Away to Leh...to celebrate Independence Day
.... At some point of time the Deccan Herald will publish this...
Most young men or women want to settle down to the regular job after finishing their education….but others find that adventure still continues to beckon.
The army experience on his last trip (see below), and reading about the online account of another young man, Sanjay Suri, who had cycled through Leh and Ladakh, gave him the idea of biking in the region. There are a lot of groups visiting Leh, he says; but he wants to do it alone, and has already sent his motorcyle, a Suzuki Fiero, ahead to Delhi, from where he will start, taking two weeks for the trip. He plans to spend as much time as he can at various army bases. The highlight of the trip, he says, will be spending Independence Day, August 15, at Kargil. :"I want to visit these far-flung outposts, they are so happy to have civilian visitors," he says. The trip would be a salute to our armed forces, who maintain our borders in the inhospitable reaches of the mountains. He has been busy making arrangements for the trip, getting his bike thoroughly overhauled and serviced and buying new tyres, saddlebags to store his stuff in ( his camera and lenses will go in his backpack) rainproof clothes, and is at present trying to get good waterproof gloves. He will be carrying a patching kit to ensure that a puncture in the high ranges doesn't put paid to his adventures! As it was, he had a puncture in his new tyre on the way back from the shop…it was due to a "one-in-a-million" manufacturing defect, he was told. "Thank goodness the defect showed up here and not on a remote road in Leh," he laughs. Apart from photography and wildlife, Amogh is also an inveterate traveller; recently, he visited Assam, travelling to Kaziranga Game Sanctuary and various army outposts, with just a backpack and camera for company. He also visited Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, close to the Chinese border, which is more untouched than Ladakh. At this time, he spent a lot of time with the men of the Border Force, and made friends with Major Roby Tom, who will help out this time, too. Amogh has always been a doer. While in college, he went, with some friends, to help the tsunami victims. See the report at http://www.hindu.com/mp/2005/01/05/stories/2005010501020300.htm Pursuing another interest, rock music, led him to starting Rock Herald, an online music-info site, with a few friends. This was the first-ever rock music-focussed website in India. See the write up about it at l http://deccanherald.com/deccanherald/sep272004/metro14.asp Alas, the pressures of the job have kept them from the site for a while, but it is scheduled for a re-launch shortly. Amogh also volunteered for the tiger census in Karnataka in January, and most weekends, goes off into the jungles of Karnataka, documenting the varied wildlife with his lens. His pictures have been appreciated in many quarters. You can see his photographs at
http://amoghavarsha.net/photos/ Let's wish this enterprising young man the very best as he sets forth to greet the brave men of our armed forces, and to see a remote part of India that many of us have only heard about!
See Amoghavarsha's various interests at his website, Amogh's approximate route: Delhi-Chandigarh-Mandi-Manali-Patseo-Pang-Pangong Tso-Leh-Khardungla-Kargil-Sonamarg-Srinigar, and back to Delhi.
Amogh bought the tyres for the motorbike from M/S Iyengar Tyre Clinic, and they told him that if he would get them publicity, they would sponsor his trip. So I approached the Deccan Herald and made sure that they would acceptthe write up and mention the I. Tyre Cliinc and then asked Amogh to convey to Iyengar Tyre Clinic that the publicity was taken care of. But then, they kept on telling him that he should call up the next day..and the next...and the next..until he just gave up on the whole thing. Finding sponsors is so difficult...