Ladakh demands a 360* rotation of the cervix to take in the entire landscape, at every halt you make. It may stun you into long silence or make you gasp but then you were cautioned before the journey. A half day's journey over both roller coaster roads and the serpentine ones, carries you from Leh to the Lake and leaves you stupefied at this vision of magic. Sighting Pangong lake is like a view of heaven as imagined by artists. Turquoise blue at our first sighting and as sheer as possible, it has a bland mineral mountain range surrounding it from most sides and to complete that feeling of disbelief, the sailing clouds overhead appear to take a halt as they park at the lake.
Even a week long tour only partly fulfills the greedy heart. The land is a bit frugal on oxygen and thus needing one to acclimatise at the start, but the heart soon adapts and begins to revel at the contact with pure air. For every other assistance just look upto the generous, warm Ladakhis.
Monks wear an easy restraint on emotions. Comes from years of training in Buddha's teachings, perhaps. The shrine's prayer/meditation room has this image of the venerated one.
Every visitor huffing and puffing his way up the formidable staircase, becomes a party to the all pervading silence once he approaches the shrine.
Indus / Sindhu is an endearing sight. Barren mineral hills make room to let it flow along. Not too rapid, not too gentle, and framed against imposing hills, she is transformed every few hours as daylight moves across the landscape.
Having long moved away from heart of nature to evolve as a superior species located in cities, they keep returning to the spaces that preserve histories - Human and Planetary, perhaps to record that evolution.
On an impulse one dips a hand in primary waters to feel an awareness of one's origins and ultimate destiny.
as a sensory experience its dazzling. one gasps frequently as one should. this wonderland transforms one into a wonder-struck Alice. learn to feel like a midget, submit before the grandeur, breathe in deep for life-air. Ladakh utterly humbles the traveller. also, Buddha presides over it.
INDUS or SINDHU meanders through the valleys of Ladakh. the alluring strip of fast flowing water will in due course take in several feeder channels flowing from the mountains. it will then grow into a mighty river known to every land, conqueror, army, nation on earth as the Indus. young folks are happy to feature it as one element in their Selfies.
Some miles out and one is amidst a rocky wilderness. a sense of alarm and awareness hold one enthralled. the light sets up a game of now full, now behind a floating cloud. shadows lengthen, hills grow mightier... Its a compelling landscape that could turn atheist into believer, and he of belief into he of scientific realization. those plate tectonics, the throwing up of Earth's entrails onto her surface.. here's the proof, ain't so ?
