Ravishing Roopkund

Roopkund - Mother trek of IndiaHikes and first official one of my life. Hell of a trek. Endless meadows, steep climbs, chilly weather, Extreme high altitude, etc, etc ,etc. You name it and this trek has it. Some people of our group said this trek should not be recommended for beginners but I disagree. If you love luxury, this trek is not for you. You need to have that rawness in you. A porter during the trek said "Mumbai ka fashion aur pahado ka mausam, bahut jaldi badalta h". And our group experienced the very truth in this saying.  

Mental divide over taking Diamox, Steep trek from Neelganga to Didina, Buranj Juice, Long day trek to reach Bedni, Horses and Mules grazing at Ali Bugyal, Cricket at 13700 feet, 13 year old trek leader, Cleaning utensils @ sub-zero temperature, Emptying bowels "Neele gagan ke tale", Cleaning teeth just with salt, Inability to take "karwat" inside sleeping bag, Sleeping at 9 for whole week, Fighting with sleeping bags to get them packed, Carrying the rucksack for the whole trek, The view of Trishul from Bedni, Watching people searching for Keedajadi (costlier than gold), Taking shortcuts, Watching campsite at Patar Nachauni from Kalu Vinayak, Rocky campsite @ Bhagwabasa, Setting feet harder in ice using crampons, Disappointment on not reaching Junargali, Eating ice and hoping it will make me less thirsty............the more i think about the trek, more moments like these flash in front on my eyes. 

No picture can match even half the beauty of Roopkund. And while returning our cab driver said actual trekking starts from Roopkund. (To Mt. Trishul). Hoping to climb Stok – Kangri once in my life. Keep trekking. 

 

Travel Tips:

·         Pack your bag wisely if you are going to carry it for the whole trek and avoid taking too many clothes.

·         Consider taking Diamox course if you are going to such high altitude for the first time. It won’t cause any harm.

·         Keep first-aid kit and raincoat handy.

·         Start early in the morning. Weather in moutains is unpredictable and it may rain on any sunny day.

·         Wearing in layers warmer than wearing one single heavy woolen.

·         Follow no give, no take policy with nature while on trek. Neither trash the place nor bring any souvenir which may lessen the significance of that place.

The one with the Leh trip - Part 2

The one with the Leh trip - Part 2 (F.R.I.E.N.D.S)

Day 6: 29/07/2010

It was a usual morning for Leh but special one for us. For us it was “Pangong Tso” day. In Tibetan “Tso” refers to lake as “La” refers to mountain pass. This lake came to prominence among Indian bollywood fans after the release of movie “3 Idiots”. At around 8, we took off in 2 cabs. Pangong Tso is around 150 kms from Leh. Roads in the region are better than expectations and BRO is taking good care of them. While moving uphill, shadow of clouds on barren mountains present a rare and magnificent view.  My taxi was ahead of other one and we couldn’t see them following us two hours in to the journey. So we took a break near a water stream and click few pics. Half an hour later, we saw them coming and on enquiring, came to know that their taxi’s tyre got punctured (P-2). We started moving together after that break towards the mighty Chang La. This is world’s 3^rd highest pass and 3^rd highest of our trip too. Just before reaching Changla, one can see an abandoned rusted jeep with more than half of it covered in snow on the mountain side. It started snowing for 5-10 minutes and stopped as soon as we reached Changla. Indian army is the proud host of the place and they offer tea for free to every traveler. Similar to other high altitude passes, one can find a small temple there too. Sign boards are placed mentioning the relevance of the place and informing travelers about the do’s and don’ts. The snow was fresh and so were the trails on it. We took a break there for about half an hour and then moved on towards Pangong.

The road passed through a valley with a little population. Barren mountains on both sides, greenery in a contained zone on the both sides of flowing stream and horses grazing on the grass with no one to restrict them. Something which we have seen often on TV but never in real. The serpentine roads finally lead us to the beautiful Pangong valley. High altitude 135 kms long fresh water lake, 1/3^rd in India and 2/3^rd in China with even higher mountains rising in the background. There were just a few tents selling maggy, dal chawal and water bottles in the name of habitation. Deep into the road along the lake lies Indo-China border so no civilians allowed after specific point. A sight and place which cannot be described in words. We had our share of fun at the bank of the lake and then headed towards the tent restaurant. When we were waiting for our order, we found an Indian family littering the area. Santa and pax (hope I remember it correctly) went up to them, picked up the water bottle they threw and gifted them back along with a small lecture which we are proud of till today. We headed back to Leh at around 3 PM. On reaching back to our guest house “Shangrila”, we packed up our luggage, cleared payments with the owner and loaded our stuff in our cab. Someone among us checked the parking spot of Innova to look for any diesel spot which we observed 3 days back at Tandi fuel station but couldn’t find any.

