Kedarnath Diaries 2019 : The Old Bridge @ Rambada

 

It was 9:30 am on 16-August-2019 and we had been able to cover just 2.5 kms after walking for more than 1 and half hours from Gaurikund when we had to take shelter at a tent built by the authorities.

The steep terrain combined with the heavy rains brought doubts in our minds about the prospects of reaching Kedarnath that day before the temple was to be closed for Darshan. 

Once the weather got a bit better,Vivek,the senior most member of our gang made the conscious decision of taking a horse for the remaining 15-16 kms till Kedarnath. Being an expert in trekking for last 25 years or more, he was the best judge about his abilities in that situation. The 4 younger chaps: Aditya,Naveen,Sudesh and Pavan decided to continue on foot along with our driver Sonu and so did our leader Sarath, a 6 feet 5 inch tall young man in his early 30s who had been to Kedarnath twice, in 2017 and again in 2018.

It was me who was in a dilemma for a while before I could make up my mind to take a horse too as I had enjoyed travelling with Vivek to some of the finest places in India between 2016 to 2018 and wanted to travel along with him again.

As the weather got better, we crossed places named 'Jungle Chatti' and 'Bhimbali'.

Just after Bhimbali, my heartbeats knew no limits when I saw a sign board. We were less than 2 kms away from a place called 'Rambada' which was known for destruction and death during the floods of June 2013. It is believed that there were more than 200 homes and hotels there before the entire village got washed away in just few minutes killing thousands of locals and tourists.

As we were travelling along the river 'Mandakini' on its western bank, with every step of my horse taking me closer to Rambada made my heart filled with excitement and a bit of sorrow until a point where the horse owner broke my series of thoughts by making the horse take a right turn just 500 mts. before Rambada and making it cross the river over a brand new bridge.

Within minutes we were travelling on the other side of the river i.e on the eastern bank of the river and had also gained a bit of altitude using a zig-zag path which was evidently constructed in recent years.Just as we gained some more altitude, a peek to my left gave me a sort of bird's eye view of what used to be Rambada. I could make out there were a handful of huts still standing on the western bank at Rambada in spite of everything else getting engulfed by the floods in June 2013. I couldn’t be sure if anyone lived there or if those were some shops still running. Also, I could see the older route of Kedarnath which used to continue on the western bank itself before most of it was wiped out in the floods.

I could see some traces of that path from my side of the hills (eastern bank). As the newer path took me higher, the view of Rambada remained in my eyes for about 10 minutes and in my thoughts till the time I reached Kedarnath after 3 hours or so. I felt that I had failed in my duty to visit those huts and try to meet anyone who had survived the tragedy in 2013.Somehow I thought that it was a moral obligation to visit Rambada once to feel the vibes of the devastation by figuring out some remaining traces of a once lively village.

It was 8:00 am on 17-August-2019 and I just had a divine experience offering a VIP Pooja at Kedarnath Temple where I had spent about 20 minutes sitting with the lord.As it was an 'Off Season' due to harsh weather, it was easy to get such VIP treatment at a reasonable price at that time of the year.

The 15 hours at Kedarnath were undoubtedly one of the happiest moments in my life except the fact that we had a scary night before with heavy rains and loud thunders hitting the tin-roof of the resort of Uttarakhand Tourism where we had stayed. Also, the temperature was below 5 degrees for the whole night.

The 4 younger guys and the driver had already started the journey back more than an hour ago and it was Sarath, Vivek and I who were left to start our descent.Vivek decided to take horse again and Sarath decided to walk again. Just sometime back while accompanying Sarath to a km long trail to Kal Bhairav Temple, I that realized that my capability of climbing anywhere had already reached its limits and it would be difficult for me to go down walking to Gaurikund which was about 19 kms away.

Also I knew that descending down was always more stressful for the knees than ascending up, especially when the backpack on my shoulders had doubled in weight due to wet clothes and tonnes of 'Prasad' I had bought. The weather was harsh even on that day with sporadic heavy rains every now and then. But, this time I wanted to challenge my limits and thus I decided to walk back against all odds as I wanted to feel the beauty at each and every step that I had missed a day before. Also, it was not a nice idea to leave Sarath alone behind.As both of us had different walking abilities, levels of fitness and different weights of our bag-packs, we decided that Sarath would walk ahead at his speed and would wait for me every 3 kms or whenever I got out of his view. Both of us actually wanted to travel back and feel the connect with nature alone, but also didn’t want to leave each other alone in the unknown hills in the harsh weather, especially when there were hardly any tourists on that route that day.

