The mountains draw cosmic people, not the deeply unwise and urban, competing for mundane things and wanting to score points in a game called life. Kavitha Yaga Buggana, an Andhra-
American, is a spiritual climber whose aches of the body and acceptance of the circumstances are forgotten but her mix of Oriental-Occidental wisdom can dot the readers&rsquo minds with the spray of sparkling Himalayan stars. Having made it once before to Nepal but missed Kailash, she instantly disperses any disappointment with reversing the Western logic &ldquoelders believe a journey to a holy place can happen only if the traveller is called by the divine&hellip This time, the journey had called us&rdquo.
It&rsquos a journey to Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar where she learns, narrates, educates, shares and enriches. Fortunately, it&rsquos not a pedantic tome, heavy as the mountain ranges, but a light and effervescent elixir. One can drink its 159 pages in a wink but the words that weigh will stay. For me, who did this 400km journey all on foot from India, it was a refresher course from a different route which began from Nepal with a flight, and with different companions.
Kavitha stays afloat in the journey, not on her bravado but on her keen observations of the details. Many, I think, won&rsquot notice all that she points out even while they take the physical journey, because the sheer exhaustion leaves little room to retain the finer nuances. I particularly enjoyed her reverent atheist&rsquos worldview that I share entirely. More and more evolved people seem to join this school that doesn&rsquot map out territories for the gods. They would rather celebrate all that the Himalaya continue to offer rather than make the mundane discovery that while the Hindu, Buddhist and Jain pilgrims can circumambulate the holy Kailash mountain clockwise, those of the Bon faith must do it anti-clockwise Who makes these laws that divide rather than unite humanity even in the rarest and purest of places
Readers will enjoy the irreverence of Kavitha drinking the water of the other lake&mdash Rakshas Taal, where Ravana prayed to please Shiva. I had done the same since it seemed cleaner and purer than the famed Manasarovar where a few carloads of Chinese tourists were soaping their bodies and bathing. Who gave the priests or guides the authority to judge and divide our natural wonders
The author&rsquos vulnerability keeps the momentum and the suspense of the journey exhaustion to the point of giving up, high blood pressure, the threat of nomads who would happily rob them of their belongings, or packs of man-eating dogs who love our taste...and a suspense. But the dangers wear away and the recurring panacea of the morning sun, keeps away dark thoughts. There are many lessons in every travel. Perhaps the ones from a Himalaya travel are profound and well-searched within. For me, a simple observation becomes a lot to reflect on the Buddhist believe that while generosity is difficult, gratitude is even more so. I hope to be more grateful for all I have but then I seem to return to my imperfect state. But the book was a great way to talk to myself. It reminded me the value of friendship and of sacrifice above self.
The advantage of an atheist like Kavitha is that she can turn any spot on earth into a sacred pilgrimage. Her travel to Kailash and Manasarovar also remains a journey within. This becomes a parallel reason to recommend it to those who&rsquove already been, those who want to go and&mdashmore so to those who may never be able to
