My journey with an old Beginning and a new End….

Its time again, time for me to say what I really want to say, time for me to pen down my feelings, time for me to say here I am….

Its been more than a couple of weeks that I have come back from a Car rally from the bed of the Himalayas. Once again my work helped me to explore a side of the country which I had never seen before what is interesting is I found a new side to Anupam, that I wasn’t aware about…..

The 3 day rally took me to a new high and low of emotions that I have never felt before, the rally created moments that were far above the daily chores of life, the rally gave me answers to the questions that I never asked, the rally explored Anupam like the way no one had ever explored before.

Let me take you to a journey across the land, let me take u to MY journey, on a palm of sand……..

I flew to Chandigarh a day before the rally to do my work bit. Did the briefing that I was supposed too, checked the agenda, wrapped up work early, met some relatives and called it an early night to ensure I was fully charged up and ready for the D –Day tomorrow.

Day 1

The day arrived, all packed in, I reached the venue early only to be on the safer side. After the regular briefing for the rally, I dumped my bags in a Toyota Innova which would be my vehicle of transport for the next 4 days. I was hoping I would get to drive from the very beginning but my hopes shattered when I saw another guy from the events team grabbing the wheel before even I could think off, so I satisfied myself with the navigator seat right in the front. I was traveling with my clients, two very lovely ladies and two people from the events team. We drove down from Chandigarh to Karnal where we were scheduled to meet all teams arriving from Delhi also. There were about 23 teams participating including us. Karnal was the place where the actual rally began, well almost for everybody. Before even we could reach Karnal, our very own Mr. Schumacher from the events team drove the car right above the feet of a Surdy ( Sardar) Cop from Punjab on a jam packed road. (Talk about making the most desirable start) Like all other true Indians, we started our conversation with an apology & an offer to bribe. And like it always works, we were out of it in no time. It was a costly affair, but we laughed it off by saying that at least we drove the car over a cop, and tried to assure our already empty pockets……

After a couple of hours we reached Karnal, only to find ourselves in middle of loads of confusion, lost drivers, navigators, and of course us. We enrolled ourselves as part of a team, only for namesake of course and crowned our team as Team no 22. ( Dnt u know clients & PR team member cannot win competitions that they organize themselves…Duhhh)

With a little bit of shuffle in our team, we were finally 4 people driving towards Bairatkhai -20 km from Chakrata situated in Uttrakhand. Since we were a part of the lifestyle rally unlike the conventional only off roading rally, we had a set of rules to follow in terms of speed limits and specific route maps which gave only directions after some kms and nothing more than that. I took the Navigators seat and was almost lost in the route maps for the first five minutes. As i adjusted to the maps, i shuffled my concentration between the maps and conversations with my team members.

We found ourselves driving towards one of the most beautiful destinations in the country, enveloped by a deluge of greenery at an altitude of 2300 m above sea level. A destination with trees of all sizes and shapes, virgin forests of conifers, oaks and rhododendrons that can be seen with unfailing regularity.

As fours strangers (2 clients, 1-Event head & Me) drove towards this unexplored land, we found ourselves getting more and more relaxed in our own skin. I kept clicking pictures throughout the entire drive since this was my new found passion, which almost drove me to craziness in this entire trip. After 5 hours of driving, a couple of stops for cutting chai over lots of conversation, we finally arrived at the camp which left me breathless and I knew it had arrived…..

That was it, I just knew it, I was standing right on top of a carved piece of flat land on a mountain- with cold wind blowing in my hair and the view of an endless valley standing right ahead with its arms spread wide. I just stood there staring at the valley, looking at all those faces that created the rally teams. For once each one of them spoke similar words, their faces said exactly the same thing, their expressions were the same- we had found ourselves heaven right on the face of this earth. Everybody rushed into their tents only to get ready and come back soon for the evening camp fire.

