Leh-Ladakh : Pillion rider's chronicles - Part 2!

6 souls, a wonderland, 2626 kms and sheer willpower! – The journey made thus!

Chapter 2 : Indore-Jammu-Srinagar

1^st June 2014

We left for Jammu from Indore and loaded 2 of our souls, our carriers, our BIKES…onto the train. Filled the remainder petrol in empty bottles and hid them in our hand luggage, which by the way, wasn’t much. But, we managed! On this entire journey, you will hear a lot of “But, we managed!!” The train journey was as always, fun. We laughed, danced, some people fought, everybody freshened up (it seems crazy but is one of the most important things whilst on a similar trip) and waited with impatience as the train crawled into Jammu station on the 2^nd. There was a delay of 3 hours and the parcel office shut by then. The adventure had begun! Our initial calculation of reaching Udhampur the same night went for a toss. We stayed put in the Transit Camp at Jammu (these were to become our second home with the journey progressing) for the night and reached the station again at 9.30 next morning. 

3^rd June 2014

SS (Sachin and Sanjay) went to offload the bikes and we finally got them at around 11 am. The Bull (Capt. Sanjay aka Capt Nitin’s bike) was missing the fuel pipe. So SS went to fix it and we finally sat on our carriers for the very first time! With no clue as to where she would take us, the unexpected turned out to be the best element on this trip! 

                                    The half loaded carrier

The ride had begun! The first few kilometers were a little scary as both the pillions were not used to bike-riding, in the real sense of the word. As I came to know later on, there was some T-shirt pulling even on the other bike! Our ways of expressing that we were a little scared sitting behind might have been different but the sentiment was mutual! :p This however lasted a few kilometers as we began trusting our riders! It was beside the point that they were our own husbands but trust suddenly gained a new and an exciting dimension! All I had to do was tell myself “He is as worried about you and the bike as his own self, if not more! So cut the paranoia!” That made me relax with each passing minute and Avenger suddenly became the best chair I had ever sat on, only much much longer!! :p :p 

We reached Udhampur and had lunch. The Avvy got a flat tire right outside a puncture shop (God was with us in this entire trip) and by the time we had it fixed, the sun was way over our heads and planning to set. We started the real ride after 4 pm (this was to prove our favourite timeslot later on) and then proceeded to cross the Pir Panjal range near Patnitop. This was our first PASSing encounter. Mud with water mixed in it, what we call “chikhal” in Marathi is lethal for a bike. So is gravel, sand, snow and the worst is melting or ted snow! This is knowledge gathered and I can proudly say - “But, we managed!!”. Having crossed the first minor pass, we decided to hit Srinagar straight and skipped Sanasar. The road was actually good by the standard that we established after the trip ended. We crossed Banihal at around 10.30 pm, met some bikers on the way who thumbs uped us! Much required as we needed some strength to make it to Srinagar. As we were told, we waited for the stretch where the ‘Punjab plains’ were to hit. They did in the last 50 or so kilometers and we could give the Bull and the Avvy a smooth raise. 

FACTOFILE :

Route : Jammu - Udhampur - Batote - Bahinal - Qazigund - Anantanaag - Awantipore - Srinagar.

Distance covered : 325 kms  

Total time taken : Around 14 hours (10 hours of actual riding + meals/recoup/repair halts)

 

Leh-Ladakh : Pillion rider's chronicles!

6 souls, a wonderland, 2626 kms and sheer willpower! – The journey made thus!

Chapter 1: The Pre-paration!

                                                         Image Courtesy : Sanjay Dwivedi

The Leh fever caught on pretty early. 3 months prior began all the online shopping and the friendly 3 pm buzz in the afternoons became a routine. Parcels delivered would be opened and awed at. I had never known what the likes of saddle bags, tank bag, knee and elbow pads, barcalava masks were! The sheer wonderment soon built up into curiosity leaving us hungry for more. I started reading up on bike rides and decided to undergo some basic weight and cardio training. 

It proved to be a pretty uphill task, way before we even reached the hills! I slowly increased weights and Shiva (gym trainer) structured the way my cardio exercises were to happen everyday. Legs day, chest-shoulder-biceps, back and triceps suddenly assumed meaning in my life. The best part was that I was enjoying every bit of it, precisely why I could even continue easily. My waist line became inversely proportional to my dedication and it was great to see the results, like literally! These 2 months were to prove crucial in my onward journey in Leh as someone who could not walk without bated breath for a kilometer, now could easily cover a few uphill, sometimes even giving our carrier a push! That was a mountain-change…just being situational ;) ;)

With just a week left for the trip, we started with shopping for medical and other essentials. Bought a few tees that would look good with the cargo pants we had got stitched locally (good decision!) and leather boots (even better!). Hemu (co-pillion) and self went CSD (Army canteen) hopping for helmets, toiletteries, medicines and other 'chakna' items for the train journeys. The day and the night before, I downloaded songs and successfully transferred them onto my new mobile (ohh that required some running around too…) (and btw…best decision!) and had all our stuff rolled and packed into the saddle bags. The tank bag was filled with handy essentials and valuables. With our jackets and shoes in place, we were ready to embark upon a journey that was to leave an untold and an uncalled for impact on our lives! Though untold, this is a humble attempt to pen down what we went through and what went through us!

