Hello Lovely Shovely Rajeevians
Welcome to the 93rd Fanclub Of Our Very Own Rajeev Khandelwaal
As You All Know Rajeev Has Grabbed A New Adventrous Show On National Geographic
My Endeavour Alterrain
so I Would Like To Introduce
On television, we have seen him acting in shows like Kya Hadsaa Kya Haqeeqat, Kahiin To Hoga and Left Right Left, hosting Sacch Ka Saamna and now for the first time, Rajeev Khandelwal will be seen in an adventurous mode On Television.
My Endeavour Alterrain, a five-part adventure driving series
on National Geographic channel features five well-known individuals like
Gul Panag, Nagesh Kukunoor, Chetan Bhagat, Vijender Singh and
Khandelwal, who share their road trip thrills in the brand new Ford
Endeavour Alterrain Edition.
Talking about his new show, the actor says, "I would not consider this as another of my television assignment. It is not work. I am looking at it as an adventurous trip! The show looks at fulfilling a wish of a trip you always dreamt of but could not take it, due to what ever reasons."
Ask him about his adventurous journey on the show, and he
reveals, "As an army officer, my dad was posted in Arunachal Pradesh. My
brother and I were very fond of the Brahmaputra river there. One day we
both decided to go sailing in the river using truck tyres, but waters
were so wild that we almost got carried away into a whirlpool.
Thankfully we were saved by the tribals there, who spotted us and pulled
us out of the torrential river!"
Some Pics Of My Endeavour Alterrain
(Copyright owned by Ajay Jain. Absolutely no use permitted, commercial or non-commercial, without explicit written permission)
As We all know Rajeev loves Adventure, we hav seen him going to Ladakh many times in his interviewsRecently In August 2012 when he came back from Leh He commented about his journey
"The trip to Leh was as always a treat. I think Leh for me is a solution to kill all fatigue and rejuvenate myself. "
He Also Enjoyed the shoot of Table No 21 In Fiji
Once Rajeev Went to Ladakh with his friends n claimed it to be his most memorable trip
"Rajeev Khandelwal battled snowstorms and lost his way in the Ladakhi capital, making it his most memorable trip"
Rajeev Says...
"In 2007, two of my college friends and me took a trip to Leh. They were my seniors and we had struck up a close friendship during out stint at St Xavier's college's hostel. I wasn't married then, but they were and we decided to do this one trip together. It was May and the Leh road had just opened. I purchased the white car specifically for this camping trip. It's a pick-up truck with a commercial vehicle license plate and we were the first to enter the Leh region.
We pitched our tent and camped in no man's land. We wanted to climb a rocky mountain and decided to keep going till we reached the peak, not realising how tough it was going to be without mountaineering equipment. Four hours into the laborious climb, we got separated. They had phones, but I didn't. I waited on top for an hour, screaming and calling for them. I figured they'd climbed down and so I started to descend, which proved to be far riskier than the climb. I rolled down part of the way, with loose stones and pebbles proving to be a hazard. It took three hours to reach the bottom.
When I finally saw them clambering down much later, I was so relieved. I am fitter compared to them as my dad was in the army. As we finally regrouped and drove ahead, we got stuck in a snow storm. For five-six hours we couldn't move, and the temperature had dipped below zero. Finally, a bulldozer arrived and pulled us out.
Both of them are Christians and one would pray while the other helped maneuver the truck through what you could loosely call roads and highways. They joked that they would never take such a trip again even though they enjoyed the adventure. I've taken a similar trip with my wife, and she cursed me too because she suffered from severe headaches and nausea at an altitude of 19,000 ft. But ultimately, she was thrilled with the adventure too."
Rajeev Khandelwal's journey from TV to films has been as arduous as his treks to Leh, his favourite outdoor destination. But who says Rajeev ever wanted the easy way out?
Leaving behind the secure, much-cherished heart-stealer Sujal of TV's hugely popular serial Kahiin To Hoga and hopping on the unpredictable Bollywood bandwagon was a risk Rajeev happily took with eyes wide open.
"If I look at my career and my travels, there is a lot of similarity," he furnishes with pride. "I am drawn to unexplored places. In my career too, I like to do things that help me break new ground. I'm not scared to take breaks for six months. I don't care to take safe projects."
He goes on, "We are done with our bit of holidays for now. I had to get back to my fitness regimen for Aditya Dutt's edgy thriller Table No 21 with Mr Paresh Rawal, shot in Fiji Islands. Though I prefer spacing out my work, this time it has been three films back-to-back."