As everybody rushed into their tents I found myself still standing at the same spot just feeling the moment, the air which made me feel pure, and a sight that I had never seen before. I tried capturing those moments on my camera, but the picture just won’t be right. I could feel a new level of emotion but my pictures just won’t speak the same language. I tried, I tried & I tried but it just wasn’t right. My frustration was building up, just when a cold swish of wind blew right across me only to say, ‘It was alright’. I moved towards my tent, lied down on my bed and just smiled. I had no thoughts in my head, but I still smiled.

After a while I freshened up and moved back towards to the camp site, to find myself in middle of lots of conversation, hot yummy snacks and loads of alcohol. As the cold wind blew through the entire evening, we all sat and discussed our drive, the beauty of the place, life, music, fashion (yes that too) and more. I met a lot of people, people that I had spoken to for months but never met, people that I had met last year on the rally, people that made no difference in my life at that point and people that have always been there. As the evening came close to an end I found myself once again sitting right on the edge of the hill, but this time with close friends ; re-living every single moment of our lives. Honestly, I was thinking about a lot of people from my past, my relationships, my journey till today, my dreams, my feelings, my friends that made a difference to my life. I guess it was a night of conversations, where I spelt my heart out to my close friends, and it felt great. That place almost evoked thoughts, emotions that I had never felt before, it made me say things that I wasn’t supposed to say, but I did. After hours and hours of conversation, I decided to finally tuck myself into bed. I had never slept so peacefully in my life, i dnt dream, i dnt think any more. I slept like a baby that night, with no bonds, no emotions, no feelings, no thoughts; the only thing that kept me company that night was a just a simple smile J

Day 2

I woke up early the next day, as i zipped up my tent and threw it open wide, only to step out and once again smile. Sounds of the valley surged into my ears, and I found myself at the edge with my arms open wide. ‘Click’ ‘Click’ I went, capturing every single moment of it, I ran on the top of the mountain to get the best view, I stood on the rocks to get the best view, I almost fell of a tree while trying to get the best view, I was trying to capture everything that my imagination could run through.

With a happy set of pictures i rushed back into my tent to get ready for another day of action and adventure. A quick shower with ice cold water and yummy breakfast gave me a perfect start. We all packed our bags, dumped them in the car, after some more pictures we drove towards a bridge which was situated right above the Yamuna river. We were instructed earlier about the bridge slithering activity and we all wear geared accordingly. By now I had become good friends with my team members, we all were very comfortable with each other and our spirits to win the rally were high. Oh I forgot to mention, we (Team 22) had stood 16th in the first leg of the rally which was a pretty decent performance keeping us in mind..lol

As we were trying to cheer each other for the rally to my surprise i found a sheet in the route book missing. Now that could mean disaster, we basically were now driving from page 6 of the route book while we should have been looking for page 5. We almost came to a screeching halt to figure what was going wrong. Luckily the pages were only jumbled up and we found our missing page, we heaved a sigh of relief and were back in track with some lost time. We tried to make up for lost time by speeding up a little bit but the super narrow paths on the hill would not allow us to do it. With some struggle and delay we managed to reach the activity location.

We found ourselves about 60 feet above the flowing yamuna river on a bridge with lots of people geared with life jackets and helmets. We were basically asked to slither down from the bridge through a rope into the yamuna river. Now this sounds all sweet and simple but getting off the bridge and letting go off it is one hell of a task. I have to say this, there are advantages and disadvantages of being a part of the organization team. While the advantages might be almost negligible the one of the biggest disadvantages is that you have to go last for every activity. So we waited, clicked more pictures, did some brainless chatting, and watched each team member go down the tall bridge. It was quiet an interesting sight, it was interesting to see people break free from their fear of heights and overcome it one step at a time. Once they completed the activity, they had the most satisfied expression on their face and you could see that sense of achievement which meant much more than winning an award or signing a multi million dollar contract. They had achieved their freedom, which no one could have given them.

