shoulders. He kept repeating "jai mata di" as he slowly made his way up in the rain.

I've never felt so humbled in my life. This guy was making his way up a mountain driven solely by his faith. That encounter has affected my way of looking at life to some extent. I'm starting to believe it's very important to have something to hold on to in life. Not physical stuff, though even that helps sometimes, but something deeper. I'm having trouble explaining here. Maybe it'll require more digging within.

I hope that man's prayers get answered. He certainly deserves it more than I do.