Off camera, Rajeev is ready to shed creature comforts to breathe in Mother Nature at her purest. He suggests, "Everyone should do this at least once in a lifetime. It teaches you a lot ' it makes you a lot more daring in life." So much so that his city-bred wife, Manjiri is a convert now.
"In Himachal Pradesh there are home stays and guest houses. Manjiri and I loved the place" ' Rajeev
A HIMALAYAN TASK
The Khandelwal couple's adventure began in May last year.
"After our marriage our first trip was to Himachal," reports Rajeev. "We decided to discover a new route. Manjiri (my wife) researched the whole track online and found this river called Tirthan (a tributary of the Beas, it originates from the base of the main Himalayan range) and a tiny hamlet called Gushaini.In Gushaini there aren't too many guest houses, no market, only two places to stay. There you can go trekking, fishing or visit the Great Himalayan National Park.
Manjiri was not the very outgoing kind in terms of adventure sports, she was more exposed to international holidays and had travelled all over the world. Travelling by road and sitting in the car for eight hours at a stretch or roughing it out and discovering locations, was not her scene. I've seen a huge change in her personality, she has taken to a more carefree lifestyle."
"We got a top-end Scorpio 44 customised for camping. It's parked in Jaipur or wherever my brother is posted (he's in the army) and my Bhabhi equips it with all the ration we require for a trip" ' Rajeev
CAR-NAMA
Rajeev: We got a top-end Scorpio 44 customised for camping. It's always parked in Jaipur or wherever my brother is posted (he's in the army) and my Bhabhi equips it with all the ration we require for a trip. In Himachal, my idea was that we'd figure out places to stay in as the sun set and I was game for a home stay. I didn't realise that as a single guy one could live wherever and eat whatever and relieve oneself in the open, but with a woman around you have to take care of a
few things. In HP there are home stays and guest houses. We had plans to stay there for a day or two but ended up staying for four-five days because both Manjiri and I loved the place.
"My head was throbbing with pain. We couldn't sleep the entire night and the next clinic or petrol pump was 200 kms away" ' Manjiri
Three months later, we decided to drive down from Chandigarh, where my brother was posted, to Leh. It was a long, long drive through Rohtang Pass, climbing an altitude of 19,000 feet and then coming down from that height ' it was torturous for Manjiri and Abhishek (Rajiv's press manager). Both of them are not the outdoor types!
Manjiri: Rajeev kept repeating, 'In hindsight you will love this trip' and Abhishek would say, 'Yeah right, in hindsight, but I don't think I ever want to go back to climbing 19,000 feet.' I don't know if I will be able to do this again but 70 per cent of the trip I'd love to do again. I'll probably edit some parts the next time. I can't travel beyond seven hours a day and we did 12-13 hours, so that's definitely out' It's okay for people who are super fit to be camping at such a height. My head was throbbing with pain. We couldn't sleep the entire night and the next clinic or petrol pump was 200 kms away.
"The worst thing on that terrain is that you keep going up and up on a muddy track with barren mountains, lack of oxygen and the highway nowhere in sight" ' Rajeev
NO OXYGEN, NO ALCOHOL
Rajeev: The worst thing on that terrain is that you keep going up and up on a muddy track with barren mountains, lack of oxygen and the highway nowhere in sight. When we were going through the Rohtang Pass a cloudburst had happened four days back. The entire stretch was full of slush and several cars were stuck, we too for three-four hours.
Fortunately we had a winch (car lifting device) and were prepared for any kind of eventuality. So we helped pull about five cars. But I just can't erase those visuals from my mind. As you climb higher you need to acclimatise and once the body gets used to those conditions you move on. But we would stay overnight and travel again the next morning, covering 6,000 ft in a day. It was my stupidity to expect the two of them to not get affected.
After the Leh experience my two companions refused to motor it down and announced that they were going to fly down. They told me to ferry my car and we camped at 18,000 feet. That night was the worst one of all. It was an open space with mountains all around and very windy. We were fine till evening, we were carrying a lot of raw stuff and ready to eat food and masalas. But that night was turbulent and none of us slept a wink.
