When order is enforced by numerous lanes, signs and patrol cars, it’s easy to mistake yourself for a competitor. The key to survival, I soon realized, is the same one I employ pedaling a fixie through New York City’s busy streets: be super aggressive, hitting every hole hard and popping out quickly. Driving (or riding) in India demands a paradoxical mix of tactical patience and life-or-death urgency. No one - besides the cows - is cruising, though. I saw a truck back up a hundred feet so another could squeeze by on a narrow dirt path, while we bikers would jam on the brakes to let a casual cow cross the street before motoring on. Throughout the trip, hulking tour buses and military rigs would pause to let our little peloton scoot through the smallest of gaps. We were actually cooperating to help everyone get where they were going. We honked our horns more in that half hour than I had in entire decades, but these were not angry bleats. What I brought back were lessons not limited to motorcycling or mountains or masala, but truths that are right at home on the streets of New York or, really, anywhere else the road goes. In retrospect, it’s the surprises and hiccups I experienced along the way - like an unintentional bike baptism - that have stuck with me most. Thankfully the bike was undamaged, while I was muddied (and frustrated) but unbowed. With a mix of Italian and Austrian exhortations, fellow riders helped me to my feet. Sure, my off-road skills are slight, but what can’t be conquered with a little determination, 7,000 miles from home, in view of the most majestic mountain range on the planet? Clad head-to-toe in top-notch Italian moto gear, straddling a shiny Royal Enfield Himalayan Scram 411, I would rumble hundreds of miles through remote villages and over dizzying mountain passes if not with ease then at least with dignity. Such a moment was not exactly what I envisioned when setting out on the trip of a lifetime: the 2023 Dainese Expedition Masters motorcycle adventure through the Himalayas of North India. Seconds later, ker-splash! I was sideways, semi-submerged in the knee-deep river. As I was standing up on the pegs to better negotiate the uneven terrain, I couldn’t stick out a foot to steady myself. He said: "As frustrating as it is, we have to keep doing what we do and persevere to tell the truth.Ahhh shit, I thought as my front tire got caught up in the jagged rocks underwater. Youssef also addressed the apparent censorship in the Western media of the "real situation in Palestine". Talk to everyone and make a sustainable and consistent approach to humanising the situation." This is disheartening, but we must take a more strategic approach. The West look at us (Arabs) as sub-humans. He, however, talked about taking "a more strategic approach in humanising the situation in Gaza. He called the situation in Gaza "extremely catastrophic and inhuman" but did not engage in outright political call for a ceasefire or cessation of hostilities. Youssef, whose two-part interview with British media personality Piers Morgan Uncensored was dubbed a masterclass in humanising Palestinians and their long history, noticeably avoided turning the talk political.
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