AFVOA Newletter August 2020

Section 5 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2020 Page 165 of 237 the treacherous trek to the shrine. Nevertheless, our excitement took over and we planned to have an early start the next day. We spent the night preparing for the journey, starting first, with whom else but our langar commander! He made and packed lunches of poori – aloo sabzi for the entire group, a few others had filled water bottles, and a small team was tasked with the most important items – the tea rations, which included a stove carried by one person, a barthan by another, and matchboxes, candles, tea leaves, tea strainer, milk tin, sugar, etc. distributed to the others for careful storing and carrying. We were all set now for our journey the next day! At 0300 hours we had a head count with briefing, and began our adventure to Amarnath. The moon was the only source of light as we began the march towards the shrine. It was a long arduous trek and the weather was humid which made it twice as difficult. The first halt happened around 0600 hours. A headcount was quickly taken and 5 fellows were found missing! It seemed they had given up and decided to head back. The second halt was at 1000 hours and now there were 12 heads missing! The third halt was at lunch time and we were down by another 5. Not to be daunted, the rest of us marched on enthusiastically. Just before the shrine, we had to cross a convention point of a river and a 100-foot solid ice glacier. It was indeed a chilling trek in more ways than one, as one wrong foot would get us a direct darshan of our Maker instead of being merely content with a shrine. And that too after an excruciatingly painful dive into the Indus river gorge below! At that point, we also met a couple from Coimbatore. Unaware of the harsh weather, the gentleman was wearing a dhoti and the lady a silk saree with slippers, and both were finding it extremely difficult to walk. The group, reduced to 18 now but with a couple alongside, reached the foothills of the cave. We removed our footwear, entered the shrine and had a quick darshan of Shiva, Parvati and Ganesha in all their frozen glory. We forgot our every aching muscle and straining breath, and simply marvelled in the majesty of the Divine. A