A child asked its parent...

• What is empathy? What should i feel towards someone unfortunate if i were to meet one? I’ve never met or seen anyone that doesn't have similar privileges as I do so far in my life. When i meet someone like that, am i supposed to fear them? be indifferent? run the other direction?
• I have my own room ever since i can remember opening my eyes, how does it feel to share my space with others? without experiencing it, how do i get used to it? how do i know what it means to sleep on the floor in a small room with your entire family in the same room?
• What exactly are "deep-meaningful-relationships"? I feel like you are always in a “deep-meaningful-relationship” with those ~ 30 some people on the WhatsApp/ facebook and other social media.
• Birthdays, anniversaries, condolences, thank you, sorry, fights, making plans to meet, denying plans to meet, praise achievements, confirm locations, express affection, express gratitude, share laughs, fwds., everything is shared and expressed over WhatsApp. Does that mean all of the above command the same level of involvement & engagement? I find you engrossed in your phone often instead of being present with me  (i can understand that i exhaust you often, but still..) or with others that are hanging out with you - are you saying all that dedicated focus on your phone & WhatsApp isn’t about building a deep-meaningful relationship?
• Do you think I will be ok connecting with people in absence of devices and gadgets? Today when I meet my friends, after running around for sometime, I feel uncomfortable if I don’t retire to my gadget & apps, get cranky, need my dosage of being in front of a screen, perhaps i don’t really know how to disconnect, and perhaps i may not need to learn how to disconnect, but i think i might be better off learning how to deal with boredom, it might force me to be creative maybe?
• One of my friends once told Hitti-kaka: My mom is always busy, she is always working, even weekends, she has no time to talk even to me,,,, I really didn't know what to say to that...
• I think it will be different, to have just a casual conversation with you - no instructions, no reprimanding, no praising me over a trivial achievement, in fact the chat may not even be about me! (is that even possible..?) but just a simple parent-child banter, perhaps some memories of the past, your childhood, some daily trivia, just a  casual hang-out with your kid type of a conversation? Can we have that every once in a while?
• How do i learn how to go out of my way to be there for people in my life, not because i expect something in return, not because they helped me or you or someone in our family, and should pay it back, but just because, just because they matter, how do I feel comfortable asking for help? I never see you go out of your way to make it happen for anyone in your life except for me i guess? nor do I see anyone come to  us unless it's an event of some kind, does "being there for each other one way or the other" simply means sending emotions via WhatsApp for our times?
• How to tell if one of my friends needs me? Or how do i know if it’s ok to ask for help? is there an App for that? I have heard that helping someone and seeing their gratitude in return is priceless, it is also a big contributor to raising our level of well-being (Dalai Lama said so…),  also building self-confidence, feeling accomplished, being recognized as a helpful human is a significant source of internal joy (Desmond tu tu said so…), but without all of the questions answered that i ask above, will i ever get to experience that?
• How do i learn to “invest” in people that are in my life? that i have known for decades? I seldom hear your conversations out loud, this never get's spoken at the diner table, most of your communication is via messages, I don’t get to hear you thank deeply, apologize genuinely, take extra effort/ go out of your way for something social, request or deny something with anyone when you are around me when you cannot make it. So i guess i will never learn these fundamental means of communicating effectively, is that ok?
• They say 93% of communication is non-verbal in face-to-face meetings (expressions & micro-expressions, voice modulations etc.), it means that I will learn from what i observe, my world is what you both put together for us,  at least in the initial few years of my cognizant life until I go away from home, am I growing up in an environment that is rich and full-filing with all of these qualities? You think this is something that will come naturally to me?
• When you grow older, will I feel the same way you feel about your parents today? The memories that you created with them when you were growing up were in less affluence style of living. There was no luxury of personal space, only shared space, going around with you on a bicycle, then a scooter, stuck between the two of you so that i don't fall off, instead of a car like in our case, how they held you higher & gave up their own seats to you so you sat comfortably in public transportation, buying a snack and sharing it off of a news-paper at Juhu-beach. all those tiny but rich memories you talk to me about often.
• The part excitement-part fear that you got when water is dripping from the roof and floods are inside the house when it rained heavily, watching earthworms dance around in agony when you dropped a couple grains of salt on them as they appeared everywhere in the kitchen area. The words of comfort your mom gave you as a kid in those situations, I doubt I will ever experience such words!
• Visiting some uncle-aunty’s house, where they had a great time chatting away while you were only a part of the conversation for like 10 minutes when they asked you your rank, teacher’s name or some other trivia and then ignored you for the rest of the 4 hrs. of their conversation. When they had no kids to make friends with, you had nothing to do but make up your own games with paper or perhaps stare at their furniture and eventually doze off after complaining a little bit. I don't have that luxury today, I am cursed to feel privileged all the time with either a person or a device to my disposal all the time otherwise it's unacceptable & I have the capability to ruin everyone's peace and throw tantrums rightfully. Dare you try that in your days - you would fail and fail miserably wouldn't you :)?
• Your memories with your parents are so different from mine! When you talk about them, it feels like you were three soldiers in a battle-field, experiencing so much more together, shoulder -to - shoulder, struggles and your triumphs over them, etching little by little in your mind as you grew up. I feel like they have naturally poised you to feel much more connected to your parents, I am not sure if we are creating any such memories, that would shape my emotions for you as you grow older. Maybe because even if you are struggling I never heard you talk about it, is that because you are too stubborn to admit it or because you think it’s a sign of weakness? Not that there needs to be adversity in our life or struggles, but i cannot help but feel that life is a smooth ride for you and has always been, So I am expecting it to stay that way for me too. I don’t need to be prepared for it; do I?
• If only there was an opportunity to see you struggle with something & achieve success at it, if i only i could spend the time with you to build something, create something, if only I could witness your focus and stamina in averse, unforgiving conditions, if only you and I went for a walk one day perhaps not even saying much up in the hills, if you and I could share a space of gratitude & respect, not because you want me to, but because I see it and feel deep down that you have earned it. 
• You have enrolled me in the best school and extra-curricular activities, and doing your pickup-drop-off duties diligently to all of my classes and school, getting me connected with professionals in the field of sports, dance, music, art, you feed me everyday, you provide for my good physical health - you are going above and beyond your capabilities to provide me these things - you are exhausted at the end of the day and perhaps have no bandwidth to think any more beyond all that you are doing for me. You want me to be a rockstar, an over-achiever, you don’t want me to fall-back in comparison to any of the other kids growing up with me, I am almost guaranteed to pickup on all or most of these skills and perhaps be proficient in some as well. 
• I will perhaps grow up to be a very skillful person but what about my personality? what about connections? Who will guide and bolster the pillars of warmth, caring & love in my personality in these tender years? As a sub-conscious/ by-product of going through the training for various skills above perhaps I will gain some qualities but are you sure thats good enough?
• I want you to consciously meditate over these thoughts. I want to understand, accept & harbor empathy, gratitude, altruism, joy in my life. Make an intentional effort to enable me to value & cherish meaningful relationships, and spread & create a warm family like you and grandpa did!