Just within 20 minutes I found him standing on a tip of a Glacier and waiting for me. I realized that in spite of the physical agony, the decision to walk back was great. After spending some time at 'Rudra Glacier' and then 'Bhairav Glacier' we suddenly found ourselves in the midst of heavy rains.  Also, I realized that it was time to pack my camera and mobile phone. Getting down safely was more important than taking pics/videos.

Though my knees were very painful, I kept walking steadily with assurance that Sarath was just a km or 2 ahead of me. I realised that I needed to be a good finisher of such a great journey that we had in the last 3 days.

It had started on the evening of 14-August-2019 when Vivek and I took a flight from Mumbai. Due to delay in the flight, we landed at New Delhi Airport at around 1:30 am with Sarath and other 4 guys waiting for or us at the Airport parking. Getting out of Delhi in the early morning of 15th August is not an easy job as we were subject to police and army scrutiny at 3 places. We had touched Haridwar at round 6 am from where it was a journey along Ganga till Dev Prayag where we saw the birth of Ganga with a confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi.The view of the 'Sangam' has such an attraction that we just didn’t want to leave the place that day.

From Dev Prayag till Rudra Prayag, it was Alaknanda travelling with us. Again, there was a confluence of Alaknanda and Mandakini at Rudra Prayag which was also the meeting point of Kedarnath and Badrinath Highways.The travel from Rudra Prayag to Gaurikund along Mandakini was full of landslides with 3 brief disruptions due to rocks falling on road. 

In fact that road had opened just a day before after being closed for 4 days due to heavy landslides.After the mandatory 'Biometric Registration’, we had had a night halt at Sitapur before moving to Gaurikund (last vehicle point) and starting our trek on 16-August-2019.

Back to 17-August-2019. I realized that I had covered half the distance and was standing on the eastern bank of Mandakini at a point where I just needed to walk 1.5 kms more to cross the bridge and get to the western bank.  I had completed the steep portions of the descend and now it was just a matter of time. The weather too was better now. As I was all alone there with Sarath a km being behind me (a rare happening), I took opportunity to get closer to the valley on my right to have a view of 'Rambada' again. It was there where I had expected, with those huts still standing and inviting me there. Then I saw 2 bridges besides each other crossing the river just near those huts. I soon realized that there was a steep trail paved with big steps (made of stone blocks) from the point where I was standing to those bridges. I realized that I had an option to get down the trail, then cross one of the bridges and then reach those last remaining huts of Rambada. Apart from taking to Rambada, this steep trail was going to reduce a zig-zag path of about a km for me and merge with regular path at Bhimbali.

My joy started diminishing with each step down the trail. It was steeper than I had judged and was also very slippery. My painful knees and the heavy backpack added to the agony. All my assumptions of saving time were shattered as the rains started pouring again and I had to be very cautious with each step. One mistake and I could end up with fatal injuries. After a struggle of 20 minutes or so, I found myself standing right in front of the violent river, standing in front of the bridge on the right. I realized that the bridge I was standing in front of was the older one which was there even before 2013 and the other one at the left was newly built. It took no time to guess that the authorities had anticipated that the older bridge would not last for long. While coming down the trail, the path had split for those 2 bridges. I had taken the path on the right without anticipating that I would land up in front of the older bridge. Attempting to get to the newer one would mean a retreat up to some height and then taking the path on the left.As I had no energy left to go back, I decided to cross the river using the old bridge itself.

Standing on the concrete abutment of the bridge made of wooden planks fixed on a steel frame, it took me about 5 minutes to convince myself to start crossing it.One step on the bridge and I found it shaking. Next step and I found the rains got harder. Few more steps and I realized that the pain in my knees were unbearable.Next step and the bridge was shaking violently with sudden gush of water and wind.By the time I reached halfway on the bridge, I realized that I was a helpless creature left totally at the mercy of God as I could not see a single soul anywhere around.I was standing mid-way on a dilapidated wooden bridge on a swollen river with a heavy backpack on my shoulders in midst of harsh wind and rains with my knees stuck and all energy evaporated. I realized that I was standing helpless at the place, that epicenter of the tragedy of June 2013. All the emptiness around me that day was part of once bustling Rambada before that fateful night on 16-17 June 2013.

