Manipal prof's book gets positive reviews online

Mangaluru: The book ,‘Uncharted : My journey into the Himalayas’ authored by Ganesh Nayak , assistant professor , department of instrumentation and control engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), Manipal Academy of Higher Education, released earlier this year, has received extremely positive reviews online.

Nayak developed an interest in cycling and quit his earlier job to cycle around India. His attempt to focus on health and fitness ultimately transformed into solo expeditions, as he wheeled his bicycle into Srinagar, and further went on to cover Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Nepal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, the gruelling mountain circuits in the Himalayas, the Ring Road in Iceland and the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. During his travels, he was chased by monkeys, saw snow leopards and met similar spontaneous travellers. He has documented his experiences in the book, that is available at leading e-commerce websites.

Nayak said, “We should strive to become assets to society. During my time in Rupshu—a high-altitude plateau and valley region in southeast Ladakh, with Soan Singh in 2015, we were joined by another cyclist. Unknown to us, he was in terrible physical shape. He struggled with the difficult terrain. He was unable to cope with the thin air. We later found out that he was hardly acclimatised. A couple of times, we thought he was a goner. We were so far away from any help, that if anything happened, we wouldn’t be able to call for a medical evacuation. He eventually did fall ill, but we managed to reach a village in time, from where we were able to arrange a taxi for him to get to Leh. This experience has had a deep impact on me,” he said.