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2 2 Wheels & No Limits i

3 Publishing-in-support-of, EDUCREATION PUBLISHING RZ 94, Sector - 6, Dwarka, New Delhi Shubham Vihar, Mangla, Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh Website: Copyright, Author All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, magnetic, optical, chemical, manual, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written consent of its writer. ISBN: Price: ` The opinions/ contents expressed in this book are solely of the author and do not represent the opinions/ standings/ thoughts of Educreation. Printed in India ii

4 2 Wheels & No Limits EDUCREATION PUBLISHING (Since 2011) iii

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6 In fond memory of my grandfather Hav Ranganath Morab (4 Mar Jan 1999) On His Birth Centenary v

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8 Contents Sr. Index Page 1 Acknowledgements ix 2 About the Author x 3 Preface xiii 4 Route Chart xvii 2 Wheels & No Limits 1 The Initial Jerk 1 2 Day 1: It is Ride o clock 10 3 Day 2: It Didn t Look that Far on the Map 18 4 Day 3: Adventure means Overcoming Troubles 28 5 Day 4: Crazy Diagnosis 36 6 Day 5: Time for Some Rest 44 7 Day 6: Closest to the Sky 52 8 Better Know the Risks When You Ride 59 9 Day 7: What Ought to be Done, Better be Done! Day 8: It was Exciting Between The Legs! Day 9: A Tough Road But Worth It Day 10: Sing Songs and Enjoy Day 11: Men Will be Men Day 12: A Matter of Pride 105 vii

9 15 Day 13: Cash is King! Day 14: A Night in the House Boat Day 15: The Final Stroke Philosophical Interpretations 127 viii

10 Acknowledgements At the very outset, I would like to thank my brother Abhay, who encouraged me to pen down my experiences in the form of this book. My parents were a continuous source of motivation for me. My bhabhi Nagmani helped me out with the minute aspects of the manuscript. Mrs Krishna Chakraborti was instrumental in polishing my language. How can I refrain from thanking my wife Shalaka, who always stood by my side and gave me hope when things were gloomy! Manish, Atmaj and Pritish Without you guys, this is incomplete. Finally, I would express my sincere gratitude to The Educreation Publishing House which made this book see the light of the day. Happy Readings and Happier Ridings!!! ix

11 About The Author Akshay Morab!!!! Ahh what to say He is one such person who can never see things the way they seem. His thoughts altogether have different twists and turns about the situations around him. Thus it can be proved that not only his thinking, but he himself is also OUT OF THE BOX. So how can Akshay be a person with a simple routine??? He is an all-time adventure seeker; he needs something new to do all the time. But Trekking, Motorcycle Rides, Cycling Tours and Leisure time in Water have a special corner in his heart. Akshay is also good at Painting on Canvas and Sketching. Apart from all this he also likes Reading and Writing short articles on social networking sites regarding his adventures. And today he brings us a book full of memories and experience about his beautiful and exciting BIKE RIDE to LADAKH. All in all Akshay can be called a HATKE (crazy) person who finds his KICK in life with a bucket list filled with adventures all around the x

12 Globe. This time it is a bike ride to ladakh BHAGWAN JAANE AGLA UTPATANG VICHAR KYA HAI...!!! (God knows what will be cooking the next time). I hope you all will fall in love with Akshay and this book as I have. Shalaka Morab xi

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14 Preface It was a pleasant Sunday morning in the month of January. I and Manish were enjoying a relaxed day. We had returned from a successful adventure of Bungee Jumping and River Rafting in the Ganges, Rishikesh. We always lived by the dictum To be old and wise, you have to be young and crazy! This always kept us on toes. It was our endeavour to be at a stage where you name an adventure and we would reply Been there. Done that! Manish has an amazing approach towards life. He always keeps himself occupied with new experiences in life. Probably, this helps him to be calm and composed even in the toughest situations. His sense of humour and care free attitude attracts everyone towards him. Yet we are still waiting for him to get attracted to some girl! Next on our bucket list was the motorcycle ride in the Ladakh region. It is undoubtedly a biker s paradise. Living that moment was our aspiration. This sowed the seeds of going on a motorcycle trip in that part of the country. xiii