Our plan was to take the Srinagar route while returning as Manali to Leh road was in pretty bad shape and given the time constraints we had to travel overnight from Leh to Srinagar. Mahak and Santa left for Leh bazaar to get our dinner packed while we waited near the IOCL fuel station of Leh after getting the tank full. Pax and Tills were happily singing the “Indian Oil meri pehchan h” song like the rest of their journey. Even after 1.5 hrs there were no sign of Santa and Mahak returning which made most of us happy since in case they are not coming back because of any reason, we need not adjust 7 guys anymore on seats meant for 6 people. Once they were back, we were ready for a long or I should say the longest stretch of our non-stop travel. We left Leh at around 10.30 PM. Soon we left the city and only source of light was our cab’s headlamps. We never knew when Magnetic hill arrived and left. I don’t remember there were many vehicles on the route. No sign boards, no habitation, no co-vehicles on the road. Then started the horror story session in the middle of the cold desert at midnight. All these were meant to keep the driver occupied and awake. For a couple of times on our journey we encountered road junctions with no sign board and nobody to guide through the correct road. Mr. Sher Singh took his shots. The night was awesome. At around 3 AM we got flat tyre (P-3). We were somewhere in Kashmir but nowhere near life. We picked up our torch and helped Sher Singh changing the tyre.

Day 7: 30/07/2010

At around 4.30 AM we entered the much famous city of Kargil. Kargil is a very beautiful city situated at the bank of a river Indus. We stopped at IOCL fuel station to tank up. While someone tried to take a nap, loyal employees of IOCL Pax and Tills talked to the fuel station staff. Surprisingly the fuel station guys didn’t ask for money after knowing Pax and Tills work with IOCL which we realized just when we left the fuel station. We stopped and paid them for the diesel. At the fuel station we noticed that diesel in still leaking from the tank. Further analysis revealed that when the Innova is parked uphill or moving uphill, tank is not leaking but as soon as ground is flat it leaks. We all thanked god that we didn’t ran out of fuel last night when we were travelling through some of the most remote regions of J & K. As it was very early in the morning, we decided to get the tank fixed in Dras which was around 40 kms from Kargil. As soon as we entered Dras, one of us noticed the signboard placed by the Indian government saying “Caution – Enemy is watching you” instilling a different sense of patriotism for the country and cautioning about the closeness of Dras to LOC. We stopped at puncture repair shop to get the stepny fixed as well bought MSeal to fix leaking tank. Some of us vanished in the nearby bushes to get relieved of morning duties. One can see the very famous Tiger hill from the road. People were so polite and town was so calm and beautiful that it was hard to believe that such a fierce battle was fought at the same location a decade back. There is Kargil war memorial in Dras which we couldn’t visit because of time constraints.

Soon we kept moving. At around 8 AM we stopped in small meadow just along the road to stretch out a bit. It was 10 hrs ago we left Leh and driver didn’t took the much needed rest. We decide to halt there for some time. A couple of patrolling parties of Indian Army passed by keeping a vigil look. The place was a real picnic spot, small and clean meadow between snow-capped peaks. While few of us were busy eating the remains of aloo paranthas from dinner last night Tills and pax was busy putting mseal on the leaking tank. We were still hopeful to see some the Pakistani border posts with LMG pointing out of it on the mountains but got no success. May be they got to see the middle fingers which few of us showed them even under the fear of getting our ass shot. Soon we were on our way towards Zozila pass. There is a J & K police barricade few kms before the zozila pass which opens for a specific period of day and allows for traffic to pass. Our driver unknowingly hurt the sentiments of the police constable posted over there in some way which forced us to stop at the barricade and made us request the constable to open the barricade as he told us to wait for another 2 hours. He responded to our request giving tough looks to the driver. Diesel tank was still leaking. We were moving out of Ladakh district and moving towards Kashmir. The barren mountains were slowly wearing the blanket of lush green trees.

Just after crossing Zozila pass, we got stuck in a long traffic jam. Road near Zozila pass is not so wide and so at some place only one vehicle can pass at a time. To manage the traffic was the very reason for the barricade which I mentioned about. Traffic moved slowly. Few kms later, the temporary settlement of Baltal was visible to us which was just below the mountain where we were stuck. Some army convoy was to cross because of which other vehicles were made to wait. National security first. The traffic jam not at all like the one which we encounter in our city lives. No one was in a hurry to overtake other. No parallel vehicles standing. People not arguing with each other or honking unnecessarily. A truck driver gave us a desi remedy to fix our leaking tank. He rubbed a piece of soap on a cloth and applied some mustard oil assuring us that it will fix the leaking tank. He did that without expecting anything in return. We had half a bottle of rum which we (Mambo) picked up from TillsB place and was considered as evil blaming to be behind this leaking tank. We gave that bottle to the truck driver in exchange of the help he offered to us. We got down and Santa hit a conversation with an Indian Army soldier posted in the nearby area. He asked us to visit Amarnath too as we were already at the base camp and told us that they make return journey to Amarnath cave in a day from here (16 kms one way). We discussed on various issues ranging from political to geographical. It was around 4 PM that the army convoy finally arrived and was the biggest I had ever seen. When the traffic started moving we got nearer to the Baltal base camp. The place was heavily armoured. Indian soldiers with LMG’s were on vigil stationed at their camouflaged bunkers and others were on foot carrying automatic weapons.