Meet some elders from Circa 400 B

(Read below in Morgan Freeman voice for dramatic impact)

They look happy and peaceful, they seem powerful yet humble…

they might be curious about you as much as you are about them…

they are ancient…

they are legendary…

they are the Giant Redwoods trees that reside along a windy twisty road - 

The Avenue Of Giants.

As a kid, i was always curious about plants, animals, planets, history & all things science i guess...

But one specific page from my eighth grade geography textbook left a mark on me.

Even today, i have a clear image of that page imprinted on my mind so clear that i can visualize it when i close my eyes…

It was a sketch showing a tree trunk with a massive hole carved in it, and a car shown passing through it.

It showed people standing right next to the car i guess to give a context of the tree’s trunk and scale of this image.

Its description read:- in California, there are some Redwood trees so huge that they can have a hole carved in its trunk so huge that cars can pass through them! 

My first thought was how can this be!

I mean how can a tree be so huge!

I even remember closing my eyes and imagining the scene, but had little to go by as at this point most trees i had seen were probably couple of feet in diameter at most in trunk size,  i had seen a banyan tree which was about 3-4 feet wide at best, and was less than 30 feet tall

I had no reference to what such a tree would look like in reality, what would be the branches of the tree like? how tall would it be? what would be the size of it’s leaves? how about its roots?

So that picture was incomplete, best i could do is fill in some color in the monochromatic sketch from the book and imagine motion - people moving to get in the picture, car moving slowly from inside the tree etc. but i wanted more, i wanted that textbook sketch to come alive and exactly that happened recently.

I finally made the journey to “Drive through tree” in Leggett, CA, that sketch was finally complete. Let me paint that picture for you here...

The area around this tree is a quiet sanctuary, a place with subtle cold fresh breeze, you hear a very mellow rustling of branches and brilliant leaves illuminating the area as they shine in sunlight.

Some squirrels and perhaps birds chirping, nature at it's best...
As you slowly drive along and are absorbing all of this, you will start to you hear some gentle soothing musical notes from a gift shop that's located in the vicinity…

And right about now, when you are soaking all of this in, with a little bit of anticipation and excitement, you see a structure in front of you that's larger than anything else in your view thus far,  & for those with a sunroof in your car, I assure you, you will follow it right from level zero through the roof, but you will still not be able to see its peak…

Behold...The Chandelier Tree...

