Live life, Zara Hat Ke

When you read the stories about Jonathan Dunham, Georgia Getz or Andy, you really need to think hard to answer the question, How do you categorize these people? Are they insane, foolish or are they just living life to the fullest?

Jonathan quits his job and decides to find the meaning of life by walking the earth!! and if thats not good enough reason to classify him as a "HIGHLY INSANE" consider this..he has a found a partner in Judas to accompany him in his journey, all sounds fine until you find out that Judas is a Donkey, yeah a Equus asinus.
Georgia's story sounds a bit more sane...she bid good bye to her family for five weeks in a sponsored hybrid car to "date", 250 bloggers across 182 cities in 42 states, if thats not crazy enough, she says more are being added every day.
Andy quit his job with probably one of the best company in the IT industry and decided to travel the world for a year.

So whats with these people? What drives them to renounce the safety and comfort of their job, family, house and depart from known surroundings to explore the unknown, encounter new people and places? Is there a purpose or a motive behind such travels? What do they or what have they achieved out of it so far?

Well I don't have any such first hand experience, so its difficult to pin point the factors of motivation for them, but personally be it trekking the barren desert land of Leh or Ruins of Hampi or the thick forests of Munnar etc.. one thing that keeps driving you is the possibility of uncertain outcomes. You never know what you will encounter next. Will it be breath taking view of Leh's frozen mountains or exquisite carving of temples or herd of wild elephants in Shola forests, you never know and probably this expectation of the unexpected keeps you going.

Be it the physically taxing ascent of brahmagiri peak or spending the night in the nerve chilling cold of Bharathpur, the reason you do it is probably because these circumstances challenge you be it physical, emotional or intellectual and probably its the adrenaline rush which you experience when you overcome these keeps you going.

After coming back from the Leh trek, I was wondering what were we thinking to cycle all the way to the Kardung La pass(Worlds highest motorable pass)(we could go only half the distance)...It was probably just to experience that "at the peak" experience, that was the reward for which we were ready to tax our plump body, ready to push ourselves beyond the edge, so to say. Probably its the same with those guys..just to experience that "at the peak" moment they keep going.

Leisure stroll of the Hampi ruins was not "adventurous", but enjoyed every moment of it. But why? Probably because I was experiencing something new, new place, new food, new people, new culture and thats what simulates the excitement and a will to carry on. It should be the same with them. Exploring new place and new culture.

Another reason I loved the trip to Hampi was probably the boring, dull,slow routine that life had become(not that its any different now) . Job-home-job and the eternal cycle continues and this trip helped to break and escape that shackles. I guess it might be the same for them. Shed the dull,boring life and grow a new life.

What ever it is thats motivated them, one thing is sure, I seriously envy them. From the bottom of my heart. Life gets entangled in the web of EMI's, SIP's, Job's, family commitments etc so much that you start to believe that this is all there is to life. But then when you read stories like these only then you realize how much of a "Matrix" world you are in subdued by the Blue pills which we ourselves swallow or are forced by the society to swallow. But then these guys have swallowed the Red pill to see probably the real life. Both living same life, same existence, but they are living life, zara hat ke.

Whats the big deal climing a hill which is taller than all others??

Its was on 29 May 1953, amid most inclement and in-human environment conditions, two people, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, dragged themselves to a point where heavens seemed just a hand-stretch away. They were the first to climb to the highest point on this planet, peak of Mount Everest, standing tall at 29,029 feet. By doing so little did they know that they would become the icons who would inspire the spirit of Adventure for generations to come.

Today after almost 6 decades, both the icons are no more with us. The unsung hero of that epic journey, Sherpa Tenzing, expired in 1986 and on Friday(11 Jan 2008), with the arrival of the sad news of Sir Edmund Hillary's death a chapter came to an end, a chapter that tells stories of real heroes who represented the indomitable human spirit.

So what the heck is the big deal about climbing to the highest point on this earth? Why is an act which did not help any cause continues to inspires and is still remembered? Why two people who were just normal people before accomplishing this climb, were catapulted to iconic status after this act?

Jane Morris of Time in a brilliant article titled "The Conquerors" says

Geography was not furthered by the achievement, scientific progress was scarcely hastened, and nothing new was discovered. Yet the names of Hillary and Tenzing went instantly into all languages as the names of heroes, partly because they really were men of heroic mold but chiefly because they represented so compellingly the spirit of their time

represented so compellingly the spirit of their time.....thats exactly what they did. They showed the world how even people with ordinary abilities but extraordinary perseverance can reach stellar heights.

Jane in another part of her article says;

it was a measure of the men that over the years they truly grew into the condition. Perhaps they thought that just being the first to climb a hill was hardly qualification for immortality; perhaps they instinctively realized destiny had another place for them. For they both became, in the course of time, representatives not merely of their particular nations but of half of humanity. Astronauts might justly claim that they were envoys of all humanity; Hillary and Tenzing, in a less spectacular kind, came to stand for the small nations of the world, the young ones, the tucked-away and the up-and-coming

This is probably the reason which makes them heroes and so eligible to become your role models. When you speak of Hillary and Tenzing, its not about the name and fame(which they achieved after the climb), both of which they had in abundance, but its what they did with that name and fame.. both used it to stand-up for people who were less fortunate than themselves and to me this is truly the measure of man. Hillary and Tenzing spent rest of their lifetime working towards environmental causes and conjure humanitarian efforts on behalf of Nepal and the Nepalese people. The spirit of this selfless service to a country which consumed almost his everything is something to commend on.

So I guess climbing a hill which is taller than all others is indeed a big deal because once in a while it leads to discovery of man like Hillary or Tenzing, a man to match his mountain.