Soon we entered the Sonmarg valley. High green meadows on both sides. “Madras Warriors” carved out loud on the meadows if I correctly remember. We had left barren mountains behind. We asked if Sonmarg is this amazing, how good is Gulmarg going to be. We stopped at a small restaurant in Sonmarg at around 4.30 to eat, our last meal being the dinner last night. An army patrolling party passed by looking at us. We continued moving. We were about to enter Srinagar. Suddenly a couple of guys dressed in Kashmiri attire came in front of our car and stopped it. Few of us really got scared, but the driver didn’t. One on them asked for Rs.10 as a toll fee and gave us a receipt. We were relieved but unaware of the fact that this relief is short term. Kashmir is really heaven on earth and again can’t be described in words. We travelled around the circumference of Dal lake but didn’t stopped. Santa’s wish to eat “Bhutta” at the banks of Dal lake didn’t come true. It was big and beautiful. Because of the ongoing stone pelting incidents in the valley, it was advisable to cross Srinagar in daylight as curfew was imposed in Srinagar a day ago. While we crossed the town, police were preparing to place barbed wire on streets giving impression that curfew is going to be imposed soon.

On leaving Srinagar behind, we thought we’d left the Kashmir issue behind too which was not the case. On the outskirts of Srinagar lies Pampur, a region famous for its saffron fields, claimed to produce the world's best saffron. As we entered Pampur at around 6-6.30 PM, there was a long queue of vehicles. We thought it was a normal jam, we got out and stretched a bit. Soon we got to know that people in Pampur village are holding agitation and blockade. We didn’t leave the tension behind; we were in the center of it. Cars and buses coming from that area were having broken glasses and deep dents. While few of us tried to make the situation light making plan A, plan B and plan C of escape, others got really scared. A couple of us even made their last wish and 2 minute sequence of their complete life flashed before their eyes. We can’t go back as curfew was imposed in Srinagar and can’t move ahead because of the violent agitation. Few people on bikes crossed us and said the agitation is over. We thought of moving but fellow (local) people advised us to stay as according to them it was just a trick of the agitating mob to draw people to their area. We stayed back. Few damaged vehicles were still coming from that side of village. It was good that we stayed. We didn’t see any police or army unit passing by and moving towards the area which was our only hope. We kept waiting.

Soon, vehicles ahead of us started moving, and we followed them. As we approached the village we could see closed shops and burning tyres on the road. Stones lying everywhere on the road. As we moved, we heard a loud voice like something hit us. A big dent appeared on the right side of our cab very close to the rear window. Sandy almost fainted. Sher Singh pressed the accelerator. Even the sound of gear shifting could be heard in the silent cab. All of us sitting near the windows picked up our backpacks and took cover of them in the event a side glass breaks. Moments later, another stone hit us and left a dent. Bold Sher Singh didn’t get scared at all and cruised through the road. Soon we were out of the place safe and alive. It took 10 minutes for us to come out with a word. We moved ahead. It got dark and our driver needed to take rest, he was driving since last night 10 PM and didn’t get a chance to sleep. We crossed Jawahar tunnel. After driving for another 100 odd kms, we reached Banihal. There was a guest house on the outskirts. Not many people around and not much lighted. None of us had the courage to go upstairs and ask for accommodation. We kept moving. Minutes later we crossed a government rest house. We enquired, 2 rooms were available. We checked in. It was around 9.30 PM. Few people can be seen on road. A Punjabi dhaba was open just in front of our rest house, we all went for dinner. The food was really good and satisfying given all that happened in the last 4 hours. The sleep was satisfying too.

Day 8: 31/07/2010

Next morning was a little lazy for all of us. We took our time, clicked few pics and got ready. A soldier was visible to us in the first floor of the building opposite to us who was guarding the area. As we got ready, some congress party delegation entered the rest house campus and gathered over the rest house lawn. Some meeting was scheduled at the place. We decided to move out quickly of the area as the environment didn’t look calm. As soon as we loaded our luggage in our cab, driver noticed that we got a flat tyre again (P-4). A shop was nearby as we got the puncture fixed. On the way, one can easily see the army bunkers with soldiers keeping an eye on the surroundings. Before reaching patni top, we bought some fruits from a road side vendor. Patni top was all covered under clouds and high Deodar trees. We crossed Udhampur. Puncture tradegy struck again (P-5) as well as it started raining. Tills dropped his phone in water while getting out of Innova and was unaware of that. Pax asked about his phone and then only he realized that his phone is missing. He found it back but the phone was not working. Nokia express music 5800 was new and one of best ones those days. Sher Singh replaced the tyre with the stepny amid high rains. Raincoat came to use for the first and the last time on the trip.

