The picturesque countryside, the surrounding water bodies, the beautiful landscapes and one of the most difficult terrains create a stark geographical contrast.

I met Aditya on Orkut, who was also looking for a partner. Me, Aditya and Tanu, his friend together formed a team which we named as “Against All Odds” and participated in the Amateur Mix category which had about 29 teams.

The race consisted of 4 events – Cycling, trekking, rifle-shooting and river-crossing.

The flag-off was from Bharti Vidyapeeth grounds, Kothrud. The energy of the participants was amazing. There were around 230 teams ( 690 people) in total competing across 20 categories ranging from all women to Juniors to IT to Open category. The ground had become a virtual bike fair with bikes ranging from Imported Treks, Firefoxes to Hero, Hamilton and even Atlas GoldLine “Bhaiya” cycles.

We had a unfortunate start to the race since both Tanu and Aditya had a nasty fall from their bikes very early in the race. Tanu got a bruised wrist while Aditya took a hit on his left leg. Thankfully Aditya had got a first-aid box with him and after the dressing, we got back on our cycles.

The cycling route was from Kothrud- NDA – Peacock Bay – NDA Air Strip – Panshet Water Sports Club.

The route was punctuated with TCs(Time check) where we supposed to submit the time-sheet which marked our timings as a team and PCs(Passage Check) which ensured that we followed the route marked and not any short-cuts !

Cycling inside the NDA campus was an awesome experience. I had cycled quite regularly on the NDA road from Chandni Chowk, but was always stopped at the NDA main gate where outsiders are not allowed. This was my first time inside NDA and the hugeness of that place sinks you in.

The road from NDA campus to Panshet Water Sports Complex was quite scenic and interspersed with dirt trails & tar-road . We reached the Water complex at around 5:30 pm. Immediately after depositing our cycles we started the trek.

The trek route was along the ridge-line with the beautiful Panshet river flowing below. We must have climbed some 4-5 mountains up and down before reaching the base camp – TC(5).

The trek was route was however not without its casualties. The organizers had planted Enduro flags throughout the route at regular intervals so that teams can know they are in the right direction. However many a times, we would reach a crossroads and the flag would be missing. 50% teams would take a direction and the other teams would take alternate route. This meant that a lot of teams got lost in the trek. Also it dint help that it started to become dark there as early as 6:30pm and by 7pm the torches were out.

Finally we reached the camp at around 10pm in the night. This was followed by River-crossing , which was a stretch of 250mts and one had to run around back to the starting point. After that was dead time which meant that the teams were not timed till the flag-off which was at 2am in the night.

We managed to get some rest in the night, ate some parathas that Aditya’s mom had made for us. Even though we were tired as hell, the sight of 300-400 people lining up to start the race in the cold at 2am in the night was encouraging. Though we dint sprint like some others, we again started the trek back to the Panshat Water Sports Complex. The organizers had changed the route which involved an additional 10-15kms.

At around 3:30 – 4 am, we took a wrong turn and were lost for around 1-1.5 hours. My legs were aching with pain. We were running short on water too and there were few water bodies on the way. A lot of teams actually decided to rest for some hours before embarking again. Though we dint stop, we continued at a slow pace. Finally at around 3:30pm in the afternoon we reached the finish point. The last 1-1.5 kms from the last TC(Time Check) to the finish point was the most difficult and we were glad that we completed the race.

On 10^th evening there was a ceremony held by the organizers of NDA where we are awarded certificates, followed by dinner. There we learnt that out of the 230 teams which participated, only around 120 teams were able to complete the race. In our category (AMX), we finished around 5-6^th.

The Enduro was a an experience which teaches you a lot of things. As the organizers had mentioned, its more about mental toughness than physical. I saw a lot of bikers on their TREKS, Firefoxes, etc. imported bikes who abandoned the race while those on HERO & ATLAS cycles finished on the podium. I guess its not about what bike you ride, but always about how you ride.

Photo Courtesy - Bangalore Pedals

We took a lift from a TATA Sumo that left Joshimath (Auli) at 5am in morning. At the outset I had almost given up on rafting. This was basically for two reasons. After speaking to a lot of tour operators in Rishikesh, I discovered that in February the Ganges water is very cold and plus entire India was in a grip of a severe cold wave in the period around Jan-end to Feb 1^st week. Secondly Amit was suffering from a severe cold and fever and it meant that I was alone for rafting and hence it was important for me to find a group who I can join for rafting.

