OVERLANDING IN THE HIMALAYAS

No matter how broken a soul is, a ride to the Himalayas is a sure shot

- MANJUSAGAR

SEVEN years ago, on a Saturday night I lay sleepless in my friends room, looking up at the ceiling. He used to speak about motorcycles and how much he loves them, without an end. It wasn’t just that one night though, he’d talk about it every Saturday night. And I’d just lay there, wondering if I would ever have that kind of passion in my life. For, till then, an 18-year-old me had none. With every passing week, his passion grew stronger. With every passing week, so did my hunger to have a passion.

Seven years and more than a 140,000 kilometers later, I was dancing in the middle of a dark road in Meghalaya to the tunes of ‘I took a pill in Ibiza’ celebrating the milestone of riding straight for a 150 days and 21000 kilometers through the Himalayas of India, Nepal and Bhutan - my longest ride, yet!

I’m Manjusagar a.k.a Mentlmanja and this is my journey.

And my story began in that friend’s room. A few months after being inspired by his love for motorcycles, I got my first one - a sparkly, black colored Duke 200. But my zeal to ride couldn’t compensate for my lack of experience. I had five falls in the first five months and ended up selling the beaten KTM.

What followed was embarrassment and regret - which gave birth to a yearning - a kind I’d never known before. I wanted to prove to myself and probably even to the people around me that I could get better at the game that had defeated me. Many months were spent learning the ‘art of riding a motorcycle’. And in January 2014, I got another Duke 200.