"The boys had camped outside and were drinking. They didn't realise that the wind factor starts hitting you when you put your head down on the pillow; that's when your world starts going round and round" ' Manjiri
Manjiri: The guy who owned that camp was telling us about a group of boys who had come there the previous night. They had camped outside and were drinking. They didn't realise that the wind factor starts hitting you when you put your head down on the pillow; that's when your world star
ts going round and round. You feel so helpless with no medical help for a good 12 hours. So it's better to stay inside the camp and avoid the wind.
Rajeev: You are advised not to consume alchohol at that altitude because it dehydrates you. But people think it's the best way to keep warm. When your head is throbbing, you can't think of alchohol. Anyway, once we came down to about 16,000 feet, my co-passengers started feeling better and the smiles returned. After a few feet down Manjiri wanted to drive and it was the first time she drove on that terrain. Once we reached Leh tab hamari saans mein saans aayi.
In Leh we did a bit of shopping and visited some monasteries. We left the car there and took a flight to Delhi. That was one of our most memorable trips.
"We did get to the peak not realising that the mountain had only lose stones and we were scaling it with bare minimum trekking equipment" ' Rajeev
KNOCK, KNOCK, NO ROOM SERVICE
Rajeev: Before I got married I had gone on the same track with two of my college friends. We had camped all over the place and we wanted to scale a mountain peak. We did get to the peak not realising that the mountain had only lose stones and we were scaling it with bare minimum trekking equipment. I kind of managed to come down and was waiting for them, worried and looking through my binoculars. These guys panicked and wanted to call for help and be air-lifted. They regretted not having cell phones with connections, but they somehow managed to come down. It must have been harrowing but that is something they will remember in hindsight!
"The challenge is to conquer your fears, otherwise it would be like a trip to those luxury destinations with room service" ' Rajeev
Of course on trips like these, you shouldn't be stupid and must take precautions. We had all kinds of medicines, my Scorpio had two extra cans of fuel ' so we were not being stupid. Having said that, the challenge is to conquer your fears, otherwise it would be like a trip to those luxury destinations with room service. Imagine if you have room service when you are camping, what's the fun?
Manjiri: I wouldn't mind the room service!
"All you get are Maggi noodles, anda bhurji and the local dish Thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup with meat and veggies thrown in). Equip yourself with ready-to-eat food, dry fruits and fresh fruits" ' Rajeev
PREPPING FOR THE TRIP
Rajeev: On this entire stretch all you get are Maggi noodles, anda bhurji and the local dish Thukpa (Tibetan noodle soup with meat and veggies thrown in). I suggest you equip yourself with ready-to-eat food, dry fruits and fresh fruits. Upto Rohtang Pass you will get dal, rajma and rice. These trips need to be planned and researched well. It took us a month. We had to get our car serviced and we told the local Mahindra officials to inform all their counterparts that we were on this trip. They had given us the contact numbers of all their outlets right from Chandigarh to Leh.
"The ideal way to acclimatise
yourself to terrain where you jump 4,000-5,000 feet in a day, would be
to stop over for a night after every 3,000 feet" ' Manjiri
Manjiri: The ideal way to acclimatise yourself to terrain like this
where you jump 4,000-5,000 feet in a day, would be to stop over for a
night after every 3,000 feet. If you are still not comfortable, stay
over for one more day, let it be a gradual climb. What we did was to go
from 10,000 to 18,000 feet, sleep over and then leave for the next
climb, which is not a good idea. Rajeev knew the lay of the land very
well so he drove the car himself.
"We stayed in an eco-hut with the villagers. The local villagers would prepare food like dal baati choorma for us on earthen chulahs" ' Rajeev
NEW YEAR, NEW DESTINATION
Rajeev: Around new year we went to Lakshman Sagar in Pali near Jodhpur. Once again we decided to go into the unexplored interiors. We stayed in an eco-hut with the villagers. We met the sarpanch and understood their lifestyle. It was right inside the jungle, pitch dark at nights, everything out there working on solar energy. The local villagers would prepare food like dal baati choorma for us on earthen chulahs. Those three days were heavenly. This was another side of country life that Manjiri saw for the first time.
Manjiri: Typically, women in Rajasthan fetch water from great distances. Critically ill people have to be taken on a stretcher to reach the nearest clinic which is two hours away.
Rajeev: It was great learning about how people live in other parts of the country, they are innocent people. All youngsters have gone away to greener pastures and there are only the elderly, girls and women, who are still not allowed to go out. Just three or four people out there recognised me because of Sach Ka Saamna ' but that night everyone got together and saw the episode because they have dish antennae!
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