It was a saga that began 17 years ago on a Kinetic Honda from Bangalore to Hogenakkal falls around 170 km. in the heartland of Tamil Nadu. Here the river Cauvery falls over a rocky ledge. The coaracle boat ride reminded of a song sequence from the film Roja and the delicious aroma and taste of the Chicken Biryani at a village dhaba near Dharmapuri still lingers. Yes a Kinetic Honda and a Bajaj Chetak, a manual Yashica camera and a Rucksack, and two studds helmets, that’s how it all began. Next came the Maruti 800 with more driving destinations this time with our little Abhiroop. Bangalore to Tirupati, Mysore, Ooty, the Forests of Bandipur and Mudumalai and many other places around Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We owe our initiation to driving in the Himalayas also to this little car. Over the years we dared more. With an Indica we explored the Kumayun Himalays... the ancient temples at Bageshwar, the enchanting forest of Binsar, filming the Panchachulli peaks at Munsiyari…and many more. A Ford Ikon initiated us into a whole night driving straight from Katra (Jammu) to Delhi including driving through a landslide in pitch dark somewhere in the Kangra Valley. The Josh Machine also took us on a memorable leisure trip to the exiled abode of the Dalai Lama at Mcleodganj and gave us our true feel of the NH8 (Delhi-Jaipur-Ajmer) on our first piligrimage to the holy city of Ajmer on a cold foggy winter morning. Our most memorable major driving trip abroad was exploring the West Coast in a Mercury Sable, on Highway 101, from San Francisco to San Diego via Los Angeles. Undoubtedly it is one of the most spectacular drives with Cliffs and ranches on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other. En-route the major attractions are Hollywood, Universal Studio, Disneyland and Seaworld. Over the years we have evolved, us and the machines. Today it is a Scorpio that we drive to the mountains, rugged and unknown terrains and a Skoda Octavia to well known highways like NH8. Over the last 4 years we have explored some of the remotest and wonderful Himalayan destination in our Scorpio like… The Beautiful Himachal Pradesh…..Lahaul & Spiti, Kinnaur, Sangla, Kangra, Chamba to Kullu & Manali. We have driven across some of the Loftiest and trickiest mountain passes…Jalori (10280ft), RohtangLa (13050ft), BarlachaLa (16000ft), NakiLa (16250ft), LachungLa (16600ft), TanglangLa (17500ft) and KhardungLa (18380ft). Have driven and explored some of the remote and lesser known destinations deep in the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand. To mention a few…Pokhri, Chopta (For a trek to Tunganath), Ukhimath and Gopeshwar and some places that are only found in Surveyors maps. The list is long of our driving escapades….. Delhi to Sikkim is next on the cards, to be followed by many more….. It’s been wonderful and addictive…an evolutionary process where we are enriched and hungry for more…Our photographic equipments too have evolved with state of art digital cameras and sophisticated lenses. Yet while the vehicles have changed and the ones we started with are long gone….the Yashica and the Rucksack remains as a collectors item, a prized possession…..