One good thing that we did on the entire trip was solid planning and it helped us. We knew that rafting takes place along the Rishikesh – Devprayag road starting from Kaudilaya, followed by Shivpuri.

I had called up at least 5 tour operators the night before and all of them said that there weren’t any groups for rafting. Still I decided to take my chances and got down at kaudilaya. The sight was horrible – the entire camp was deserted.

We took a lift and reached Shivpuri. There all the tour operators had closed their shutters and were sitting near a small campfire. When I enquired them about rafting , again got the same reply. I was disappointed and we decided to head straight to Haridwar , just when one of the operators said that around 500mts from that place, down on the banks of Ganga ,is the starting point for rafters. It wouldn’t hurt to have look and try my luck there.
I decided to give it a last try and went and couldn’t believe it when I saw a group of rafters who were about to move the raft in to the river. I stopped them , requested, begged them to take me along and they agreed.

Puneet, Rashmi, Deepak, etc were from a Delhi and worked for Dabur. After the introductions , the instructor explained the basic strokes and we set along.

River Rafting is done mostly in imported rafts made of vulcanised rubber bodies reinforced by nylon fabric beneath an exterior of neoprene thus making it tough enough to withstand the battering it gets when it rams across the rocky boulders in the water. Rafting is done on rapids which is a white patch of foam on a flowing river caused by sudden gradient or by the river breadth getting constricted while flowing through a gorge between rocks or by a sudden increase or decrease in the volume of the water. Rapids are graded from 1 to 6 depending on the ease with which they can be negotiated, with 1 being the most easy.

Our stretch was of 20 kms in all up to Laxman Julla. We crossed around 5-6 rapids all of which have been given very interesting names like Golf Course, Double Trouble, Three Blind Mice, Daniel’s Dip, Sweet Sixteen, Marine Drive, Cross Fire and Roller Coaster.

Our instructor was also quite a cheerful fellow and before entering each rapid, we would shout “Ganga Maiya ki Jay”. After the 1st rapid, the instructor signaled to me and Puneet and asked whether we want to flip the raft. To do so, the raft has to be steered sideways in to a rapid instead of head-on and then one big splash of water and it over-turns. We tried it secretly in the 2^nd rapid, dint work out but we were able to do so in the 3^rd one.

One dip inside the river and I realized why there were hardly any rafts that day. The water was freezing cold and plus it was drizzling too.

After about an hour or so, the instructor parked the raft near a huge stone and explained to us that the stone was famous for jumping in to the river.

Jumping from a 30 feet high in to ice-cold Ganga river was the highlight of the rafting experience. Only me , Puneet and Deepak did the jump while the rest stayed back.

After completing the rafting which lasted for about 4 hours from 12 to 4pm, the instructor suggested me to take a dip in Ganga instead of going to a hotel and taking a hot water bath.

Contrary to me belief that Ganga is polluted at these places, I found it very clean. After the dip, met Amit at Laxman Julla where we had some food and then  roamed around the place admiring the beauty of the temples situated on banks of Ganga.

On 30th Jan, we took the afternoon flight from Pune to Delhi, had dinner at Amit’s brother-in-law place and took the late night train from Delhi to Ramnagar, which is the nearest railway station near Jim Corbett.

We were lucky since our train arrived at Ramnagar at 6am in morning and the booking for a day’s Jungle safari inside Jim Corbett starts at 7 am. Also there is a cap on no. of Maruti 4X4 Gypsies that can go in to the forest on a particular day. While I got passes made for the safari from the Jim Corbett office, Amit the master-negotiator , negotiated with the local travel agents for a entire day’s open gypsy, driver and a guide. We had a nice breakfast of Half-fry and tea , rented binoculars and started off for the jungle safari.Even though it was 7:30am, still both of us had our mufflers and hand-gloves on and it became even colder as we went inside the forest.

Situated in the picturesque Kumaon hills in Nainital district, Corbett National Park is the place from where Project Tiger was launched in 1973.The park has a core area of 520 sq. kms with picturesque hilly ridges covered by sal trees. Lower down are the grasslands and bamboo growth. A list of species reported from Corbett includes 582 species of birds, 26 species of reptiles, 7 species of amphibians and 50 species of mammals. The floral diversity is also extremely varied.

