Shrishti Reborn

Chapter 35. Third day of the Vacation

The third day of the vacation, the five of them had late breakfast as they wanted Shrishti to have a good night's sleep. As Shrishti ate with them, she asked them about the day's plans.

'Zoo? We are going to zoo?' Shrishti made a face of dislike. Meanwhile, Megha was happy and excited. 'I like zoo!'

Shrishti sighed. 'It is not that I dislike it. I just find it boring.'

And boring it was for Shrishti. Everyone gasped and oohed and aahed at every animal they saw at the zoo. But Shrishti was bored. But she decided to be a good sport about it and instead of complaining about boredom, she became the camera guy for the day. Her phone was filled with photos of the excited and awed expressions of Megha and her Pappa, the two people who were actually the most excited about the animals. There were some pictures of Raghav too whose eyes would widen with wonder at seeing certain animals. Then there were photos of Arpit who decided that he should take photo with every animal in the zoo. So every photo of him had some animal in the background. Funnily, those became her favourite pictures of the zoo because when she was taking photos, Arpit made such funny faces while pointing at the animals in the background that it had her in splits the whole time.

The zoo they had visited was Padmaji Naidu Himalayan Zoological Park. It held all kinds of Himalayan animals with so many varieties of goats that it had Shrishti's head spinning. While Shrishti might have been bored during the zoo trip, even she could not help but get excited when they saw one of the rarest animals on the planet, a red panda, an endangered species. It climbed on the trees and the crowd went wild trying to spot it and follow its movements. This was the only one time, Shrishti demanded that someone took a photo of her with the panda in the background. Pappa took the photo for her and she could not help but post it online right away. The red panda was really cute!

Nestled inside the Zoo was the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute where young ones were provided with fun climbing activities. Megha was not interested in trying them despite her wish the other day to climb Mount Everest. The older three teased her about it but she remained resolute till she saw the zip line created for children. That did the trick and Shrishti and Megha's brothers cheered as Megha rode the zip line.

After that, it was time to check out the Mountaineering Institute Museum. The Institute was about Mountaineers who attempted to climb the Kanchenjunga range, including Mount Everest. It began with history of mountaineering before heading to the geography of the Himalayas from Kanchenjunga range to Karakorum range. Their guide was so good at telling the tale that Shrishti could feel herself standing on the ice, climbing towards the summit while frost bit her toes and shivers racked through her body.

The equipment of early mountain climbing were part of the exhibits and even some of the parts that were actually used by the climbers. The story about some of the mountaineering heroes moved Shrishti to tears and she once again realised how insignificant she was when it came to the world. The real world was so much bigger than the small world she had lived in. Her obsession with Sharad, her insecurities, her jealousy, all seemed so small and insignificant. Even the fear of going down the same route again seemed silly and small when compared to the world.

Suddenly, Shrishti wanted to be brave. She wanted to let go of her fears. She knew herself. She knew that her fears would come back later. But for a while, she wanted to be brave. She moved over to where Raghav stood. He was reading the plaque under one of the equipment enthusiastically.

'Enjoying yourself?', Shrishti asked Raghav.

He was jolted out of his thoughts and looked at her with confusion. She chuckled at his reaction.

'I asked, are you enjoying yourself?'

He nodded, his eyes softened upon seeing her. 'It is interesting and entertaining.'