December 21, 2003

SO today was the Day of Judgment. The dream lakes, which I seen in the early days of my youth, which had haunted me throughout my life, today I will find out whether they really exist or was it just a fantasy.

Instead of the initial half a dozen trekkers, now with the departure of Salman, there remained only a triangle of Khan Salim, Mian Farzand and myself. Our horses by now had gotten used to our body weights and trotted merrily on a grassy slope rising toward another pass called Dawarian. However, before the final climb, there suddenly appeared an area larger than a football field, which was so completely covered with wild yellow flowers that even our horses hesitated to step into them, lest they trampled that carpet of yellow.

“Subhanallah,” Mian Sahib exclaimed.

Yes, there was no other expression of praise that could justify our feeling of amazement. Indeed, Allah is beautiful and likes beauty hence creates beauty as a heavenly gift for those who have wander lust in their eyes. I am sure, if at that moment somebody had looked into our eyes, he would have seen beside amazement, a mass of yellow flowers smiling.

The final assault on Dawarian pass did not present any unsurpassable difficulties, perhaps we were still wandering amongst the yellow flowers and drunk with their beauty did not realize of any dangers, if there were any.

Finally we were there and down below in a valley of greens a small lake glistened in the midday sun.

“Tarar sahib in front of you is the Ratti Gali area and there is your dream lake”, informed the exuberant Bashir.

My heart sank; it was not much of a lake, just a mass of water surrounded by some greenery. So I had fabricated, manufactured in my nostalgic mind the image of a lake that did not exist, this was the end of a dream. And at that very moment, when out of depression I could have jumped from my horse into the nearby ravine Bashir added, “This is the first lake sir, the other one is still hidden behind those looming glaciers. It will come into view shortly.” Then it flashed through my mind, that standing on top of the Ratti Gali peak it was the second lake, situated at a considerable height amongst the mass of blue mountains and glaciers. There was hope.

We did not exactly descend into the valley below, rather travelled at par with the opposite mountains on a green slope. Suddenly we found ourselves on a precarious slope, falling almost vertically into the deep ravine on our left side. There was a well trodden goat track. But what was amazing was that our horses managed to balance themselves and placing their hooves on the right track.

Previously I had enjoyed the ride, at times glancing at the first lake or making fun of Khan Salim’s horse, who, at times, suddenly decided to abandon the path and head straight for the valley. And when Salim tried to bring him back to the path, the wayward animal would go round and round in circles, like a dog chasing his own tail. But now, I was so terrified that I just looked straight and prayed.

At one time just per chance, I looked at Salim’s horse, and lo and behold, the beast would, at times, when there was no place to put his hooves, will dangle one of his legs in the air for a while and then trod on. Now this circus act on an almost vertical cliff terrified me, because if Salim’s horse was doing this trick, surely my mount was also indulging in the same pastime.

And just then, emerged out of the blue mountains, lush green slopes, and in the lap of white snows, a lake on the dark blue magical waters floated big chunks of glaciers like huge white swans.

“I was right, I was right,” I started shouting like a mad old man, which I was, because what I had seen almost forty-seven years ago as a young man was not the product of my nostalgic romantic emotions, but a reality, a fact. In fact, it was even more beautiful than what I had been dreaming. When you want to pay the highest tribute possible to a painter or an actor, you say he is the painter’s painter or actor’s actor, so I will say, with all my honesty, that this Ratti Gali or Dawarian Lake is a lake’s Lake. My companions also were too dumb founded to speak; they just smiled and smiled.

Unfortunately our tight schedule did not permit us to abandon our path and head for the glorious miracle of blue waters so without taking our eyes off that dream which was a reality we headed for the summit of Ratti Gali peak. Again, after forty-seven years I was standing on top of that red mountain which was the first height I ever scaled. The only difference was that in those days, I had trekked and reached it from the other side.

While we glanced at the Ratti Gali lake for the last time, there was one satisfaction in not reaching its shores and spending a night there; we will come again. Let there be a few unfulfilled desires to cherish and hope.

While descending on the Ratti Gali glacier we abandoned our horses for a while and chose to tread on our own feet because Ghorawala Salim had informed us gleefully that coming down from the summit, the last time, one of their horses fell into the ravine and the gora-loog had kindly paid them a huge sum in compensation. We chose to walk because we could not afford to pay for a dead horse. They never told us what happened to the rider, and if he was dead, then who paid for him.

The valley broadened, gujjer encampments appeared on the slopes. As the dogs barked, we camped by Nuri Nar Nullah beside a glacier, sitting outside our erected tents we saw Ratti Gali peak in the last rays of sunset turning into pure gold.

By tomorrow evening we will be back in Burawai, back to normality, back to ‘civilization’, chained in respectability, taking-off our trekking attire to become normal and gentlemen, back to my writing desk and TV studios for another year. Soon the glow on Ratti Gali peak dimmed and darkness engulfed it but there was a glimmer of hope in our entire being, we will someday return, cross Ratti Gali and reach the Dawarian lake and spend a night there. Maybe those floating icebergs were not icebergs at all but real swans? We will return someday and find out.

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