The Park is named after the famous hunter and naturalist, Jim Corbett, who popularized this land and its animals in his book “The Man-Eaters of Kumaon“. Corbett recounts many fascinating tales of hunting down man-eating tigers.

We were admiring the beauty of the forest while our guide started filling us on all the info. The main inhabitants of the park are the tiger, elephant, gaur, sambar, chital, wild dog, sloth bear, partridge, pheasant, jungle fowl and numerous other varieties of birds and animals.

There are four varieties of deer in the park, and spotted and hog deer can be seen moving about near the river and in the grasslands and the forests.. There are many opportunities for bird watchers in this park with over 580 species of birds. It is ideal to trek to one of the machans and sit patiently, perched high up, to view the animals and the birds. The Ramganga river flows through the Park and in it one can spot the gharial (fish eating crocodile) and the marsh crocodile.

In fact the deer becomes so common while going around in the forest that after one point of time you simply start ignoring them. Also it was surprising for me to see deers and monkeys ( langoors) together in a herd. The guide pointed out that the monkeys alert the deer in case a tiger is approaching.

The most beautiful of all deers we saw was the sambar, which moves around alone.
Elephants are numerous and move around singly or in herds. We saw a huge group of wild elephants near a lake.

In between we saw a lot of flatlands where forest was burnt down. The guide later explained that this was done purposely by the forest authorities to control forest fires.

After having a lunch, we requested to the driver to allow us to ride the 4X4 Maruti in the forest. He was a little reluctant at first but then okayed it. Driving a open maruti gypsy on a forest trail is an experience in itself. The entire forest route is full of water crossings, small climbs, some flatlands, some rocky patches. It was great thrill to drive on these forest trails.

The different kinds of smells in the jungle are awesome….smell of moss, smell of wild flowers, wild black berries, trees! And when the gold of the sun seeps thru the leaves….its a strange kind of warmth.

For visitors, the tigers sometimes prove elusive. I suppose we were very unlucky the entire day as far as the sighting of “Sherkhan” was concerned. However towards the end of our safari, we met another gypsy whose guide mentioned a tiger sighting a few kms away. Suddenly the entire day’s tiredness vanished and we started to follow the trail mentioned, picking up cues like blood of a fresh kill, the pug marks, etc., which instilled the enigma even more so.

The search lasted around 1.5 hours and at the end we were rewarded. Our guide stood up from his seat and drew our attention across a water body. There we saw the tiger – crossing the water and He vanished in to the forest. Honestly speaking the entire sight of him lasted for not more than 30 seconds. But we were so spellbound by a tiger sighting that none of us remembered to pull our camera out, focus and take a snap. However it was a view of a life-time.

Our jungle safari started from 8am in morning and ended at 5 pm. We had an option of staying back in the forest at night but decided against so since we had a late night (2am) bus to catch to take us to Auli where an another adventure awaited us.

Auli was the centre point of our entire North India tour. After completing the Jungle Safari in Corbett, we took the late night bus(2am) to Joshimath, 16 kms from Auli.

We reached Joshimath at around 5pm in the evening and were disappointed to know that the rope-way from Joshimath to Auli had made its last round at 4:30pm and there would be no more ferries that day.

Left with no option, we decided to spend the night in Joshimath . Visited the Shankaracharya temple nearby and roamed around in the market. History goes that the great Guru Adi Shankaracharya had first trekked the icy slopes of Auli and also built a temple at Joshimath.

The next day we just reached just in time for the first trip of the ropeway from Joshimath to Auli. This rope-way is India’s longest rope-way (16kms long ). The rope-way offered superb views of many peaks that are visible from Auli – prominent amongst them being the Nandadevi , Kamet, Mana Parbat and Badrinath peak.

Auli is a winter resort run by Garhwal Mandal Vikas Nigam (GMVN).. Auli is open only for 3 months in a year from Jan to March and the period we visited it happened to be peak season.

We rented ski equipment which consisted of ski boots, skis and ski poles. These boots are very heavy and reach almost up to the knee. The instructor told us that one has to sit down on the knees while skiing.