At this point, your car would be directly in front of the tree and you will get a very good view of the entire tree in it’s awesomeness - what a view!!!

I got out (and usually everyone does) and it took me a few moments to absorb it’s enormous presence,,,the board read that the tree is 2400 years old, and is 21 feet in diameter 315 feet in height.

This tree was born ~ 400 BC and it thrived in a world that saw personalities such as :

Alexander the Great

Socrates 

Aristotle

Chandra Gupta Maurya

Plato

Gautam Buddha

This tree lived when elites like above lived in this world!!

Such an honor to be in presence of something so ancient! so legendary!

I suddenly felt respect, regard and affection towards this grandfatherly figure 🙏

After soaking all of this in, we went onwards to our next stop - Fern Canyon

This canyon had a lot of water gushing through it at some point, but water receded many years ago and now has just a small stream flowing through it. 

And in addition it has an abundance of fern growing all around it like beautiful fur!

It is a real treat to take the short hike & witness colorful fern leaves not just in the canyon but also along the drive to the canyon and see some Elks grazing around. If this amazing drive looks familiar, like you have been here before, then it is because it was one of the locations used in the movie Jurassic Park.

After spending a couple hours in the canyon, we drove south towards Humboldt State Park again. A 29-mile long drive that goes through the park - Avenue Of The Giants.

Terms such as Scenic route or Vista Spot do not do justice to this road. The two lane curved road indeed is an Avenue that looks like it’s guarded on both sides by Giant Redwood trees.

It takes only moments to realize that you are about to be in the vicinity of something special.

there are plenty of camping & lodging facilities along this park and the avenue that offer some mind blowing camping opportunities - my favorite is Burlington Campground.

Campsites are a good distance away from each other for privacy, all have fire pits and almost every site has it’s own reminiscence - a giant redwood stump, a result of a logged giant tree in the past - that you can climb on for fun or get atop to meditate.

There are some that even present the opportunity to actually set up a tent inside the tree.

Yes, you read it right, a Tent… Inside…Tree trunk. 

Regardless of age, one cannot help but feel like a little kid amidst these gentle giants that offer an opportunity play, to be mischievous and to get your climb on!

There’s a short nature walk ~ 1 mile right besides the visitor center and some more hiking opportunities around here.

Amongst these trees, we saw life in perhaps the most magnificent form standing tall, taller than anything else alive today and then saw some of them fallen. 

The site is quite unique to describe. Seeing them lying flat on the ground, with their massive girth facing you, sometimes a bent trunk due to it’s own weight, and others cracked from the middle like a matchsticks. 

One can only imagine what a falling Redwood giant would sound like, it has been described as a train derailment by many.

Makes you wonder how powerful the forces of nature could be to take down such gritty majestic beings…makes me think of the times when dinosaurs walked on earth…such enormous beings and yet they fell! 
And here we are, puny humans, thinking we can keep pushing natures buttons...

I have learnt and known, that forces of nature are extremely powerful and should be respected, even feared, but when I saw a fallen redwood I was only beginning to comprehend how powerful nature can be…

Rockefeller forest, founders grove, visitor center nature walk, Big Tree area are some of the highlights of the forest that deserve a visit for sure and am sure there are plenty more things to do.

We came hoping to see big trees, 

we arrived in natures cradle, we experienced magic, witnessed history, saw tenacity and gave life a big hug & returned home happy...

It’s nearly impossible to describe in words what we experienced when we were here, but it’s somewhere in between humility, curiosity, gratitude, warmth, overwhelming, peace, love.

Run forest Run...

tu na jaane aas paas hai khuda...tu na jaane aas paas hai khuda...
(You just didn't notice, but there is supreme power all around you...) 


this was the song that was playing on my earphones, when I lifted my foot off the ground at the blow of the start whistle...

then, i close my eyes for just a moment...

smell the dirt slowly starting to rise above the ground...

feel early morning October chill in my lungs...

...see magnificent pine trees as if they too were here to cheer

...notice the almighty Orange sphere of life, peek from behind the mountain ranges

... a quite, a unique & peaceful kind of quite, (if you try to, you'll hear it) interlaced with 5000 something  strong feet, stomping the Earth around you

and, after thoroughly soaking yourself in all of the above, & perhaps your sweat & tears even, you open your arms and embrace the cheers, from smiling and happy faces as you cross the finish line for a picture perfect moment...

Running the Yosemite Half Marathon turned out to be a profound experience for me. As i sat by the camp fire, night before the run, i wasn't able to sleep with excitement for the next day, so i took a few trips down the memory lane, keeping my camp fire kindled to keep me warm outside, as my heart stayed warm within realizing how amazing life has been all around me, & how blessed i truly am.

