Rise of the Machines #2

Throughout the journey, on all roads maintained by the BSF (Border Roads Organisation), every few kilometres we run into a yellow cement post with a clever quip. Some quips I recall are:

• This is not a rally, enjoy the valley
• Be gentle on my curves
• After whisky, driving risky
• Safety on the road is Safe Tea at home
• Be slower on the earth, than quicker to eternity
• Make love not war, but nothing while driving
• Live for your today, drive for your tomorrow
• Mind your brakes or break your mind
• Hospital ceilings are boring to look at. Avoid accidents
• Do not be rash and end in crash
• Accidents begin where alertness ends
• Don’t dream otherwise you will scream
• This is a highway, not a runway
• Drive like hell, and you’ll be there
• Don’t be a gamma in the land of the lama

And, lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest!

Prashi took a snap of this extreme sign in Nubra valley

On my next trip there, I plan to make a photo collection of all these road signs. A SLR is too complex for the task. What I need is an easy-access point-and-shoot. That way, I can slow down, click, accelerate, all in one smooth motion.

The Nubra valley is a protected wildlife reserve, probably the highest of its kind in the world. This was taken just inside the reserve.

That’s me through the curves – Courtesy Prashi

In this stretch in Nubra valley, the roads were all nice smooth tarmac, entirely devoid of potholes. To reduce the incline, BRO had built huge loops on the road. They’d also built dirt short-cuts, if anyone were inclined to use them. Very often, a 100m long dirt short-cut would substitute for a 2km long tarmac stretch.

Ranga, who was in the lead, suddenly decided to take on one of the short-cuts. Indicator on, beep-beep-beep, honk twice, off the tarmac, 100m of downhill dirt, and tarmac again. In theory, at least, that was what he intended. He got as far as 10m on the dirt, and promptly fell off his bike.

While Chaithra and I pulled over to help him up, Prashi decides to do some autocross practice, and takes off on the dirt, full blast, quite forgetting the large amount of luggage loaded on his bike. The luggage flies off first, unbalancing the bike. Prashi and bike are thrown into the air where he does a nice 180° flip, and lands off the track under bike and luggage and all, completely unhurt. I rush over to check whether he’s OK, but Prashi wants us to take a photograph first before extricating him! Oh, he was unhurt all right.

Ranga, who had just managed to get his bike up, saw Prashi’s antics, and promptly fell off his bike again. There’s no end to our horsing around, as Prashi and I took a few more short-cuts further up the road.