Though it was just about 1:00 pm in the afternoon, I felt being stuck in a haunted house and left in front of a demon who was just waiting to end my story.After being perplexed for about 2 minutes, a positive thought came in my mind.” If that bridge had withstood the floods of 2013 then it surely could withstand me for some more time till the I cross it and reach the other side”. Also, I realized that my Woodland shoes were rock-solid and waiting for me to just take a step ahead. I gathered all my courage to push myself and I was out on the other side within few seconds.I didn’t have the courage to look back and I proceeded to those huts with my heart beating wildly. I realized that there was no one there. No one wanted to live or open a shop at Rambada even when places like Bhimbali (just 1.5 km away) was full of shops and homes.

.While I sat on a big rock beside those huts with an empty and numb mind, I saw Sarath coming down the trail on other side of the river. Thankfully, he had chosen the correct trail and he landed up on the newer bridge when he saw me sitting on the other side. What I saw next was a real surprise. Instead of being scared, Sarath was enjoying his time on the new bridge while taking pictures and making videos. Suddenly the weather also got better. 

He asked me to join him on the bridge to take pictures. I agreed after initial reluctance and I thank myself for doing so.

I spent some time on the newer bridge with Sarath and didn’t find it scary at all. The rain had stopped, and the river was not that violent, the wind was mild and the bridge was stronger. Things had improved within 30 minutes or so. Standing on the newer bridge, I looked at the older bridge carefully for a while and realized that nothing is permanent in this world.

Back to Navi Mumbai on 19-August-2019. While scanning for news on Kedarnath, I came across a news piece that a bridge at Rambada had got damaged in the evening of 17-August-2019.

There were 3 bridges at Rambada:

1st one (strongest) which we had crossed by horse while climbing up.

2nd one (newest) where Sarath and I spent some time while coming down

3rd one (oldest and 'haunted' one for me).

Though the news didn’t specify which bridge, it took no time for me to guess that which bridge was damaged. Later, a picture on a Hindi newspaper cleared all my doubts.The videos of 2020 of Rambada don’t show that older bridge at all. As expected, it has been dismantled now.

I realize now that I was probably the last man crossing that old bridge of Rambada before it was gone. Maybe it withstood some more hours than expected just to ensure that I crossed it safely on 17-August-2019 at 1:00 pm.

 

 

 

 

 

Year 2000 : The Haunted House @ Indore

 

11 pm on Saturday, 2nd December 2000 and our last day in Indore. Me, Painter and Hitler were to board a train to Bhopal at 8: 30 am, the next morning, confident of getting admission in a better college. Cool Dude was moving to a relative’s place while Crorepati had already moved out a few days back. We were joined by our friend Panditji who decided to stay with us that night for our farewell of sorts. All 5 of us decided to climb on the terrace of our 'Row House' for the last time using the wooden ladder from our 1st floor Balcony. Since almost all the houses in the row were empty, and the terraces were attached to one another, we decided to move to the terrace of a house which was 6-7 houses away from ours. We sat there and started discussing the prospects of getting admission into different colleges, after being together for 3 months and that we would be leading separate lives henceforth. Also, we were feeling happy of getting away from this 'Haunted House' in an empty colony. As we sat there discussing on multiple topics, I found myself sitting at a corner of the small terrace and the incidents of last 3 months ran like a movie in front of my eyes.

It was August 2000 when I opted for Computer Science in a relatively new Engineering College in the city of Indore as per my score in Madhya Pradesh Pre-Engineering Test.

Thankfully, 2 of my school friends Hitler and Painter also got the same college and same branch. We had moved to Indore with great aspirations as Indore was the only commercially vibrant city in the state of MP at that time. Initially, all 3 of us got into a private hostel near the college and made new friends from across the state and some from other parts of the country as well. As time progressed and more students came there, the hostel owner started exploiting the situation. He admitted a lot of students without giving a thought to the available space. Our room which was supposed to be occupied by 3, now had 5 ppl. I will call the other 2 guys as Cool Dude and Crorepati.

