In 2021, Angelica Daniel, then 14, was getting ready for the prelims of her Class 10 Board exams, when her father Ajay Daniel (46) recommended “one thing loopy”.
“Be a part of me on a street journey to Khardung La.” The ask was a last-minute one, Ajay shares. “I had been planning a bike experience with a number of pals from Chandigarh to the Khardung La go (one of many highest motorable roads on this planet) in Leh. My bike had been shipped to Chandigarh and my flight tickets had been booked. Per week earlier than setting off, everybody backed out.”
Watching her father disillusioned on the plan — that was now threatened to flop — Angelica stated a ‘sure’ when requested if she would oblige to be his journey buddy. “It’s not daily that somebody will get to share in one thing like this,” she says on reflection. The journey was phenomenal and the duo made it again simply in time for her exams. “Undoubtedly, an journey,” affirms Angelica, now 17.
The journey set a precedent for years of such adventures to comply with, with Ajay driving the bike and Angelica because the pillion. However wanting again, they are saying these had been greater than mere journey expeditions. The bike rides cast a powerful bond between father and daughter, letting every see the opposite in a brand new mild.
Angelica’s enthusiasm for bike rides is rooted in her unconscious. “When she was all of 4 months outdated and her neck was stabilised, I’d tuck her into the newborn provider, which I’d then place on the bike tank. As quickly as I started driving, she’d go to sleep inside seconds,” Ajay shares. Then adopted rides to high school, journeys to the hill station Nandi Hills and Hampi in Karnataka, and drives to Puducherry and Goa.
Street journeys grew to become the duo’s love language.
Presently, they’re reeling from final 12 months’s journey — overlaying 7,000 km from Kanyakumari to Thang in Ladakh in 24 days. In a dialog with The Higher India, they revisit the previous few years and the travels which have introduced them nearer.
A lifetime’s price of classes
What does being caught in a landslide for 4 days, driving by way of crumbling roads and being abandoned with out gas, train you?
It makes you extra intuitive, says Angelica. Like her teen counterparts, she recollects being “fussy” about her meals preferences, luxuries and comforts. Unhealthy climate would tick her off. However it was the time she spent on the street, the place she was pressured to adapt to the native diaspora, that she actually found herself, she says. “And I found my father too,” she provides.
‘I got here to respect his love for driving’
Recalling the journey to Nandi Hills in class days, Angelica shares, “It was the journey the place I noticed how severely my dad took bike driving, learnt the right manner of sitting on the bike and holding when hairpin bends approached.”
These quick journeys taught her the nuances of turning into an excellent pillion. “I began serving to my dad by recognizing site visitors coming from the opposite aspect of the curve and watching out for street crossings. This stuff helped my dad deal with the street,” she smiles proudly.
‘I understood his mind-set’
Each journey has ups and downs. Ajay and Angelica had been no strangers to this. However mockingly it was these sticky moments that gave Angelica an perception into her dad’s manner of approaching issues. “His perspective is fairly cool as is his logical bend of thoughts,” she commends her father.
‘We actually talked our coronary heart out’
Image an expanse of white undulating terrain. The bike’s regular rumble, the whistling wind, and the chirp of a lone fowl are the one issues that interrupt the silence. Angelica would discover these moments good for hanging up a dialog together with her father.
Metropolis life has a mundaneness to it, she says. “We dwell below the identical roof however hardly ever have high quality conversations.” The bike rides flipped the script.
‘My dad started to see that he might depend on me’
“Deal breakers” is how Angelica describes the journeys she has taken together with her father. Elaborating on this, she says, “Prior to each lengthy street journey, my dad would fear about my security; whether or not taking me alongside was the proper resolution; would I be okay being so distant from residence; what would occur if one thing had been to go unsuitable.”
“However it was solely after we began travelling that he began seeing me as his morale booster,” she says. Each time the duo would hit a roadblock, Angelica wouldn’t hear of turning again. The one manner was ahead, she’d say. “He started to see I’m not a toddler anymore.”