15 I personally never felt that it would be tough. It was because of the trust that we had developed in each other. We had lived a plethora of moments on our bikes in different terrains of the country. The spark had ignited. Our plans for the ride commenced. While sharing thoughts with few people, I got to know that there were two more riders wanting to experience the pure bliss in the mountains - Atmaj and Pritish. They were best buddies. I even doubt if they have lived any moment alone! The Army has moulded us in such a way that there was no friction in our thoughts. Everyone was open and ready for everything. I knew Pritish since my school days. We were in fact in the same classroom when we passed our matriculation exam. He belongs to the rarest species of humans which are very innocent, down to earth and performers in all facets of life. He has not been in the rat race of the world where we lose the child in us. My interaction with Atmaj was very limited. Nevertheless, in few meets, I was sure that he is a happy go lucky man. His humility runs deep within. It is because of this quality in him that he joins the extraordinary league of people who have NO haters! At this point of time, all of us were undergoing B-Tech qualification as a part of organisational xiv

16 requirement. So, our leave was nothing but the vacations that we got from the academics. The common fabric that wove in all of us was LOVE FOR MOTORCYCLES! The passion to ride brought us together. It was for that simple reason for which we had to do this on our own bikes. However, the limited leave from our professional commitments didn t give us the freedom to explore infinitely. We had to cut short our plan and formulate a day-wise schedule. After going on through various options, we plotted the master plan. We would be transporting our motorcycles in a truck to Chandigarh from where the ride would commence. The route was planned using the Google maps. If you are a traveller, you would agree with me that travelling is one of the finest teachers. The outdoor experience that you share with other people helps you to build cohesion. The nature on the other hand has an ocean of experiences to teach. All this along with the fun and frolic made us wait eagerly for the D-day. The only thing that lay between our dreams was our examination xv

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18 Route Chart xvii

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20 Akshay Morab The Initial Jerk Our second semester engineering exams had just gotten over and the results were soon to be declared. We were pretty confident about our results. I just hoped that it wouldn't turn into over confidence. Abiding by the famous quote "Fortune favours the brave", we left everything to our fate and kept our fingers crossed. Preparations for our dream ride never took a halt. The excitement actually reached a new level. To our astonishment, all four of us passed and this ensured we could execute our plan completely. Well, Manish, Pritish, Atmaj and I comprised the crazy quartet. We were well prepared and fully equipped with everything that we could think of. Other than our individual riding gear, I was ready with my DSLR and Atmaj was a step ahead by investing wisely in the helmet-mounted camera so that most of the route could be captured well. Everything fell in place and was as per our convenience. Without any hiccups, it was exactly the way we had expected. 1

21 2 Wheels & No Limits All four of us had packed our respective Royal Enfield and had transported them to Chandigarh in a truck. That was our start point and none of us were ready to hire local bikes for this ride. So, we took our own. The shipping address was of an old friend of ours, Upmanyu Gaur who was located there. He had confirmed about having received our bikes safely within a couple of days after their dispatch. One of the most important aspects was taken care of. Little did we know that the big blow was yet to strike! It was waiting for a perfect time to detonate. Having reached the Pune airport by 7 pm for an 8.30 pm flight to New Delhi, we thought that we were well on time and hence completely safe. After having collected our boarding passes, we lounged around at the airport. As a routine measure, I just went through the flow of events that evening. Something struck my mind which gave me a great shock. When you plan for the biggest contingencies, you tend to overlook the minor ones - in fact they might turn out to be the worst ones. Something very similar happened with us when I realised that I had forgotten my bike s key! When I told this to others, lo behold! I was not alone in this carelessness. Even Pritish was reluctant to leave my company as he too had forgotten. WTF! We were in a fix as to what we could do in an hour! 2

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