Gradually students started leaving the hostel and arranged their own accommodation. We found out that having an independent house would be cheaper and convenient. That part of Indore was not well developed then. There were certain new housing colonies coming up, but they were sparsely populated. We got a good house just adjacent to the Rajendra Nagar railway station. It was a 2 storied house with 1 Hall,1 Bedroom and Kitchen in the ground floor and 2 Rooms on the 1st floor. We also had a nice Balcony with a wooden ladder to climb to the terrace if needed. It was a 'Row House' in a gated community of about 100 such houses out of which hardly 20-25 had inmates that time. Ours was the Row House at the extreme corner and was isolated from the adjacent 20 houses which were vacant and plunged in darkness all the time.

After paying advance deposit and rent, all 5 of us shifted there. We also found some other friends and some seniors living in the same society. We felt settled down and comfortable in our new surroundings and concentrated on our studies.

Everything was fine until that day when a strange thing happened,It was a holiday and all of us, except Hitler had woken up in the morning. Painter and Crorepati went to college library. Me and the Cool Dude went to nearby market 2 buy some stuff. Hitler was sleeping alone in the ground floor hall. When we came after about 40 mins and opened the door, we saw him sitting on his mattress on the ground and staring at us. I asked "What happened? ". He inquired "Where were u all?"I told him that Painter n Crorepati went to the college library and we had gone to the market nearby. He was bewildered at my answer and asked "If all 4 of you were out then who was on the 1st Floor who disturbed my sleep? Who was jumping there?"Meanwhile Painter n Crorepati had also come back and we all laughed at Hitler taunting him for his sleeping habits and wild imagination.

Next incident occurred the same day in the evening.We all were starting dinner (packed tiffin) inside the ground floor Bedroom and suddenly Cool Dude went out.We heard sound of running water from the 1st floor bathroom.We thought that Cool Dude was washing his hands, but then suddenly it occurred to us as to, why would he go to the 1st floor to wash his hands, when we had a bathroom just outside the room.Hitler and I went to first floor and saw the tap was running even though the lights inside the bathroom were off. We were surprised and closed the tap and went back to finish our dinner. We saw cool dude had come back. He had just gone outside the house to get some pickle from a shop about 100 mts. away.We had our dinner and went to the Balcony and sat chit chatting till about midnight as it was a Saturday night.Suddenly we heard a banging noise from the ground floor. Maybe it was the bathroom door or the door of the Bedroom down there. We all were stunned as there was no wind and ran down to find nothing. A few days passed just like this with some or the other such sporadic event which surprised us but never made us afraid.

One evening there was power cut around 10 pm. It was a common affair in Madhya Pradesh those days. All 5 of us climbed to the terrace using the wooden ladder. As all the houses were joined to each other, we found that we could easily cross over to the terraces of adjoining houses separated by 3 ft high walls It was a real fun as almost all the houses were unoccupied, and we had a huge 'Playground' for us. That night we were discussing about supernatural things like ‘Bermuda Triangle’ and suddenly Painter cracked a joke and we all started laughing. As it was a winter night and a sparsely populated place, our laughter must have been audible for some distance around.But the strange thing we realized while laughing is that we felt some more people were laughing with us.When we stopped laughing, we realized the presence of someone (or more) at our house downstairs and that he or they were laughing with us.

We were stunned, but Cool Dude said ‘Lets find out who the moron is’ and he jumped from the terrace on to the Balcony. I followed him and both of us got inside the house with a small torch. We looked on both the floors with adrenaline coursing through our veins but found no one. The other 3 also came down by that time. For the 1st time we realised that we were not alone in that house. For the 1st time we feared of something unnatural. Suddenly I remembered that I had left my watch on the terrace. I requested Hitler to come along with me.He stood in the Balcony while I climbed the ladder to get my watch. While coming back down, I got a shock of my life when I clearly felt a force which tried to move the ladder while I was descending. Being an athletic 18-year-old, I somehow jumped to safety on the Balcony.Me and Hitler just stared at each other for a while. None of us could sleep that night until the power was restored at around 2 am.

Next morning, I woke up at around 9 am and was already late for college.We all used to sleep in one of the rooms on the 1st floor using thin blankets to cover ourselves in the winter.I saw that no one was there except me and another roommate beside me. As he was covered completely with the blanket, I presumed it was Hitler.Hitler had (and still has) the habit of marathon sleeping sessions. I didn’t disturb him and brushed my teeth n took my bath quickly and started for college just saying 'Hitler, I am going, be careful about the keys’. I knew I would be missing 2 lectures, but at least I could attend the rest.On entering the classroom after waiting outside for 10 minutes for the 2nd lecture to complete, I got a rude shock of my life.What I saw was unbelievable. All my 4 roommates were in the class before me. I somehow controlled my heartbeats and didn’t tell anything to anyone.They all had come to the college at 8 am and didn’t wake me up as they thought I was tired and in deep sleep.