All this warmth sure did attract some visitors, fellow campers, some even 4-legged ones who, i believe, were a domicile there (had a family of deers walking around, i'd like to think they were deers, based on the height at which i saw 3 pairs of amazing bright eyes shining back at me when i turned the flash light in the direction of all the rustling, if it wasn't Monsieur Deer & Family, apologies O merciful wilder beasts & thanks for not making me your dinner!)

In the words of a Mr. Terry Chiplin, a running coach i happened to share sometime with, how lucky and blessed we are, we are here! lots of people aren't! not everyone can run! not everyone has the physical and emotional strength to put themselves through what we are able to and cherish what follows the monumental task of galloping through those miles...indeed I am blessed, thankful and happy to be here, i said to Mr Chiplin...also, his words of wisdom on running downhill helped a ton! (Chiplin's wow:- when running downhill, lean forward & take faster smaller steps you will slow down automatically instead of leaning backwards and longer steps which will put more stress on your knees and hamstrings!)

Sneha (my little sister) and I woke up super early, geared up and stood at the starting point at 7 in the morning, and started the run shortly after, the actual run was a blast! With little to no training she managed to finish just a minute slower than me, but it's never about that eh! (haha) she finished it & i am proud of her!

on the trail, as I looked around, there were all kinds of runners alongside, And as in life, here too, you saw some stronger than you, some not so much, some better able, some not so much, no matter where you found yourself in this running cohort, you always created a place for yourself, & hence an opportunity to be motivated & to motivate, to find an anchor and to be someones support as well, a smile, a glance, small gesture of thumps up, was enough for someone struggling to put a smile on and pull through! just as it was enough for me, and i felt proud that i made that happen for a few!

people ran in costumes and tutus.
I cheered SuperMan! and then passed him ;) you know, the fastest man from Krypton! with curtesy & smile of course! ;)

There were some local families that came out near the finish line with kids & toddlers and were motivating everyone to finish strong, they brought out their pans and pots and created music!! they didn't know me, they didn't know what was going on within me in those last few miles,  Yet, they seem to some how feel the struggle, they saw my spirit, to me it felt like they saw my fight and they came out and said "you know what buddy you aren't alone, i am with you, so let's do this...."
this very subtle but very significant boost helped a lot of us runners who were feeling a little alone in their journey...especially since we left our dear tall ponderosa pines left behind in the last 3-4 miles...

I didn't run to achieve anything, I ran to prove everything, within.

When i run, i float, on my ocean of emotions, carrying along my weight of memories, some painful, some happy, some of love, deep selfless love...

As each milestone passes by, this weight depletes, little by little, healing happens & heart starts to fill up with more love and appreciation, creating new memories that include pleasant thoughts, smiling faces, sights of green luscious leaves, trees & deers!

we all have our reasons to pickup running, some do it for fun, some for health, some find it the only way to be...
to me, running for those 13.1 miles is about endorsing my determination, that burning agitation, my struggle, my fight, my agony, my emotions, my turmoils in moments, moments so frustrating,
as if I was trying again and again to retaliate, and push back the ones who tried to hurt me, said words that crushed me from within, hurt my loved ones, made me a little stubborn perhaps, so stubborn i look unbreakable, unstoppable, stronger than ever before, to take on what comes my way each day at a time...each fight at a time...

when i run, i re-live moments of extreme pain, joy, sadness and happiness all at the same time,
allow them all to pass through me,

to overwhelm me even, and then,

I assimilate all of my courage, stamina and strength,

till everything within me becomes a knot,

And after that moment,

my grit knows no bounds,

I refuse to stop, refuse to slow down...

Sorry pain, you just will have to wait, I have a half marathon to finish...

I run because i can, next best thing to flying, that i can do with my limbs, and feel like a falcon...

and that's how i remember my experience at the Yosemite Half Marathon, how about you? :)

A journey through Spiti Valley: Where mountains are carved by wind and water

Not all those who wander are lost - J.R.R. Tolkein

And If i may add to that, neither are we searching for anything or try to seek anything, we are just plain simple wandering and soaking in whatever the universe throws at us along the way.
Trust me, the universe only throws at you what you deserve,
not what you want,
not what you wish,
specifically what you deserve :) so go ahead and embrace it, you've earned it!

Sometimes we wander just to lose ourselves instead of finding something...
in the process we stumble upon treasures we never knew existed or wanted...

We wander because we can, from the beginning of time, humans have been habitual wanderers and those who consciously recognize this, this, notorious habit, and nurture it, and harness it, they truly extract the essence of being a traveler...

