Journey to Leh and back

Thiruvananthapuram: It will be business as usual for Ajayan Pillai and his three-men team at Infosys at Technopark here from Monday. The only difference is that they would be carrying with them the exciting experiences of the 9,672 km long Thiruvan-anthapuram – Leh – Thiruvananthapuram road trip they have just undertaken.

It was late on Saturday night that Mr Pillai, Ram-akrishnan Parameswaran and Alok Kumar Garg along with their software professional friend Pret Joseph returned to the capital city after their 18-day road trip that covered 14 States. The team led by Mr Pillai, associate vice-president and senior delivery manager – retail, consumer packed goods and logistics division of Infosys, Thiruvanantha-puram,  left on his Toyota Fortuner for the trip.

The team followed a route that took them through 14 states: Thiruvananthapur-am –Bengaluru – Mumbai – Amritsar – Patnitop, Sonamarg – Kargil – Leh – Nubra – Pangong – Karu – Manali – Chandigarh – Nagpur – Hyderabad – Thiruvananthapuram.

The trip had many unforgettable experiences. “We used to hit the road as early as 3.30 am to beat the city traffic,” Mr Pillai said. “Leh doesn’t experience snow in August but we faced snow, sleet, rain and even a landslide which we narrowly escaped.”

Mr Joseph said he has been hugely impressed with the highways in other states except Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir.

The highlight of the trip is that it went as per our plan,” Mr Pillai said. “We were supposed to return only on Sunday, but we wanted to report back to work on Monday. It was better that we spent one day at home and so advanced our return trip by a day.

And fatigue, you asked? Never.  They are rearing to on another trip in the near future. “We are most likely to explore the North East or else the Mansarovar and Kailash stretch,” Mr Joseph said.