Mountains O’ Mountains

Dear Himalayas,

Greetings of the day to you, whether you are the lofty Greater Himalayas, the enchanting Middle Himalayas (Himachal) or the mud and pebble laden Lesser Himalayas (Shiwaliks).

You see, the biggest regret of my life till date is not exploring your mesmerizing valleys, climbing your challenging peaks and relishing the sense of achievement that comes with such experiences. Well yes, I can count the number of treks that I have been to in your bastion, but there remain hundreds of places untouched by my eyes and unexplored by me feet .
And just a week from now on, I am supposed to visit your area once again but hell no, life always has to be tricky for me.

You know, these ankles of mine have lately started misbehaving. And by misbehaving, I mean an extreme case of naughtiness and disobedience.

My orthopaedist says a usual case of calcium and Vitamin D deficiency because you know, physically I’m a woman even though I try to think and reason out like a man sometimes. But yes, sometimes I do behave like a woman and hence these rants!

Back to the case of being a woman and suffering from deficiencies even though I drink two glasses of milk a day and can’t keep my hungry tongue away from the silky texture of home made yoghurt. (My mom will viciously disagree about two glasses because of those lactose intolerant specific days).

And to add insult to these deficiencies (pun intended), I used to run with the shoe laces tied around my ankles. My orthopaedist said no wonder Shreya madam, no wonder.

So after two months of abstinence from trekking, running and travelling, popping a host of medicines and being thrust with injections in my derriere for the past four weeks, I thought I had finally recuperated. I could climb the stairs of my office again with no taunts from happy colleagues in the lift. I could run again and shed that extra flab I had graciously gained around my waist. My left ankle was raring to trek your trails again.

I could wear my favourite heels again and when I did, I fell down because I had forgotten that my ankles were still unstable.

My right ankle gave a wink to my left ankle.

And there went my plans of doing a trek of 9km, wandering a tea garden like a Yash Chopra muse and wearing my pretty pink trekking shoes again to spoilt waters.

But above all, I’m wondering when will I inhale the air that wanders around you and get to see your beauty again. I wish to be as strong as you are but sometimes I overstress myself and shit happens.

My life is short and I can not stand at one place for the whole day and that too for years unlike you.

This ankle pain has literally been a pain in whatever portion of my original ass I’m left with. I have never been so inactive and I hate this helplessness.

Meanwhile, my parents are laughing at my belief in the impossible feat of getting my right ankle back on track within the next four days. My orthopaedist was pretty strict today considering he had given me a go ahead last week.

So Thursday is the day when the fate of our next meeting will be decided.

This letter mentioned my womanly rants (no offense to any lady, but let us learn to laugh at ourselves) more than my love for you and your children. But my child like heart yearns to savour the fresh aroma of mountain soil, the coniferous and the sweet rhododendrons.

I desperately want to meet you, more desperately than my future mother-in-law. Wink wink.

Regards
Shreya Srivastava

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