Sunday, August 31, 2008

Trip to Leh : Part 1

THE CREW


1. Ms. Shruti Singh :- Junglee since birth, she walked like her kitchen garden in barren mountains and high glaciers and was partly responsible for the dementia of crazy four; somehow managed to trip in the last and safest leg of any trek – and true to herself, treasurer lost her own treasure in a train after completing the whole journey

2. Mr. Alex V F Paul Menon :- Enthu cutlet, had a natural aversion to leather seats - whether of Innova or of Pulsar – so could be found sitting, standing, crouching or even lying at any other place of any vehicle except the seat; official photographer of group along with Ron – unlike Ron, however, he found human sapiens also photographable; could be trusted to photograph anyone’s most unphotographic posture; missioned to reach Kanyakumari from Kashmir as part of trip to spread the spirit of (mis)adventure and craziness among general populace; part of crazy four

3. Ms. Salma K Fahim:- discovery of the trip – our charming princess is also a distant cousin of mowgli, distant because she still had to be constantly cajoled, persuaded to venture into unventured terrains; closer to mountains however she swiftly transformed into a humming bird- effortlessly hopping from one rock to another; perfected the art of sleeping even while stirring soup sitting in front of DC and SSP– in short she imbibed all the necessary skills for FC in just 10 days; the ever smiling and cutest face of crazy four

4. Mr. Rohit Gupta :- Group less and absolutely Clue less leader; also doubled up as versatile singer and lyricist in hours of need, his most famous composition being leeli-neeli-peeli-goli en-route KEYLONG; his and Alex’s love for each other and for the ‘mankind’ became folklore of trek; his calmness in front of extreme adversity, hostility and provocation - ie Arti - inspired many; part of crazy four

5. Mr. Randeep Devendiran :- Pseudo-Gentleman of the group; pseudo because everyone except ‘children’ find him gentle – and children, of course, are most perceptive; discovered his energy drink in a freshly prepared ‘Yak water’, just like Alex found his drink in Yak milk; later on joined the above crazy four leading to formation of crazy five#

6. Ms. Arti Dogra :- official grand-nany before the trip; stopped nanying once the shock of rarefied atmosphere actually hit her and shot her - and as a consequence everyone else’s - BP high; shared wonderful chemistry with Alex, whereby they together managed to puncture any given vehicle on any given time at any given place; her intellectual discussions with Rohit were constant source of enlightenment and vocabulary improvement for the group, especially Visa

7. Ms. Sarika Mohan :- Official biker of the group; asset for any team in antakshri, for she was the only person of the group who could manage to give fight to Shruti at her own turf – ie singing unheard, unreleased, unknown music scores; her picture perfect smile and immaculate dressing sense led many people to believe that the group has managed to kidnap a foreigner; home state Punjab notwithstanding, she till date regrets not beating three sardarji’s at check post in SUMUR to pulp after they misadventuresly ventured into kumbh ka mela talks with her when her beloved roomie was lost in the wilderness of NUBRA

8. Mr. Kaushal Raj Sharma and Ms. Suhani :- unanimously voted as the camel riders of the trip – Suhani while riding the camel in HUNDUR and Kaushal while running after her camel with camcorder in hands – of course enthusiastically cheered by the group; they together present the picture of new Indian Civil Services family; Kaushal with his sunglasses – gifted by Suhani, Tshirt – usurped from Suhani, coffee – made by Suhani, camcorder – purchased by Suhani signifies the archetypical UP ka IAS husband; Suhani – as the ‘meek’, ‘sacrificing’, ‘adjusting’ typical Indian wife, trying to regain her space with the help of society - ie batch mates of husband

9. Mr. Abhishek Singh and Ms. Aparajita :- unanimously voted as the couple of the trip; also known as Appy-Shek in the group as they perfectly complimented each other; the latent romantic young man came into limelight on antakshri day in DISKIT, when abhishek-kaushal duo brought forth unprecedented upsurge of old-new-classical love songs, it could be matched only by the old-new-classical upsurge of unheard-unknown-unreleased songs by Shruti-Sarkia duo – of course with constant support of old-new-classical upsurge of tragic songs in equally tragic voice of Rohit

10. Mr. D. Ronald Rose and Ms. N R Visalatchy :- unanimously voted as the most wild couple of the trip; they could be always spotted together spotting some other species – wild birds for Visa and wild asses for Ron; Ron even managed to climb up to glacier at CHANG LA with one broken leg to get a glimpse of wild ass, had he been completely alright the world could have seen the first photogarphs of Yeti; thanks to Visa coaching classes, many of the group members are now more aware of the fauna of Leh than that of their own state/cadre; both of them, together as well as individually, surpassed enthu levels of even Alex – which, by the way, is no mean achievement


11. Suraj, Parvez and Deepak :- Three muskeeters; one was always sick in the day and drunk in the night; second was a born fighter pilot and bollywood hero but unfortunately was prone to forgetting that innova is not sukhoi and IAS officers are not particularly known to be dramatics admirers ; third one was more concerned for his Taverra throughout the journey than its passengers


12 Mr Gokul :- Gift from Ranaji; officially our guide, unofficially the only one in the group who needed guidance; the man who spent about 3 years in Leh (his version), strangely enough could not spend 3 minutes with us in mountains without throwing up in all parts of vehicle; lone VIP in the group, was important enough to get down last and take seat first at every stop; tragically (for the drivers of course) had to alone all the way back to mussoorie to beloved academy


# Persons calling themselves Crazy four/five were characterized by one absurd behavioral pattern – climbing up glaciers with absolutely no gear, and just because snow ‘appears’ pretty close. Some say that it all started with a particularly incisive debate among the crazy five on ROHTANG Pass that whether a particular rock is a rock, limestone, snow or glacier. Some say that it was because of the scientific fact that lack of oxygen hits single people more viciously, and if you notice carefully, all the members of crazy five were single – at least on trip. Whatever be the reality, the truth remains that near the end of trip, after particularly nasty antics of crazy five in CHANG LA, even the driver of their vehicle was specially instructed to increase the speed of vehicle whenever snow could be seen near the horizon.


Prologue
Date: 11 Aug, 2008
‘Buddy, I think we should accompany sir to his room for discussing Leh trip details,” Alex gently nudged me towards our Deputy Director’s room as soon as Effective SDO seminar ended.

“Which trip man? It is three days to go, and we still do not know whether academy is going to help us out or not,” I had by then reconciled to the fact that nothing new is ever going to happen in our beloved Alma Mater. With a sigh, we both strove towards DD’s room for, what had become, our daily ritual in the last one month of Phase-2.

Little did we realize at that time (hopelessly late risers as we all are!) that sun had indeed risen from west that morning, and our Academy had finally decided to re-continue something discontinued 11 years ago.

Parting words of DD to me were – “You guys made my life miserable in last one month Thank God you are finally going to Leh”. Three days later, in the third hour of a five hour long traffic jam on Rohtang Pass, I understood the full significance of his words.