Soaring Beyond Fear - A Life-Changing Leap

Dharamshala - a quaint hill station nestled in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh. The moment I remember the place several glimpses of my visit flash in front of me rapidly. The crowded yet cosy town centre, the several small stores selling almost everything under the sun. The wonderful Norbulingka monastery and its exceptionally skilled artisans create "Thangkas", artworks that take extreme dedication and several months to complete. If there's a place that I owe the most for making my life's journey so much more beautiful, it is Dharamshala. A place where I jumped off a cliff and flew like a bird while experiencing true liberation from my fears.

It was the second year of my marriage and except for the marriage, everything else was on a rocky path. My wife felt we both needed to unwind so she signed me up for a trip along with the entire clan of in-laws who were planning for this trip months in advance. When we reached Dharamshala, my brother-in-law's eye caught the several small shops that were offering paragliding experience. He suggested it to everyone and to my shock not one of them seemed worried about it. I still remember my wife screeching with joy, "Yayy!! We're gonna paraglide" and all I could comprehend was "Yayy!! We are all gonna die". That night I imagined all possible disastrous scenarios in my mind.

The morning arrived and before I could make sense, we were in the back of a pick-up truck going up towards the top of the hill from we were going to jump. I still remember the pilot, a young 18-year-old boy telling me, "Sir it's not jumping, it's gliding". I smiled and resisted the urge to speak my mind. My wife, her mother and her sister were in the cabin next to the driver so I really couldn't see their faces and know what was going on in their mind. At the back right opposite me was my brother-in-law whose face told me that he was regretting this decision quite vehemently. I had my back to the cliff but I could see from his face that it wasn't a sight I would have enjoyed.

The vehicle stopped and we were all asked to disembark. It was a place covered with trees and the road was nothing but moss-covered rocks. One of the pilots pointed us towards a narrow opening among the trees and I stepped through it only to be stunned at the sight. It was a huge open space at the top of the hill that we so perilously climbed. I could see other hills around us. The sun was shining bright making the dew drops on the grass and the leaves glisten. It took me a few seconds to register the group of people at a distance religiously going about fixing up gliders and quite literally making people fly.

I dragged myself to the place where the pilot was setting up the gliders and a group of 3-4 people started strapping me onto the glider that was spread out behind me. One of them came to me and said, "Sir you will have to run as you are heavy and the glider will need a boost to lift you up." As he finished saying this, my wife who getting prepped right next to me rose up in the air due to a strong gust of wind and started her gliding adventure. My heart sank so deep I wasn't sure if it was there anymore. Once the pilot was also harnessed with me, two boys held onto either side of my glider straps and started pulling me towards the cliff. I looked at them and then at the rapidly approaching cliff drop. Right, when I thought we were going down the cliff the glider caught the wind and we soared into the air.

For the first couple of seconds, I was making myself believe that I was flying and not falling. We were gliding close to the several hills, snaking through the narrow cliffs. The pilot asked me to look ahead and before he finished we were gliding over a vast open field or rather several fields of green and brown and yellow. The ground below looked like beautiful patches sewn together into an elegant fabric. The pilot asked me to look to my right and there it was, the most majestic sight I had seen... The Pir Panjal Range. I asked him if we could go there, and he just laughed in response.

To date, I can feel the silence that filled my ears, my heart and even my soul. It was not the deafening silence that you hear in a dark forest but one that drowns out all the worries, frustrations, grudges and anger in you. That day when I was slowly descending to the earth I realized that all my problems and frustration were actually insignificant. I realized how the countless fears I had stacked up inside me were holding me back. Fear of heights, fear of losing, fear of dying... That day while I was floating through the cold mountainous air like an amber leaf in autumn, I realized that true freedom was in losing all sense of fear.

If you ask me whether I am an absolutely fearless and mentally clear individual now, I would be honest and say I am far from it. I still have fears that don't let me sleep at night. I still feel I am fighting some never-ending battles with the world. But whenever I start to go deeper into this realm of fear. I close my eyes and try to bring back the silence that healed me all those years back in a magical place called Dharamshala.