What was ‘my shortest trip to the farthest place’ left me with the thought, ‘that’s one small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind’. Honestly, I hadn’t put Darjeeling on my ‘I better go there before I die’ list but I didn’t know the trip would lead me to a reflection of this depth. It’s not just nature’s beauty and form which is so mesmerizing, but how nature has endowed humans with a ‘curiosity’ enough to goad us to take formidable tasks, especially those which can defy the very creation of nature itself: the survival instinct. Read a random website that said, around 2,200 people have made it up the Everest, and another 200 have perished with this drive to reach the height.
Two thoughts keep me in awe, one is the ‘small step’, that people can live (and be ready to die) to climb something so majestic and tyrannical at the same time, knowing (and even not knowing) what actually beholds the great climb. Second, the gift of nature…no not the mountains…but how nature has given ‘mankind’ this crazy feeling to explore the unknown, ask questions, take risks, challenge our own selves and it is this curiosity and this thirst for knowledge which drives us farther than we have ever known we can go, just to go even farther than we will ever know. It is this determination and perseverance that makes us humans as great as those splendid mountains. And I must admit, no matter how selfish the act may seem (to some), it has often led to achievements for humanity as a whole. Somewhere, I still don’t feel that people who climb the Everest and the Kangchenjunga are selfish (for name)…I think its solely a reflection of the drive nature has endowed us with…some people are driven to climb mountains…others are driven to make better instruments or medicines, others are dedicated to create something new or endlessly express through an artistic medium. I feel that everyone has something that gives them the drive and determination to persevere against all odds. Sadly, most people don’t get the opportunities to realize it, or are content without wanting to realize it and yet there is a huge chunk which is merely lazy! I only feel bad for the last category!
All risk is worth taking for the will to know. When the plane flew adjacent to the Himalayan range, I laughed thinking that, what’s unnatural in not fearing death (or accepting it) in front of the CURIOSITY to reach the peak of those royal mountains? Yes, my curiosity isn’t enough to lead me there…but I can feel the pulse of those who put their life knowing they may not return, just for the sake of curiosity. I mean you got to die someday, why not die doing what you love? This isn’t about the first mountaineering expeditions; it’s about all the human endeavors made in the search for knowledge…what is really out there! So many explorers have set sail just trying to map the world…and that’s another thing that fascinates me. I couldn’t take my eyes off the houses beside the hills…how did someone just start constructing them? Someone really had the will to connect the hills and build roads to connect them, no matter how far and how high…the determination is commendable. Well, we are a luckier generation that with advanced science and more personal income, we can do a lot more. A lot more not just for that whacky drive that stimulates action for self satisfaction, but also for greater good.
Now the other thoughts…I didn’t know the history of Darjeeling till I reached there and sat reading (though it was hard because the drive was so beautiful and I had to keep my eyes there too)…and as usual, it added more and more questions to my question bank! I can only ponder, not resolve these. So some people (who spoke English) tried their best (or someone’s best) to carve out states in our country, based on what I correctly read in sociology, ‘linguistic’ lines. Trust me, no one can satisfactorily address questions of language and culture. It’s so complex….you could go to the moon and climb millions of mountains and dive dozens of seas figuring out answers to questions related to ‘nature’, but nothing is as complex as what human beings have created, ‘culture’. So I don’t know. I don’t know how pervasive the cultural diffusion between the Nepalis, the Tibetans, the British, the Bengalis (if so), and others has been. I don’t know how the influence of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity figures in creating harmony and differences. I don’t know why we accept the ignorance of local knowledge in some contexts, while express exuberance for the exotic in others- its funny how the Chomolungma/Sagarmatha just enveloped into the Everest, and paradoxically Wai-Wai wielded westwards! How much will we continue to allow ethnicity to maintain status quo? I don’t know if statehood really translates into autonomy? I don’t know if statehood has anything to do with culture. I don’t know how to understand being displaced from your country and living between the ideals of ahimsa and revolution. I don’t know how it feels to politically pendulum between the mainstream and retain your roots.
It really was ‘my shortest trip to the farthest place’, but it left me with more questions than my so many other trips, much longer and deeper. I have to say I went with the excitement to taste the Thukpa on the roadside (which obviously how could I miss)…coz ‘if you shall not eat as ‘in Rome’ when you travel, then you shall not travel’… but it didn’t last long when I read the endeavors of human curiosity to climb the mountains in the lap of the esoteric political histories which have shaped culture as it exists today.
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