It isn't.

People, this is to announce that mat_attack is comfortably middle class by his own admission. But you could tell that already.

It was so much like cooking food for the first time. Only difference is, I still, or rather ever, would not dare feed anyone what I cook. But I don't mind showing pictures I developed, because I'm really proud that I haven't totally messed this up. :-) Although the scene of development was a manly mess.

( pictures and blathering )

HPTDC's "Himachal Paryatan" bus was to start at 11am from Manali bus stand, but it started at 11:40am. At the rows of dhabas along Rohtang pass, we were allowed half an hour to eat lunch. But nothing, not even a boiled egg, was served at the end of that half an hour. Our bus conductor was annoyed, and asked his driver to start anyway. My friends were equally annoyed, argued and stayed over until everything ordered were served and plates were licked clean.

You could say that it was a slow start day.

And then the bus broke down around 3pm, as we were climbing Rohtang La. Help arrived from Manali at 7. They worked through fog and dark and cold, and finally the bus could be started again at around 10am. We were supposed to reach Keylong and settle into our tents (the fare included tented accomodation in the HPTDC complex in Keylong and dinner), but we reached there at 2:30am. We ate dinner, slept for maybe two hours, and were ready to start again at 5:30am.

The driver, like everybody else, must have slept for two hours. And this guy was under the bus in the night, helping to fix it. After this he was driving through that thick foggy dark night for quite some distance. And he's to take us through the rest of this rough road, for the entire day, until we reach Leh. You would expect that there would be another driver or an assistant for such a long (two days) trip, but there was none. This is supposedly a luxury bus, but clearly HPTDC did not want to risk a real luxury bus on this route.

It was kind of unsettling to sit right behind the driver, knowing that this guy has hardly slept the previous night. We reached Leh at 10pm without incidences -- except for an overtuned oil tanker blocking our way for about two hours.

And I thought I knew what hard work is.

"Hard work is hauling bales of hay or cleaning sewers. Scientists and engineers should be grateful that society is willing to pay us to have fun," said Leslie Lamport in an old interview. So true.

(picture dump.)