Day 2: Mandi - Thalot village - Manali - Vasisht

I never expected the puncture and ramming into the milk truck incidents - I thought this can't be right, it can't be happening. It was also interesting that no one stopped in spite of my waving etc. I've described this day earlier. But I was finally happy to reach Manali. Most of the day was busy with getting the Bullet ready for the trip - I bought all spares that I ignored buying earlier including a foot pump, tube, clutch cable etc. etc.

Vasisht had these sulphur springs and I bathed twice there. Yogi Vasishta, a priest who taught the Surya dynasty that Rama belongs to had meditated there and the Vasisht temple and village are built around it. I had many conversations with Sharma, the owner of Blue Star Cafe. He migrated from Nepal many years ago and married an Indian girl and built up a thriving business - half time in Vasisht and the other half in Goa. He told me about how he broke his leg on a motorcycle and advised me, "never, never go alone" - by this time, I was almost tired of hearing this advice from a dozen people. "This is unwise" "Don't go ra" "Why are you doing this?" "If something happens, can I keep your Jetta?" "You're crazy!" "Have you done it before?" "Don't you have any friends?" "Do you know how to repair the Bullet?" I smiled at Sharma thinking about the upcoming Manali-Leh journey the next day.

I've experienced this before when I wanted to drop out of school to do the eGovernance in Iraq project - I'd get a lot of unasked advice - even if I wouldn't get advice, I'd get 'the look' - I'd often ask back, "How do you know?" The reality is no one knows - no one knows anything about anything. A situation is never the same, people's experiences are never the same but people will still tend to advice. People are burdened by their own experience or the lack of it. Whenever they question you, it's their own fear of the unknown that's questioning. Now after I tell people that I've already done it - it some how reduces the risk in their own mind because they see me in flesh and blood and that I've already done it. It always amuses me how the human mind works and how people's risk propensity changes without any change in the real, physical situation or any change in me as a person.