Aditi Jain, Class X F
A journey always provides us lessons to face the different curves of life. Journey for me is a reminder of how fortunate I am and it also explains to me the value of my family. I still remember the time when I went to Char Dham with my family.
We were happy and excited. We first reached Delhi by flight and from there we hired cars and reached Haridwar by evening. The weather was beautiful but by night it was quite cold and I somehow managed to attend the Maha-arti.
We then went to Yamnotri and Gangotri. Over there, we took a dip in the holy waters and worshipped goddess Yamuna and Ganga. When we reached Kedarnath, it was our good fortune that the strike of the horses had come to an end and we also got a VIP entry which made our worship quite smooth.
While returning from Kedarnath, we heard about the calamity caused due to flash floods that resulted from cloud bursts. We were also stuck, as our route was destroyed due to landslides. I was very scared. My parents held my hands tightly so that I don’t lose my courage.
Finally, moving at snail’s pace, we were back at our hotel and had to stay for two more days. When the weather improved, we decided to resume our journey to Badrinath. But unfortunately, we couldn’t move ahead as the road was destroyed completely.
So, we decided to go to the other part of Badrinath for worship. All this while, we were unable to contact any of our relatives. We were delayed in our journey by 4-5 days. When we finally reached Indore, I was happy to see everyone but at the same time, I felt sad for the people who lost their loved ones. One thing I learned was that when nature destroys everything, it is completely out of our control and we humans are mere puppets. We should value what we have while we have it.