After practicing for 25-30mins(during which we fell thrice !) we decided to head for the slopes.

A 3 km long slope ranging from a height of 2519 to 3049 m is a major attraction in Auli. Also a 500 m long ski-lift carries skiers back to the slope top, thus saving them the trouble and time to bridge up wearing long skis. However since we were complete novices, the instructor took us to a smaller slope around 1km in length and started skiing crashing there !

Falling is a staple in skiing. Learning to fall and stand up is prerequisite to skiing practice because you cannot learn to ground yourself on snow until you take falling classes.Hence our instructor taught us first how to fall and not hurt ourselves.

Although going down the slopes was real fun on the skis, but getting up once we used to crash wasn’t. In fact we ski boots are so firmly attached to the skis, the we had to remove them in order to get up each time after we took a fall, which was essentially how our short-slides used to end for the first couple of hours.

The snow was around knee-length high and the depth used to increase treacherously towards the edges of the slope. On a couple of occasions, I couldn’t control the direction, swayed left and went skiing and then crashed in to the snow which was more than waist-deep.

Taking a turn or side-stepping during skiing requires one to shift his weight on one side before taking a turn. We tried a number of times and would eventually crash. It was towards the later part of the day when we learnt how to stop and change directions during skiing.

However just one day and we learnt quite a few basics of skiing, not to mention that we could ski down almost 700-800mts without crashing which was itself an achievement.

Our hectic schedule dint allow us to stay there and attend a week-long skiing camp that is run by the Garwal Mandal. I guess after a week on the slopes one will be confident enough to whiz down a mountain and execute a fancy parallel turn. There are other benefits too - your tummy disappears & your muscles tone up.

Now that we are in to our second year, having completed the Summer internship where we “applied the theoretical concepts learned in first year to actual practical applications for finding optimum solutions to real world Business problems keeping in mind the long tem organizational goals and vision”, I tell you guys life’s not the same anymore.

I don’t know if others agree with me but the lectures in this Sem seem to be so long that I fear missing on the eventful world out side.

Suddenly in this semester, the gym is the “in” thing to do. As if the gym on our campus is not enough, people are joining other professional gyms by paying atrocious sums of money. I stayed away from this mess for a long time, but when a new Gym opened right in front of my house in Kothrud, I also took the plunge. My roomies here had a bet that I wont last more than a week…………………………………..they won the bet.

You see ,some decades ago, I used to be an athlete who used to run daily and keep away from drinks so as to maintain a proper physique. Now I have become a drinker with a running problem.

Last week our Corporate Interface Team (CIT) had organized an “Entrepreneurship Meet” where we had eminent speakers deliver lectures about their start-ups, the hardships they faced and the “essential qualities” of an entrepreneur. Suddenly no one on campus is talking about placements but about being an entrepreneur. I wondered (with due respect to CIT) whether it is possible to be a entrepreneur just by attending these kind of meets?

One speaker that stood out amongst all (including the famous Mumbai Dabbawallahs) was Mr.Mahesh Murthy who made clear the simple fact that we (students) are all different and have different aspirations and still when a company comes for placements, we all apply to the same company. The tone of the speech was similar to the one of Larry Ellison’s speech at the graduating class of 2000 at Yale University. He talked about us trying to “fit in” rather than “fitting the world in” to our aspirations.

The problem is you see that there’s so much competition in India. Even if you are one in a million, there are still thousand people like you.

Also it doesn’t help that the curriculum is not updated with students learning from books which have been written in the 60s. Every year thousands of MBA grads across different B-Schools enter the industry, all of whom have been injected with the same dose that its important to satisfy the customer. In fact our marketing textbooks say that it is no longer enough to satisfy the customer, the customer should be delighted. Moving ahead from delight, another one talks about customer thrill. What next – Customer orgasm ?

Life in a B-School is indeed patterned. Like the Oracle in The Matrix said “You have already made a choice. You are here to find out why you made that choice”.

Like Neo , I am also searching for an answer.

Anyways the reason for my e-absence is that after my first year Mba exams, I had been in Chennai for my Summer internship with Cognizant Technology Solutions since 8th April.

Please note that this article is born out of the cycle of initial hardship, acclimatization and then exuberance that any new guy in Chennai is subjected to after landing there, So if you are a die-hard Chennai fan, I suggest you rather skip this article.