To be honest, I have jumped off a cliff straight into the water before, so I wasn’t scared but I was worried if I would do it right, if I was technically right. I was worried cause we were being scored for this activity and I had to do it technically right. And i did it. Its an amazing feeling to just lie flat in middle of the bridge and the river and just admire the beauty of both sides. After the activity we rushed for lunch which was followed by a sort of Water bath- Fight for everybody from the organizing team. As we all splashed water at each other for quiet a long time, we realized we were already late and obviously the last people to leave.
We were now driving towards Mori, which was our second camp site. Mori is a sleepy hamlet in the Uttarkashi dist. of Uttaranchal by the River Tons. Well know for its thick pine forests, among its many claims to fame is the tallest pine tree in South Asia.
Now I had read about Mori before we even reached our first camp site and I was particularly excited about this leg, cause i had a strong feeling that this would be the better leg of the rally. There were just two cars left now, mine and the other car where my director, my colleague from Mumbai, brand head & the marketing head were driving. After about 35-40 minutes of driving we stopped to have a cup of tea at this shop which also served a variety of things from cold cream to chips and the world basically. Now I know this may not sound very fancy but u gotta understand i am talking about a place in middle of nowhere… like up in the Himalayas and guess what we found their Fair & Lovely……that was an amusing site , really… so we were busy sipping on lovely ginger tea just when the other car also came…. Since they were short of fuel, they were getting their car all filled up while we all were busy chatting and stuff… Now the VP/ Brand head suddenly feels like drinking.. so he came up to our car and asked for a smirnoff bottle.. We were basically traveling with all the alcohol for the second night of the camp…
Our Innova was a non automatic one, so we removed the car key to the brand head and gave it to him. He opened the trunk of the car, removed the alcohol and left. We all spent a good 20 minutes at the stop over, doing pure tp and buying bottled lemon water… for what?? I dnt know….just for the heck of it i guess… by the time we did all this the other car had already left. So we also decided that its high time we also leave…i paid and then sat in the navigator seat trying to get back to my route map….suddenly i feel something is wrong…………….
To our horror, the car key is missing, in a spur of a second we all look at each other, just blatantly stare for a good 10 seconds, and there we go together, “ HE TOOK OUR CAR KEY’S. HE TOOK OUR CAR KEY’S ALONG WITH HIM”. Now really this isn’t the part of adventure i had in mind. We know the car keys are gone, but just to be sure we literally strip the car, check every single part of it…. Luckily there were a few people sitting inside the car all the time so we could at least open the hood, open doors etc. we searched and searched and searched but obviously no where to be found. Its obvious we are in for some major trouble. None of our cell phones had range; we begged for a phone from a passer by and managed to hook on to it for a good 15 minutes. But in middle of nowhere there is obviously no network, the only one available is BSNL and none of the phones had that service. We must have tried calling the world I think… I have never prayed so much to the real God as I prayed at that moment to the Airtel God. I remembered the Hutch ads, Airtel ads, prayed to all the networks in the world to show me some sign of hope…. But it was obvious.. I was being punished for my late payments…..no network, no connection.
Two guys, 3 ladies, one car without keys and nowhere to go. We hoped the other car would realize that they had our car keys and come back for us, but I guess we knew the brand head too well. We knew he won’t realize it till he reached the camp site, and that’s exactly what happened, they never came back for us. Now it was obvious we just weren’t going to sit there and wait for god to arrive himself. So I asked the other guy to hitch a ride and move towards the next closest town and grab a cab, a car or whatever that we could get to just get our ass out of here. We were in-fact ready to take a hotel room also for that night and figure an alternate way out, so he managed to do just that. Off he went into the turning and twisting hills as we sat and thought of other options.
We tried everything with our car, called a mechanic, tried to hot wire it, but no luck. The car was non automatic but the bloody steering wheel was power steering, so it would anyways get jammed without a key. Right where we were parked, there was another 4x4 jeep parked. Now we knew it belonged to one of the organizers but was left there locked and unattended for some strange reason. I chose to believe we were the reason, like every single Hindi movie we tried doing what a good thief does, open the windows, get into the car, hot wire it and run away.
I was now very confident we would be o.k, I just believed that the car was left there for us, it was destiny and we had found it. All my beliefs came crashing when we cudnt even unlock the doors and get into the damn car, for a good 20 minutes we tried, but no luck. Finally we figured out an alternate way to get into the car. Now the 4x4 like all other classics had a cloth hood to it, but it was obviously sealed with screws ad stuff. But hidden under the large cloth that covered it was also this strap entrance that we discovered. I smiled; we all smiled as we managed to get into the car. I jumped inside; opened the hood almost got it hot wired also. It was ready, we were ready to go, and we had found the answers to our problem and a solution that would work. Suddenly I realized, the steering is locked and it won’t unlock at all. Hopes shattered, dreams crashed, dark clouds laid upon us as we sat, tired- mentally & physically.
