What do people want, really, really want?

Dhal Lake, Srinagar.

A few weeks before my planned cycling trip from Srinagar to Leh, Ladakh, unrest occurred in Jammu. Stone pelters went into action but were swiftly put under control by police. That did not stop any of my naysayer friends from forewarning me of the worst.

Others quickly blurt that one needed about a week to acclimate to high-altitude sports. We had a one-and-a-half-day acclimatisation before climbing the hills for about a week. On top of that, we had acetazolamide to help in that aspect.

The plan was to cycle from Srinagar to Leh (Khardunga, optional), covering about

500km and an elevation of over 7,200m in about 8 days. So it was Srinagar to Sonamarg, Sonamarg to Drass, Drass to Kargil, Kargil to Budkharbu, Budkharbu to Nurla, Narlu to Leh.

Contrary to what I had heard, I did not feel hostility. The only semblance of possible unrest is the military presence throughout the journey. People were seen doing their daily chores. Construction was everywhere, a sign that the political climate was conducive. Lorries were seen transporting local produce. National highways have been tarred recently and are in different stages of work in progress. Vans and SUVs were aplenty, with tourists thronging this region, another proof that everything was in order.

Lovely in Ladakh

Guest homes, lodges and motels are filled with foreign and local visitors.

So, I asked myself, what does an average Joe want in his life? He wants so many things in his life; the more, the merrier. The bottom line for all these to happen is peace. He should be confident to work hard, knowing well that he can reap the

benefits of his hard work for himself and future generations. He must have peace of mind and know that tomorrow will not bring unexpected maladies. He has to be confident that there will still be a roof over him when he gets up tomorrow. He would

want his offspring better than what he is, which must be a notch better than his forefathers.

He does not care who is his leader. He is interested in something other than whether his race is superior to that of his neighbours. In his mind, everything starts from nothing and goes to nothingness. For him, religion is a mere guide to pave his life. He does not need to prove to others that his religion is the true one. For each, his is the way. Just need to live and let live.

So, all this desperate madness to race and religious supremacies mean nothing to the man on the street.

What he really wants is peace and to provide for his loved ones

Sunset at Lake Dhal

Over Zojila Pass, Srinagar to Sonamarg.

Sonamarg, Kashmir.

Elevation Profile

Fotula Pass

Leh, Ladakh. Evening market

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The Glamour of Intercontinental Travel Clipped!

Pan Am (TV Series, S1, E1-14, 2011-12)
Come Fly With Me: The Story of Pan Am (2011, BBC Documentary)

There used to be a time when air travel was a novelty. People used to get all dressed up to the nines to start their journey. Nobody was stopped for being underdressed, as getting on a plane carried some dignity. Boarding a plane was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Only the deep-pocketed could travel, and the airlines made sure their clients were pampered to the brim.

The idea of having dinner in one place and breakfast in another time zone fascinated many a young aspirant that the fast, furious and restless applied for jobs to serve their clientele. In the service business, aesthetics and physical attributes were essential in selecting stewards and stewardesses. This, of course, was before the time body-shaming and diversity was even a term. Even though ferrying rich guys from points A to B is basically what a paid chauffeur would do, being a pilot brought so much dignity. Parents soon accepted it as an addition to the top four professional courses, i.e., medicine, law, architecture and accountancy, they wanted their kids to do. Of course, much science is involved in bringing a heap of metal across continents. Furthermore, an undesirable outcome for affluent customers may have disastrous consequences for the world economy or progress.

That was when stewardesses had all the time to chat with passengers to help them when needed. Of course, there was a natural selection of travellers. Remember, not everyone could fly then.

Talking about 'everyone can fly', the famous tagline of Asia's biggest budget airlines, the democratisation of the air space also opened up the job of flight stewards (later rehashed a lesser important sounding flight attendant) to less stringent criteria. Anyone could fly as a crew.

Pan Am ruled the airspace at a time when planes were small and propeller-driven. Even when jet engines made flying easier as bigger planes could be built, less fuel was consumed, and with fewer stops, Pan Am was the unofficial carrier of the USA. Its staff were the benchmark of how training should be done. Their ticketing model and computation were followed the world over. The persona of a  flight pilot, steward and stewardess became a yardstick for other airlines to emulate. 