I have been told that the schools in Chennai do not include Hindi in their curriculum, hence right from auto-drivers to hotel managers, all of them speak “Tamlish”.
Tamlish, for those who don’t know, happens to be the official language of Chennai.
For example : My hotel manager told me that if I wanted to go ‘marketing’, then T. Nagar is the best place in Madras.
Also in the local newspaper here there was an obituary which said that on the 14th of April, Mrs.Jose finally slept with Jesus.

Some days back there was an article in a leading English daily in Chennai which said that if you shut your eyes and listen to someone speaking in Tamil, you might discern the rhythm of mridangam, a south Indian percussion instrument. I have no idea whose tamil the writer was refering to , people speaking in tamil remind me of my lectures in S.I.F.L. ( Symbiosis Institute of Foreign Languages) where I learnt Chinese for a year.
In fact knowledge of Chinese was quite helpful in understanding tamil since there are lots of similarities between the two. For example, the Chinese for male is “nan”, while in Tamil its “aan”. Also words like “ma” are also used extensively in both.
The biggest similarity is that, both these languages resemble the writings of a 3-year old infant.
However there is one huge difference - Chinese have mono-syllabic names while I guess the shortest name in tamil is Palvayanteeswaran .

As with Mumbai or anyother big Indian metro, the traffic in chennai moves with the languid pace of Bengali art movies. Earlier I was under the impression that only James Bond had a license to kill, but I was wrong. After traveling from Numgambakkam to Old Mahabalipuram road for a week, I learnt that even the bus drivers have a license to kill….. No wonder then that India’s sole export to F1 circuit – N. Karthikeyan is from chennai !

But thankfully, most of the software companies here including Cognizant have their own buses and hence one is saved from the hassles of driving especially during peak-hour office traffic, which is as bad as it is in Mumbai.

However a couple of times, i missed my bus and had to catch what is called as a “Polama express”.
Polama (which sounds like a Tamil bad word) actually means “Lets go” in tamil. A polama express is an innovative hybrid between a mini-bus and a van and it is a symbol of social Darwinism. This is because it is so jam packed that the peak-hour traffic in Mumbai locals will seem like trifle in comparison. I seriously believe that this Polama express was the original inspiration behind the famous Fevicol advt. of a truck load full of people.

TV watching in Chennai is also an experience in itself. Right from Shahrukh in KBC-II, teenage Mutant ninja turtles to Oprah Winfrey Show, you can have absolutely anyone anywhere dubbed in Tamil.
Also every second channel is dedicated to tamil music with “Hot songs” countdown which are hosted by a post-college age woman trying to pass off as a teenager while talking in her “convent tamil”.

On the roads, you cannot cover more than 10 feet before coming across a huge billboard of a Tollywood actor or a politician which are actually one and the same.
There are some who act and then enter politics while some go from politics to acting and there are some who do both.

No articles about Chennai can be complete without mention of idli-Sambar – the quintessential tamil dish, of which I am an ardent lover. The sambar here is so different , but better than what we get in Mumbai’s Udipi restaurants. Also the chettinad chicken is very mouthwatering.And then there’s Sparky’s, New Yorkers and The Leather Bar on Mount road, if one is tired of South Indian food.

Chennai exemplifies the paradox of the India growth story. A city which is challenging Bangalore as India’s silicon valley but also at the same time trying hard to preserve its religious and cultural identity.

In spite of the heat, the common Indian infrastructure woes and a society caught between the dilemma of progress and preservation of cultural identity, I found the people here to be very friendly and my efforts to speak in Tamil were always encouraged.

The best thing to have happened to me during my stay of two months in Chennai were the new friends that I made in my office. The entire team at Consumer Goods Sub-vertical at Cognizant was extremely friendly and made me comfortable from day one. From being carom partners to helping me out in my summer project, they were there when needed and were in fact primarily responsible for alleviating my apprehensions about staying in Chennai.Thanks to them , now I can speak at least survival Tamil, if not more.