FACTOFILE : 

Route : Jammu – Srinagar – Sonamarg – Dras – Kargil – Leh – Khardung La – Nubra Valley – Leh – Pangong Tso – Merak – Karu – Upshi – Chumathang – Mahe - Tso Kar – Pang - Sarchu – Keylong – Manali – Nahan – Dehradoon.

Distance covered : 2626 kms

Total days : 14 days including 2 rest days

Passes : Banihal, Zoji La, Khardung La, Chang La, Polokung La, Lachung La, Namik La, Baralacha La, Rohtang.  

   

Memories : Lasting a lifetime!

Riders : Sachin Ozarkar and Sanjay Dwivedi.

Pillions : Saroj Joshi and Hemu Sundriyal.

 

 

Review by Narayani - 'Blasphemy'

A very close friend of mine, Narayani Karthik, a prolific blogger and a multi-tasker herself, has generously offered to contribute a small guest post on her review of Tehmina Durrani's famous work "Blasphemy". I extend my heartfelt gratitude and hope to encourage more posts from her. Her take and I agree......

"I have read the book blasphemy.....I personally felt it was disturbing beyond imagination........and tehmina durrani is an accomplished author...no doubts but I am not sure if that book is entirely true but yes....it cannot be completely untrue considering the regressive and feudal fabric of their society.....however the flip side of her life is she chose to suffer the horrors of marital abuse at the hands of mustafa her second husband.....'my feudal lord' being her autobiography.....and it is her life that makes me wonder how women can ruin their own lives.....by choice....in her autobiography....she was at NO instance of time helpless enough to NOT get out of the hell hole she jumped in with full conviction knowing in the first place that her husband was a devil incarnate....well......notwithstanding all that.....she is talented and has a great writing style.....my point is a woman needs to stop herself from getting engulfed by some Stockholm's syndrome despite her stack of degrees and professional success.....she has to just fight back.....there can be many emotional loops but then when it comes to a do or die....she must know when to step out and where to shout....and that is what the world needs today...as you have so beautifully pointed out.....she needs to study and stand on her feet and should be able to lead her life sans any dependence on a male counterpart........ The recent lynching incident is a typical mob outburst..and....like showing Mukesh Singh's interview in the recent documentary was ridiculous.....so I heard as am yet to see it...but if they have....it is downright wrong....(except if a few 'shrinks' decided to study the specimen as a case study....if you remember the nithari killings villain who was kind of 'preserved' till he was hanged)......why cant these people just die......and what is the need to study an animal who one knows for sure is a menace......and is supposed to be destroyed once and for all rather than being 'studied'.

Coming to women, high time women need to learn self defensive techniques so that they set examples......that they cannot be walked over like doormats....."

The Quint ‘essential’(??) HIM

                               

In the wake of the recent outcry over what « Mukesh » (read monster in-famed 16th December catastrophe) said, many journalistic masterpieces have come my way, each with a different perception. This is a humble try and a not-so-humble cry to put across what I feel needs to change in our ever-regressing society. With Ekta Kapoor adding crores to her bank account by manipulating the already distraught and misguided junta of our country, it is time we think, act and believe, a bit differently. A recent book that caught my attention, curiosity and empathy, a much awaited read titled ‘Blasphemy’ by Tehmina Durrani, the literary work echoed what lied deep within and what needed to be projected in an attempt to make a difference. Hence, the article.

I wonder why I began with a justification even. Maybe somewhere deep down, women are orchestrated to believe that they are to behave in a certain way. I wonder why. Because my upbringing and the societal set-up did not stop, rather only encouraged my creativities from coming upfront and challenging the patriarchal mind set of our country. It is only when I stepped out of Bombay did I realize that the world is totally different from what I perceived it to be, inside my bubble. My parents and professors had warned me of this but as they say, experience is the best and the worst teacher. With increasing instances of crimes and woman-slaughter in this country, it is really high…or should I say the lowest-possible time to introspect. As I believe, the seeds of crime lie deep within our social structures and the way boys and men are brought up, treated and made to believe, since early childhood. The recent advertisement (is it a pure co-incidence that avertissement in French means a warning??) by Madhuri Dixit on “yeh sikhao ki ladke rulate nahi!” is a welcome change that will make you inspect as to whether the boy in the house is following it! 

Appalling sex ratios are a testimony to the fact that we are regressing and rooting deeper in the rut with each passing day. The quintessential “HIM” or the need for a HEIR carrying the name of the family has blinded people. How about welcoming a HER as well, educating her and helping her stand on her feet so that she too, like her male counterpart, can lead a dignified and a closer-to-just life?  Women too are equally to be blamed in this ‘khandaan roshan’ business with mothers waiting for years to get a bahu rather than their sons getting a wife. Aren’t two mature people supposed to marry each other in equal measure? With more and more girls excelling in every field these days, Indian men are going to have a hard time keeping the ‘Indianness’ of marriages alive. It will take time but a process is already gaining roots in cities and it will surely reach the far corners of the country, albeit at a glacial pace. But somewhere, the change has begun and gladly. 