Few hours later, we got flat tyre again (P-6). We were lucky to find a shop nearby. We got both the flat tyre and the stepny fixed. Taxi owner was informed about the puncture tradegy at the very same point and dissatisfaction was conveyed. We moved ahead. While on our way to Jalandhar, we overtook an Artillery unit of army. It was carrying some big guns/canons with it. At around 10 PM we again got flat tyre near a petrol pump (P-7). Driver replaced it with the stepny. Few kms later, the tragedy continued and the type got punctured again (P-8). Now we neither had a stepny in the back and the puncture repair shop was closed. We took refuge near a restaurant. Pax and Mambo had their flight next morning from Delhi and so they had to reach there before time. We asked them to board a bus going to Delhi which they agreed to as no other option was there. We slept/spent our night with big mosquitoes in Innova hoping the puncture repair shop will be open early morning.

Day 9: 01/08/2010

It was early in the morning. We waited outside the shop. At around 6.30 AM the owner came to our rescue fixing the problem and we left the place. The day was non-eventful. We were tired enough. Came to know that Mambo was able to catch the flight but Pax missed it. We reached Panipat and dropped Tills. As soon as we reached outer Delhi and were on the outer ring road we got flat tyre again (P-9) at around 3 PM. This was the most irritating moment of our journey. We were so tired and the hot sun added to our misery. We were in the middle of busy outer ring road changing our tyre and a group of houseflies attacked us. We just wanted to reach home ASAP. Sher Singh replace the tyre and we were back on the road. We dropped Santa at the Metro station. Matta got down at his point. Mahak and I were at home at around 5 PM. We settled our payments with Sher Singh, thanking him for his support throughout one the most memorable 9 days of our life.

The one with the leh trip - Part 1

Cast : kranti (me), santa, tilli B, matta, mahak, sandy, mambo and pakhale.

Special Thanks to Driver Sher Singh , RJ-14 TB 3383 and Captain Varun Gupta without whom pakhale would never had got the opportunity to inhale oxygen from a cylinder at the world highest transit camp at 15640 feet above sea level.

Day 1 : 24/07/2010

A couple of separated friends met each other the last night with 5 bottles of beer saying "yaar daroo kam pad gayi, 2 bottle aur honi chahiye thi". Santa and my leh trip was started with this very thought, last night. Sandy aka chotu joined us early morning to start the proceedings. After all this journey was the only reason because of which sandy mentioned the reason of his visit to US being JIHAAD in front of US Embassy avoiding any chance to get a visa this time. We kicked off the journey at 5.30 in evening when Mr. SherSingh picked mahak and me from my place. We then picked matta, mambo and pax from delhi. This was the first and the last time when the 8 of us were able to avoid ASSical contact over the whole trip. Santa and sandy sir boarded the Delhi-Manali volvo almost at the same time when we started off from delhi. It was a cloudy day, and the delhi traffic was grateful to us. It was around 8 when we reached Moorthal, had dinner there and the puncture tragedy initiated (P1).

At around 9 pm, we picked Tilli B from panipat refinery where he was busy fixing some SPR's. This was the last of our intentional stop from delhi to manali. But people close to us know that nothing happens with us as per plan. At around 12 we paid Rs.50 to a punjab cop as fine for asking way to manali.We reached bilaspur at night around 2 and this was the place from which distance to manali stopped decreasing. I think tilli B and his gaining weight was responsible for it. Others say we entered a paralled universe for the next 2 hrs. Finally Sher Singh lost all the hope of leaving the other world at 4 AM and fell into his worst nightmare for next 9 days.

Day 2: 25/07/2010

At 6.30 in the morning, i felt some movement on the back seat. Tilli B was trying to move his leg which got stuck between his and my seat, place referred to "Leg Space" by car manufacturers.

By god's grace he was able to get out of the car, and there we got our first glimpse of nature.

I am not good at describing the nature's beauty with words so pictures will speak for themselves.

While me,T.B. and mahak was enjoying the beauty of nature, matta was busy searching for HShala. We had a talk with santa there on phone and came to know that their bus is running late too. They were at that near mandi, sandy's X home which made him got senti loosing the last night's beer from his eyes. Our plan was to reach manali by 7 AM and we at 7 AM, we were more than 200 kms away from manali. The very start of our plan was in our typical style. Pax's new fuji film camera was tied around his neck and T.B was busy capturing some shots for his next auction for discovery channel. We crossed kullu with mine and T.B.'s eyeing filled with greed looking at the large apple orchards. And there it is.....at 12.30 PM we reached manali, more than 5 hrs late from our plan, and there we were welcomed by sandy sir and santa. From that very place, RJ14-TB3383's bad luck began. Now for the rest of the trip, it has to carry 8+1 passengers while riding at the worst of the indian roads. Next stop was dungri hills, IOCL guest house which costed us Rs.5 for 6 ppl.

(Sorry, I can't use the latest symbol for our currency because of its unavailability on the keyboard at present. :( ). At this very place i realized that one of my shoe is missing, giving fellow passengers a reason to smile. Janta got freshed and then we started the bike hunt at manali. For the last 24 hrs, our driver was driving continuously and this time again we didn't spare him, he was again asked to take part in the mission impossible. After lot of research, we found that no bike in manali can cover more than 200 mtrs without any fault. Some of them were missing clutch while others were missing brakes.

