In his own words, this is the real story of a boy turned Man who never had a chance to ride any bike, not even had one before he reached one of the highest roads in the world in Himalayas on his Royal Enfield Motorcycle.
RIDING TO THE TOP OF THE WORLD
20th of June, 2013. 05:30 pm. Back to home, back to the
crowded city (Lucknow), back to routine, physically at least. This was the day
when I returned from a 4000 Km trip from Lucknow to Leh-Laddakh. Mentally, to
be honest, I was lost- drifting, searching myself. My mind was occupied with
too many thoughts- get back into the groove, focus on work (College to open
after 10 days) and the yearning to go out in the open and to find out the
elusive meaning.
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| Mayank Tiwari on his 2012 Royal Enfield Electra |
Next morning, I got up feeling lost and disoriented. I had
to be reminded that I was back in Lucknow. I could barely recognize my face in
the mirror (courtesy-frost bite). When I left for this trip, everyone around me
thought that I would/should change. Though the trip nothing really changed me
drastically but I now find myself a changed man definitely in many small ways.
I am going to try and pen down on paper what exactly I thought during the ride
and after.
First of all why did I do it? I was the guy who never got a chance
to ride any bike before I got my bullet. Leave aside bike, I never got a chance
to ride a two-wheeler in my school/college days (not that I did not know how to
ride a two-wheeler) because I had a cycle till my graduation days (which in
fact I say with pride). In the last year of my graduation, I was gifted a
scooter (a Bajaj Chetak and once again no motorcycle) by my father as he is
always protective about me and his logic was that a scooter is safer than a
bike in terms of speed. I bought my Black Royal Enfield Electra 350 (Bullet) in
November 2010. Did some local rides and Lucknow-Mussorie ride(last year) but
that really did not leave me any sense of achievement or belonging. But I
really loved everything about my bike. The Question which really bugged me was
that was I a tough rider, do I have the fitness and temperament to complete
successfully and safely one of the toughest ride on one of the toughest terrain
both in terms of altitude as well as the variety of obstacles on offer. I am
talking about the terrain of Leh-Laddakh commonly known as Biker’s Mecca or
Biker’s Paradise among the riders. It has it all- sand, gravel, murk, water and
of course ice compounded with sudden unpredictable weather changes and vast
stretches where one has to do off-roading.
So what did I do? I discussed with the local riders who also
happens to be one of my school friend (Mr Somendra Banerjee) and decided to go
on a trip to the top of the world- Khardung La. 6 riders started the trip on
6th of June 2013 from Lucknow. But instead of going though the more common
rider route of Delhi-Chandigarh-Manali, we took more adventurous and less
traversed route that took us from
Lucknow-Haridwar-Dehradun-Chakrata-Rohru-Narkanda-Kullu-Manali-Tandi-Keylong-Jispa-Sarchu-Rumtse-Leh-Pangong
Lake-Kargil-Drass-Sonmarg-Srinagar-Udhampur-Jammu-Ludhiana-Ambala-Panipat-Sonipat-Delhi-Agra-Kanpur-Lucknow.
That’s just the headlines-how can one forget the mountain passes-Jalori (not
well known among the tourists and the toughest of this ride for its steep
slopes) Rohtang (pass for tourists, traffic-jams and dirt), Baralacha La(tough
for some but not for us), Tanglang La(World’s second highest motorable pass at
17800 ft), Khardung La(World’s highest motorable pass at 18380 ft) Fotula(the
most beautiful and photographic), Zozilla(called by us as Godzilla Pass and the
one mothers will use to put bad riders to sleep- “so ja nhi to Zozilla Pass
bhej dungi”). And the small stops in between from nowhere with just
dhabas(meaning hot water/tea and shelter from the icy winds for 30 minutes) at
Bharatpur, Pang, Upshi, Losar amongst others. The ride took us from plains of
Uttar Pradesh to the first twisties(borrowed term) en route to Chakrata through
cold and miserable roads on way to Keylong and Sarchu, the magnificent Moore
Plains and never-ending Gata Loops, beautiful tarmac roads through colourful
mountains on way to Kharu and Leh, the fun-filled off-road stretches where
there were no roads, the most beautiful straight roads through valleys and
green patches with snow-capped keeping guard, the curvy roads along the raging
Sutlej, the beautiful green mountains of Kashmir and back to the sweltering
heat of Lucknow. The ride that gave an opportunity to enjoy some of the
delicacies of Laddakh, the famous Laddakh tea, to enjoy Kebabs near Dul lake in
Srinagar.
It is difficult to express what we went through both
mentally and physically. There were times of exhilaration when we were able to
complete a day’s task set aside by us and the feeling of extreme looseness when
we realized that we are not the riders we thought we were. The feeling of
insignificance- when faced with the beauty and the size of the landscape we
were riding through. When a rider completes a ride to Leh-Laddakh, only a
handful that shared the adventure would truly understand what it takes to
endure an escapade like that-feeling the elements fighting against you and
manipulating your bike to overcome the obstacles set before you. For those like
us who like to ride off the beaten tracks, a common occurrence is the battle is
between enjoying the ride and the scenery at the same time. For us
transportation is only a secondary function. A motorcycle is a joy machine. But
one thing on which we never compromised was safety. We always followed the
basics of riding which eventually helped us in completing the riding safely.
After this ride I totally agree with two tag-lines of Royal
Enfield about the ride to Leh-Laddakh- “Tiring-Testing-Tempting” and the
second-“The road to heaven is never a straight line” and that’s literally and
figuratively bang on. It is said that promises are made in heaven and I made a
promise to myself in Leh-Laddak that I will be back here again with my joy
machine.
- MAYANK TIWARI
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