But every cloud has a silver lining, and so he arrived, he arrived with a car, he arrived with a cab, he arrived with the mode of transport that would take us to our destiny, he arrived and he really did. Our team member who had left in search of an unknown help, did come back with a solution that just cudnt get better. We shifted all the alcohol from the car into the van, all our belongings, locked our car completely and off we went into the hills once again. He sat in the front while me and the 3 ladies squeezed in behind, hey we cudnt complaint after all that!. Along the bumpy ride and the curves we sang, we sang songs that reminded us of friendship, we sang songs that reminded us of beautiful valley, we sang songs of love, we sang, we sang our heart out, literally.
It was an amazing experience, it started pouring after an hour, the valley looked even more beautiful, we all had forgotten about what just happnd, we instead just chose to soak in the moment. The rain was beautiful, as each drop fell on the mystifying land, arose a fragrance that spelt romance. An emotion evoked from the heart that sang, “HERE I AM, HEAR - I AM”
It was really dark now and we were no where close by, luckily for us we had a driver who knew the land and the various areas around it. But pitch dark roads, and endless land also made things very difficult for him too. Between the songs we would try our phones, we looked at that electronic gadget like we had never seen before, we traced any sign of a message or a ring that probably would have been the sweetest sound we could have ever heard, but absolutely no luck. We kept driving and driving, till we saw some flames arising from the far end of the valley on our left, we knew we had seen some hope, and we hoped it was our camp fire. But it wasn’t, our songs also were beginning to mellow down like our voices, but we still sang, literally. I dnt rember a single moment of that 6 hours of clueless driving that we were quiet. We cudnt, we knew the moment we stopped, we would all start getting worried, so we continued. At times some strange men would try to stop our cars to hitch a ride, at times some animals would intrude our path with their mighty size, as our eyes looked for another sign, our bond grew as we all smiled.
There was a point after which we wernt too sure where we were going, we were not even sure if we were taking the right directions cause it was bloody dark. But with random sights and random lights, we drove towards a camp that would give us another reason to smile. We were by now obviously also imagining things, things like whether somebody would come for our help or not?? Were we even important enough to be even rescued?? What happens if we don’t reach anywhere? What happens when we run out of gas?
As we searched for our answers in our own questions, we heard voices that sang some song, subtle but clear strums of a guitar. He heard rhythms that hummed at a sight, ‘Hotel California’ We had arrived!! We did, about a km before the actually camp we met the organizers who were part of the northern rally team. Man I smiled, and I smiled and I smiled. All of us did, our search had ended, we finally did it, we reached, we really did, we traced an unknown path towards an unknown destination, we reached our site, late but just in time.
As they guided us towards the camp, we drove even faster this time, cause now we knew where we were going. I still cant forget that moment, we all looked at each other in the car and smiled once again, we dint sing any songs of victory but we still spelt success for each other. As we came close to the camp I could see a couple of people rushing towards us, it was an exciting moment. As we all got off, tired & exhausted, we saw faces and more faces that had smiles even bigger than ours. Some dear ones greeted us with the warmest hugs in the world, some came to check on us, some just came clueless of what was happening, but a lot of them came. That made me really happy, as I walked towards the camp I saw the brand head and he saw me too (The same guy who took the keys remember). If only and if only a camera could capture that expression on his face I would explain, that expression on his face was priceless. I think he was shocked, surprised, happy, overjoyed, emotional and a lot more feelings all at the same time just see us return all safe and sound..
I went to my tent, freshened up and came back to the camp fire to share all the stories of a true adventurous ride. Some even enquired about the alcohol, and guess what we actually stopped on our way (While we were lost that is) to buy some alcohol for the camp, I know it sounds crazy but we did, cause we were supposed to do it anyways before the whole incident happened. So we did that, trust me that made a lot of people happy, including me for sure. That night I danced, I drank and I danced, infact all of us did. It was time to celebrate, and we did just that. I danced with everybody possible. Music that blasted out of the car audio systems and 90 ml pegs laid the foundation for an unforgettable night under the enclosure of the pine forests. The night once again evoked a lot of emotions over a lot of conversations after that......
I walked back towards my camp and sat right outside it. It was pitch dark and I could only see a few lanterns lit here and there. Thick pine trees enclosed around me, I sat once again in retrospection. As I looked upon the dark sky, I smiled once again for a reason that’s difficult to define. For a while I just lived that moment with the cold breeze gushing past by, for a while I remembered my past and the people that came by. I knew I had left a lot of things behind, but my present was the reason that my past defined. I slept once again very peacefully that night, cuddled in my quilt with no dreams- no nightmares, just another simple smile. J
Day 3

