I SAW DEATH .......................


This incident happened on the 20th july 2006 at around 10 am.I was travelling from leh to manali in the local travel union bus.The driver was driving really recklessly.our bus overturned just 5kms from Tanglang la.Taglang La, elevation 17,582 feet (5,359 m)[1], is a high mountain pass in Ladakh, India.It is the second highest motorable mountain pass in India[2] after Khardung La and is reached via 21 Gata loops

The bus was at a high speed and hit a boulder by the road side and the axle broke.
Had the bus overturned near to Tanglang la,probably nobody could have even found our bodies.I was the only Indian on board the bus.Neither the driver or the conductor came to ur help.A scorpio and some army trucks helped us out of the bus. They(driver and conductor) didnt even bother about us.Some passing civilian trucks namely one mahindra pick up and one tata truck stopped and offered us to drop us till the neareast army post PANG.I was the sole communicator and the sole INDIAN on this bus trying to pacify all the foreigners and my co-passengers thought that i was the bus operator :(.



I explained to them that i was also a passenger and was just trying to help them.At Pang about 5 kms from the accident spot people were afraid to get down from the trucks to get medical aid thinking that they would loose the only transport they have.I managed to explain them that the army doctors are as good as anybody and the trucks would wait.One by one everyone came .One lady from france had almost 7-8 stitches done on her legs and hands.then army guys had problems with the accent and i managed to translate the stuff to the army guys.I would to specially thank the Captain Varindar and his colleagues for having treated each one of the injured in a timely manner.i am really proud of my country and of our armed forces.

The conductor by now came to the army post .He was least bothered about any of us .He promised that we would get a bus from manali on the next day morning but none of that was true.To insult me more and rub salt into my wounds he asked me money to pay the truck drivers.I flatly refused.All this while we were promised by the bus driver that there would be a bus that would arrive from Manali to pick us up.We were neither given any sort of medical help/support/transport to overcome the accident.There was no FIRST-AID BOX in the bus.

By evening we reached a checkpoint beyond which we were not allowed to go since the roads are closed after 6 pm by the army.There was a huge commotion since there was no food ,no accomadation anywhere in sight.I mean the foreigners ,i dont blame them for the fiasco but we need to find a way out of this situation and the only way is to figure out how to do it

By now our Good samaritan friends who allowed us to hitch hike said they wanted to leave since ppl were creating problems .Point is he had to reach a point beyond manali and he wanted to hit the road,but there was no way he could do that since the road was closed for the day,i managed to appease them and negotitate that we leave early tomm morning.We finally managed to get some accomadation in one of the tents which were quite decent with all facilities.

I didnt have a single meal on that day and my first meal for the day was the dinner :(.
Some ppl next day did manage some other means of transport ,but as promised i left with the remaining ppl and we left the checkpoint to reach manali by 6pm,boy i couldnt beleive what I did,one stupendous journey,a journey which almost was my last journey.

I also want to thank the truck drivers for dropping us till manali in the end,although they took some money from the conductor but none from any passengers.It was back breaking journey that all the passengers had to undergo because of the callousness of the bus operators.To top it all ,people started saying that this can happen only in India.This one sentence has really bought me more pain than what trauma i have gone through.But I had nothing to defend my country.I cant beleive that i travelled 350 kms in one of the toughest terrains in a Goods carrier


Believe me when you stare at Death ,your basic instincts take over.For me personally I thought it was all over and i thought I am dead the moment the bus fell ,since moments before i saw the ravines at 17,800 feet.Call it sheer luck i am here alive and kicking.The shock and the feeling at the moment is something i simply can put in words.