Getting Leh'd : Anger Management

The city of Budhkarbo at night

I woke up at 7am, opening my eyes I saw a few empty beds and a few with people snoring away. I stepped out and took another view of the valley. Very different from how it was the previous night. Apart from the small town the valley was completely empty. The camp also looked very different. It had been filled with military trucks the previous night, with no space for even an extra vehicle, but by morning the camp bore a deserted look. After my morning oblusions, I went to the mess to have some breakfast. I hogged myself down on some awesome puris, with some soya veggies and scrambled eggs.

The curving roads, Amazing!!

After the yummy breakfast, I headed back to change. The time to depart was 8am, and I got ready by 8.05am, 5 minutes late. I had overheard the previous night that Subbu planned to depart on his own, and as I kept my bags on my bike, I found it to be true. Subbu said he wanted to leave ahead of the group, and ride alone for some time. I told him "I don't think its right", and he replied "Many things are not right, so nothing matters". Yes, tempers were rising, and we all had our own small frustrations, but I personally felt that it was ridiculous to split from the group. More so, I felt that it would encourage others to do the same, including myself, for every irritation instead of solving the issue. I really don't know the exact reason for Subbu's anger, but it was natural for it to happen. We were a group of 15 differently minded people belonging to different age groups and different backgrounds far away from our friends and home. These factors added with the altitude and environment can easily bring about frustrations over otherwise mundane issues. When dealing with such a diversity in such a explosive mental environment, decisions are tough to make. But, its always better for a group call rather than a singular decision, which was one of the cause of the problems.

The group minus me, the photographer

Anyways, the remaining 13 of us, finally departed at 8.30am. Each not happy with the events that transpired just a few mins ago. We rode through the awesome Fotula pass and surprisingly all stopped for a group photo. Human psychology, a topic that has always interested me, can explain the behaviour. Anger can cause a group to break up, but direct that anger at a singular target and the group gels together. This exact psychological effect played its part later on, as you will realise in a future blog post.
Just after crossing Fotula pass, comes the majestic Lamayuru Monastery. Founded in the 11th century, it is a Tibetan Buddhist Gompa. It is also one of the largest and oldest gompas in Ladakh. Having had a great ride in terms of roads, we spent around 45 mins at the monastery. It has a mind blowing view point, and as you sit there you begin to understand why the monks would have chosen that place as their meditative location. We were also lucky to see a procession of devotees in their traditional attire. Colourful and heavy, it gives them a majestic look.

The beautifully dressed devotees

The Grand Lamayuru Monastery

Our runaway lead, found his way into the pack, and as a group, we left the monastery. The roads were between decent and great, and the excitement was building as we were soon about to reach the target of our journey, Leh. As we rode on, we went through some really loopy curves riddled with military convoys. Many blind corners and narrow roads, careful riding was a must. I narrowly escaped a bad accident. Anil, ahead of me braked to avoid a deformity on the road. Not noticing it, I rode over it, and literally the handle bar went left-right-left as if obeying the orders of the officers in the passing convoy.

The Long straight road!!

After these curves, we hit a long straight road, exactly at the centre of a plain encompassed by mountains. We took a small break here. As I got off my feet off my bike, I heard Suresh & Chinna violently exchanging words. Apparently, Suresh had a small scare at one of the curves due to the way Chinna over took, nobody's fault. It was natural for Suresh and Chinna to be agitated with each other, but I was seriously surprised at Angle's involvement in cursing Suresh along with Chinna instead of trying to resolve the issue. The angry birds were literally forced back on their bikes and we moved on deciding to take the longer break at Nimmu.
At Nimmu, we stopped for lunch. Gogo, Bala and myself sat in one hotel, while the others too had split up and sat in different hotels. Such was the heights of frustration. Subbu did come and talk to us for a few seconds, calling us to join at their hotel, but we too were still a bit frustrated and preferred not to get unnecessarily involved in fights. Nimmu to Leh was only 30km, and so we moved from there, frustrated and excited at the same time. Just before leh, we came across the famous magnetic hills. It is said that if you park your vehicle and leave it neutral, the magnetic force from the hills would pull it against the slope. Though, we couldn't experience this being on two wheelers, I definitely could see unusual magnetic activity on my compass.

Magnetic Hills

What I witnessed there was something amazing and truly left me awestruck. The 55 year old Suresh, approached Vinay aka Chinna, who's half his age, hugged hum and said "I Love You Chinna". And Chinna too threw away his anger and ego, and shouted back "I Love you too Suresh". Wow, a true display of no ego. Such a display of sportsmanship from a person of such caliber and position, Incredible!! Suresh, by the way, was the CEO of Outlook, Asianet News & Suvarna, so you can imagine my amazement.

From magnetic hills to Leh, we traversed a huge plain like area, with lots of ups and downs and some curves. Reaching Leh, somehow, we all missed taking a group photo at the "Welcome to Leh" board and reached the hotel. Frustrations, irritations, anger, remorse, ego, etc... were all kept aside for the moment and we all embraced each other, congratulating one another that we had made it. It was a very joyous occasion, and during that moment, frowns were replaced by ear wide smiles!!
We caught up with Para and Avi too. Para's bike was yet to be fixed as the elusive fuel pump was yet to be obtained. He had his own tale to tell of his journey in the truck. Throwing our bags into the room using some ingenuity, Bala, Gogo and I went around the city to chill out for the evening. Before the night ended, we all had a small party and enjoyed the rest of the night.

Welcome to Leh!!!