14th September, 2020
Fortune is smiling upon me today as I am on my way to write the most important feature, the biggest story of my life. It came as no surprise when my esteemed editor assigned me the task to work on this specific story. I had expressed my desire a few days ago, to go off-site & explore this particular subject of interest: a six-thousand year old fortress in the uncharted Himalayan ranges. The global media went into a tizzy when about a week ago, a group of mountaineers released a video on social media. The film had captured the moments of the fortress’s discovery & the death of one of the mountaineers. Given the nature of the ruthless, snowy terrain only one television news channel has managed to reach this lofty, ancient monolith.
To stumble upon a structure older than myth & still so well-preserved is a rare occurrence & to get an opportunity to personally investigate such wonder is a life-time opportunity. There are four of us travelling in the chartered plane owned by nation’s biggest news-network. The magazine I work for, being the network’s sister agency, has been asked to represent the unraveling of this antediluvian marvel ensconced between the snow, stone & the inclement climes of Himalayas. We’ll soon be landing at the last airstrip of the Indian frontier. We will then hop on a chopper that would take us most of the way. Beyond that comes the biggest challenge—climbing for about a thousand feet on foot, up & around the deathly-cold, blustery slopes. It is also why our fellowship of four needed to be that of young, physically fit & determined individuals. Remo is a beefy cameraman known for his brilliant coverage of the recent war between India & Pakistan. Swara is the striking reporter who recently also scaled Mt. Everest. Shaam, our photographer is the eldest in the group, thirty-five & graying but fit enough to have captured some awe-inspiring images for various nature & wildlife magazines & organizations. All in all the company is that of some really talented, curious & daring people—myself not included, for compared to others I’m still a rookie when it comes to a challenging story.
The fortress: about this wonder we have discussed much at length. Just as my companions in this expedition-of-a-lifetime, I share the same feverish interest & thrill sparkling in our eyes every time the fortress is mentioned. From the first images that were released of the vast-arching entrance, some interesting facts have been revealed. For example: the series of inscriptions etched all over the stone, with a finesse that remains visible even after the travails of time & weather. The script is being touted to predate even the oldest languages. The peculiar fact about the language is the use of symbols along with letters.
There are three large doors under the arch covered with the inscriptions—of these two have been blocked by huge boulders & a set of false panels. It was the latter that caused the death of the mountaineer. Even as I pen down my thoughts, the entire world is watching & re-watching the clip on the social media. They are talking about the fortress in Himalayas everywhere & much of it has to do with that one death accompanying its discovery. I saw a man at the airport watching the clip with his entire family—a wife, two kids & man’s mother, all huddled over the phone’s screen. They watched those seconds of horror again & again where the mountaineer walks a little further from his excited friends—apparently attracted by something he had noticed near one of the blocked doorways—steps onto the stone that suddenly gives way, dropping the mountaineer into some bottomless chasm. The kids made their father repeat the sequence & the father complied. He was as fascinated as his kids, his wife & mother—but hadn’t death always held a fascination for us humans? As much as we fear it, there is this thing with death that has always held Homo-sapiens in a sense of mystery. Call it perversion or adaptability but the social media is replete with clips of accidents, grievous injuries & cataclysms caught on the camera. Maybe seeing death makes us realize how fickle life is, but the fact remains: the mountaineer’s death was like oil-catching-fire.
I have about ten minutes before we begin our descent. The faces look flushed with the prospect of our imminent adventure. I am seething with the fantasy of standing before the fortress—but it is the hope of finding who created the mystical bastion at twenty-four thousand feet that is haunting me like a shadow. Who were those people who spoke a language unknown to modern man? If decoded & understood, the fortress & its secrets might help us go back in time & learn what we can from what the stones have to tell. Who knows, it might turn out to contain relic & treasures or better, knowledge from the Vedic or pre-Vedic ages? I can already think of scenarios where the fortress might turn out to have connections to epics Mahabharata or Ramayana.
Possibilities are endless: from the seat of some ancient king to Stairway to Heavens.