Travel has a way to stretching your mind, your imagination, the stretching doesn't come from your immediate rewards and gratification but on the contrary form the inevitable myriad of new sights, smells and sounds, from new experiences, from exposure to worlds within worlds which were hidden from us all along.

Travel makes you more tolerant of others, makes you a more confident person, you make new friends, you eat some amazing food, you learn so many new things that you never knew existed!

There are many a different ways to travel but myself and some other idiots like me (you'll meet them soon here...) chose to travel on two wheels as a matter of choice.
yes it takes longer,
yes, it covers you up with dirt
yes it can get exhausting
yes you sometimes no longer have any sensation of your legs
and yes it's dangerous & sometimes you also end up hitting someone and get thrown onto head on traffic!

And yet, we chose to ride our Royal Enfield Motorcycles, through this amazing route that took us through the ever so famous Spiti Valley in the Himalayan mountain range

why? you ask...

you totally missed the earlier reference to us as "idiots" didn't you? :D

here let me open up a window to my view of the ever so pristine Spiti Valley...





Rudyard Kipling described Spiti Valley as a world within world. At first you only see the harshness of the mountains and dry arid terrain all around you, but when you stay longer, you see some amazing things here.



Imagine a river, flowing like a serpent in between ranges of stubborn mountains, the river sometimes gets wide and then suddenly is a narrow stream and also has a few of it's tributaries that flow along side and sometimes they branch off to a new direction completely.

This river, a melting glacier is pure, clean and playful just like a mischievous child who knows not how to stay still for even a moment!!
This river is called Spiti...

Spiti wants to jump around and slide down at the first opportunity she gets, and as it flows along, it breeds life along its banks, fruits, vegetables, humans all flourish wherever she flows...

What you will also find along side the banks of Spiti are many small villages that have been around for hundreds of years, and in these villages is where you will find the words

"Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hun"

in each and every particle in the valley,,,





there are many monasteries in Spiti Valley that will bring those words to life if you chose to enter any of them, there are a few such humble prayer houses, as old as 1000 years and have been just the same way ever since they were created by Buddhist monks back in those days.

The big rocks and mountains seem like they are made up of granite and dry barren hard soil but then give yourself some time and you will see life sprouting & thriving in these mountains.

You will see the humbleness and purity of the people who make your experience in the valley memorable. these are the people can toil on the mountains to carve out roads for travelers,
these are the same peoples that cultivate apples and apricots on these barren hills
Spitians are a very hard working & content peoples they win your heart with their hospitality and delicious meals when you stay with them.
And then when you get out back on the roads again somehow the harshness of the valley softens up, there is a calmness that follows you around and gives you a whole new perspective of the magnificent mountains and landscapes that just keep coming one after the other & leaving you breathless. Almost every time you pass the kids on these roads, they will stretch their hands out to give yo a ride-5 (it's basically a hi-5 clap between a rider and a walker - a hi-5 clap in motion if you may!) and cheer you on jumping and clapping as you pass by! for them perhaps this is the most entertainment they get receive form the outside world when cool looking bikers like us pass the village and acknowledge them, or stop and take selfies with them (as in my case for the most part, i took too many of those)





Four of us, Vinit Rathod, Amit Mehrotra, Nikhil Jani and myself,  had been thinking about a trip to the Spiti Valley for a long time. this plan was executed finally in july/August of 2016.
I have known Vinit since we did our first ride together to ROK - "Rann Of Kutch" been a great riding partner ever since on multiple rides together.
Nikhil & I met just before we decided to ride the Himalayas to Ladakh back in 2011, in fact I even remember crossing paths with him on one of my trips to Lonavala, before we had met each other, we both identified our riding gears and we both said - I think I have passed you on Bombay -Pune highway some time ago! - riders memory!
Amit and I met on a trip to Goa - he makes Balti. (hahaha of course there's a lot more to Amit and my friendship than just the Balti, we have done plenty of rides together and were all a lot of fun!!)





So that's for the intro, and now back to my original fillum story - I had crossed some portions of the valley back in 2011 when we did the Himalayan Odyssey trip with Royal Enfield crew and it planted an itch on all of us, we have always wanted to go back to the valley because of the sheer riding treat that this valley offered.
That itch was finally scratched and scratched thoroughly i must say on this trip!

The routes we took on this trip, were through some great twisties, some great canyon roads, some highway riding, and lots and lots of off road motorcycling, we dragged our bikes through dilapidated bridges, through tons of pebbles, sand, through rocks, through land slides, through water crossings and through slush (mix of dirt, ice and water) there was hardly any kind of terrain left that we didn't get the opportunity to ride through, each one presenting it's own kind of challenges and thrills!

