The day we reached Manang was an unforgettable one. Although it was the costliest place during the whole trip, charging Rs 200 per thermos of hot water, simply being there to see it all beat everything else. [break]
This is something I compiled from my journal entry that day:
It’s the sixth day of our trek and we’ve reached Manang, the actual eponymous village of Manang District. We had heard a lot about the magnificence of Manang but whatever we had heard came out to be less. Much less.
To the south of our hotel is the Gangapurna Mountain and to its left, lining the whole southern sky, are Annapurna III, Annapurna IV while Annapurna II giving just a peek.
To the southwest is the Tilicho peak. We are cradled in the lap of Himalaya in the “country beyond the mountains” (Himalpariko desh). It’s a geological masterpiece and your eyes couldn’t get enough of it.
Gangapurna Lake is a short distance away from our hotel. The Gangapurna Mountain towers over the lake, its thick glacier piling reluctantly down its slope, which further below melts to form a massive waterfall and ultimately flows into the lake.
This lake on the opposite end breaks into the river Gangapurna. A series of such splendid metamorphosis within sight makes this view truly out of this world.
The water is turbid as if mixed with limestone, but this in fact gives the lake a creamy light-blue color, like melted ice-cream. If nature was Michelangelo, Manang would have been his Madonna: Madonna with blue eyes, where Gangapurna Lake keeps sparkling.
You look at this marvel of nature and all your emotions and consciousness just melt within that flowing glacier.
That huge mass of ice just soaks your feelings as it moves slowly and deliberately and before you can comprehend they have already poured into the lake.
You take a deep breath and exhale your worries that fade out in the chilly air. It’s the perfect place to reflect on your life.
You might have gained something, lost something you yearned deeply, made some good judgments while committed mistakes that may or may not be corrected. But all this only makes our life richer, just like the water in the lake.
You can say the glacier is in love with the mountain, but has to leave her nonetheless.
It brings along with it a layer of rocks and rubble as memento but has to lose the mountain; you can’t get it all! And when it melts into the lake, the mountain becomes its memory that it can only cherish as it flows along the river and starts a new journey. It moves on.
Some water in the glacier evaporates to form the mist while the rest form the waterfall. Life is a mist, a waterfall, a lot of rocks and pebbles, a glacier all mixing and transforming into a lake.
You contemplate this and you understand that yesterday or tomorrow holds no significance; all that matters is this moment.
This instant, when you feel the chill of the water, hear the rumble of the waterfall and let your mind drift along the mist.
And it is in this magical moment when the lake becomes you and you become the lake.
The writer has completed his Bachelor’s in Biotechnology from Himalayan Whitehouse College, Khumaltar.
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