An early morning cup of tea right sitting on the trunk of a tree laid specially for you right next to the calm but strong river of Tons, Jealous??…..u ought to be… that’s exactly how I started my third day. That morning had its own charm, unlike the other places this time the only sound I could hear was of the river. She streamed down my feet like the touch of an angel, pulling me towards a deep world that’ll hold me in its arms forever. I sat there with that same thought for a while, looked around, took a deep breath and felt the arms of nature holding me tight. (Like a really warm hug that envelopes you from the cold wind) J

All good - mornings in the north begin with an early trek, and so did this one. After a quick short breakfast we drove about a km from the camp where we parked our cars and marching we went into an uphill forest. We walked along the rocks, we walked by the stream, we slipped at one to many occasions but we still walked as a team. After about 45 minutes we reached close to a water body, sort of a big giant pond u can say, only a lot deeper that is. Now we were required to cross this to reach to a spot, so the swimmers swam across like ducklings and non swimmers like me jumped into the life jacket and swam across with the help of a rope tied at both ends. ( Thank God)

Now this part of the trek was quiet unusual and slippery if i am say so. There was absolutely no land, or lets say bare minimum, only rocks & water, big rocks, small rocks, very big rocks, and even bigger rocks. As we trekked and slipped our way to another pond which was almost as big as the earlier one only a lot deeper, a lot deeper that is. There was a life jacket too this time, but no rope, just when I am trying to figure out what the hell am i supposed to do here i see a man falling from above straight into the water. OO boy, yup its time once again for some more adventure…..

We were supposed to climb up through the rocks with absolutely no support to this cliff point only to jump back into the water. Now after watching some people commit this madness in action it was my turn. Honestly I wasn’t scared, so I quickly climbed up from the rocks to the cliff point, it was just about 20 feet above but the view wasn’t all that great from above.( Hello.. in my world for a non swimmer , 20 feet deep water into which he is going to dive in ( which he dsnt know how) from 20 feet above, a’int a pretty site). I quickly said my prayers, shouted out loud some random crap a few times just to let my fear out and I dived in like a flat piece of land with arms and legs wide. PACHAKKKKKK I fell (Not land/ not dive) into the water….ouch yells my body from every possible corner. But words of appraisal, warm hugs and some emotional claps cheer me up instantly. We stood there and watched all our team members’ dive in, swim back in various interesting styles, some trying to save their lenses, some trying to save their lipsticks and some just swimmed Page 3 style!! (These were women of course) We trekked back the same way we came in, another 2 hours of walking, chatting and bonding over lots of conversations. We reach the camp, freshened up and its lunch time. J As we discovered the interesting lunch we also discovered a lot of unknown bruises all over our body. Now an awesome lunch and a tiring trek has to be supported by a quick 10 minute nap under the open skies right, so that’s exactly what I did. Only my nap was a good 20 minutes till some strange thing fell on my head and I realized its activity time again.