Weather for the most part was super summery - bright, sunny and clear until the last day when it rained profusely in Chandigarh and we had to be very careful riding due to the traffic, road construction, rain and riding fatigue all of it at the same time!

The routine would basically be something along these lines (at least for me...) -
Get up around 6 in the morning,
Get your tea/ coffee/ water etc.
& then wait, wait till Vinit wakes up, get his pressure to go potty etc., :D
gear up, get fuel etc and get going on the road
ride through some awesomeness, soak it all in while you can, and stop for breakfast at some hole in the wall "Dhaba"
again, pay the bills, gear up and get going till you are hungry again and want to get some lunch
We always took breaks in between through out the day to make it a fun experience, bio breaks were kinda required as well. then came the dinner break at whichever place we were going to find accommodation and call it a day at. We had a mix of options we tried, there was home stay, there was hotels and even camping!! One thing was decided pretty much after the first night of sleep, that i was never ever sharing a room with Mr. Rathod - the tucker snored like a diesel truck!! (in that, this truck lost it's silencer years ago!!!)

En route, we came across some amazing little villages and settlements, some of the villages where there is no hotel accommodations, the locals offer their own homes to welcome wanderers like ourselves & take us in, feed us, provide shelter, a place to spend the night, we spoke about their history, their life stories, their struggles, some of them have amazing ones!! some are still living their stories of struggle today... those amazing stories their humble attitudes and life spirits touch your soul...make you aware of the fortunate life you have for yourself and be thankful for it right away....

The thing about this entire ride was that there was always something amazing, something nice to capture no matter where you went and how long it too you to pause again.
the pictures taken all along this trip are from my perspective and what i found was intriguing and worth stopping for, and I am sure i was blind to many amazing & miraculous things that i was simply incapable of capturing as I passed by it in plain sight!



this is the difference between traveling in a car v/s a motorcycle. As someone very aptly said, traveling in a car is like watching a movie
traveling on a motorcycle is like staring in one...



there are so many experience that i can list out here but i'm not sure if i will be able to do justice to it, i will try to give out some instances that hopefully gives a close to reality depiction of what was this trip all about...

I remember one of the first stretches very distinctly was the ride uphill to "Chitkul"
It was a morning ride, the night before was perhaps very humid and the whole road was moist. There was dew and condensation everywhere you looked, the clouds were upon the hills and roads were winding & turning so quickly that you really had to look ahead to focus on where the road is now going. There were rumors that the road had been washed away in the past week due to rainfall.
and as soon as i got onto the road, i realized how easy that could happen, the road was basically packed mud and there were flowing streams of water downhill all along the ride up, if these waters decided to have some fun and flow over the road, it can totally wash it all down.
In fact i did pass the section where that had happened and there were workers trying to fix the road, lucky for us, there was a section about 2 feet wide that was already patched/ fixed - plenty for two wheels to zoom through so our bikes made it through no problem!!


Just a few miles short of Chitkul (last village within India, Tibet region begins after this one), is where we stopped to take some pictures, and soak the amazing ambiance you see in the pictures here it was our first "This is exactly what we came all this way for..." moment

We braaappped up the road further to arrive at this lovely village called Chitkul - this was actually the the last Indian village on this road before Indo-Chinese border. However our intention was to go only up to this village and then turn around and go the other direction on to our journey so thats what we did.

The other thing that deserves a mention here is weed.
Yes.
Weed - weed was all along growing in the region like it was weed...it was beautiful well in its own way i suppose to see and smell it, somehow reminded me of home!!(for those who are confused, I am talking about the familiar San Francisco pot smell every public place you goto...)
The visual and the smell just kept lingering for the most part of the trip....don't believe me? check these images out!

Between the magnificent Himalayan mountain range covered by pristine blue skies above, and the rugged terrain beneath along with that rubber on our rides, rolled plenty silliness of 4 of us idiots all along the trip...



Be it Amit's crazy poses(it was something like jayZ meets Beyonce meets Shahrukh khan with a hint of Apache Indian somewhere - perhaps it was his hair cut? we really couldn't figure it anyway, tried to mimic it as much as we could but we failed. Miserably. Amit you need to coach us.)

Or randomly stalling someplace to take a leak and realizing that it was the most amazing thing to ever happen since well, the last time we pee'd lol,,,we laughed hard

We were not pointing to anything whatsoever in this pic, we just pointed so the pic looks cool!

On our way back from Tabo monastery, we decided that we will make some good coffee. Let me elaborate.
We have been on the road by now for a few days and this group (by group i mean Amit) had been bitching and moaning like a teenage that he has not gotten good coffee since we started the trip.

