Adventure By Day, Party By Night

Had couple of decades, Ajeet would probably have quenched his lust for action taking headshots at Jihadis on his Box. Luckily he grew up at a time there was nothing virtual about adventures. oungest in family, Bajaj also known affectionatelyas Bagagegrew up in Himachal. While he’s too modest a guy to write under the pseudonym of the ‘Dare Devil’ or something similarly cool, he admits that the to play with the perilous and the life threatening was grilled into him Lawrence choolSanawar – an idyllic hamlet away from city.“There wasn’t much distraction. We either had our books or the hills.” Not surprisingly he chose the latter and climbed his first peak – The Friendship’ standing at 12,000 ft at the age of 12. 20,000 ft daunting Hanuman Tibba was the next on his list, which he conquered at age 16. Mountaineering has always been a challenging sport and 30 years back when the gear was nowhere near as sophisticated as scaling this accident prone peak a near miracle.

From then on it became obvious to all who knew him that Ajeet’s unquenchable thirst for adventure would take him to places where we wouldn’t send our worst enemies. or those don’t read the paper, has become the first Asian to have rafted and kayaked some of the most challenging rivers in the world. Th includethe Choruh River in Turkey, the Chuya and Katun in Russia, Tully, Barron and N. Johnston rivers in Australia. But when we asked him about the river, which still gives him the shivers, Bajaj didn’t have to think twice. “Zambezi was by far the toughest river I rafted in. Thankfully my small crew was very well trained.” The Zambezi is considered the most dangerous river to choose if you’re considering a spot of white water rafting and its killer rapids boast of such charming names The Highway to Hell and The Stairway to eaven. “Getting thrown off almost guarantees turning your brain into mush”says. Even in the calm stretches you can ill afford to let your guard down as crocodiles cruise below the surface and more than 50 rafters die every year mainly due tcrocodiles.“A lot of things could have gone wrong. But we had prepared for every eventualityand the gear from Woodland was absolutely top class. Using quality gear definitely goes a long way in avoiding accidents.”

Read FHM India in the digital libraryEvery issue, every shoot, on TCG Media.

Ajeet has been awarded a Bronze in the national games for Kayaking, silver and two bronze medals in international rafting competitions for Switzerland and Siberia. But these accolades mean little to him, since they don’t reflect the huge wealth of talent of Indian sportsmen that simply go unnoticed in major sporting events. “While brands like Woodland have started taking a lot of initiative and things are looking up, there’s so much more we can do encourage the young men and women of India who can do international sporting events, especially the inter Olympics.” Ajeet has a right to feel disgruntled. Last year, the Indian contingent boasted of just two athletes, both army men. While Tashi Lundup barely managed to complete the 15km free country skiing finishing at a embarrassing 83rd position, his compatriot Shiva Keshavan came 29th out of 38 athletes in the quadrennial event. Would Ajeet consider taking our future winter Olympic participants under his tutelage? The thought must have occurred to him several times because his reply was brisk “The brand of skiing I do is different from what is demanded of the participants, but if asked I will definitelydo all that I can improve our results.”

That's his modesty speaking again. At an age when most doggedly pursue their favourite activity of growing a paunch, Ajeet spends three hours working out in the gym after running five kilometers a day and rounding off his workout with several vigorous rounds of tennis. After all when you've made it your life's goal to go where no (Indian) man has gone before you have stay in shape. He's the first Indian to have skied to both the North and South Pole. And he didn't do it alone. His teenage daughter Deeya who happens to be a national level swimmer and a Taekwondo black belt holder accompanied him on the trip. From the east coast of Greenland to the west through a 19day skiing expedition the father-daughter duo explored a terrain that very few would willingly go.

The expedition started off on sledges with 14 dogs tethered to each and accompanied by skimo guides. Braving the icy winds (it's so cold out there that you have sleep wearing ski goggles or risk freezing your eyes shut) the group rode eight hours a day. Their position was constantly tracked using sophisticated GPS devices, thus ensuring they stayed on the right course complet their expedition on time. hen she found time uploaded pictures of their journey on Facebook. hat's some serious bragging rights right there.

In addition to the trill of adventure, the trip was alsoto raise some muchneeded awareness on the perilous effects of Global arming. Seeing ice caps have remained frozen thousands of years melting away is indeed a reality check. “We need to stop cutting down trees to make paper for fancy men's magazines...” oint taken Mr Bajaj. High time we took our website more seriously.

From the August 2011 issue of FHM India.