Camping at 13000 feet.

Last year on the 28th of December we began our climb to Kedarkanta Peak. It is a very famous and frequented trek, which you must be aware of if you are an Indian on Instagram, or ever got fascinated by treks.

In hindsight, the most remarkable thing about the trek was human behavior. 

Except on the previous day we started, we were supposed to do our business inside a tent with a hole dug in the ground. That was the rule of the mountains, with no lavish facilities. 

Unknown people accompanied each other, with them sharing wet wipes, tissues, handwashes, and water of handwash. Everything was just at an arm's distance whenever somebody needed it, even at the altitude where finding liquid water was no more than a luxury.

I particularly remember a snow trail. It was a very narrow climb with just one noncareful step, and it would be impossible to locate your body in the deep valley on the other side. But some of us, including myself stood in the middle of the climb held hands with several other people, and helped them cross, where one wrong move could easily have cost their life. 

And I wonder how people in the village never pay for some of the things we have to pay heavily for in the cities that I live in. There is always somebody happy to feed you, whenever my mom walks out of the gate several people are inviting her to their home and I dare you if you can refuse them to serve a cup of tea and snacks. The other she went out to somebody's house and got back with kilograms of drumsticks. A few days back it was tomatoes and then tamarind, and the list continues.

Our Home in the village has three huge mango trees, and every day of summer my mother gives away scores of mangos to random people homegrown and organic which cost extra in the air-conditioned supermarkets of my city. Here we never pay for lemons, guavas, papayas, or literally anything that grows in your neighbor, or acquaintance's backyard

Lack of resources is not always a problem, sometimes it's an underappreciated luxury.