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In the pitch dark of an African night, the Land Rover gets stuck and as we disembark, the touristy demonstrations of native rituals we saw an hour earlier, to appease forest gods for safe passage, became a reality.
Henry, the driver, was quite nonchalant about the whole situation and instructed us in clear terms that we need to follow the defined protocol and instructions; one, we will walk in a single file with Henry in the front and Amen at the rear; two, whatever happens, no one will break the file and run, and three; stay close together, and whatever else you do, do not run! For the love of God, don’t anyone run.
Cats love a running mouse, you see.
It was then that Henry performed the ritual that he had demonstrated to us just an hour earlier. He picked up some grass, knotted it, broke it, and threw it over his head, muttering some prayers in his native tongue. It gave me goosebumps then. With a shout of ‘let’s go’, he just started walking. And so, the march began.
Wander through all this and more. Across continents. Different habitats. On exotic travel destinations. When life is on the edge.
Rajeev Asija
Rajeev Asija, an electronics engineer from COE Pune, is an avid traveller, sports enthusiast, voracious reader, and an active blogger. He has spent more than 38 years in active corporate life in the IT industry, which allowed him to travel widely – India and abroad. Coupled with the childhood spent in Defence Cantonment areas with habitats rich in flora and fauna, his interest in travelling and exploring, and his love for nature were developed from his early years.
It was only a chance encounter with an ex-colleague from HCL that triggered the 15-day road trip from Delhi to the deep interiors of Ladakh in 2013. This became a precursor to more such trips to the Himalayan Region and led to the coming together of like-minded friends and forming a loosely knit ‘Bhraman’ (Bhraman is the Hindi word for Travel) group. The search for exotic travel experiences led the group to destinations like New Zealand, African jungles and the wilderness of Iceland.
The blogs that he wrote were hugely appreciated by his friends and family and this led to a natural progression into a full-blown book with an amazing narrative and captivating pictures.
He has a few technical publications too, the latest one about Building a Future-Ready Enterprise titled ‘Automation for the Future’, co-authored along with seven other Enterprise IT leaders, in 2021.
He resides in Noida; India and his wife is a Management Consultant. His two children – Kanika, married to Anay, and Tanay - are working with Tech companies in the US. He enjoys travelling the world at every opportunity, more so if it is an exotic destination with unique experiences and terrain on offer. He aspires to tick off Antarctica, Alaska and the Trans-Siberian train journey, among others, from his bucket list.