Globalisation is rightly a ‘do-dhaari talwar’ but we must not forget that there are no free lunches. Development will come at its cost but the least that we can teach our children is to respect everyone equally. Our constitution guarantees Right to Equality where caste, creed, gender, race, language etc. should not be a barrier. Having said that, I (read similar-minded, no-male-haters and believer in equal-opportunities group) am in no way supportive of or justifying the ‘ladies-first’ cult! ‘Give ladies a chance’ in itself is an aberration and ticks off the unjust bomb in my head. The very acceptance of being ‘given’ a chance means that I know that I need one. I don’t. I can make my own name, have my own space and still manage myself without a male supporting me, financially or any other way. It is also not to be forgotten that people of equal merit deserve equal rights and if a lady does not fit the criterias, she should be shown the door. Doors are anyways not always meant to be opened for us! 

Coming back to the upbringing issue, as they say, it all starts at home, like literally. Parents have a bigger responsibility that any other in teaching their kids to be humane, respectable and respecting, just and open-minded. Irrespective of whom they are dealing with, in the society. A cultured person, man or woman alike is the one who treats another as an INDIVIDUAL. What is the need to attach attributes of gender, religion, region, caste or creed to him or her? Why can’t he or she be respected for what he or she is, believes in or stands for? Roles and statuses are a sociological phenomenon concocted to suit the societal needs. If travelling has taught me anything the most in particular, it is the value that is attached to a person, no matter the origin or no matter the work. Why segregate what a man does from what his female counterpart does? Even worse, why judge people on the basis of that? It comes as a shock to me when people pass a judgment on the basis of what I can’t do or rather refuse to do, than on the basis of what I can. The age-old ‘ghar ka chirag’ needs to flutter to throw light at other issues facing our country. We need, as mothers and fathers, to accept that the bride and the groom have been brought up with equal love, effort and dedication. If anything, parents are more cautious when their daughters are anywhere but home given their vulnerability to the insecure milieu outside and thus put in more efforts. Does that make you not have one at all? And since when did you start having a choice anyway? What thought process can be more pathetic and degrading than this? Doesn’t it make you want to teach your son a few things about how he should conduct himself? He too will come across girls who are someone else’s daughter/sister/mother or even grandmother these days! Inhumane and outrageous crimes have cut all age bars!! 

The medieval unjust treatment meted out ever since a child is born needs to be uprooted. ‘Do not indulge in a thing that is unjust, unethical or illegal’ is what needs to be ingrained. It doesn’t matter if you are a boy or a girl. No one is above the law and if such behavioral patterns are nipped in the bud, many less “Mukeshs” will be born, nurtured and cultivated and many more Nirbhayas will be saved. Tell your boys to behave themselves when telling your girls too, to be well-mannered. Else, the day won’t be far where more and more unfortunate lynching incidents too will start to be justified, albeit again, equally illegal!    

KIT KAT break bunta hai ! :)

Changing titles and keeping easily comprehensible ones is under a consideration but my creative independence, however self-proclaimed, refuses to give me that liberty ! So I continue with my tradition of writing weird titles and even weirder posts ! No compulsions on reading...;) In case you do, would appreciate a comment !

I re-read my blog today after 15 months and no other title would have been more apt ! Ironically enough, somebody had asked me a decade back "So what is that you would want to become in your next birth?" I had said without the slightest hesitation "A squirrel !" The same very squirrel is teaching me a nice lesson today by doing a guest appearance in the new Kit Kat ad and the ad says promptly..."Break toh bunta hai !" I relived all those events which had inspired me to write last year and more importantly, had given me space enough to nurture something that I selflessly enjoy....penning down thoughts !! Nothing on this planet could get more enjoyable really ! And I decided at that very instant that no matter what I do in life, this is one thing I am going to pursue !

Would love to dedicate this post to like minded people who claim not to have time (even if they really don't) to go buy a Kit Kat ! Its a shame that my fingers did not wriggle this desperately to type all that rests in that tiny head of mine all this while ! We run and run until its too late to turn back and recall some wonderful moments spent in life and forget to relive them. We let so much time pass that it gets impossible to feel the same again !! I don't want to make that mistake and I urge my friends to join me for instance ! On other occasions, I have been crazy enough not to wisely ask anybody to be in my shoes !! They are way too colourful ! :) Anyways, I just recollected those wonderful times when I was in sync with anything that was more creative in life ! And I suddenly realised that I have taken it too seriously ! Things that I missed in these 15 months...writing, day-dreaming, sheepishly looking at things...and much more !! Though there are things which I will always have time for..food, loud laughter !! :p

True, chapters start and end and you have books to finish but I just took the pains of looking back at the Index and getting the HIGHlights of the recent past ! And I want to do this periodically. It helps preserve friendships, something that I cherish for life, some brush strokes that you can't and you won't want to brush aside, some lovely encounters that last longer than you live and just a rememberance of all these things which has made my life worth a while ! :)

Live it in a way that you would want to relive and not relieve of, every moment of it ! :)