Not hiring bike at manali was one of the few good decisions we took during the trip (GudDecision-1).

That night was according to me, the most funfilled night of the whole trip, since we spend the rest in deep sleeps.

We had a blast that night. High volume music system, spacious dining room, daaroo and pack of old friends meeting each other almost after 2 years...."DP to banti hai yaaron". For almost 3 hours we danced like peacocks....srry i mean to say we danced like Sunny D. Our driver was so tired that even the fragrance of mambo's socks was not working on him.

Sher Singh was a real warrior. We slept at around 11.30 with the long day's exertion visible in our eyes and the excitement of one of the most memorable journey of life in our hearts.

Day 3: 26/07/2010

After the last night's heart robbing dance performances by us, it was not easy to wake up at 5 in the morning. I think sandy sir was the first one to wake up among all of us that morning too. 2 bathroom and 8 ppl....."bahut nainsaafi h". Still smhow, ppl managed to get ready for the ascent. At 6 in the morning, all of us were standing outside our cottage with our baggages in our hands ready to be loaded on the poor innova. It was drizzling since last night and was not a good sign to start the journey with. And there we go, one innova and 9 ppl in it.

First destination was Rohtang pass, just 52kms away from manali. As per plan, we would have reached rohtang at 8. But again as usual, nothing goes as per our plan. The roads were in deep trouble just like indian team when it looses first 5 wickets in first 10 overs. The route was full of waterfalls, both at the hills and the road.

Around 7.30 AM, we got stuck in a traffic jam. No traffic police, just a bunch of experienced truck drivers and local workers came to rescue. The road was in such a bad condition that a maruti 800 was asked to stay away and let other vehicles pass away. I don't know how that maruti got through. That jam was not at all boring for us, while me,matta and mahak were busy exploring the nearby hills,

rest of the gang was busy getting friendly with some ANGREZAS. It almost took us 1.5 hrs to cross that section of road. At around 9 or 9.15 we reached rohtang pass. 3 years ago when we came here in September, this place was like "WOW". But today, there was nothing at the name of ice. JOEY's broken fridge had more ice than rohtang pass in july. We had the famous rohtang maggi there. People claimed that my bowl has twice the amount they had, i just say grass is always greener on the other side. This was the last place during our journey where all of us were telecomically connected to the rest of the world. Now began the descent. We reached koksar, the coldest place in lahaul at around afternoon where some of us got clicked in the pics while others emptied their belly.

For very first time after years, T.B. was ready to drink normal water other than bisleri at koksar. 8 kms, short of keylong on the Manali-Leh road, situated on the confluence of Chandra & Bhaga rivers, we reached tandi. Last point to tank up if travelling towards leh as it has the last fuel station on this stretch. T.B and Pax for the first time felt proud to be an IOCLite as the fuel station belonged to them.

At this very place, someone among us noticed that innova's fuel tank is leaking diesel. Driver assured us that its just because we tanked it up to its fullest, but it wasn't the case. At aound 2-3 we reached darcha where the gang had evening snacks. Here onwards our ascent to the mighty baralacha pass began. Santa spotted some sheep congregation on the way which happens in millions of year as according to him. Then we stopped at a beautiful small lake, where a group of bikers passed us speeding their enfields. We were jealous.

Soon we encoutered the most risky and thrilling "nallah"(waterfall) of journey where another group of bikers guided ur through the way. We were jealous again ....but this time thanking them for their help. I hope no-one of us will forget this waterfall on the way. About half an hour later we reached baralacha la and all of us got mad.

Craving to touch ice for the first time on the trip was very much visible. And the place was really awesome. We spent some time there, took some snaps and started the descent. Got to see the PERFECT Sunset. At around 8 in the night, we reached sarchu. In the entire valley, few lanterns were the only source of light.

We were very tired. Dorma restaurant came to our rescue this time. It offered us the food and the tent to spend the third night of the journey.

Day 4: 27/07/2010

I don't remember who was the first one among us to wake up. Most of us had a peaceful night except a few who were head-ached by the Himalayas. It rained last night and as a result our bags on the circumference of the tent got wet. I went out to take first view of the valley which gave us refuge for the last night. Barren high mountains all around us boasting even higher. There were no toilets at Sarchu but the boys always knew the basics. It was the morning at 4290 mtrs above sea level and the water was really cold.....really very cold. We drycleaned ourselves, some of us had breakfast, packed our bags again on poor innova and were ready to cruze.

Mambo and Santa got a little emotional while getting away from the ANGREZ couple. Journey at day 4 started. The other side of the river looked inaccessible. The valley was deserted. The roads there were better than their counterparts in gurgaon. HAIL BRO !! We sailed through Gata loops. Our daring driver routed us through a shortcut where the poor innova refused to ascent and as a result pax, mambo, me and santa were forced to get out from the descending vehicle. Mambo and pax got involved in a short race. From this very place pax started loosing his share of O2. Next populated place was around 80 km away. We reached Pang at around 2-3. We had our lunch there. The place was even smaller than sarchu, just 8-9 tents providing travelers an opportunity to rest a bit before the ascent to second highest pass of the world begins. Pang has the highest transit camp in the world. Dont know wat is transit camp???.... Google it. As soon as pax came to know about the very fact, Oxygen content around him reduced further.

