Sipping away lukewarm tea from a steel cup on a cold evening with an amazing mountain view. I was thinking of how the other side of it would look. The sun was about to set, the clouds were too dark to reflect the gold in the sun. The wind was gaining speed. For a guy completely tucked in the down jacket and a hat, it wasn’t much for me but still I could sense the breeze hit me from somewhere. May be it was just a feeling. The red flower on the flower pot was swinging along with the breeze as if a person shaking along in the style of the 60’s to a Beatles song.

“Shake it up baby now, twist and shout”  the tune played in my head as the flower kept shaking on to the tune rhythmically. May be that was it, I could see the swinging flower and knew there was a breeze going along or may it was just a feeling. I like the cold breeze, the one that comes with the Snowfall, too much of it will be too hard to handle but just the appropriate amount feels good.

Wondering about the stuff of the trails, I stayed on the front porch of the hotel with bent legs against the wall of the kitchen right outside the kitchen door. Chairs are good but floors are more comfortable, there’s freedom to how you want to sit. It’s specially good when you can extend you legs and fall on your back and bask in the sun. There’s nothing I love more than basking in the sun. But at that instant there was no warmth of the Sun, just the cold of the evening. I spread the legs and took my phone out started reading from the last chapter where I had stopped.

“Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe”  – so far the book has been so good. 

At times there was this chills in the air, a breeze that would partly pass by me but the jacket and the thermals that I had. This was my favorite part of trekking, sitting down on the floor after a long days walk sipping a cup of tea, either enjoying the view or reading a book.

“What time do you want your dinner?” the hotel owner asked

“Around 7:30 pm should be fine” I replied with a fake smile.

I am pretty bad at smiling, but I had to try smiling because it would have been rude. Not that it was a bad thing to smile but I just can’t seem to smile normally! 

As the time went by, the chills in the breeze got stronger and stronger, I could feel it against my jacket, it was a good one. So far it had been successful in stopping the cold air from reaching my skin. But somehow it felt uneasy as if something was wrong, I couldn’t figure out what. It a feeling, a sensation of some kind coldness in the skin. Finding it hard to pinpoint the location I continued reading the book.

By the time I was done with few chapters, the dinner was ready. The hotel owner asked me to come inside for the dinner. The well laid plate had a circular mound of rice, beans and potatoes, a Papad and some local pickle. There’s nothing better than having a stomach full of Daal-Bhaat at the end of a tiring days walk. As soon as I was done with the meal, I ordered a cup of black tea and headed off to the room. I need a cup of tea before I sleep.Back in the room, I changed and then entered the warmth of the blanket. A quick sip of the tea and it was time to get back to the book.

It was only in the morning that I realized that I had fallen asleep while reading the book (Ebook) I woke up in an awkward position with the loud call of my phone. The alarm kept on  ringing but I couldn’t figure out where my phone was. It was only few seconds later that I realized that it was on the floor. Must have slipped down from my hands when I fell asleep while reading the book.

I had to start my trek early in the morning so I went outside, the view was quite nice, enjoyed it for a short period of time and then headed of to the bathroom. Few minutes later I went to my room, on the way passing through the kitchen to ask them to make me something for the breakfast. I went back to my room, changed into my trekking trouser and headed back down. The Gurung breads with beans and potatoes were ready, after a short devouring time.

I started my trek.

After about 4 hours of walk that morning I was quite hungry so decided to stop for the morning meal. While ordering the Daal-Bhaat, I was basking in the sun, it was quite a warm morning. Pressed against the wall of the hotel with bent knees I was looking at the sight in front. A porter just arrived right on the trails, the hotel over looked the trails just outside its front door and from a open porch. He kept his load down and smiled at me.

“Something something something” He said something while panting, that I didn’t understand.

“Sorry! I didn’t understand” I replied

“Your trouser is torn in a funny place!”

“Oh!”

I looked down and realized that the trouser was torn right at the front rise, as a open window the fabric was open exposing the inside! So that’s what the late night chill was about last night! That finally made sense, the big hole in the front rise was the place from where I felt the cold in the air.

It was quite embarrassing, though thankfully it was a guy who told me about it, it hit me that it could have been well over few days that I was traveling like that. Since that was my favorite position to sit in, where ever I go I usually sit in that position.

I knew I had to change the trousers because, well it was unwearable! I went inside one of the rooms in the hotel, where I was having the Daal-bhaat and opened my bag. Drawing in all my clothes from inside, I tried hard to find another trouser. After about a minute of search I realized that it wasn’t there. Before I even started to think about where it might be- IT hit me!

I forgot it back at the Hot-Spring!! 

I had stopped at the Hot-spring and had to take bath in a trouser because I forgot to bring extra clothes to the Hot-spring, and since it was about 10-15 minutes walk down to the hot-spring it would take at least 30 minutes to go up so I had decided to take bath in a trouser.

I had returned back to the hotel, where I had ordered food and then let the dry trouser soak on the walls of the hotel, but while I left the hotel I forgot to bring back the trouser.

Now I was left with a torn trouser and still more than a week ahead of me. The only option was to find a needle and sew it. For now all I had to do was to keep my legs closed while I basked in the sun.

 

 

Epilogue

I couldn’t find a single needle to sew the trouser so I had to walk the whole trek at least about 9-10 days with the torn trouser. I remembered the situation most of the times but at times people would remind me of it embarrassingly as they walked passed me. There weren’t that many people or else may be I’d be famous as the trekker with torn trousers. The lesson is always keep an extra trouser (which I did) and keep a checklist of things that you take with you during a trek and just check it before and after you take out stuff from your bags!