Have you ever heard about a torch without batteries and you get the light just by shaking it because there is a magnet in it, which does the job. This torch is amazing and cool and you will never face a situation when you will be running out of batteries. I got it as a gift from one of my father’s friend in Germany.
I used this torchlight for the first time in my life on a trek to the Khumbhu region in Sagarmatha National Park with my father, a German friend of our family and our friendly guide Raju. It was not only my using this magic torch for the first time but there were also other first incidents for me like witnessing a snowfall and playing in the snow making snowballs and building a big and fine looking snowman. But the most fascinating of all those first things on this trek was that I saw many snow capped mountains including Mount Everest which I saw from different angles almost every day. The other mountains were Amai Dablam, Nuptse, Lhotse, Thamsherku and so on. I think myself very lucky having seen Mount Everest at my early age. It is due to Mount Everest that many people throughout the world have heard about our country.
But one of the most interesting parts on my trek was that I got acquainted with a Sherpa whose name appears in the Guinness Book of Records because he had climbed Mount Everest 14 times between 1990 and 2004. Now he owns a lodge at Thame, which is several hours walk away from Namche Bazaar where from most of the trekking trails in this region start. He is an extremely simple and friendly man running his lodge in a remote area, himself occupying very modest old-fashioned quarters where he lives with his family. After I met him I thought of making a short interview with him but he postponed it to the next morning but the next morning he was too busy in preparing his fourteenth attempt to climb Mount Everest, at least he had time for a photograph together with me and one together with my father. Every time he is about to leave his place to climb the mountains he would call Lamas from the nearby monastery and has a ceremony or puja performed for ensuring his good luck.
Next morning when we woke up to leave Thame we saw a tourist group of about 20 people. Each one of them wanted to shake hands with him and have his photograph taken together with him. They were all very excited to meet him and he remained his friendly smiling self, but I had the impression that they were really bothering him. So being very famous is perhaps not such a wonderful thing in the end.
Vaskar Pahari
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