Starting as a getaway route to escape the effects of Prohibition in the 1930s, Pan Am prospered by using boat planes from Florida to Cuba. Wealthy people could fly to Cuba over the weekend for their alcohol fix. Slowly, aeronautical technology improved by leaps and bounds during the World Wars. After WW2, jet engines became the preferred method of flying.

Pan Am ruled the skies, and its icon logo spoke volumes of its branding. Everyone found pride in carrying the marine blue Pan Am bag. Many knock-offs sprang up in third-world countries like Malaysia, and many of my friends in school used them as school bags.

Behind the squeaky clean image of the airline, there is a darker side. The Americans had used its vessels to clandestinely spy on other nations. In 1962, just before the Bay of Pig invasion, its plane rescued many American spies from Cuba. Back then, the picture of a line of air stewardesses walking poise past the sea of travellers in the airport, leaving a trail of a whiff of perfume, was deemed empowering. It was customary to impose stringent weight quotas and restrictions upon marriage and child-bearing to continue working.

Pan Am's golden age ended with the easing of flight regulations. The 1970s energy crisis contributed to it. Restricting operations after the reign of Juan Trippe, where they concentrated on US domestic flights, proved disastrous. The last biggest news that came before their bust was the fatal bombing of the vessel in Lockerbie by Libyan terrorists in 1988. By 1991, they were bankrupt.

Boeing B-314

The pinnacle of flying boat technology in the 1930s. 

Pan Am chief Juan Trippe continued using the term 'Clipper' for its airplanes 

to link his airline with the maritime heritage of the world's great ocean liners. 

The planes could land and take off at any harbour, no airfield needed.

 

Boeing 314 Dining Room

The Pan Am TV series was very successful in recreating the innocent age of baby boomers. After putting the evils of the Second World War behind them, the world was single-hearted in taking leaps and bounds in science and technology. The subversive elements of the world had not resorted to hijacking an aeroplane to make a political statement. The cockpit need not be securely bolted from the inside. And taking pictures in the pilot's sea was cool and inspired many wannabe pilots. Now, the crew has to defend themselves for indiscipline. A cockpit is a volatile area and a restricted zone at that. Every entree into the plane, or for that matter, every passenger, is now viewed as a potential suicide bomber. A shoe is not just a shoe but needs to be examined for explosives. It was perfectly normal then to recite a prayer loudly in the cabin if you were anxious about flying. Try reciting anything in Arabic now! You can no longer call your old friend, Jack, 'Hi Jack' without the air marshalls tasering you down. 

The hierarchical order in command in full force can be seen here in this era. The Captain takes full charge, and everybody else is beneath him. As time passed, we realised that this same attitude brought down many planes in many instances afterwards. Pilot error was apparent in many crashes to everyone except the airline pilot, but the co-pilot and the rest of the crew were too timid to voice out. Repeated flight crash reports highlighted this fact later. 

Unfortunately, the TV series only lasted one season. Business wrangling between studios made making the second season difficult. 

I remember my Parasitology professor telling the class that more people die of malaria than from jumbo jets crashing. But obviously, the hype of the news of a jetplane crashing draws such attention that so much money and research is invested in making air travel safe. Unfortunately, malaria, being the curse of the poor, remains unfunded. 

During my last travels, after watching Pan Am, the series, my twisted mind went wondering yet again. At one time, it was the crew's duty to guard their passengers at all cost, with idioms like the Captain would go down with the ship and all as Captain Edward Smith did with the Titanic. Now, it is like they herding a herd of cattle, ensuring the pack reaches the marketplace akin to how Uncle Buck and his jolly men would herd their cattle from High Chaparral to Tuscon, Arizona. They want to spare the embarrassment of explaining their whereabouts to Big John Cannon. 