This summers was a very enriching experience for me on both professional front where I was exposed to a new industry as well on a personal front where I made new friends and got to know a new city, to which I am looking forward to visit again.
Pappoom, mindum sandipoom
(Goodbye, See you again)

I mean this has to be most captivating contrast of all the attractions of Dubai. Ski Dubai is the world’s largest indoor ski slope, measuring 400 meters and using 6000 tons of snow covering 22,500m² which is equivalent to 3 football fields. It is located right in center of a famous mall in Dubai, the Emirates Mall.

We ( Me, mom , tushar and deepti bhabhi) went there on Friday which happens to be a holiday in dubai and had to wait in line for about half an hour just to get the tickets which costs about 120 dirham per person. They provide all winter clothing like gloves, shoes, Ski-cheaters and even snowboard equipment. There is also a professional Snow School where instructors guide through the simple, fun process of learning to ski or snowboard. But since those were full fledged classes of about 2-3 hours each, we decided to chuck it and went straight in the snow park.

Ski Dubai features a revolving ski slope, an artificial mountain range, an ice bridge, a cable lift, a snow maze, an ice slide, polar bears cold water-aquaria and special sound and light effects. And as usual with all Dubai attractions, there is a themed shopping retail outlet inside called St Moritz Café. (These guys have an entire economy that’s dependent on shopping).

The sight of foreigners going up the slope in the cable lift to ski down the slope is reminiscent of the Alps that we see on ESPN or Discovery. But since that requires prior skiing skills, I had to be satisfied with clicking snaps of those firangs. Though there were small slopes where we did snow skating.

Inside there are very beautiful snow statues in the snow park which also double up as good photogenic places (check out the snaps below). Also inside the snow park, there was a small room, where small kids were watching the movie “Ice Age II” on a projector screen.

As part of a larger approach to developing the city as the tourist capital of the Middle East, Dubai is trying hard to rival Hong Kong and Singapore as a shop-till-you-drop destination. They’ve made shopping largely tax free and allowed merchants to import products from other countries with very few duties or tariffs. The result is that everything from gold chains to IPods, Gucci purses to Persian rugs can be found in the malls of Dubai.
The city has at least 25 malls and then there are the ‘souqs’, the tradition open air markets around the city. The event was spiced up this year with “international theatre and street performances, fashion shows, nightly fireworks and laser shows, prize draws (this time there were banners of DAMAC offering a private Jet as a bumper raffle ), film festivals, children’s events and handicraft shows.”

1. Ibn Battuta Mall
It is a large shopping mall on the Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai close to Jebel Ali Village. It is named after famous traveler and explorer Ibn Battuta. The mall is split into six main courts; China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia and Andalusia linking shopping and circulation areas. I spent something like 4 hours to just see the mall since shopping was not an option in this mall. My personal favorite were the Egypt and Persian sections of the malls with superb caricature on the walls and ceilings (Check out the snaps below)

2. Mercato Mall
” Mercato” is the Italian word for “market,” and this mall is modeled after the Italian Renaissance. The structural design is intended to create the feel of the Mediterranean. I could see that it was filled with all European tourists which is not surprising given its medieval architecture.

3. Wafi Shopping Mall
The word ‘wafi’ translates from the Arabic as something like “everything you ever wanted”. This mall is as big on entertainment as on shopping. I personally enjoyed the food section of this mall which invariably has the best varieties of food in the city.

4. Lamcy Plaza
Well, honestly speaking, one of the few malls in Dubai that I visited for actual shopping rather than photography. It is home to about 150 stores and offered great discounts during the festival which I utilized the max but which left my brother fretting

5. Global Village
The global village is by far the most exotic attraction of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF). It’s a wholesome experience for the visitor to enjoy since it brings together diverse customs and cultures from many nations covering a broad spectrum of activities including music, dances, arts and handicrafts, theatre, costumes and cuisine of different countries.
It has big pavilions of different countries and inside these one can get art crafts, garments and other country-specific items including cuisines. I even enjoyed a nice thrill ride here. However the sheer magnitude of the village makes it next to impossible to cover it in a day.

Desert safari is done at a place Hatta, around 45 mins drive from the bustle of main Dubai city. The cars used for the dune bashing are Toyota land Cruisers 4X4 drive. The entire safari lasts for about 5-6 hours and costs around 150 dirhams (rs.1875).