Dear friend Amit,
India has been and perhaps always will be a predominantly Tea drinking country (sahab, chai-paani kuch ho jaye! - it's never coffee-pani man!). Please take your complains about not getting good coffee to someone who gives a flying *uck!!! :D suck it up and drink the damn sweet Tea!!!

"coffee isn't strong"
"this coffee is like plain milk"
"kya **daap cofee banake laya hai"
"Beta, please get me some extra coffee (the kid gets him another glass of pale, light coffee!!,
"Abbe yaar!! I asked for extra coffee powder!!! (sad face)"

So anyways, we'd had enough of this BS so decided to get our own coffee powder, milk powder and a kettle along with paper cups and yes, firewood!! (we stole from the fencing, some we picked up from leftover firewood along the way)

I picked us a great spot!!(yes they all agreed; it was a great spot) was a green grass patch, right downhill from the monastery, had a stream of water flowing right besides, some big rocks lying around, had a few dried out cattle crap cakes laying on the ground, we found ourselves ground zero for a perfect Barista, we put our minds, heart and rocks together, some firewood, some crap cakes were added in as fuel and then some petrol and showed fire to this amazing "chullah" we created.
and put the Kettle with water and milk powder in it.
the fire burnt for a minute or two and then was gone.
We re-did the entire setup at least 5 times and finally got the wind, wood and balance of the rocks right to get the water + powder mixture to actually start boiling!!! & with everyone's hard labor yeayyy we finally had boiling milk!

while this was on going, Amit was busy beating the coffee in hot water he had by now created enough of that concentrated coffee concoction for 15 cups of coffee, you can tell, he was excited AF about the "strong" coffee!!!

I will admit though once the hot milk was poured into those little paper cups with the beaten coffee mix in it, it did taste pretty dope!! so dope that we all got two/ three cups of really the best coffee i perhaps ever had in a long time....thanks Amit you are a rock star! :)

and food!! all along the way we were treating ourselves with some amazing parathas and maggi + eggs plus the rajmah chawal, who can forget those! yumm! it was somethign else when you could rest your butt after a long hard ride on to a chair and just take a break...



The ride to and camping experience in Chandra Taal was a very unique experience. It was 14 kms of treacherous riding on rocks that deserves a specific mention here, as it was the place where Nikhils bike took a beating on the chassis - got a crack on that. And i almost went downhill on the slope. details below:

So this is the scene - the road to Chandra Taal is a pretty narrow, single lane rocky road and has left edge and a right edge as most roads usually do.
Beyond the left edge is a pretty gnarly steep downhill drop.
I am on the left edge of the road.
up front is a Jeep that decides to keep coming and doesn't value my life for much, however luckily when i yell at him he decides to stall and yet he slowly keeps moving fwd
I stand still, but i too have to slowly move fwd.
I don't look down but i know that my left leg is unable to feel the edge of the road, i.e., there is no ground below my leg, i.e., i am on the farthest edge of the edge...
the level at which my rear view mirrors were was the same as the Jeeps mirrors and it's curious passengers faces and elbows.
As the vehicle brushes my handlebar and my rear view mirror, i slam his mirror with my hand to keep it from hitting mine and jolting me and i also slam a couple of faces and push elbows of the curious Georges inside the passing vehicle!!
the vehicle passes by, i throttle my way back tot he center of the road, look in my left rear view mirror and see rubble from my tire rolling down the drop.
I "phewwed.." and move along...

once we reached Chandra Taal, and put the stuff in out tents, i was all about hiking to the Lake! (Chandra = moon, Taal = Lake, i.e., we had gotten to Moon-Lake!!) this was a lake at 14,100 ft above sea level. And a hike from the camping ground was about 5 miles at least (felt like freaking 15 albeit!) But it was worth the effort.

This is Chandra Taal

Valley ahead of Chandra Taal

As along the way I met some grazing mountain goats, a horses, grazing on the lush green grass!
Me and Nikhil were very cautious about taking pictures around the horses as we didn't want to bother/ excite them and were tip-toeing our way away from the grazing animals.

After we took some selfies with them. In about half a mile distance i suddenly heard a pretty loud rumble and then horse gait, as soon as i looked behind me, i saw the entire harass running towards Nikhil who was basically trailing behind me.
I yelled "Doc!!! watch out!!!!" and he turned around to see what was upon him....



Doc, as fast as a Cheetah!, jumped uphill to make way for the galloping steeds...
(now those who have seen Doc's pictures here by now understand that the above statement may be an exaggeration, but it's not. Doc was faster than a cheetah in that moment!!!)