But it was now time for my fav activity, White water rafting!!! Yeppieee… As I went through the briefing from the expert, I realized that it’s definitely going to be a different experience unlike last time. We were informed that this river is a technical river and will involve a lot of physical activity, we were also warned that there were high chances of us toppling off the raft ( Now that’s a good thing right… why would I need a warning for this…..lol) We all sat in the back of a truck traveling upwards to the point where our rafting would begin. After that 30 minutes of bumpy, shaky and head hurting right we reached the sport, but by now I was very uncomfortable, I was badly shaken by that ride and wanted to back out. Now obviously that can’t happen, my male ego rose like a lion, so did my fear of being left out, and the fact that I would miss all of it, and I will have nothing to do for the next 2 hours….

Hey come on I am human, not superman, I cnt fight all these emotions and feelings…. What are u expecting… magic??? Like Hello???

Obviously I gave in, I shoved my fear inside, told my headache to shut up and just get out of my head or bare the consequences of being tortured with a million other thoughts for the next two hours. Lucky me, I managed, just managed! As usual, keen to take the front of the raft I jumped on and grabbed the best position (As so I believed it to be) 20 minutes in the raft and I realize I called for 2 more hours of personal physical torture as I rafted and my colleagues sat at the back and enjoyed the weather, the cold water, the beautiful trees, the birds chirping and a lot more which u can ask them. Of course the timely act of rowing along with me was there every time I turned around, courtesy their acting schools. But I ended up having a great time, the river was quiet technical, jumping around, rowing, shifting, turning sides, nearly escaping rocks, getting stuck on a rock right in middle of the damn powerful tons river and a lot more fun.

We reached our camp and most of us ran towards our individual camps just to get a quick shower or catch a nice nap. I chose to have a shower and click some pictures. My abs were hurting (because of the chunky fat that i have of course) but I was still quiet fresh and wasn’t sleepy. So a quick shower followed by some photography sessions with the nature continued for the next hour or so. As I tried capturing nature and the scenic beauty at its best, I stumbled upon a lot of sights that my camera would refuse to capture. It was almost like every single time I clicked, my camera would yell back at me for trying to enclose something so beautiful and perfect in pixels and digits. But the greedy man in me refused to settle for anything less, so I went ‘click click’ till I knew I had managed some thing that I called, “JUST PERFECT”

After a while I sat on a huge tall rock just doing what I do best, nothing. But this time I was just trying to put all my experiences together from the last couple of days. As I sat and re lived those moments once again, I laughed all alone on that rock yet with everyone around, I smiled all alone but with people smiling back at me……. Some of my friends actually joined me on that rock after a while and we sat and discussed some stuff which now I have no clue about (I guess now that’s what I call spacing out)

It was the last night at the camp, the born fire lit once last time, we celebrated our journey that night and mourned its end too. Me and my colleagues left in middle of that night to catch a train back due to some reasons. So we practically had just about a couple of hours before we would all disappear in our own world again. Over lots of hugs and wishes we fare welled them good bye, we wished them a safe trip back as we disappeared in the deep dark night….

I left a lot of things behind in this journey, in that forest that could almost accept anything with its arms spread wide. I also lost out on a lot of things, I lost out some of my dreams which were purely based on worldly desires, I lost on some of my feelings, I left behind things which were never mine………

But I came back with more, I came back with new dreams that were mine, I came back with new beginnings that I had to define, I came back with new stars that were mine, I came back with a lot more than I could define…………

As I write these last words down, I am smiling again. I just hope all my new beginnings would ‘Start’ and ‘End’ with a smile, and a simple smile once again……