Following my two passions - Travel and Writing

As the three day long weekend was approaching, we were getting anxious to plan on some short trip. After days of debates and discussions we couldn’t come to a conclusion. It was one day to go and not giving up, I kept searching for places. While googling, I came across the Chopta- Tungnath trek. Reading the reviews and looking at the pictures it seemed like a good option and the decision was made. Without much planning & preparation, we packed our bags. The journey started on 01-10-15 at 2000 hours. Already late as per plan, we headed on NH 24 and met huge traffic. It looked like everyone on this planet was going to that side. It took us more than 2 hours to cross Ghaziabad and our car got in its 4 th gear after 2 hours of travel that evening. We by-passed the major towns of Meerut & Muzaffarnagar and halted on the way for quick dinner at a dhaba. As we resumed our drive, it got pitch dark at about 2330 and with no streetlights the road was nowhere to be seen. Slowly

It was lunch time in office and I was sitting with a friend. Lost in thoughts, unaware of my surroundings, the words came out of my mouth-  “Rohan is a great guy”  . My colleague, puzzled  at this sudden mention of a guy from nowhere, asked me, “Who Rohan?” “He is a friend of mine. Rohan – The Flying Man” , I said with a faint smile on my face. I had moved to Pune six months ago, after getting a job offer from one of the largest automobile giants of India. After some initial hiccups of adjusting in a new town, eventually I fell in love with Pune. I had rented an apartment in “Viman Nagar” which was a relatively new locality. My life in Pune was very simple- 9 hours of work, 1 hour of cooking, 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour of travel to work and remaining 5 hours for other chores and recreation. The most refreshing part of the day was my evening jog on the well maintained jogging track in the housing complex. Meeting and greeting the daily routiners felt great. Nearly 3 months

I want to share two completely different scenarios happened on my one trip: A.    Scenario 1 - It was our 4 th day of travel to leh ladakh on our enfields. We were crossing the ladakh valley and were currently in the Rumtse village. People told me that it will be very difficult to ride your bike for so long but it was going very well for us. The best parts of the trip until then were the landscapes and the people. Every village we used to cross, kids used to come out of their homes after listening to the thumps of our enfields. All of them waved us with beautiful smiles on their faces. While riding, we hi5 with them and we used to get really happy after that. What made us happier was the indulgence of their parents. Even they joined their kids in waving us, smiled to us & gave us hi5. Whenever we stopped for some snacks, we used our every minute in talking to the people and playing with the kids. B.    Scenario 2 - It was our 9 th day of the trip and we we