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Nostalgia is not a bad word!

von Trapp family

More often than not, I have been told right on my face not to live in the past. I have been cajoled into coming out occasionally, taking a depth of fresh air and smelling the roses. They fear I may soon become an ancient relic that only deserves to be admired in the museum. They ask me to burst my comfortable bubble of the past, leave the sunrise and head towards newer horizons. 

They even tell me that 'nostalgia' is a negative word. The suffix 'algia' denotes pain for a reason. Not too long ago, the term 'nostalgia' was a medical term used interchangeably with melancholy and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

So, if I were to believe all that was told to me, nostalgia would be avoided at all costs. I think nostalgia in the modern context is more romantic, re-imagining a time if it actually did when things were hunky-dory, and the world was safe. All these are, of course, mere bunkum. We were just too naive to realise that evil was lurking right under our noses at all times.

Nostalgia is not a bad word; this I realised during my last visit to Austria. Imagine a country just living in the memory of its glorious past. Austria is a country that thrives on the glory of its historical past. Its selling points are the laurels of the House of Hasburgh through the times of the Austria-Prussian and Austria-Hungarian Empires, its glorious musical culture and more recently, the razzmatazz of Hollywood's 'Sound of Silence'.

The brutality of imperialism brought with its enormous amount of sorrow, pain and loss of lives. Nevertheless, its negativity seems to have been cancelled with the so-called 'civilisation' it brought. The only trouble is that nothing civil was done in the process. The victors justified their actions by scribing and immortalising their version of the truth. The 'real truth' remains buried behind with the corpses and unheard screams of the fallen.

The victors proclaimed that, and that is proof of modernity. Pop sprang the gargantuan monuments to boast of their greatness. Their leaders' fondness became the trademark of the kingdom. Musicians who jumped to the beck and call of the victors became national heroes. Mozart came to be worshipped as a child prodigy composer.

In the same vein, the German's failed attempt at creating the Third Reich adds to the world's positive narrative. At a time when Hollywood was controlling how the world should think, the mega-blockbuster 'The Sound of Music' came to the fore. This coming-of-age plus anti-Nazi film became part and parcel of baby boomers in their formative years. Capitalising on this nostalgia, recreating an alternative universe of the doe-eyed teenage that never exists, Austria continues prospering by selling dreamers this dream. They proudly claim an annual inflow of 3 million tourists to visit and re-live the life of the von Trapp household.

The country thrives on nostalgia. The nation lives in the memory of the past to plan for the future. Nostalgia cannot be all bad.

Outside Von Trapp villa

Sankt Gilgen - part of Sound of Music tour

Salzburg after dark.

The fields scream to the sound of music.

I 

That will bring us back to 'Do'.

Recreating the royal courtyard. Even musicians and composers have subtle ways of showing the monarchs that all is not well in paradise. 'The Marriage of Figaro' showcasing servants rising up and outwitting their masters – outraged the aristocracy. 

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See you at the end of the road!

Nomadland (2020)
Director, Screenplay, Co-producer: Chloè Zhao

Maybe we never forgot our roots. Even though we decided to become farmers, stay put in one place and hope to gain strength through numbers (i.e. living in communities), we simply could not shake off our desires to wander and be close to Nature. As cavemen and hunter-gatherers, we were doing the same thing. We were awed by the things around us. We wanted to experience them and to know all about the fantastic things that we saw and felt. Who built them? When were these made?  Like an excited child, we yearned for answers. And we are still doing them today. 

At one time, we were told it is what it is. Do not ask too many questions of which answers you will not understand. It is beyond your comprehension, they would say. Nah, read these scriptures; everything is there. With science, it appears that this mindset is changing. People started asking questions and more question. Apparently, there were more questions than answers the more people asked. Curiosity piqued. Obviously, the books did not have all the answer. It seems that people need to feel to experience. They needed to spread their wings. The desire to travel is rekindled.

Much like a physical journey, our life journey gives us pockets of experiences. Every visual gratification, every smell, every touch, every feeling is an experience of its own. In life, we would encounter many sweet-bitter events. All these pockets of experiences form a composite picture of what we can say 'our life'.

