THERE are times in your life when failure seems inevitable. I feel the same right now as I try to pen down my view of Ladakh. How does one put miracles down on paper? How can glory be captured in words?
Ladakh is a magic land. A land untouched and untarnished; a mirror image of heaven, serenely tempting visitors. Choose any language to describe it; youll end up feeling very childish indeed. There is nothing you can compare it to; Ladakh is the superlative.
It is amazing beyond your wildest dreams. Your entire existence seems small in your exploit of this unique place. You seem like a fire cracker before the blazing sun. It is inordinately beautiful; an angel existing in a world so impure.
The road to Ladakh is captivating. The Zo-jila pass sends more adrenaline surging than all roller coasters put together. Vehicles just seem to bounce off the rough, uneven road. At some points, white sand covers the surface giving automobiles a fair chance of skidding.
Ladakh is a flawless blend of everything; desert, moors, meadows, valleys, gushing streams, calm rivers, the splendid breeze and so much more.
All mountains have a characteristic DNA. The wind has chiseled them into shapes unbelievably beautiful. There are some mountains which seem to have been cut at the top with scissors while others are carved into what seems like civilizations. There are rocks rising out of the earth like castles; with perfect minarets, windows and pillars, or sometimes stone sculptures. Mughals might have stolen their architecture from these elevations they, after all, did frequent the silk route.
To the eyes of the delighted beholder, boulders take shapes most interesting- you can spot faces, bodies, pillars, colossal vertical cylinders, flat tiles, caves, enormous cubes and what not. Some peaks remind you strongly of Mordor- of Mount Doom. Some heights are made of just rocks while others are heaps of sand. At some places, the mountains are laced with boulders, making them appear like bridal dresses. Sharp arrows pointing to the One are seen too. What a fine sculptor the wind is!
Rain is a great leveler; it removes all distinction and smoothens surfaces over time. Ladakh receives very little of this blessing, so the gale has its own way in chiseling the land and turning it extraordinary. It is incessant, carving out glorious forms, sometimes with a savage axe and at other times with soft brush like strokes.
Like living creatures, stones and mountains add various hues to the world too. A single color is split a million ways, each shade an array of blazing beauty and splendor. Can entire peaks be all red, all purple, be dotted with black as if having pepper sprinkled over them, or have delicate strokes of various colors or the shades of the military uniform? Who can imagine hills shimmering under sunlight, as if made of pure gold? You have to see it to believe it.
With the blue sky providing a perfect contrast, clouds add glory of this land too. They take the most characteristic shapes, mimicking tortoises, hares, people and various other animals as if wanting to complement the moon land. It is the clouds that make every view of Ladakh picture perfect.
At the foothills, there are valleys covered in green and through these valleys rivers flow. Here you find the people living dreamily content lives. There are houses made of mud which seemed to have grown out of the hills. The dwellings rise along the elevation sometimes occupying entire knolls. They make you feel as if there is always a hint of hope among the barren lands.
Ladakh is not a lifeless desert- every single thing here is alive, singing the praises of God. It is so full of verve that every rock, every pebble seems to be breathing. You can hear the wind whistling as if calling people to witness this blend of miracles- this enchanting creation of God. You can feel prayers and peace almost buzzing in your ears. Many places are dotted with minute thorny green bushes and shrubs proving to the world that life exists only at Gods will. Purple flowers grow at many locations too; small and fluffy, like dyed cotton balls. Dandelion like flowers are seen too, appearing very fragile but very resilient. They have sword-like thorns hidden among their white petals.
In Ladakh the hilltops play with the sun, great squalls slap the highlands playfully all over. It is these gusts that lull the crags to sleep at night when the sun is gone. And the gushing waters add music to the surroundings.
At some places there is mystical silence. It is this hush that is louder than a thousand spoken words; it interacts with your soul sending electric signals to it. In tranquility you stand, hearing things strange and marvelous. Silence is a blanket that protects the sacred land of Ladakh and holds all the magic.
Livestock found here is strangely docile and patient. The Yak, the Changthang goat and the Double Humped Camel are furry creatures smaller than your expectations. With fur all over their bodies and long eye lashes, they are undoubtedly very cute.
“What are men to rocks and mountains?”Jane Austen
The peaks are so lofty that they talk to God and at the summit you feel the same- a direct connection with Him. You could talk to Him. You forget who you are. Even your body becomes immaterial, your existence gets concentrated to one point. That point!
You can feel His response in form of waves of concord that pierce your rib cage and enter your heart. It is this feeling that remains alive in your soul and doesnt let the memory fade.
The madness of shivering hands, of the heart that overflows, of the soul that had been longing for this. I do not expect to be understood, I expect to be set free, I expect to be released from all my shackles so that I can take flight- so that I can soar the skies, so that I am never found again. Not at least in this form.
I wish to blend in nature. It is my camouflage; a place where I become transparent, weightless and massless and thus I let nature pass through me, into me, around me, over me. When I open my eyes in the arms of nature, I shall be complete.
Ladakh has another side to it. It makes you feel lonely. There are places where you find no other human in site for miles together. What would it feel like to be left alone in a place like this with no one to take you back? Thus you realize why we need people, why we need to be loved.
Shanti stupa is located on a hill, it is not the highest peak in the world but it brings a tornado of emotions into you. You forget everyone you know, you forget everything even your voice- you know just one thing- that you can fly. As you let the breeze touch your body, you realize how easy it is to spread your wings and glideaway.
And then there is the Pangong Tso. The waters of the Pangong are crystal clear; they reflect the sky and add still more colors to it. The colors play in the water, interacting with each other in the most enthralling ways. Pangong lives in isolation and in perfect harmony with nature. Despite the waters being so transparent and clear, Pangong is a hub of mysteries, holding in its heart more than any lake. Yet Pangong seems like an old friend. Visiting the place is like revisiting it. It seems as if you have always known the place, it lets you fit into it like the missing piece of a giant jigsaw.
And Ladakh is also home to the sacred mosque of Hazrat Mir Syed Ali Hamadani. It is small and pious. A cozy little place you would want to lie down and die in. It has nothing that would suggest grandeur and yet it is every bit magnificent. So much a part of nature it is. Shias and Sunnis perform prayers together there, making it a perfect symbol of harmony. This mosque feels like home.
The sun rises everywhere. But it positively enjoys rising in this lovely place. Everything shines when the sun rises; its rays make everything glow. The rays literally separate from each other and you can see each beam gleaming as it shoots towards this part of the universe.
Light lights its own self in Ladakh. It is here that you can see the sun playing hide and seek with the highlands. It rises over the mountain tops shooting rays at you and sometimes it hides behind elevations casting a mammoth shadow over the area.
Ladakh has an infinite store of beauty. No matter how much time you spend here, your eyes long for more. With every step you take, your heart and soul rejoices and yells out- Julley!
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