Day 10: Thank You, Sweetheart!
With whatever little I have traveled so far, I have realized that if not traveling alone, who you choose to take along with you is as crucial as picking the destination, sometimes even more.
I have been lucky to have had such lovely friends as my travel buddies, and I do not hesitate to say that my trips would not have been so amazing if I did not have memories from each one of these lovely people. And so, today (and for a few blogs after this) I would want to take out some time to thank each one of them in a way I am most comfortable — writing!
And who better to begin this with but my sweetheart. I met Chetan Sharma at a very low point in my life and since then, he has been a constant in my chaotic life. What can I say about this wanderlust soul! He is a poet, makes awesome furniture, and is crazy enough to enroll himself in a mountaineering course without prior experience (I still don’t know how you managed to complete that course!). I have mentioned ‘a friend’ a lot in my blogs and almost every time, it is him.
I have had the craziest of adventures with him: falling off a bike and breaking a leg (his not mine), being stranded in middle of nowhere, pitching a tent in the most windy parts of Himachal, having whiskey and eating free food sitting on top of a police barricade, getting into a fist fight with a guy for being a jerk with me(again him, not me) the list just goes on…

A thorough gentleman and a closet mother, this guy can pamper the hell out of you! But at the same time would encourage you to do the craziest thing you can think of, and he will definitely be standing next to you doing that, cheering you on with a smile.

This picture is special to me, not because of the frame, but because what happened after clicking it.
Context: Back in September, 2015, Chetan and I decided to go on a bike trip to Spiti Valley, the only problem? He did not have any experience of riding a bike in mountains much less riding on one of the most dangerous roads in the world. And he did warn me about it too, but I knew I could not do this with anyone else, I just could not trust another person with my life (quite literally, at times). So off we went with our rented Bullet starting from Manali, and just when we reached Rohtang pass, we rode a little too fast on ice sleet (this is why you need the experience) and fell off Bike, luggage, et all. Thanks to the carrier though, I managed to slip out with very minor injuries, but Chetan’s foot got stuck under the 180 kg bike (about 200, if you consider our luggage) and the damage worsened when two people helped me get the bike off of him.
This way just 30 mins into our 10 day trip and we had a decision to make, do we go ahead, or turn and go back to Manali. I remember both of us sat on a rock, him smoking a cigarette, I trying to gauge how hurt he is, for about 15 minutes. He then got up and said, “Look, if you are okay to go, we’ll go”
To this day, I don’t know what made me say, yes, especially since he could barely wear his shoes back on. But off we went.
Coming back to this photograph: We had to cross several nallas and each of those are icy cold and prick your feet like tiny needles, until your feet gets numb. To click this particular picture, I am standing right in middle of one. But when I went back to sit on the bike, Chetan stopped me, and adamantly forced me to remove my socks and dry them off before we went any further.
So here, is a guy who is in immense pain of a twisted ankle, but even then, he wanted to make sure that my feet stayed comfortable, which was a smart move too, considering the temperature dipped considerably within an hour. After that, I had pretty much no second thoughts to go anywhere with this rockstar.

I always thought, I was a big poser and a full blown drama queen, until I met my match. This guy likes to pose for pictures waaay more than I do. This one was taken at the Chandratal. This lake is the most peaceful places you can be, and I haven’t edited this photograph at all, so you can see for yourself the mesmerizing colour of the lake. It’s that blue, because it is that deep. The sand suddenly dissapears into a steep hole, a fact I found out the hard way (I’ll tell you some other day).

I can go on and on about all the adventures we have had together, and I will in coming 90 blogs, but for now, here’s to many more crazy adventures to come!

