'One Life to Ride' Book Review

One Life to Ride                                                                      
A Motorcycle Journey to the High Himalayas
- Ajit Harisinghani,
Bibliophile South Asia,
Rs. 195/-

I had placed a request for this book at a book store, since it was not in stock with them. I waited 7 days for them to get the book. Having finished the book in half a day, I thought, even if I had to wait six months for the store to fetch the book for me, it would have been well worth it. Not only that, I was reading something after a long hiatus, as other ‘pressing’ things kept me form it, even though reading figures as one of my passions. I couldn’t have laid my hands on a better book than this to welcome me back to the world of books and reading.

Ajit Harisinghani returned to India from the US with a master’s degree in speech pathology. He lives in Pune and cross-country motorcycling is one of his interests. No prizes to guess exactly which motorcycle are we talking about here – a Royal Enfield, what else. I myself cherish a dream of going to Ladakh on Royal Enfield ‘Thunderbird’; but one need not have any of such fantasies to fall in love with this book.

Author takes a SOLO bike ride all the way from Pune to Ladakh. Passion is not enough; you ought to be head over heels in love with bike and motorcycling, to be daring to do such a thing. Ajit fits the bill. You know this, as he literally ‘talks’ to his bike and tries to cajole her with affectionate words, when he experiences a mini-breakdown.

En route he meets enlightened Sufi babas, stressed out army jawans, fellow riders and a host of other strangers. He is at ease in striking up a conversation with them or helping them out with flat tyres. That really is the essence of cross-country riding or most other adventures - to explore, to see, to talk, to feel, to be unrestrained. Reader gets to appreciate these feelings right through out the book. Not to mention the account of beauty of the landscape that author traverses. The prose is as free flowing as that of Indus River which the author encounters on his journey. As the author rides non-stop on a particular stretch, you feel the fatigue and jadedness or get the hunger pangs as he goes without having food for some time. Ajit maintains a narrative pitch that is a striking and distinctive mix of wit, philosophy and spirituality. His gloves are “old and shaded dark with patches of dried grease and sweat accumulated over previous rides”. Towards the later part of his ride as he exits Leh and rides through Nubra Valley towards Srinagar, his sun-burnt face resembles “burnt bread, which has been kneaded with dirt and grease”.

My only hitch with the book is the complete absence of pictures. A travel/adventure read has to have pictures. This looks like a glaring omission from the otherwise delightfully written travel/adventure book, smacking of heady love for vagabondage on every page.

People like Ajit do not undertake such journeys to set records. It is an effort to quench some higher kind of inquisitiveness - to find answers to larger questions and raise some fresh ones. Or quite simply, to feel alive. Logic or reason are the companions that might be missing during such journeys. As John Krakauer says about Mt. Everest in his book Into Thin Air - “Everest arouses a powerful desire. To those who don’t feel it; it can not be explained.” This will easily go down as one of the finest adventure reads, if you have the appetite for it.

Come ride pillion to Ajit. You wouldn’t want to get off!