2000 hrs. and the notification pop up on the small AMOLED display “Sooner the Better”. That sentence was the last among other itinerary for the Hike starting in next 11 hrs. That was a plan made soon after an intra-team poll casted for the initiation of Merit’s Hike for Motivation and Happiness (MHMH) program by the core-team of Merit Pokhara. Pokhara is indeed a small valley but it’s not that small when the topic is about the natural wealth it carries. The team was up, to explore all the hidden beauties, one at a time. A small team of active volunteers decided to let the laziness sleep alone in the bed on the loveliest Saturday morning. The reporting time for the start point was scheduled for 0700 hrs. and it’s quite an obvious rush for the members to get to the venue via crazy public transport. Out of all, only 11 of us became able to break-up with bed that dawn and two of the 11 were Misty and Jimmy, the heroes to survive horrors of their own street hurdles. We were destined to the newly build Lord Shiva’s Statue on top of Pumdi-Bhumdi hill enroute World Peace Pagoda. Sight-seeing wasn’t just the idea but to establish a healthy relation among our new and existing team members and enjoy the exploration of the frequently visited route by the lake side. Headed to the steep high hill, the team got a quick quiet quest on their heart, not verbalized but felt in veins to observe the Pokhara valley, the urbanization, the environment status -quo and more. We knew this hike route was not a rare one but the clarity of the route was not obvious at all. Despite of having a single way out to the top, there were many; we choose the oldest and the steepest one because we were ready to sweat and also satisfy from the eternal heart. Like the country, route was quite heterogeneous. The route was full of variety of shrubs and trees but they looked lonely and left-alone without the description of their name and family. Only if these things were considered, hundreds of people passing by those plants every day would have known each other with an ease; damn care about the Image Processing and Pattern Recognition apps. 20 minutes or so and there’s the lake by our side, a little deep but completely justified. The sonorous chirping of birds was glitter over gold. No commitments but of course the connections with the steady things gifted as the nature. Thank to mother earth for what you gave us. First hike for many and warm-up for few well trained trekkers, our team was a complete mess but the exemplary duos, Jimmy and Misty, encouraged the team every minute. Slow but steady, sweating but satisfied, trip was on and the time for pastries too. Grabbed a bite or two and again destined to the top, team was re-energized. They say “No short-cuts to success” but we’re seeking to have one that would take us through the fastest way out to the top. When we’ve a slight view of the mesmerizing Lake, who doesn’t want to view the full-size at first! The moment we crossed the forest and made it to the World Peace pagoda premises, we even got determined to make it higher; to the top of Pumdi-Bhumdi but then came a situation. Enroute Shiva’s Statue, we encountered a picnic-point but covered with trashes, unmanaged, recklessly littered all over the ground. There we stood; some got the time to take a break while the others still excited to head to the hill-top. We had a hard choice to make; swipe out the trashes and make the spot clean or ignore the garbage mess fouled with detritus. Most of us decided to go with the latter one while a few still on the option 1 and a few willing to ignore both. Clueless about the first picking but gradually we were able to make a way through garbage filled ground and swipe out all the litter. Categorized the waste; some burnt, some sacked for re-cyclers and some piled for decay. Happy to have helping hands from a neighbor who confessed that he was hopeless to make that ground clean again. Thanks to him for offering free hand-wash with water for cleaning ourselves. We changed the goal but got even happier from within as we were able to do something small to our nature that gives us so much from life to leaving. We shall always remember that nuclear/elementary family who enjoyed watching us clean the place with hands pack and rushed down to the ground right after it was worth littering again? First lunch of MHMH but too good to handle with added serenity. A quick photo session followed by downhill fun. We had a wonderful tea break by the HART offered heartily by Advisor Anjani Ji. Thus began the MHMH series waiting for the Trip-2 to happen soon.