The avalanche ‘thing’

We took a youth group to Ooty avalanche for 2 nights and almost 3 days. Well with the almost 13-hour one-way travel from Bangalore to the actual camp site, I keep wondering why we don’t go for a longer period. I do think though that too much nature may not suit me all that much.

This time we did a very different kind of night walk. It was different from my last years’ experience of the night walk. Last year we had taken a trek with a very noisy bunch and hadn’t gotten much of a chance to enjoy the peace and quiet of the jungle. But this year we had a quiet and very obedient group. We also had a star gazer with us!!! What an inspiration to do some more star gazing. As we stood in the midst of the shore of the lake, the trees slowly loomed up over us. Our facilitator kept telling us, ‘ if you wait for a bit then you will be able to see a lot more than you think you can in the dark’. And we were able to see a lot more. It was a little creepy and honestly a little scary. Right before we stepped on the large open shore we heard the sounds of hoofs. Maybe a herd of deers or another variety of the lovely mountain deer families. Somehow sound effects add to the overall feel of the night.

And then they started to shower. Shooting Stars! So many of them. Apparently if you have a good clear sky, you can see about 8 or 9 shooting stars every hour. No! I didn’t type that wrong. Every hour.

The whole bunch was going ‘oooh’ and ‘aahh’ every ten minutes. The irony – I couldn’t see a single one. I really don’t know where I was looking as there was not much else to really look at except the beautiful sky. But it seemed that my vision was filtered to the fall of these beautiful fireworks of stars. I had almost resigned to the fact that I would probably not see one that night when the whole night gazing crowd went ‘wo’..’wo’..’wo’. And I didn’t see it!

How could you miss that one?’ cried a voice in the crowd. Yea! Like I kept my eyes shut while they were ‘wo’ ing! I don’t know how I could not see it. It was pretty frustrating till little Nancy all of 11 piped up.

‘I feel so special that I could see a shooting star.’ In the midst of the buzzing and excitement that statement would probably have been lost, had our facilitator Mohan not had such a keen ear

A few minutes later he led the conversation back to the statement of being special. And we reflected. Nancy had considered herself special to have been able to see a shooting star. But we all were so special. The God who had made these beautiful stars and then added to it beauty in the way they finished their lives … that same God had taken out special time to create me. And not just create me … But form me in HIS likeness. How special!

There was a few moments of silence and we all kept watching the sky. I was still reflecting on the statement of being ‘special’ when it happened.

I saw it! A star dropped across the sky and ended its journey just like that. So much class and so much beauty.

I yelled and hugged a few folks over this beautiful sight. Isaac and Ziva shivered and we trekked back to our tents.

Surely a night to remember!