This was his only chance to get treated in the world's highest transit camp.

And why the hell, Santa can't make his friends here. Pax' was brought to life again by our hero Dr. Varun Gupta from alwar. As soon as he came to know that the poor innova is from Jaipur, his love towards his homestate got reflected in the amount of oxygen pax inhaled. Indian Army's hospitality was up to the mark. We all were given a couple of anti AMS drugs and told that the weather ahead is not good. Then started one of the most thrilling stretch of our journey. I cant recollect when did we entered the Moori plains. Watching the long long deserted plains at the height of 15k ft. was truly amazing. There we clicked the best pic of the journey. The weather added to the beauty. No roads....ride anywhere you want, but just dont try to move to the parallel path visible far away in the right as it may take you to @#$$%^&....that means u r LOST.

I am still curious what would have happened to us if we had opted to choose that "Shortcut" as per our initial plans (Gud Decision-2). I suppose all the travelers would agree to me that it was the best possible weather for the journey. A very few people had traveled through Moori plains with such a weather. I can go on writing about the beauty of the place till infinity. Next stop was the second highest pass of the world....Tanglangla Pass. Now was the time for Mahak to come to the limelight. He was unable to breath properly which doesnt allowed the gang to stay longer at the place. Now started the descent to leh....no more high passes till leh. Next destination - Upshi, where we stopped to pay the tax. Mambo, me and Santa got out of innova and walked a few steps not just to stretch legs....but to avoid any kind of fine because of over crowding the innova.

Just around 40 kms away was our much awaited destination....LEH.

The place was just as it looked like in tv or the ads we see on tv. Very natural. Very barren. Very beautiful. Around 5 we reached leh and then started our search for a nice hotel.

Mambo and Me traveled through the narrowest of the roads but the search was worth it. What a place we got....truly amazing. The day was coming to an end...and yes, the dinner was sponsored by Mambo that night....Great Mambo's Highest Birthday party ever.

Day 5: 28/07/2010

Almost throughout the whole trip, Sandy sir was the first one to wake up. This day too. This was our day to go for the highest of our life...."Khardungla Pass". Around 18500 ft. above sea level. Only 6 of us were available for the trip as the remaining two were not sure if they can inhale oxygen at that much height taking into account the previous high altitude pass experiences. Leh to Khardungla was covered in the most comfortable vehicle of the journey....Mahindra Xylo. Rocking song collection with the driver...amazing views of Ladakh..... and Chilly winds added to the fun. It took us around 2 hours to reach to the top.

Snow....fresh snow....Highest motorable road of the world. Beauty at its best...no breathing problem with anyone. Only and only fun. While Santa was busy with his stick finding his way to the top....Tillu was busy with checking the altitude of the place with his 5800's altimeter so that he could furnish it to Discovery India to clear the doubts about it being the highest motorable pass. Although Sandy sir stuck while sloping through the snow.....we managed somehow to descent back to the road. Weather was getting rough. Our time with Khardungla was over. As soon as we placed our snowy AS* over the xylo's seat, it started snowing outside. Snowfall in an afternoon of July. You can assume, it was really very high.

A couple of hours later....we were back to the base "LEH".

Time was always the constraint during the whole trip. With Pax and Matta undergoing their romantic trip through the valleys of ladakh, rest 6 of us had our lunch and soon hired 3 enticers from a local bike rental shop. Finally our dream of biking through Leh was on its way to reality. Santa with his heroistic abilities posted some great stunts with Sandy sir as the pillion and led to a minor bike skidding incident.

Every pillion except Sandy sir was eager to ride the bike and was poking and pointing to the drivers mistakes every other second. Finally at around 8.30 PM, we all returned the bikes and went back to the "BEST GUEST HOUSE EVER STAYED". While Santa was busy with his photo sessions even in night, that was time for us to say Good Night to each other and get ready for one of the most amazing trip next day.

.....To be Continued

Four Quarters of life

Hi friends..i m back with my bag full of crap. Dont have much to do these days, so y not move with the world and adopt the latest trend.."Blogging". Jokes apart...just wanted to share some conversation that i had with my good friend. Around a fortnight back, we had some guests at our place and as such i had to take refuge in his room. It was around 1.30 in the morning...came back from a birthday party thrown by some other friend. Below is the brief of the conversation that took place between him and me..and kept on going for an hour. I recommend reading it till the end.