'Nomadland' can be viewed as a cerebral movie that tries to look at two things that seem essential to the American public - homelessness and the zest to find the meaning of life. In a way, this film combines both topics. 

Chloè Zhao

Many townships that had experienced boomtown for decades are now in real danger of being wiped off the USA map. The industries and factories which formed the rock bed of their existence have suddenly lost their competitiveness. Many of the work had been outsourced to third world countries. Town dwellers had to find employment elsewhere. One such town in this story is Empire in Nevada. Fern, the protagonist, is one of the last people to leave this town after its Gypsum plant shuts down, and her husband dies. She sells her belongings to invest in a van to travel, see the world, and seek employment. 

In the course of her journey, she meets many fellow travellers who consider themselves 'nomads', making trying to escape the restrictive lives that they were leading or to cut loose of the melancholy that suffocate them. 

Perhaps by being out in the open amongst the gargantuan structures and mighty forces of nature, all our troubles seem insignificant. To the vast expanse of the Universe, we, as individuals, are irrelevant in the greater scheme of things. We are nothing, so are what we perceive as our unsolvable miseries.

Chloè Zhao has the enviable reputation of being the first woman of colour and the second woman to win the coveted 'Best Director' award at the Oscars. But, unfortunately, her native country, China, had censored all of her, the 2021 Oscar, as well as her acceptance. This is in response to her caustic remark about China in a 2013 interview. She had described China as a 'place where there are lies everywhere'.

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Time flies when you are having fun!

S2B: Seoul to Busan

It is not a race. Ep #1
Meet the P-stars. Ep #2
Fighting the demons! Ep #3

Bare necessities that we need! Ep #4

7 Samurais set to go! ©Bob

The day is here! Ep #5

The time is now! Ep #6

Time is a river of passing events. Ep #7

Episode 8: Day 5 S2B (10.10.19)

Resolved to end the tour today, we made an early start, at the first sign of daylight. At least, that is what we thought. By the time we saddled up and tightened up a few loose ends, it was 0630 by the time we left our bike motel. 

It was a chilly morning, slightly windy and foggy at 7C. Everything was going on fine for the first half of the day. 

Korea decided to save the best for the last. She took us through multiple hills, some as steep as 13%. We managed most of the hills except for a few which proved too long too strenuous.

The world of Maya. The cloud-like fluffy structure in the bottom half of the picture is the early morning condensation of water above the river surface. ©HS

The struggle between Nature and Man started to prove a yo-yo. The hills at Changnyeong-gun was a sight to behold. The view of the light of the rising sun against a backdrop of mist-covered mountains and river gave the illusion as we were in high heavens. 

Born to be free in the meadows but creepy crawlies. ©FG.

The Duel between Man and Nature: Sometimes Nature wins! ©MM

After giving a bit, she tested us. One, but all us, took a wrong turn. With 3 punctures to repair, because of the wrong turn that took us through a gravel-filled path that took us through farms, we were delayed by two hours flat. 

Even our designated high priest thought he had lost his mojo when we found everything going the wrong way. With the patchy GPS signals in Korean language, by a twist of fate we somehow finally managed to get to the next certification centre. 

A breath of fresh air. Second last certification centre in the pipeline. ©FG

The body was aching and the muscles were fatigued but one resolve in each of minds to complete the course pulled us through. We pedalled through the gruelling heat and the mid-afternoon sun at about 20C.

Finally, at about 5.30pm, the Gods took pitied us and finally landed us at Nakdong River Culture Pavilion, the final destination. 

I am still standing, on the ground. ©Bob.

Three months of planning, weeks of training and many man-hours in research, we finally completed our mission. Shaken but not stirred, we were already planning our next trip, perhaps next year. 

We did it! ©RS

End of Day 5.
Completed about 140km. (Total ~ 675.15km) due to detours and off-course tracks, to and from accommodation and meals.

I cycled 675km and all I got is a gold-plated medal plus a piece of paper bearing my name and I had to pay for it! But it comes with bragging rights and something to talk about for a long long time.©FG.

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Time is a river of passing events.