We'd meet these cattle & horses grazing right besides the road and would get amused by the sound of our bikes, and they would look up, I'd slow down and look back at them, and they'd have the "Meh, another gang of motorcyclists" look on their face and they'd return back to their grazing.



But then once in a while there would be a playful Yak, that would be curious to see what is it that it shiny, making these sounds and rolling so close so fast!! and it would be amused, maybe a bit threatened, and a bit curious whereby it doesn't know what to do when bikes approach from behind, they run ahead most of the times, but to see a big beast like that jump around and run like a puppy is an amazing sight, a little scary, but yet amazing.












What i am going to say now may sound a bit absurd to the reader, if the reader is not a rider. But just go along, it ends well :)
There is a very unique bond that develops between a rider and his machine on such trips. There is a communication that goes on between two, kinda like the movie Avatar in which the Na'vi people bonded with their Ikrans. When the Ikran is in pain, the rider needs to listen otherwise the ride can turn into a very painful experience!!

My Ikran ie., RE Classic 500, poor thing was not in commission for over a year and then suddenly it was commanded to take on the Himalayas. On the journey there were some mechanical troubles we had to face, between my bikes battery not charging, dropping off silencer pipe due to breaking clamp, Amit's fork seal on the front breaking and leaking, and Doc's cracked engine chassis, dead battery and later the puncture, i think we had our share of breakdowns and holdups.

What is very important to note though, in the moments of such break downs everyone's patience gets tried, no one likes to sit around and wait especially when nothing is wrong with their bikes. But the fact is that true brothers in crime are identified only when the time gets tough! through all breakdowns and issues, we stuck together as a group and well had plenty of coffee, chai, snacks and thumbs-up, all for one & one or all...that's the code of the road...








And then there was my accident too (yup, that did happen, and nope nothing's broken, yup i didn't tell you about it 'coz I know you would worry too much! look at the positive side, I'm okay!! :) )

As the group was trying to get out of Manali on the return journey, i tried to pass a tempo-truck form it's right after gauging that the oncoming traffic was still way farther and that i can make the pass safely.
As soon as my handlebar was parallel to the rear of the truck, the driver decided to go wide on me and basically it nudged my handlebar on it's left edge...
at a speed of at least about 60km/hr, this was enough to toss my bikes balance off, it slammed onto the ground and i lost contact with it just before that...
meanwhile the oncoming traffic that i thought was far away, now no longer was as far away and the truck coming in from the front realized that it's coming in too hot and slammed on the brakes....
that vehicle came to a screeching stop in front of my eyes and luckily he had turned his steering to his left,,,,
this definitely helped(as it prevented him from running over me for one...) but it also acted as a barricade for my bike that actually had somehow toppled from the ground and had stood up again and had somehow managed to lean up against the truck that screeched in front of me!!

first instinct was to glance at the bike and as it was in front of me - it was intact, i see no shattered glass, great! the ride won't stop :)
then i felt my hands, head and legs, touched them to feel any sensation of pain - none so far
got up, walked to the side of the road - felt a little discomfort on the left leg - but it was nothing, another positive sign.
i geared down completely, shoes, helmet, jacket gloves - checked my neck, all my joints, every bone etc. for any impact. I was completely fine.
The business owners nearby got me warm milk with turmeric i gulped it down. in the end, i walked away with not even a bruise, must've been your prayers i guess ;)
What doesn't kill ya, makes you stronger ;)

There were many a photo moments on this trip, but if i were to really pick out one picture that sums it all up for me, it will have to be this one below. It was on our way out of Kaza, when we took our bikes off the road (which of course was not paved either) into a stretch of grasslands that led to a point from where you could actually see a really beautiful valley up ahead. we all lined up our motorcycles, and cherished that moment...


and then there were these too....









As i sit here today, reminiscing the whole experience, through the trip, there is much to be cherished much to be remembered...
When you live your life as a wanderer, as a tourist, as a traveler you sign up for a certain level of solitude a certain amount of loneliness (not a negatory implication, but a literal one), you value the moments that give you the sense of togetherness with some of your favorite people.
When the saddest days of your life flash in front of your eyes, when your scars come alive and you feel the pain of the wounds like it'd just happened, when you are able to feel the same level of pain wholeheartedly and you look around, and you see people who have been there for you, who will be there for you, in that moment, you can close your eyes, value the togetherness & feel thankful that you have them around!

And then, just like that, when your sit with your close ones, and happy moments of your life come around, and then suddenly you recognize that this moment right here, right now, is perhaps getting added to you piggy bank of cherished moments of your life! the feeling that you are creating a memory that you will ever so fondly remember, you value that togetherness, you do close your eyes, you do value that bond, and feel great full that you have these idiots around...

(From left to right) Amit, Vinit, me, Doc.