Postcards From The Edge

POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE

Ajit Chaudhuri – February 2014

‘That which does not kill us makes us stronger’ - Friedrich Nietzsche

I’ve travelled a bit in my fifty plus years, and done a few dumb things in the process. I place the blame for these on a line of thinking that I have consistently adhered to that goes ‘the nice thing about advice, no matter how credible, good or sensible it is, is that I don’t have to take it’. If I’d known what I know now, would I have done those things? I don’t know! Mad plans (or no plans), after all, give space for serendipity to work its magic. And yet, when I look at the following list of travel experiences that I would not advise anyone to repeat, I cannot help but think, ‘Good God, was I really that stupid?’

Going Topless on Taglang La: I was trekking from Leh to Spiti in August 1995 and decided to use the opportunity while crossing the Taglang La pass to pose for a photograph next to the signboard (the photo is attached below).

The temperature at the time was -11c, and yes, the white in the background is snow. I was cold from deep within for the next two days, and miserable too, but the stunt was well worth it – it has set the gold standard for machismo or stupidity (depending upon gender) among family and friends. When my grandchildren see me doddering around with a walking stick and make fun, they will be shown this and told, ‘do something similar, and then talk’.

Crossing the Arctic Circle in Winter: As a mid-career student in London in late November 2001 (on a generous scholarship, may I add, and with wife and children far away), I had a long weekend coming up and one of the things I hadn’t yet done in life was see the aurora borealis. Where could one do this? The chances were higher the further north one was, I was told, so I booked a ticket from London to Oslo and then onwards north to Tromso at 70 degrees latitude, and duly spent the weekend there. The damn lights refused to oblige, however, and I returned without seeing them, but I had a pretty good time supporting the local alcohol and nightclub industries – the appended link has a detailed account of my adventures there. The surprising thing was that, despite the heavy snow, it wasn’t too cold (the Barents Sea has a warm water current) and it also wasn’t too weird having no sun and seeing, instead, the effects of moonlight on snow through the day. Beautiful! But never again!

http://kaaluontheroad.blogspot.in/2007/03/far-north.html

Visit to Ukhrul: Manipur in early 1997 was a mess! The Nagas were fighting the Kukis, the Meiteis were fighting the hill tribes, the drug dealers were fighting the Church and everyone was fighting the Army, and I was in the state with a colleague, Dr. Sunil Kaul, to appraise an NGO for possible financial support. We could have done it sitting in the state capital, Imphal, but decided, what the hell, let’s go and see the NGO where it worked, in the hills in Ukhrul. Not an easy decision, may I add, because the organization leading the Naga insurgency (the NSCN-IM, for the pundits among you) was founded and headquartered there, and because the foothills, which we would have had to pass through, were under the control of Kuki militant groups.

The daylong journey from Imphal was tense, but we ended up in a place that would have made Kashmir seem ordinary – beautiful rolling hills lightly covered in mist, the smell of light rain on dry ground, and little log cabins with smoking chimneys intermittently spread across the hillside. The NGO had a training centre a little away from town, another log cabin, and we were put up there. Coincidentally, a group of 19 young ladies were being trained in the arts of beekeeping (or something) there at the time, and they were told that ‘two young men have come from Delhi – look after them!’ The quality of care that we got over the next day was unimaginable! To give you an idea, to wash hands before our evening meal, four young ladies came up to us; one with a kettle of hot water, one with a bowl for the used water to fall into, one with soap and one with a towel. Seven star hotels – you don’t compare!

Driving Holiday to Yamunotri: My family has been taking driving holidays together since 2001. They usually follow a pattern; a 6 to 18 day duration, an intended destination from which to begin the return journey but no plans on where to stop for nights or routes to take, and a promise upon returning to Delhi never to do it again because we are all sick of each other. In the process, we have made some interesting journeys, stayed in some excellent (and some terrible) hotels, eaten some unusual food and seen some exotic sights. But once, and only once, in 2005, did we leave the house with absolutely no destination in mind. We took NH1 towards Chandigarh, turned east somewhere towards Paonta Saheb, and then north again at Vikas Nagar, stopped for a night on the way, and finally ended up at a yatri niwas in Janki Chatti (which my kids renamed Janki’s Chaddi), where one begins the 6 km walk to Yamunotri. The next day, we did the walk up and down, with my kids aged 5 and 8 being bribed with the promise of a prize if they made it without a horse, which they duly did. We made quite a contrast to the yatris on the trail.

Fieldwork in Panjab and Waras: Being entrusted with the task of evaluating a training centre in Bamiyan (Afghanistan, summer of 2009) did not require me to visit the centre’s extension outposts in the province’s remote districts, but I asked to do so anyway. ‘If I am required to attest to their existence,’ I told my rather incredulous hosts, who were more used to the opposite sort of requests from consultants, ‘I will have to see them.’ Thus began a journey in a muscular 4-wheel-drive through some of the toughest terrain in the world, the central highland region of Afghanistan, from Bamiyan via Yakawlang to the districts of Panjab and Waras. The highlight of the visit was a stopover on the way back at Bandh-e-Amir, a series of seven large, naturally formed, stepped, blue water lakes, one of the remotest and most beautiful wonders of nature, where I even managed to get a boat out into the waters. I am informed that the journey is off limits now because of some recent kidnappings indicating Taliban activity in the region, and I am damned glad that I did it when I could.

Conclusions: If the tone of this paper indicates that mad travel-related stuff is relegated to the past let me assure you that such is, hopefully, not the case. To conclude, I list out five acts that, inshallah, I will do some day in the future.

1.    Trek around Mt. Nanda Devi – this involves going north in Kumaon, crossing Milam and then hitting the 5,000 meter plus passes Unta Dhura, Khingri Bingri and Jandi Dhura, going around the Nanda Devi and getting back via Garhwal. Some day when my trekking friends and I have sufficient contact in the Home Ministry to get the necessary permissions …

2.    Watch a Millwall match at The Den – this is one of the roughest and most passionate football crowds in the UK, who mix their passion for football and love for their club with racism, anti-immigration, and right wing politics. Not a place for the faint-hearted, but I look forward to my friend Tony (who ashamedly admitted to being a Millwall fan) taking me there some day.

3.    Travel up the Wakhan Corridor – I have been several times to the province of Badakhshan in Afghanistan, and one day want to see its most remote district, Pamir, and to travel along the buffer zone between the British and Russian empires, in the narrow sliver of land between the Tian Shan, Hindukush and Karakorum mountain ranges. This is the Wakhan Corridor.

4.    Take an Alaskan Cruise – get on to a ship in Seattle, and take a journey northwards along the western American coastline across the Puget Sound, then British Columbia (Canada) and then Alaska, through the many little islands in this part of the Pacific, and preferably with my larger family.

5.    Visit the battle sites of the Mongol Army’s western campaigns of the 13^th century – these are spread across modern day Poland, Hungary, Ukraine and Russia, in places like Legnica, Kalka River, Ryazan, Suzdal and Mohi.