Dirt Track. A motorable road, but it’s barely there and snakes around the mountain. A driver named Surjeet, who loves to burn rubber on the mountain roads, with peppy Punjabi songs to give him company. And finally, after much adventure on these roads, we journalists choose to sit patiently on a big stone in the middle of a mountain stream, waiting for participants of the Raid de Himalaya, the “toughest motorsport event in India” to zoom across, splash water with their wheels and make a terrific picture. Covering the event was no less than an adventure in itself.

Reaching this mountain stream, running through Baryogi village in Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, was an eventful journey. The ten-odd journalists, accompanied by the organising officials and some others, had left the vehicles at a safe spot, more than a kilometre away from the blessed stream. And finally, bravely trudging through, reached the stream that ran by picturesque houses with slanting, slate-tile roofs. To reach this spot at about noon, we had started at 5 am in the cold morning in Shimla and drove for about six hours, jumped over rocks in a mountain stream, a tributary of Satluj river. And then, the wait for the bikers and four-wheelers began. All these were participants in the ‘Extreme’ category of the event, where conditions were grueling.

As we waited, Badal, a 14-year-old village boy could not contain his curiosity. He went over to Gagan Sethi of Aaj Tak and gushed, “aapke paas Himesh Reshammiya ka number hai? Mujhe de do. Main singer bananna chahta hoon.” His sister Rimjhim, 12, was busy making funny sounds like a bird, cupping her hands over her mouth. Gagan did not have Himesh’s number, but Badal was not disappointed, he ran over to his house, got an apple and some walnuts so that he could somehow get Himesh’s number.

... contd.