Every man (hopefully) in his life encounters 4 kinds of woman in his life.... which now onwards i refer to as "Four Quarters of a life" which taken together completes the whole of a man's life. None of the quarters include woman as mother,daughter and sister specifically. So how can rest of the pool can be divided into the 4 categories....lets see :

a) Quarter 1 : People say boys and girls cant be just good friends. For me, it sounded pretty true during the early ages of life (teenage)..but as i grew up and at this point of time writing this blog, i contradict the so called "Fact". Boys and Girls can stay together just as Friends for sure. One can be as much casual with that female friend, as he is with other boys. You can talk to her about anything... and yes "Anything". You dont have to think about the gender of the listener before speaking your heart out. In short still being your girl friend...the romance factor may be completely out of scene in such relationships. These women make up the first quarter of life.

b) Quarter 2 : This is the quarter which is the wealthiest in terms of "Quantity". Everyone has crushes, failed one and those which are still continuing. Sometimes a boy may like a girl more than a friend but the feeling is not same from the other side. Sometimes a girl may have a crush on a boy and he may not be aware of that. You may have saw her at the Grocery shop for the first and the only time increasing the count for this quarter by one.
Sometimes you know that a girl has inclination towards you but still you neither want to proceed on that path nor u want to loose her as a friend. You just want to stay where you are.
This quarter also includes those woman with whom u just want to have "One Night Stand".
All those girls who doesnt fit in other 3 quarters may find a shelter here. You may make as much subsets of this category as u want.

c) Quarter 3 : Now comes the smallest quarter in size. "Woman or Women" whom u love and they feel exact towards u. When you are around her, you are unable to answer how many other beauties have passed along the way. You may want to spend your whole life together talking talking, and talking...and yeah doing some other stuff too.
This is basically an "Add-On" feature to the first quarter with all earlier characteristics remaining same and introducing a new feature of "Love, Romance and Binding".

d) Quarter 4 : Here comes the last and most practical one which inlcudes the Girl whom you are married to i.e. "Your Wife". Thanks to our tradition, if we have all the 3 quarters of our life empty....our parents will definitely fill this one. Woman with whom you have to spend you future with.
Since you "have to"....live it with Joy or Dissatisfaction, it all depends on you. Its the most controversial quarter too because it may be possible that this time the choice is driven by a "Combination of Requirements" as compared to "Spontaneity" which may or may not be very good for your coming life.


We all have our certain quarters filled and may be some of us have non zero values in each quarter (May God help them).
Possibly few have all the quarters vacant till now. Best of luck to those. Since not much time left, you may have to start with the last quarter of life.

Let us all have a look at our life and decide how much filled our Quarters are...


Inference : Now Since i have covered all the quarters of a man's life, lets move on to moral of the story.

For lucky people : All the quarters of the life overlap and the corresponding Woman is really from Venus. And such Men are only found on Mars. (If such Men are on earth too, i prefer calling them Alien.)

For Other's (Universe - Lucky) : Start the journey with last quarter and make other quarters to overlap. After all life is all about fighting till end. And then as Rudyard Kipling has said :

"Yours is the earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!"

}<r/-\/\/T|'s Sleeping theory

Welcome friends and girl friends of my friends (unfortunately that refers to null pointer) to mymonopoly.

For All dirty minded people : FYI, this blog doesnt contain any dirty talks.

Hopefully, all of us must have gone through a mail or some blog mentioning different sleeping positions and relating them to personalities of different people at some point of time in our coll or school life... here is similar survey conducted from my side that took 4 years to get completed ....it is based on a bunch of different people pursuing some bachelor course in engineering in remote village of allahabad. Readers are left with mapping these personalities to real world entities.

The topic may seem pretty unusual, just tried to take something offtopic.

Those ppl who haven't been to the place and met these bunch of guys might not get the exact feel of what i m trying to put or say, but probably these ppl can map it to the person in their own universe of interest.

I am stating my observations zone wise. Again readers are required to understand the meaning of different zones themselves. For newbies, take a Zone as an abbreviation for corresponding sleeping position.

So Starting off--------------------

Zone 108 : This tall handsome boy always slept straight with a innocent smile at his face during the sleep. Sometimes he used to put his hands on his head making a rectangular photo frame with his face at the center.

Personality traits : Innocent and Smiling face denoted that this boy is fond of sleeping and is really innocent at heart. taking a gud sleep at the end of the day is one of his highest priority tasks. His innocence doesnt mean u can take his trip easily. BEWARE..u may get reverse tonic pretty easily.

Zone 109 : This boy used to wear minimal clothes when sleeping (upper half of body :P). He liked embracing the person sleeping aside him, placing his leg over other persons legs and then calmly sliding his hand over the other persons tummy. He enjoyed sleeping in front of cooler even in winters.

Personality traits: Please dont question his sexual orientation. He is perfectly straight. Wearing minimal clothes shows that this boy was not introvert and never afraid of telling others what was in his mind. Clearly speaking he was pure at his heart and fond of giving his GYAAN to others. Sleeping in front of cooler reveals that he is a real fighter and can survive in any situation (Not a very delicate human being like some other guys). And lastly, his physically intimate sleep points to the fact that he will be there for you in need and will always cover you from any difficulty.

