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| Sunrise at an altitude above Lachung North Sikkim PC: Kalirajan Subramanian |
Wake up at
3:30 am on a freezing morning and travel 5 hours upwards of 9000 ft. Abominable?
Top it with a road that single-mindedly targets at dismantling your skeletal
system. Cruelty with a scoop of horror? Then what makes one take such an ordeal
and eventually wonder what was more beautiful, the journey or the destination!
Those endless surprises that spring out at every mountain bend? If it was the
bubbling gush of Teesta in one, it was the artistic daybreak in the other, a
vibrant bed of rhododendrons in the next and so on. Much like snow, no two
waterfalls are the same( and there are numerous to prove this).
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| Gurudongmar Lake PC: Kalirajan Subramanian |
In all this natural abundance, there is a human marvel that stands out tall. The Indian Army. Guarding the Indo-Tibetan border in conditions any tourist cannot withstand for more than 15 mins are those brave men and women in service. Camps at 12700 ft, 14500 ft, 18750 ft where men and women adorn the uniforms with a smile on their faces stand testimony to the might of the Indian Armed Forces. To see the Indian tricolor flutter at 18750 ft gives one goosebumps. If the frozen Gurudongmar is a miracle, our Jawans stationed there braving cold winds and falling stones is no less. There was an all-religion prayer place erected close to the lake at Gurudongmar. When we bowed our heads down there, our prayers were only for the soldiers.
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| With the Smiling lions, soldiers of Indian Army PC: Kalirajan Subramanian |
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