The Miracle Of Misfortune

"One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as a big adventure"

On 4th April 2017, a new chapter and experience of my life began, being 8 years of age, it was quite enjoyable sitting in a car with my 2 grown-up dogs and my parents going to Jammu & Kashmir from Mathura, UP in a 4-seater Maruti Swift ( which I'm pretty sure is even older than me) by road for another one of my dad's postings. I grew up watching Marvel, Harry Potter, and fantasizing shows, so this was no less of an escapade for me. It was going to take 3 days to reach. It was our 3rd and last day for the journey, and it was another couple of hours until we were crossing Banihal, a town, and a notifies area committee in Ramban district. It was an area highly prone to landslides. Just as we were moving past it, there was a very consequential landslide completely blocking the path. We were stuck on the road along with 300 other vehicles at the edge of a deep valley and just to add to our unfortunate events it started raining and soon after hail started as well. Eventually, it was dusk and we started getting hungry but all we had were a few biscuit packets and chocolates and upon the circumstances, we had to adjust to that entirely. Finally, then came the sleeping part, there was the most minimal of places and one of my real-life nightmares, soon after the cold began to be unbearable and we slept in some curtains that my mom, fortunately, forgot to pack. We went for another 2 days like this!.

Until a friend of my dad's told us that there was a temple nearby, where we could stay. We agreed and went there until we saw what was next on the list, it's still the tiniest room that I have ever seen in my life, it was still raining and snow added on the menu soon after, the room was open as the only thing covering it was a rusted tin door and laying there was the half of a single bed, and all that was on my mind was "what would batman have done if he were here?" it was the unfriendliest time of my life. We didn't eat anything that night because our priority was surviving the night rather than eating food as I still remember it, the weather was almost -8 degrees Celcius. Later that night we got to know that they were a BSF troop cooking some food for themselves from them we requested some for our dogs. We still somehow survived the night and before we knew it, a new day had begun, and much to our luck the landslide was cleared, and when we went ahead with our journey. Now the lesson I'm taking from our little "adventure" is wherever you go ALWAYS check the weather first!