Bittersweet

I’m walking to the car with a bag of groceries, heading home for dinner. It is the end of a 3-day weekend, work starts tomorrow. I’m humming a song to myself. As if on cue, a warm evening breeze hits me, and stirs something in my heart. It is the second time in a row that this has happened, the last time being the day before. Some of my core memories about vacations are the ones related to their end.

I hiked to Half Dome in Yosemite National Park yesterday. We stopped the car at a pull-out around sunset on the way back. I took a minute to gaze at the colors of the sky, taking in a view. A similar light warm breeze had reminded me that it was time to go home. And that Yosemite is going to call me again.

Its never for too long. but it is always beautiful. The moment which makes me aware that I’ll be home in a few hours. The train back to Pune from my grandparents’, making its way past Monkey Hill, and pulling into a countryside lined by farms (and now huge vacant buildings) as we pass Lonavala, out of the Sahyadris, into the plains. The winding roads of Konkan under an orange sky, and a small tug in my heart telling me to stay, a dusty warm sea wind blowing in my face. The last stop on the highway, at a restaurant in the outskirts of Pune, because Baba needs to switch from highway mode to city-driving mode. Now that I think of it, aeroplane travel never evokes the same emotions.

We get back in the car, and my roommate jokes about my taste in music, because I want to play this song that I have been humming. Its called “Kabul Fiza”. I have become obsessed with an Urdu-ish song, once again. We laugh. Incidentally, the song is about travel.

As some people will know, the word “journey” irks me. The word is an overt reference to personal development. It smells like vague universalism, and of those sorts of ideologies term all change as growth. Adding journey to a sentence immediately makes it sound like you’re making a big deal out of something basic. I don’t enjoy the word, but I love journeys. In fact, development is golden dust for me. I’ll be cautious about calling it that- who knows? tomorrow I might need to g(r)o(w) in the other direction. But I’ll also admit that travel, change, or journeys is the best shot at growth I’ve seen yet.

As an aside- I love songs about journeys. Music from travel montages in movies has a special place in my heart. “Ya Re Ya” from Ventilator- a van full of people heading to Mumbai to visit a family member, as the patriarch of the family looks up to the Bandra-Worli sealink for the first time. “Hum Jo Chalne Lage” from Jab We Met. Even “Shipping Up To Boston” from Departed- as Costello’s gang fans out to a cocaine stash, with police cars on their tail. “Phir Se Ud Chala” from Rockstar. “Malharavari” from Agabai Areccha, with its montage of Sanjay Manjrekar’s family taking the State Transport bus to their village, and the “gavachi jatra” that follows.

Returning home. The awareness of a journey coming to an end. The final few glimpses of quiet beauty. There’s always a fluttering, melancholy, bittersweet feeling. I don’t want to go home. Its not that I have to- I could wait for another day, I could take a day off. But I also want to go home, and I know I’m going to. The sky is serene, and the shades of orange are so beautiful. The breeze is just right, it seems to pass through my chest. I take in a full breath, I’m in the moment. And now its time to go. If I never went home, the journey won’t be beautiful anymore. There’s also a dash of the wonderful, wonderful feeling of freedom- perhaps because the memory of the trip flashes in my mind’s eye. I have been trying to get that feeling down in words for so long. But nature does it best. Perhaps I should just let you, dear reader, gaze upon the sun setting upon Yosemite valley. (And because I like the photo, at the rising sun, as seen from the subdome)

Sunrise at Subdome

Sunrise at Subdome

Sunrise at Subdome

Arbitrary

I have some idiotic, psuedoscientific tips for long hikes. I’ve already listed down songs that I love in this post. My blog is pristine no more. What’s another listicle, then, now that we’ve crossed the boundary? These tricks helped me while doing half-dome.

  • Like Paul Atredies says in Dune- “Axiom: the best place to conserve your water is in your body. It keeps your energy up. You’re stronger. Trust your stillsuit”. Water is weight that must be carried. Water in the body is easier to carry and better for functioning than water in a bottle. So if you are carrying plenty of water, then drink it up. Drink water when driving to the hike, drink at the last source of drinking water that you find. Drink as much as you can. Load up on water. A friend called this the “camel theory”. Salts are also very important- so carry Electral (I do love me some zesty electrolytes), or even chakna.

  • Load up on complex carbohydrates. I read somewhere that “complex carbs release energy slowly”. Indepnedently, (from two different sources) I read about Poha and Oats being complex carbohydrates. I also learned that oats are used to feed horses. I put two and two together, and started carrying a box of dry steel-cut oats to hikes. Its a bottomless box- it gets refilled before every long hike. Its like a sourdough starter, or a “Virjan”, or those everlasting stews- an oat from the first time I poured oats into that box might still be around. I augment it per my whim- chocolate chips, raisins, jelly beans, trail mix, dried mango, cocoa powder, peanut butter- whatever I have at home. “Topping of the week” I call it. The toppings get picked first, because they are delicious. But remember- its the slow release of energy from the oats that fuels your my legs. The fibrosity of the oats helps you me not feel constipated when the hike ends. If horses can run long distances on oats, I can walk. In general, eat a lot. If you have something juicy, amazing. Fresh fruits and vegetables are a great addition to a diet of sugar and energy bars trail mix. But in their absence, oats and water gets the job done. One friend subscribes to the “Sakhar paani” theory- that sugar is the most efficient fuel for a hike, so just drink some sort of fluid with lots of sugar.

  • There’s two ways to do long hikes. One is with your mind. If you have grit, if you don’t get dehydrated, and really, really want to, you’ll finish the hike. “If I can see it, I can get there” is my motto. This is how I did hikes upto my second year of undergrad.

  • The second one is with your legs. Hikes are a stamina game, but having strong legs really, really makes a difference. Climbing steep slopes is essentially doing a hundred squats one after another. As another friend remarked, when we were talking about “Top 5” strength exercises- “Legs are a cheat code, don’t tell me about legs”. Leg strength is associated with longevity. Your back and your core needs to be strong for long-term health. Arms, I say, are just plumage. Specifically, hiking got a lot less tiring after I got good at pistol squats. I do almost no cardio, but steep slopes don’t scare me no more.

  • Don’t dictate the pace. Walking behind slower people is ChaRActEr DeVElopMent. Hikes are a lot more fun when done with friends. I took a long time to learn this- I was one of those idiots who walked ahead of the group, and tried to make people hurry. Walk at the pace of the slowest person in the group. Stop when they want to stop. Keep your tempo by walking in circles slowly if you want to. In the beginning, it’ll help you conserve your stamina. Towards the end of the hike, it’ll help you rest and make the walking less painful.

None of these are empirically verified. About unserious things, I take arbitrary stances just for “vibes” or “giggles” and loudly start shouting them from the rooftops. Having said that, you should totally load up on water and complex carbs, start squatting today, decide to finish all hikes that you start, and walk at the “lowest common denominator” pace. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!