In 2021, Angelica Daniel, then 14, was making ready for the prelims of her Class 10 Board exams, when her father Ajay Daniel (46) instructed “one thing loopy”.
“Be part of me on a highway journey to Khardung La.” The ask was a last-minute one, Ajay shares. “I had been planning a motorcycle experience with a number of associates from Chandigarh to the Khardung La cross (one of many highest motorable roads on this planet) in Leh. My bike had been shipped to Chandigarh and my flight tickets have been booked. Per week earlier than setting off, everybody backed out.”
Watching her father upset 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 day-after-day that somebody will get to share in one thing like this,” she says looking back. 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 have been greater than mere journey expeditions. The bike rides solid a robust bond between father and daughter, letting every see the opposite in a brand new gentle.
Angelica’s enthusiasm for bike rides is rooted in her unconscious. “When she was all of 4 months previous and her neck was stabilised, I might tuck her into the infant service, which I might 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 highschool, 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.
At present, they’re reeling from final yr’s journey — masking 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 means of crumbling roads and being abandoned with out gas, train you?
It makes you extra intuitive, says Angelica. Like her teen counterparts, she remembers being “fussy” about her meals preferences, luxuries and comforts. Dangerous climate would tick her off. Nevertheless it was the time she spent on the highway, the place she was compelled to adapt to the native diaspora, that she really 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 at school days, Angelica shares, “It was the journey the place I noticed how significantly my dad took motorcycle driving, learnt the correct method of sitting on the bike and holding when hairpin bends approached.”
These brief journeys taught her the nuances of turning into pillion. “I began serving to my dad by recognizing site visitors coming from the opposite aspect of the curve and watching out for highway crossings. These items helped my dad give attention to the highway,” she smiles proudly.
‘I understood his mind-set’
Each journey has ups and downs. Ajay and Angelica have been no strangers to this. However mockingly it was these sticky moments that gave Angelica an perception into her dad’s method 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 motorcycle’s regular rumble, the whistling wind, and the chirp of a lone chicken are the one issues that interrupt the silence. Angelica would discover these moments excellent for hanging up a dialog together with her father.
Metropolis life has a mundaneness to it, she says. “We stay beneath the identical roof however not often have high quality conversations.” The bike rides flipped the script.
‘My dad started to see that he may 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 highway journey, my dad would fear about my security; whether or not taking me alongside was the fitting determination; would I be okay being so far-off from house; what would occur if one thing have been to go improper.”
“Nevertheless it was solely after we began travelling that he began seeing me as his morale booster,” she says. At any time when the duo would hit a roadblock, Angelica wouldn’t hear of turning again. The one method was ahead, she’d say. “He started to see I’m not a baby anymore.”
‘I taught him some issues too’
As a Bachelor of Arts pupil, Angelica’s love for historical past, important roads, and historic spots have been identified to Ajay. Nevertheless 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 subjects. “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 once they’d calm down for the evening. “Although exhausted, sleepy and hungry, we’d talk about totally different subjects; subjects that many mother and father wouldn’t broach with their children. My dad would take heed to my ideas and it made me really feel like my opinions have been validated, heard, and recognised,” she shares.
‘No scenario is hopeless’
Throughout the journey from Kanyakumari to Thang (the northernmost village in India), Angelica learnt two vital classes — assistance will at all times come, and till it does, keep constructive.
“We have been driving to Pangong Lake (the world’s highest saltwater lake),” she explains. “On our method, we got here throughout a patch of land that was utterly abandoned with no hint of civilisation. It was an eerie sight.” Whereas driving by means 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 have 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 little bit, we’d be thrown off the mountain.” Nevertheless 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 tune of alternative. “Ultimately we noticed a milestone indicating a village close by,” she sighs.
Making reminiscences on the highway
Following the journey from Chandigarh to Khardung La in 2021, the duo drove from Chandigarh to Umling La (stated to be the very best motorable highway and some of the 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, in keeping with 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 have been accompanied by Ajay’s pal Praveen Paul and Praveen’s daughter Abigail for a lot of the expedition.
However whereas the experience was exhilarating, the climate performed spoilsport. On their technique to Manali in a cab — after finishing the highway journey and transport the bike again from Leh — Angelica and Ajay had a nightmare awaiting them.
“We have 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 highway. The motive force instructed we flip again and keep in a close-by city for the evening. However as we made our method again, one other landslide hit. We have been trapped,” he provides.
Drawing parallels with this example and the landslides that they had 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 have been twice the scale of a JCB Backhoe Loader.”
It could take days for the particles to be cleared. “We got an area in a lodge’s restaurant subsequent to the tables the place the proprietor put up a number of makeshift beds and blankets. However we have 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 powerful instances.
“At any time when they might 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 house.
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 calmly. “Like another teenager, I typically 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 means of my dad’s eyes,” she remarks.
Edited by Pranita Bhat