Zone 114 : Its a special zone. i'll be describing two different types of sleeps that i observed ,

1st : This boy didnt believed in sleeping 4 long. its fortunate enough for me to see him sleeping some time. Initially he starts off the sleep just as a normal human being but as soon as he gets into deep sleep, his body suffers some physical changes...his body get tougher until it attains all the physical properties of Fe (iron). Also some times angle of inclination of his body as respect to his initial position sometimes changes to as much as 90 degree..or we can say from vertical to horizontal. Often I had found his head hanging by his neck outside the bed and about to fall back. This sort of mutation goes back as soon this boy wakes up. If he is made to sleep with 2 other boys on the double bed, strength gathered by his mutant genes forces others to make more space finally ending up with whole one bed for him and rest 2 guys smhw managing in a single bed.

Personality traits: His smaller sleep session denoted that this boy is fast and furious in watever he does. His physical mutation after getting into the sleep denotes that once it enters the enemy zone, he becomes very much attentive. His capability of making space on the bed shows that whenever he enters any sort of competition (let it be academics,bakar,xtra curricular activities and smtime gaming too) he can easily outdo others.

2nd : This boy's sleep is very rare. He can sleep under any condition irrespective of the amount of light, noise and tension (of exams...which very few can avoid) in the atmosphere. You never know when and where he is going to sleep and wake up. I have caught him sleeping on a not so comfortable chair and at early hours like 9 PM as well as he can wake up at 3 AM when the rest of the fools usually enter the bed.

Personality traits : Sleeping under such harsh condition denotes that this boy is very down to earth kind of person and will never get uncomfortable in any situation. The odd sleeping and wake up hours denotes the adaptiveness of this guy in any environment. He knows his strengths and weaknesses very well.

Zone 115 : Referred to as Area 51, this zone is of special interest. The tall and skinny subject living in this room was very mysterious.

Its very rare to find him sleeping. Sometimes u can find the subject murmuring something in the sleep. The time lag between him going to bed and getting into deep sleep is in terms of milli seconds. Usually he followed nomadic approach moving to different rooms to sleep claiming different reasons every time.

Personality traits: Murmuring in his dreams may compromise his non-willingness to speak in his non-sleep mode. Minimal time lag shows that this boy doesnt believe in wasting time (eg. fast castle timings during AOE* sessions). His nomadic approach towards sleep makes it clear that its very hard to find these type of lazy people. Instead of making some effort and changing the surroundings these people opt for easier options such as getting adapted towards the surrounding or better leave for other place in search of resources (like better room, drinking water,etc)

AOE* = Age of Empires, its a LAN game for some people but passion for us during college life.

Zone 140 : Tashan Zone. Guy belonging to this zone also used to sleep normally initially but at a later stage of sleep he used to change his initial vertical position into an elliptical shape. It was very difficult to figure out that some human being is sleeping between the sheets because of the skinny build of the subject.

Personality Traits : This was the most difficult case for me to analyse. Even such an experienced person like me (lolz) got failed to relate his sleeping habit with his characteristics. Here is a direct relation to his habits. People like him may carry an invisible signboard with them "DONT MESS WITH ME". sometimes these kind of people can be very useful for you as u just have to throw a challenge on them and irrespective of wellness of the results, he may do it leaving only u successful and this guy at loss. ppl like him believe in spending money even more than the actual worth just to join the elite spending club. These kind of people are very gud at heart,intelligent and willing to do anything for their well wishers.

Zone 139 : Guy in this zone is also a pretty interesting subject to analyse. He had almost normal sleeping positions but just one thing separates him out of normal community. Ability of the subject to sleep even with open eyes. The guy in this zone also was following a nocturnal approach towards sleep.

Personality Traits: Ability to sleep with open eyes (hunger for knowledge) and nocturnal approach proved to be of gr8 use for the subject who later on founded the concept of optical leakage and is a hot topic these days. But also his nocturnal approach made him a bit short tempered. Better not to indulge in teasing sessions which aimed at making subject angry.

Zone 148 : Guy that belonged to this zone was very difficult to trace down during his sleep as he used to lock the door from inside quite often so that other anti social elements may not interfere his sleep. Fortunately I was able to observe him sleeping. His sleep was pretty normal. What i found interesting was that he was the only guy in all the zones who always kept the bed and the bedsheets clean.

Personality Traits : Locking the door from inside depicts that he is hiding something. Not in his heart neither in his room...but in his talks. This guy normally used to talk in some encoded language which appears to be very difficult to understand even for the so called engineering graduates. Keeping bed clean denoted his crystal clear heart with not even an single atom of hatred and unkindness for anyone.

Zone 570 : Subject found in this zone was famous for his long lasting sleeps. Another sleeper of my very own survey. He always used to deny requests made by his room-mate to wake up. His bed timings were literally unpredictable....may be he wakes up till dawn or he may sleep at 5 in evening and then will wake up at 3 in the morning. Nothing special about his posture.

Personality Traits : Long lasting sleeps made him a bit...ohhh...sorry i should correct myself....very lazy. Because of his roomy's fault i.e. constant early wake up calls, this guy got habit of getting irritated pretty soon. His total unpredictable bed timings accounts for his totally confused behaviour towards life. God knows when is he going to be responsible in life.