In SBI, my posting in MP has given me ample opportunities to visit a number of tourist places and Badrinath was one of them.....
We started for the Char Dham Yatra in October 1992 during Dussehra holidays of which I am narrating only the Badrinath part in this wrote up.
I then had a 1985 model fiat car which had bucket seats in the front and floor gear.
People in the Personal Banking division of SBI Bhind Branch which I headed told me that the roads were too dangerous and advised me to take a driver along. But I wanted to enjoy the driving and did not want to take any driver along.
My wife, myself and my daughter who was just about 2 years old then began the trip to Badrinath first.
To reach Badrinath, we had to proceed via Agra, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Rishikesh, Rudraprayag and onwards, a distance of 750 Km by this route.
The distance from Bhind to Meerut was 400 Km. We reached Meerut and stayed there overnight. From there Rishikesh is just 160 Km away and we covered it effortlessly.
From Rishikesh the ghat road of the Himalayan foothills starts and continues right up to Badrinath which is about 300 Km from there.
The entire terrain is dotted with hill ranges one after the other. The Himalyan foothills are made up of entirely a different type of soil and rock compared to what we find in the south and in other places.
The soil is looser and is prone to easy landslides in monsoon, or whenever there is a torrential rain. The road gets blocked easily in the Monsoons, and even when it is open, one has to watch carefully while driving.
The road meanders through the mountains unendingly with the Alaknanda river following you all the way on one side of the road. . One climbs steep hills, comes down rapidly and then goes up on to a steep climb again on and on, the terrain always challenging you.
As is the road, the scenery too unfolds never ending and always beautiful. There is no barrier on the side of the road separating it and the chasm in which Alaknanda flows by its wayside.
The road till Joshimath was broad enough and does not carry a risk except on a few occasional turns where one has to be very careful.
Rudraprayag is about 140 Km from Rishikesh. It is the place where the rivers Alaknanda and Madakini meet as they flow down from the Himalayas with Alaknanda coming in from Badrinath and Mandakini from Kedarnath.
Rudrapryag is famous for its man eating leopard of yore. This leopard was a man eater and was very cunning, and it killed over 125 people.
It strained all the experience of Jim Corbett to track and kill it.
The leopard made its first human kill in 1918 and for 8 years thereafter terrorised the Badrinath Kedarnath road which fell in its territory.
Many hunters tried to kill the leopard over the years, but it was too cunning and knew the ways of man well and never fell into any trap laid for it. Finally in the year 1926 Jim Corbett killed the leopard and it is called “The Man eater of Rudraprayag”.
As we passed on the road to Badrinath without stopping, we passed a large painted board showing a leopard with a legend that “This is the place where the famous Jim Corbett has killed the Man Eater of Rudraprayag which killed 125 people.” I read the matter and pointed it out to my wife.
We just passed by after reading the board and forgot all about it. How am I to guess that it would spring up later in my mind on account of circumstances?
We planned to halt at Srinagar (Garhwal). Rishikesh to Srinagar (Garhwal) is about 110 Km and we halted there for the night. Srinagar is no hill station, yet it is as beautiful as any other hill station I have seen.
Next day morning we started off to Badrinath after breakfast. The distance from Srinagar to Badrinath is about 190 Km.
We had lunch at Chamoli and the taste of the Dum aloo and those lovely tender tandoori rotis is worth remembering. We went leisurely stopping at all the points we had a good view and reached Joshimath at an altitude of 1900 meters by around 4 PM.
Clouds always hung around in the sky that day and by the time we reached Joshimath they closed in and it started drizzling lightly.
From Joshimath onwards the road was in the supervision of BRO (Border Roads Organization) and the vehicles were allowed in a convoy only from one side at a time.
Once the convoy from Badrinath reached Joshimath then the convoy would start from Jashimath to Badrinath.
My vehicle was the 2nd vehicle in the convoy and there was one ambassador car in the front.
The incoming convoy got delayed and came in only at around 5.00 PM, and by that time on account of the clouds the light became less. Our convoy started at around 5.15 PM and it was still drizzling then.
The distance from Joshimath to Badrinath was about 45 Km. The road was in excellent condition but we were losing light by each passing minute. By the time we travelled about 35 Km., and were about 10 Km from Badrinath, it became dark.
