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After tossing and turning the night at Sarchu, awoke to a chirpy mood and that set the tone of the day. Happiness and a blissful feeling awaited at the end of the day, as I would be reaching leh tonite.

With these thoughts, I get ready to ride again. Have been dusty, dirty and have not taken a bath in 3 days. The cold and unforgiving nature of the heights ensured that I don’t even entertain the thoughts of taking a bath again till I reach a settlement where I can get hot water. I long for that relaxing bath… can visualize the grime, dirt and the tiredness being washed away already.

Since it was going to be a looooong ride (227 kms) to Leh, I started the ride pretty early (0500 Hrs) in the morning. Thankfully the weather was clear and the skies were the bluest of blue. The snowcapped peaks look wonderful and the entire route is one big distraction as it is filled with those “Kodak Moments”….

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Another business trip, this time my wife’s, another attempt to squeeze some meaningful travel out of it. There was to be a event at Jaipur and she needed to be there to supervise things (aka boss around). I could accompany her and make it worthwhile (for me). So after brooding for a while, the deal was that once we are done with the event on Friday evening, we would drive to Sambhar (what Sambhar, wait) the next morning instead of usual shopping in Bapu Market. While Sambhar lake excursion made me go there, I must confess that there was one more reason. And that was the Delhi-Jaipur drive (I know I have been on this road for n times and I really do not like dry-fast stretches but a drive is better then watching Delhi temperature go up), the charm and happiness of which I very tactfully hid lest the better half should try to barter it against another bout of shopping, if not Bapu Market then may be another round of jewelery hunting in Johri Bazaar. The result of all this conspiracy theories was that, it was to be Jaipur. Good job.

A full work day converted into a half through a valid and intelligent use of flexi-timing at my office. It ensured that we were able to leave at 2 PM and hoped to be there by 7 PM. The drive to Jaipur has always been smooth yet dry owing to well laid NH8 and nothing else to see beyond the road, of significance.

Sambhar Lake

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Background: I read Da Vinci Code when I was in Switzerland. This book is a piece of art and believe me, I read the last 300 pages in just one night and completed this book in morning around 4:30 am. The aftereffect of reading the book was that I started dreaming about Paris and Louvre. Irony of situation was that we were in Geneva (Switzerland), hardly 5 hrs away from Paris, but could not go there as we did not have a Schengen visa. I remember sharing this helplessness with Ankur (one of my colleagues) and he reminded me a line which I used to speak a lot, ‘Kismat se Zyada aur samay se pahle kuch nahi milta’ :-)

Anyway, our project was near completion and we came back to India in end of November 2004. We worked in Switzerland as consultants on an Anti Money Laundering product and at that time ABN Amro was starting their global implementation for the same. Existing team was divided for different places for the work and I was appointed to lead the team and go back to Switzerland’s Lugano Data center of ABN Amro. The same colleague (Ankur) with whom i shared my helplessness was appointed to go to Amsterdam. Amsterdam meant Schengen visa, i.e. he could go to Paris and visit Louvre. I wasn’t too excited about the Swiss visit as I’d already visited the place. So the same line crossed my mind again ‘Kismat se jyada aur samay se pahle kuch nahi milta’!
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When I heard the word ‘Canada’, all that I would think about was Toronto, Vancouver, snow, polar bears, eskimos, native americans and skyscrapers. And that was pretty much it. That was over a year ago. Now here I am, relating to you about my experience in the country I call home. After I got married more than a year ago, I joined my husband Kannan in Saskatoon, the capital city of Saskatchewan, an agricultural province of Canada. My intention here is not to portray Canada as a tourist destination. My emphasis is on the journey rather than the destination. I chose not to describe my trip to Toronto this summer for a good reason, which I hope every one would be able to appreciate once they read this.

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