S2B: Seoul to Busan

It is not a race. Ep #1

Meet the P-stars. Ep #2
Fighting the demons! Ep #3

Bare necessities that we need! Ep #4

The day is here! Ep #5

The time is now! Ep #6

Time and tide. Ep #7

Episode 8: Day 4 S2B (9.10.2019)

After knocking ourselves out in slumberland at Zone Hotel in Gumi, North Gyeongsang, in what we call a ‘love motel’, we hit the saddle again. The love motel was the closest that came by when we hit Gumi all weary yesterday evening. Yet a sumptuous simple Korean dinner came in front of us when we entered a restaurant, told the chef to surprise us in rudimentary caveman sign language and grunts. 

0830, back to the grinding mill. 

Weather was generally beautiful today with the sun was out by 7am. The temperature was cool at 7ºC and slightly windy. We were fine, and we had a feeling that something good was on our way. Hence, we set to do 120km for the day. 

The sun peacocking around with nature's palette of colours. ©FG

Just to burst that feel-good bubble, one hour into the journey, one of our cyclists busted his back tyre. That misadventure set us back by an hour, but after sorting out the tubes, we were back on the roads again. The landscape was forgiving. The terrain was mostly flat with occasional sharps climbs, some as steep as 13%.

We came across a few mammoth structures along the way. 

Lunch was ramen mee with the usual Korean accompaniments, kimchi, bean sprouts, spiced kangkung, pickled radish etcetera in a shop off Dalseon-bo. 

When in Korea, eat what Koreans eat.
 - kimchi noodle! ©FG

All through our expedition, with the luxury of time and a plethora of visual stimulations, we had the pleasure in indulging in the art of people watching. Mind you, this did not include stalking or voyeurism. It just involved astute observations. On the outset, it was evident that the typical Korean’s choice of colours would make a fashion designer cringe. On the roads, we rarely saw cars with colours other than the sobering white, grey, black or anything appearing near-black. The vehicles were mostly Korean made with an occasional glimpse of Audi and Mercedes. 

In the towns, the people are mostly dressed up (as compared to most metropolitan cities where denizens are dressed down or are seen in different stages of being undressed). Maybe because it was autumn, the colours of choice were white, black and shades of thereof. And they were plain - no screaming flowers motifs or ‘in your face’ loud T-shirts with profanity. The most provocative ‘T’ that came to my attention was one which read ‘anti-social social club’. Go figure. 

Another ambitious artwork by K-water at a dam in Cheongnyeong-gun. ©FG

Generally, they were friendly, and despite the handicap of language, they go beyond the call of duty to help the visitors of their country to their level best. Very interesting. They manufacture things that make the West squirm and have developed so rapidly economically mimicking and even surpassing the West, but they give a damn about the lingua Franca of the modern world, English. Paradoxically they yearn to be in sync with the latest trends in dressing. But then, the K-pop groups are their role model, and the K-pops cater to the world. Deep inside, they must be telling the rest of the world, “you need us more than we need you! Live with it.” 

We had a bizarre thought that everyone in Korea had the same plastic surgeon. Almost everybody had the same eyelid appearance and the same perfectly contoured nose with the similarly coloured lips. If you want to see the original Korean facies, run down to Jagilchi Fish Market to see the local fishmongers. 

Apparently, the demand for plastic surgery is so high and well developed that many a time we saw people in restaurants eating their meals with plaster on the face, presumably the first post-surgical meal. Just guessing! 

When the sun goes down in Hapcheon-gun. ©FG.

A few stops at the certification centres, we reached a small town named Hapcheon-gun. It is a town where its folks were more than eager to usher in into the numerous bike motels. It appears like they survive on tourists. 

Plenty a room at a Bike Motel in Hapcheon-gun. No nice surprise. ©FG

Again another surprise from a non-English speaking restauranteur. This time it was Busan Fried Chicken and spicy fried chicken.

So it was decreed, after much deliberation, that tomorrow would be our last day and tomorrow’s journey would be the last league. Another ambitious plan of 120km was in the pipeline. Let us see what happens.

End of Day 4.

Completed about 120km. (Total ~ 533km)

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