The climb was steep. To add to our problems the clouds came down on to the mountains (possible that they were always down on the road at that altitude and we just entered them).
On account of the darkness and the clouds, the visibility became very less and finally got reduced to a 3-4 feet and I had no fog lights in my car.
Luckily I had that Ambassador was there in front of me and I was driving by his tail light.
After driving for some time like that, the Ambassador fellow slowed down and indicated me to overtake him. I had no choice really because there were vehicles behind me climbing, and on top of that visibility was miserable and so I could not have stopped on the road.
Then I over took him and came on to the front of the convoy. I could hardly see anything on the road but kept on driving by instinct rather than with my senses.
My wife was desperate; she asked me “How are you managing to drive when nothing is visible?” I had no answer to that and kept quiet. After what seemed like an interminable amount of time the lights of Badrinath were visible and I heaved a sigh of relief.
The fact was we hardly drove like that for a couple of kilometres.
At Badrinath we stayed in a guest house.
Badrinath had an altitude of 3300 meters and was therefore ice cold at that time. Despite wearing a sweater and a jacket on top of it with a monkey cap and gloves I was feeling dead cold.
In the night I had to go for the bathroom. When I removed my pajamas half way down it was so chilling cold and I had to shiver.
Next day morning we had a lovely view of the snow capped peaks of the Nar Narayan mountain ranges which flank the shrine of Badrinath. Their peaks were tipped with snow and looked majestic.
I went to where I parked the car wanting to clean it and what do I find? A thin sheet of ice on top of the car. The rain that had fallen in the evening and after had made that sheet to form. I had to brush off the thin ice sheet from the top of the car before I could clean it.
Hot water from the sulphur springs was provided to us by the caretaker of the guest house and we had a nice steamy bath. When we searched around for a hotel for breakfast we were surprised to find a Coffee House and had breakfast there.
We then went around having a look at the town. The sulphur springs of Badrinath drew good crowds and we saw people bathing there. From there we went to the water of Alaknanda flowing through a canal. It had come down melted from the mountain ranges and was extremely chilly to the touch.
We then visited the Badrinath temple. I being an atheist was not bothered about visiting temples and opted to stay outside and my wife Aravinda went inside along with my daughter Vineela and had a Darshan.
We roamed around in Badrinath the rest of the day. People told us that “Mana” a village on the Indo China border is only about 6 Km away but has to be reached by a trek. Since our baby Vineela was with us we did not plan to go there.
We started back from Badrinath after lunch. It is just 160 Km away but all ups and downs and twists and turns all the way. I drove leisurely and by the time we were about 10 Km away from Rudraprayag it became quite dark as it was cloudy.
There were hardly any vehicles travelling on the road except ours then.
The terrain was a typical mountain road. A sloping mountain going up on one side dotted by a forest, and similarly on the other side a sloping mountain with a forest going down.
Suddenly there was a clank and my rear wheel cap got dislodged and fell down. I went forward with the momentum and stopped the car about 30 feet away from where the cap has fallen. I always carried a 4 cell Eveready rectangular torchlight on my journeys. I was about to take the torch and get down but my wife said “It is dark, why don’t you reverse the car?”
So I reversed the car took the torch and got down. At the time of getting down I turned off my headlight and left my parking lights on. I then took the torch and got down and picked up the wheel cap. As it was dark I thought I would fix it later and put it at the back of the car and then got into the car.
When I switched on the headlight I was stunned. A majestic Leopard came out from the sloping down forest just at the place where I initially stopped the car before reversing. I whispered to my wife “Aravinda look, a Leopard.” As we looked on the Leopard took a few steps in the opposite direction ignoring our presence. It then again stepped down into the forest and melted away.
Now all this had taken no more than 10 seconds but the effect it had on us was sharp. Had I got down where I stopped initially that Leopard would have been right by my side.
The first thing I remembered was the roadside board displayed at Rudraprayag that displayed the Maneater of Rudraprayag killed by Jim Corbett. Not a vehicle other than ours was passing on the road. My wife and daughter were with me. I thought what would I do if the car stopped somewhere on account of a mechanical problem.
Although such a possibility is very remote, at that time it persisted and troubled my mind. Luckily Rudraprayag was only about 10 Km from there and the road was also good, so we made it in less than half an hour.