Once we reach the starting point in the desert, all the land cruisers come together and then the fun starts. In our land cruiser, the driver was a Pakistani while the rest of the passengers were Russians. On asking us to fasten our seat belts, Mustafa, our driver, roared the car in the desert. The cruiser bounced and sped over the dunes and we did an adrenaline rush for the next hour. From one sand dune to another, the cruiser went through almost 80 degree turns sideways and even vertically.

The cruiser goes through such verticals that even taking snaps becomes difficult particularly when Mustafa used to intentionally slide the cruiser downwards from a slope as my fellow Russian passengers shrieked and laughed with excitement as the car went up and down the dunes.

As the sun descended into the horizon, we stopped to take sunset photographs, while standing on top of the fading desert dunes. The view of the desert sun slowly fading down a distant sand dune was truly awesome and the orange-blue hues of sunset intermingled with the brown desert sand made all the passengers stare at the sight till the Sun finally disappeared over the horizon.

We then headed to the campsite where a convoy of camels awaited our arrival for short camel rides. After returning from the ride, we relaxed on majlis (low cushions) in traditional Bedouin tents. We were also served Arabian coffee which has a strong lingering flavor of cardamom.

There were some desert scooters on which I had a small ride near our camp for about 15 mins (they are damn costly).

Returning back to the camp, all the fellow passengers were settled in respective tents while arabian music was being played. I even had a snap of mine dressed in traditional Bedouin male garments. (Check out the snaps below).

I have had Sheesha’s quite often at café mocha’s in Mumbai but the original sheesha that was served over there in the chill of the desert night was truly awesome.

We were served barbeque dinner consisting mainly of chicken and fish along with some pasta and some veg items. But considering that the organizers of the desert safari are mostly Indians/Pakistanis, the dinner wasn’t very Arabian and actually was quite like the barbeques that we have in India.

Towards the end of dinner, suddenly the music volume was increased and we were entertained by the dancing of a belly dancer to traditional Arabic music. The belly dancer was actually an Ukrainian dancer .

Wont speak much about her “belly dance” since this is an open forum

We took a night bus from Manali and reached McLeodganj just before dawn. In the bus except for us three and the driver , the entire bus was filled with foreign tourists especially from Israel and Europe.

Reaching McLeodganj at 5 am , we started looking out for a hotel and were really fortunate to find a good samaritan in Mr.Tashi Khangsar who not only gave us a room at his motel , but also volunteered to take us to the Buddhist prayer temple nearby.

On our way , he just casually pointed to the Sun rising out of the snow-cad Himalayan peaks. It was everyday affair for him but we three just stood there completely mesmerized. For those who are born and brought up in Mumbai , it was a compelling sight.

In the prayer temple , the sight was not unlike any other Hindu temple with statues of God Shankar, Laxmi and even Ganesha. Tashi Khangsar explained us that in Buddhism they too worship the same deities along with Buddha.All Buddhist temples have these huge payer bells which keep on continuously rotating.They are supposed to contain sacred shlokas and mantras and it is believed that by rotating these bells the wishes and offerings of the worshipers reach heaven.

All around the temples , there are stones lying around with beautiful pictures and ancient Buddhist writings sculpted on them.

We also visited the Namgyal Monastery, Dip Se Chok-Ling Gompa,Dalai Lama’s residence,the famous Bhagsu Temple and church of St John-in-the-Wilderness

Marvelously scenic, especially upper Dharamsala is well wooded with oak, cedar, pine and other timber yielding trees and offers some lovely walks and finer views. We just strolled aroud the town which contains more foreign tourists than Indian ones at any time of year.

Once in Mcleodganj one should relish the traditional Tibetian food consisting of Momos and thupkas.The momo actually quite resembles the maharashtrian dish of “Modaks” especially made during the Ganesh festivals,except that these people stuff non-veg inside it, though veg momos are available too.

McLeodganj Bazaar is great place to shop for carpets and handicrafts (metalware, jewellery, jackets, handknitted cardigans and gloves).The second day after lunch we spent a lot of time exploring the shops.I myself got some T-Shirts ,Souvenirs and Buddhist prayer flags.

Everywhere in Mcleodganj one can see signs of “Free Tibet” slogans and campaigns. The fact that India has given asylum to the Tibetians who have been forced off their own land by the chinese is a thorn in the Indo-China relations and subject of many a political debates.