The global media has always been on India’s case – it’s never always safe. As a third-generation Indian Malaysian girl, it was thrice as hard to convince my parents that I planned to travel through the high mountain passes in India.

It was the raw and undiscovered India I wanted to see – the rugged landscapes and the people who live in their shadows. Not the India that I remembered visiting as a teen where you are ferried in comfortable taxis, heading to witness your cousin’s next big fat wedding and sitting in a comfortable cushy chair at The Taj Hotel.