From past few months we have heard so so so many bad news/things : Corona, Cyclones, earthquakes, locust attacks, suicides and what not, everything is almost at verge now.

And from past few days every other person is talking about depression!

Yes, depression...
Do you feel depressed ?
Do I feel depressed?

I would say yes I used to or rather I was for a long time but I didn't really know it back then. So firstly lets talk about few things which were happening around.

I officially started trekking in July 2016 and my very first Trek was Harihar, and since then I went every fortnightly or once in a month or as per time permitted. I used to go with some other trekking group/organisation where I made few friends and then started trekking with them for sometime, it was one fine Saturday night, I got a call from one of my recently made trek friend saying that “kal lonavla ja rahe hai, Ulhas Valley karke ek trek hai waha” toh I asked who is coming with us, he took someone’s name and said “iska gadi hai ane jane ka petrol ka dena hai or trek ka paisa koi trekking group hai unko dena hai.” It was little awkward because I was going with some unknown person in his car(was little suspicious, I mean being a girl few things crossed my mind) and later again a whole bunch of new people at trek which only my friend knew.

On 20th Nov 2015, with all the odds I decided to go and we reached lonavla at meeting point, I think we had almost missed the introduction part and as soon as we arrived few instruction were given and we moved ahead. We walked a couple of kilo-meters and the start point of the valley came and we started descending, I would also like to tell that despite of doing so many treks I always stay/stayed at the end of the trail, may be I am lazy, may be I have breathing issues or may be I like to take photos of nature or feel the nature or don’t know whatever it is. So as usual I was at end and for a change there was one guy who was even behind me 😂.

Suddenly we heard a voice and came to know that he had fallen and got injured badly and one of the lead (Dev Manus) Ram took him back to the base point. There was a point where my feet couldn’t touch the ground due to obvious height issues 😶 I got stuck at one huge rock and another lead (Dev Manus) Bhavin came to rescue👏🏻. I could also hear some sad 😛/ some mind refreshing PJ’s whenever we took break, later came to know that it was again one of the trek leader Ameet 🤭. We also clicked some awesome group photos and saw some dangerous stunts on the way by again one of the lead Kartik 😁😱, we exchanged numbers and left for the day.

It was Friday 25th Nov 2016, I had pre-decided plan to go on a trek with the newly met group, the destination was Sandhan Valley and on the same day something bad happened (oh wait am I too shy to call it a breakup? Hell no!!) suddenly I didn't know what, how, why, when. Still somehow I made my mind and left for the event.

We started our journey to the valley, we crossed a small water patch carrying our bags on our head, came across some tremendously huge rocks, few rappelling patches and at last reached at our camping destination, freshened up a little, had wonderful dinner and yet I was still blank as hell, I decided to go in my sleeping bag straight away(no talking, no making friends). Thousands of thoughts were running in my mind.. I fell asleep after couple of hours and later around at 1.30-2 am I gotten up as I could hear whispers of people, laughing, telling stories. I opened my eyes and what I saw up in the sky was truly beyond extraordinary. Thousands of stars, the whole sky was full of stars, I don't even have words to explain the happiness I felt at that very moment. I also saw one shooting star.

It was just MAGICAL !!!

Then I sat and and thought how we spent the entire day. The way everyone helped each other on the way to the valley, some carried each others bags, some held hands, some were good with words and motivating others, some helped other group members too. “I wondered how blindly we trust these unknown people and how we suck at handling years and years of relationships due to trust and other issues.“

Then I realized “Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings. It's something we make inside ourselves.”

Just those fraction of seconds I spent in that moment and I realized I want to do this for myself.

For my peace! This nature, these unknown souls make me feel happy and alive. This was the day I decided to continue all future treks with them and the day I met my saviors, I am sure they didn't even know and even I didn't know back then that they made a huge huge huge difference in my life as “MUMBAI TREKKERS”.

Going on treks helped me to get through most of the hardships of life. For few months I didn't even know that whatever shit I am going through is a kind a of depression, Ulhas valley was my first connect with MT, then Sandhan and later every weekend. For me to go out, the utmost reason was nature but MT played a vital role too.

I would like to take a moment and thank each and everyone I encountered during each trek.

And Big big big thank you 🙏🏻
Kartik
Ameet
Ram
Bhavin
Rahul
Gaurav (GGK)
Yogesh