Till that date, all these incidents were confined to only 5 of us and we never told anything to anyone. One day 2 of our Seniors (NK and SD) came to visit us in evening. They both stayed in the same colony, but their room was about 40 houses apart and in a different row.While laughing aloud on a joke, we again felt that some more people at first floor were laughing in the 1st floor along with us.While we stared at each other, I saw a strange fear in the eyes of my senior NK. He asked us 'Did U all, also hear it?'. We said 'YES'.When he asked whether this was the 1st time, we had to tell him everything that had happened till that day.He got worried and scolded us for not telling them about this. He then told us bluntly that THIS COLONY WAS BELEIVED TO BE HAUNTED.

Many people there had paranormal experiences like this, since the colony had become habitable. We now understood the reason for such a beautiful colony to be so sparsely populated.As the matter was getting serious and the news spread among friends and seniors, one of our good friends (Panditji) offered his help with some ‘Mantras’ and a small ritual which somehow made things a bit better.

Meanwhile, one day we found lights glowing at one of the houses (about 10 houses from ours).We went there and found a middle-aged man and introduced ourselves. He told us that he owned that house. He lived somewhere else in the city with his family and it was seldom that he made a visit to this place. We asked him about the colony being ‘Haunted’. He told that he had never experienced anything there, but he couldn’t completely rule out either. He informed us that the whole area was a Hindu Cremation Ground before it was sold by to the housing colonies by Govt. He advised us not to be alone and not to be too afraid either.He also knew our landlord and informed him on phone (which we had never done till that date).

Sometimes we find ourselves in a strange and helpless situation without knowing what to do and where to go next. We are left at the mercy of God. And sometimes God executes some strange plans to take us out of that mess and we find a surprise and a pleasant exit.A similar pleasant surprise hit us on the very next day as we read a news on Dainik Bhaskar that the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) had decided to increase the seats in all the Engineering Colleges in MP in same session and had instructed the State Govt to cancel all the Admissions and do a re-counselling. It was done on the initiative of our then IT Minister Sri Pramod Mahajan.

The Education Minister of MP, Sri Ghanshyam Patidar also confirmed that all the admissions were to be cancelled and the fees to be returned so that all the students got the opportunity of getting into a college/branch of their choice after the seats were increased.Our college declared the same within a week after getting written confirmation form the State Govt. In mid of all this, the political geography of country too got changed with formation of 3 states: Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Jharkhand in November 2000 with my city Raipur designated as the capital of Chhattisgarh(CG) . The separation of MP and CG also ensured that good number of seats in Engineering were also getting increased in the colleges of Raipur-Bhilai and Hitler, Painter and myself were confident of getting such a seat in a renowned college.

The movie running within my eyes had an abrupt interruption and I was mentally back at Midnight on 2^nd December 2000 on our terrace.

While we were on terrace of some other house, we suddenly heard someone laughing downstairs. As the house was empty and completely dark, we didn’t dare to remain there. We immediately started moving towards our own terrace. But the strange thing was that while we were crossing one terrace after other, we heard noises from every house. They all were of different nature but were enough to make us feel that we are were in trouble. Someone (or more than one) was travelling from one house to other without hindrance downstairs while we were trying to reach our house. Me and Cool Dude made a jump at our Balcony and ensure that we held the ladder tightly while the others (not so athletic) came down without being sabotaged. We ran to the ground floor Bedroom and locked ourselves. We felt that there were some people jumping and laughing on the 1^st floor until 5 am. Once we saw the sunlight, we got out and got ready to move. Cool Dude and Panditji gave us tight hugs before moving to their accommodation arrangements as their counselling dates were after some more days. Our landlord came at 7 am and we handed over the keys to him before boarding a train from Rajendra Nagar railway station.

I never got a chance to visit the city of Indore again in my life till today.While Hitler and Painter are still an integral part of my life, I am also in touch with Cool Dude,Crorepati,Panditji and many wonderful friends (including seniors) that I had made in those 4 months in Indore in the year 2000.