Leh-Ladakh

This was my first trip with strangers. At a point in life you wish to be with people whom you don’t know. There is no past & there are no judgments. You desire to feel the refreshment in your long existence; you want to kick a new start. And these likeminded strangers make you feel a new you! A bunch of brand new friends whom you share your life with for the next couple of weeks. And no, nothing similar to a reality show.

So, the plan for this adventurous journey with meaning to Ladakh started from Delhi, where we all met. Two Canadians, one Macedonian girl, a couple of architecture students, a clinical researcher, a jobless journalist, a columnist, two advertising professionals, a media student, a software engineer and the man who managed to put it all together, including me of course. An accidental range of assorted youngsters’ of 19 to 35 year old, reliant with restricted budgetary bag packing.

There were a lot of annotations within the group, the youngest who craved for stuff like pepsi, cheese, hot chocolate, a guy who was an absolute movie buff, an ad professional who had instant one liners, a mad bawa who was wrong at every right circumstance, a college going couple innocently involved in themselves, a researcher who always jotted down something in his book (don’t know what!) a firangee struggling widda spices in the food, a traveler admiring beauty & trying to capture every single frame, a journalist getting deep into any not so important issue and of course the man behind this execution who had no motive other than showing the path of responsible tourism. Totally distant but yet so close.

After a certain age you realize that no matter how varied one’s character sketch is there is no complexity involved, in fact you wish to learn & explore more.

Life couldn’t be more serene when you see a shooting star flouting right at your nose & the whole world is lit under the full moon blooming on your head. You try & shut your eyes in this beam & when they spread wide they see golden brown mountains with ice glacier melting to the lush green farms & the people there with the most beautiful smile & you wonder where have I met them before?

The healthy breakfast that leaded to healthier conversations & molding mind sets.
The freshness inhaled the colors of nature,the very limited needs & desires & yet the utmost richness in their happiness, the unknown language, the monastery bells, and the satisfaction, the innocence in kids, the steaming momos, the naked sky, mountain, river & moon. So is equally naked your mind & emotions.

In very short this is Ladakh to me.