Rajeev Khandelwal enjoys roughing it out in the hills and is well equipped to deal with the surprises that come his way
By Nilanjana Nag (MUMBAI MIRROR; May 16, 2010)
Honesty isn't always the best policy, says Rajeev Khandelwal, an actor who had become the upholder of truth for many TV viewers. Rajeev confesses that he prefers not to tell his mother about his camping escapades, a passion he indulges in whenever he has a little time off.
"Though my dad, who was in the Army, still has an adventurous bent of mind and encourages me to travel, my mom gets irritated with the very mention of road trips to the hills. She insists on calls from me every half an hour. Moms will be moms!" sighs Rajeev.
Happiness, en route
A chronic traveller, Rajeev zips off to the hills just to camp in the middle of nowhere. He finds exploring the unknown most thrilling. And enjoys collecting little twigs on the way to light a fire, pitching a tent without any help, requesting the local people for milk just as an excuse to strike up a conversation. And they gladly oblige. In exchange, Rajeev chats with them over endless cups of chai and at times even drives the entire lot of village women to a faraway point and back.
Snow ka samna
Of course, not all rides are fun. Rajeev recalls the most dangerous one through the valleys of Lahaul and Spiti, "Two of my friends and I were driving through Himachal and we reached a point where the road had got really narrow and we couldn't even take a U-turn to go back."
While one of Rajeev's friends sat and prayed inside the car, another stuck his head out to guide him, as he waded through snow on a four-feet-wide road at the speed of 5 km/hr. No technology was of help on such a terrain but the adventure, he insists, was worth it.
Fill it, shut it, forget it
Over the years, Rajeev has learnt his lessons from such trips and keeps preparing himself better for the upcoming ones. Shopping for new and advanced camping equipment is but natural. Rajeev has two trunks full of trekking boots, cargos, compasses and tents (he owns six of them). And come Sunday, he'll have a brand new made-to-order SUV that will have everything— a refrigerator, a TV, space for an extra fuel tank and a GPS system, "So I can lock the car using my laptop even if I'm sitting on top of a hill far away," he says.
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