‘I taught him some issues too’
As a Bachelor of Arts scholar, Angelica’s love for historical past, vital roads, and historic spots had been recognized to Ajay. However it was solely when she was briefing him about these whereas standing on the spot in query that he understood how well-versed his daughter was in these matters. “He [my father] would hear patiently after which proceed to go with me that I’d been paying consideration at college,” shares Angelica.
‘He took my opinions into consideration’
The duo concede that their favorite bonding moments occurred on the finish of the day after they’d cool down for the night time. “Although exhausted, sleepy and hungry, we’d talk about totally different matters; matters that many mother and father wouldn’t broach with their youngsters. My dad would take heed to my ideas and it made me really feel like my opinions had been validated, heard, and recognised,” she shares.
‘No scenario is hopeless’
Through the journey from Kanyakumari to Thang (the northernmost village in India), Angelica learnt two necessary classes — assistance will all the time come, and till it does, keep constructive.
“We had been driving to Pangong Lake (the world’s highest saltwater lake),” she explains. “On our manner, we got here throughout a patch of land that was utterly abandoned and not using a hint of civilisation. It was an eerie sight.” Whereas driving by way of this dystopian panorama, the duo felt snow falling steadily.
“We weren’t carrying heat garments, had misplaced sign and so couldn’t entry maps. It was starting to get darkish and we had been scared,” she provides. Whereas Ajay continued driving undeterred, his 17-year-old pillion wasn’t as calm. “The roads in Ladakh are extremely slim. If the bike skid even a bit, we’d be thrown off the mountain.” However it was throughout these “freakish” moments that Ajay inspired Angelica to calm her thoughts by singing.
‘Let It Go’ from the Disney film ‘Frozen’ was the music of selection. “Finally we noticed a milestone indicating a village close by,” she sighs.
Making reminiscences on the street
Following the journey from Chandigarh to Khardung La in 2021, the duo drove from Chandigarh to Umling La (stated to be the best motorable street and probably the most difficult passes on this planet) in 2022, adopted by the 7,000 km experience in 2023. The third experience made Angelica the youngest pillion rider to finish such a bike expedition, based on the India E book of Information (2024).
The path lined Madhurai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Jhansi, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Udhampur, Srinagar, Kargil, Leh, Thang, Pangong, Nyoma and Hanle, together with steep passes akin to Zoji La, Namika La, Fotu La, Khardung La, Photila, Umling La, and Tanglang La.
The duo had been accompanied by Ajay’s buddy Praveen Paul and Praveen’s daughter Abigail for many of the expedition.
However whereas the experience was exhilarating, the climate performed spoilsport. On their strategy to Manali in a cab — after finishing the street journey and transport the bike again from Leh — Angelica and Ajay had a nightmare awaiting them.
“We had been stranded at Sissu (a city in Himachal Pradesh) for 4 days,” Ajay elaborates.
They’d been warned of unhealthy climate and landslides. “It was 1 am and a landslide hit the street. The motive force recommended we flip again and keep in a close-by city for the night time. However as we made our manner again, one other landslide hit. We had been trapped,” he provides.
Drawing parallels with this case and the landslides they’d beforehand witnessed, he says, “Normally, you see individuals getting down from their automobiles and trying to maneuver the rocks. However on this case, the boulders that had fallen had been twice the dimensions of a JCB Backhoe Loader.”
It might take days for the particles to be cleared. “We got an area in a resort’s restaurant subsequent to the tables the place the proprietor put up a number of makeshift beds and blankets. However we had been reduce off from the remainder of the world for 4 days with little or no meals and water, to not point out no electrical energy and web.” Ajay provides that the heat of the locals compensated for these robust instances.
“Each time they’d put together one thing they’d invite us to eat with them,” he says. Lastly, on the fourth day, the duo managed to make it out safely and attain residence.
Whereas these experiences are scary, Angelica says they strengthened the bond she shares together with her father. Grateful to partake in adventures that many others her age wouldn’t have the fortune of, Angelica doesn’t take her luck evenly. “Like another teenager, I generally regarded my father as unreasonable. However these journeys have made me admire how his mind works, and his fatherly instincts. These journeys have made me see the world by way of my dad’s eyes,” she remarks.
Edited by Pranita Bhat
