Ladakh - A trip to remember!!!

@ Dal Lake, Srinagar, Beautiful town set inside a lake.... scenic, calm and peaceful..... boatman singing a Kashmiri song, hot pakoras  and chai.... floating vegetation.....floating shops and eateries.... must come back here again....

 @ en route to Leh via Kargill..... Sparkling tributaries, Mountains..... brown and white.... green and barren... hamlets, towns, museums, people so wonderful....breakfast - bread and chai..... a shepherd, his flock of sheep and goats ....all posing for a perfect score....  Jhelum’s rivulets, sometimes sparkling clean and sometimes muddy brown.... crossing the Rocky Mountains....  admiring their frown....

 

@Sindhu ghat....

@Hemis Festival, Hemis Monastary, Of museums, butter lamp house and prayer rooms....Of Buddha, Buddhists monks and kids.... Of dances, expressions and beats....

 

@Thiksey monastery, Altitude and peace, solitude and wind.....,A vast pan of fields, road and barren beauty.... as far as the eye can see.....

 @Shey Palace, Home to Maitrey Buddha and the wheel of life

 @Stok Museum, A different era, different belief, a     different culture..... What remains are its pieces....a window to the world afar....

@Chang la baba’s temple, the friendly Indian army and a hot cuppa of ginger chai....

A snowball on my co-travellers face, a smile for the camera...

@Pangong Tso

Unbelievably crystal blue.... salty.... clear..... peaceful..... and Brahmi ducks.... so beautiful.....Hot Maggie and chai.... a camera in one hand.... sitting on the edge of the lake....Tired of clicking away!!!!

Brahmi Ducks

@ Rohtang La

A drive into the clouds.... cold and frosty..... a bumpy road.... a hot makai in hand..... driving down to civilization..... away from the magnificence of the Himalayas..... away from the beautiful people and experiences....

Ladakh was a wonderfully enriching experience. I was awed by the magnificience of the Himalayas, its beauty, its culture, its people and its food.... Never felt anything like it... .right from Srinagar to Manali.... the multi colour mountains, the crystal clear tributaries and so much more... The best of this journey was the road....:) which took us through such wonderful terrain of green and barren mountains, arid vegetation, the flowing ice cold water, the ladakhi songs - which we didnt understand but enjoyed every bit of it.... the waving hands of other travellers on the road, acknowledging their presence.... just roaming aimlessly through the streets of Leh, the shop vendors selling their wares, eating momo and aloo ka parathas in the same lane.... walking... talking..... a culmination of cultures - foreign and local..... it was simply amazing.... returning back to Delhi, was a jolt to my senses which had got so familiar with Ladakh. And I know, I will come back again :)

The trip to Ladakh was the most beautiful days spent.... the magnificence of the Himalayas empowers you....the beauty enthralls you..... such much so that when you get back to 'Planet Earth' it feels unreal....

Books

 

I have met John Galt, princess of Arabia and her daughters...
I have met Jane, Twain, and lain under the sun...
I have met Tintin, Tinkle and Tarzen
I have been through the jungles and lived through Panchtantra
I have met kings of old and queens galore....
I have been through you, via you....to lands ashore....
I have seen lives unfold and stories re-told....
I have interpreted you....
I have understood you....

I have been interested...

I have been confused…

I have been bored....
I have loved your interpretations....
I have travelled through time....
I have been ... touched.... enlightened....
I have heard you in my mind....
I have sifted through your pages
I have talked to you.... 
My friend, my guide, my fellow traveller...for the coming ages..

Silver

I remember, in the november of 2005, 2nd year of my MBA course at Symbiosis, we had gone on a camping trip to Rajmachhi Fort. We reached the foot hills by around 9:00 PM and had to walk quite a distance to get into the village.... to the ground where we could camp. The walk was around 2-3 kilometers... crossing the plain, a plateau and river beneath. It was a full moon. We started walking and I could not contain my wonder.... every thing was so silent, so quite, so peaceful and so beautiful. A gentle breeze was flowing.... except for the stomping of tired feet there was no sound, no noise, nothing....
sometimes "nothing" sounds so wonderful....At that point of time, I vividly remember, that these very lines had popped in my head....

I had not been able to save the memory .....either in a video or a photagraph.... I have decided to quote the poem over here....just so that I remember what it was like..... :)

Hope to revisit the memory in some other form in the near future....


Silver by Walter De La Mare

Slowly, silently, now the moon

Walks the night in her silver shoon;
This way, and that, she peers, and sees
Silver fruit upon silver trees;
One by one the casements catch
Her beams beneath the silvery thatch;
Couched in his kennel, like a log,
With paws of silver sleeps the dog;
From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep
Of doves in silver feathered sleep
A harvest mouse goes scampering by,
With silver claws, and silver eye;
And moveless fish in the water gleam,
By silver reeds in a silver stream.

Daffodils

Daffodils by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee;
A poet could not be but gay,
In such a jocund company!

I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
 For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

Leisure

Leisure by William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

IF...

IF...... by Rudyard Kipling.... one of my favourite poems from school... always been at my personal dashboard.... always been an inspiration....Posting it on the blog....

"
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!
"

Holi with the Toli

Was in Hyderabad this Holi, 1st March, 2010. Since it was a long weekend we decided to go to Hyderabad and catch up with a few friends. One of our friends, Shobha had had a baby girl.... so that was the main incentive..... All of us crashed at Shobha's place.... so it was good 3 days of fun.... just like our college days... catching up on the latest events and happenings in everyone's lives.... whats hot whats not.... deciding where to go.... for sight seeing.... but I guess, when a group like that gathers... there's not much of something called a 'common opionion'. Managed to see Hussein Sagar Lake....  which is a very nice and a calm place.... went to chutneys, ate some local biryani...missed on the Karachi bakery cookies....(all of us were just too lazy to stand in a queue early morning and hence lacked the motivation).... went to Soumya's place.... caught up more stuff.... However, one common thread which bound us all ... was FOOD.... the one thing that our stay revolved around was FOOD.... the one thing we discussed with fervour was FOOD.... the one thing which we all relished and waited for was FOOD.... and the one thing which had a "common" support was FOOD....hmmmmm ............

P.S. Anyways,  my internet at home has not been working since the last two weeks. Hence have not been able to photographs. Will do so as soon as the issue gets sorted out.