On Top Of The World...

Ganesh festival is one of my favorites, every year it gives me a life time experience and memories. This year was also not an exception J This year I mate few really interesting personalities, most of us were not knowing them till 19 May, 2012 – successful summit of Mt. Everest.

Two young boys, Prasad Joshi and Ganesh More came to our colony, to show us the short film on Giripremi's Mt.Everest expedition. It was an informal get together sort of session and we were free to ask anything to them. Boys stood up on the stage, and whole environment got filled up with a well deserved, big round of applause. The film started and none of us could say a single word in between. Expressions on our faces were enough to express our feelings and reactions. We were witnessing one of the most difficult expeditions; with our brave mountaineers and real heroes of the film J Every sec. in the film was full of Himalayan beauty and challenges. Expressions on the faces of two new friends were telling us much more than the film. Those huge, beautiful, snow covered, dangerous mountains have witnessed the bravery of our young friends. Film explained us the total journey, right from the idea of this expedition till the Mt. Everest summit, the highest point on earth. Team was preparing for this big challenge emotionally, mentally, physically and financially for last couple of years. While mentioning this, team also thanked every one for their direct and indirect support.

The film ended up with lots of questions and curiosities in our minds. But I swear, no one could utter a word for 10- 15 min. It was so stunning. Then Prasad started sharing the experiences they had at Pune, Delhi, Base camp etc. and we also started shooting our questions to him :P We could see the happiness in his eyes when he told us that, he was the first amongst their team to step on to the Mt. Everest. We could feel the pain in his voice, when he was telling us that few of his team mates could not summit, due to some technical problems. We asked him silly questions as well like What you used to eat and drink during this? How is culture at Mt. Everest? How you managed to cope up with emotional balance? I asked Prasad, we know Mt. Everest as the highest point, but is it a peek? I mean can more than one person stand on Everest at a time? I know its one of the silly questions but he answered it as we can stand in a group as well, but due to rush it’s not possible. The answers created few more questions, obviously how THERE can a rush? But yes, every year a lot of many people try to summit the Mt. Everest, but only few gets succeeded and one of such brave man was standing with us J.

Prasad told us, during their journey form camp I to Mt. Everest, every team member was accompanied by a Sherpa, each of them were frequent visitor to Mt. Everest. There is a Sherpa, who have visited Mt. Everest 22 times :O :O :O .We also got know that, when teams from other countries try to summit, they have few professional videographers and cameramen in the team, who actually prepares the video and present it for the rest of world, but with our Indian team, no cameraman was there, whole shooting and photos are taken by team member.  The treasury of experiences was unlimited and time was running too fast. Finally we promised for another get together and winded up the show.

I returned home, but could not sleep; all the pictures were coming in front of my eyes, one by one. My heart was Congratulating the Giripremi Team and all direct and indirect supports. Big Thanks to the whole Team, for creating such a wonderful film and taking us with you; on top of the world…!!!