LURED BY LEH

 LURED BY LEH

Awesome view of lake at the background of snow covered mountains.

This is the first time I am writing about a place without actually visiting it. But I had to write about it, 

I have heard so much about its serene beauty from my nephew, who is an Air Force personnel and is holidaying in Delhi for few days. 

Every family has certain traditions for get-together, with birthdays and festivals, we had 26th January to celebrate with fervor. 

My kids were always used to look forward for this national holiday, to visit maternal grandparents, where the pinnacle of their visit used to be to witness the fly-past by Indian Air-Force, which comprised of  the first fighter formation, comprising five Jaguar aircraft in the shape of an Arrowhead, followed by five MiG-29 upgrade aircraft in similar formation. The Sukhoi formation comprising three Su-30 MKI aircraft will fly in the last phase. The end of the parade will be marked by a single Su-30 MKI aircraft, pulling up vertically in front of the dais and carrying out the signature ‘Vertical Charlie’ rolls. It used to be such a grand treat for   everybody, age no bar, that you would always be left wanting for more. And during one such occasion, my young nephew, who was totally taken by this national pride moment, declared that "I want to be an Air Force pilot." This statement from young lad of less than ten years became the dream project for his parents. 

Now when I saw him yesterday, I thought what a great joint effort by the parents and the Air-Force officers, who had chiseled a  gallant officer from a young lad, whose eyes used to sparkle with dreams to fly, and that too for Indian Army. His dreams also got settled in the aging grand parent's trembling hands, folded in silent prayers and in the best wishes of near and dears. My father always used to remind me after every Flypast ritual that one day you will see that my grandson will be doing it. I used to say, "yes daddy I know."  And every time that day used to get culminated with all kids chasing each other and running through the corridors, 

Shanti Stupa

shouting and giggling and me doing hush hush to them, and my brother making huge club sandwiches, which were served with huge portion of potato chips to go along with cold drinks. 

"How the time has changed, and now the kids are chasing their higher dreams and we as parents are chasing sweet memories."

As he has now been posted in Leh and extended me an open invitation to visit it. Since I have not visited it, I had to gather information from wikipedia, and this is what I have gathered:

"Leh was the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Ladakh, and now the district of Leh in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Leh district, with an area of 45,110 km2, is the second largest district in the country, after Kutch, Gujarat (in terms of area). The town is dominated by the ruined Leh Palace, the former mansion of the royal family of Ladakh, built in the same style and about the same time as the Potala Palace-the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala, India, during the 1959 Tibetan uprising. Leh situated at an altitude of 3524 metres (11,562 ft), and connects via National Highway 1D to Srinagar in the southwest and to Manali in the south via the Leh-Manali Highway.

Leh was an important stopover on trade routes along the Indus Valley between Tibet to the east, Kashmir to the west and also between India and China for centuries. The main goods carried were salt, grain, pashm or cashmere wool, charas or cannabis resin from the Tarim Basin, indigo, silk yarn and Banaras brocade.

Now Leh has become a very popular and most sought after tourist destination. It has everything to satiate  their passions from trekking to  huge monasteries to awesome lakes. 

I think some of the most beautiful places on the face of earth are in the mighty Himalayas,which has stood as sentienal since ages providing beauty and cementing faith in God.

Lets see friends when I will visit this place, then I will be writing more about it.

Pangong lake

Thiksay monastery

This pic is from a Times world travel magazine.contributed by Archit Kapur.







Pic from web and inputs from wiki.

Impressions along the way

Impressions...

Impressions, Sunrise port of Le Havre 

Oscar-Claude Monet (1840-1926) was a famous French painter and one of the founders of the 'Impressionism movement' along with his friends Renoir, Sisley and Bazille.

Monet rejected the traditional approach to landscape painting and instead of copying old masters, he learned from his friends and the nature itself. Monet observed variations of color and light caused by the daily or seasonal changes. 

Claude Monet's painting of sunrise at Le havre port near his house had started a whole new form of art. This painting is so beautiful and genuine that I could not resist posting it. Monet must have been witnessing it everyday, and must be so obsessed with its sheer beauty that he reproduced it in oil, and certainly felt like sharing it with others. And I think that's what every artist, painters, writers, including photographer are aspiring for. We all want to share our feelings or work with others. That is what I am doing, sharing my thoughts, observations, experiences and my spiritual journey through my blog. 

Impressions are very important for everybody, for the person who is perceiving and at the same time, who or which, is being perceived. Or in other words for subject and object alike. The whole marketing strategy is playing with this "impression" nuance. We all generally talk about "first impression is the last impression". But is it really true?  I think, people, places or things starts unfolding their true nature after some time, so it is not very wise to judge at the first impression. Though it is so common practice, that we all fall pray to it. People with huge houses, designer clothes, big cars or I can say people flaunting their money have more admirers than the less fortunate ones. Nobody really cares how you have horded the wealth, (all that matters is wealth), and in respect to this, a honest person is at loss. This phenomena always saddens me, I do not know why, I think I need to narrate one small story here:

The Story of Bhai Lalo and Malik Bhago

One day Guru Nanak Dev ( sikh saint) reached a place named Mardana. There, a poor carpenter lived named Bhai Lalo. He invited Guru Nanak Dev to lunch. Guru Nanak Dev agreed for he had never differentiated between rich and poor, high and low caste or Hindus and Muslims, etc.On the other hand, Malik Bhago, who was a rich landlord of the village, also sent Guru Nanak Dev an invitation for lunch.

Guru Nanakdevji.

Malik Bhago had got various tasty dishes prepared for Guru Nanak Dev. Guru Nanak Dev sent a message to Bhai Lalo to join him at Malik Bhago’s residence. So Guru Nanak Dev went to Malik Bhago’s residence. There Malik Bhago served a large array of food for Guru Nanak Dev. Just then Bhai Lalo arrived there with two makki rotis. Guru Nanak Dev took the makki roti and started eating them. Malik Bhago saw this and asked, Guruji, I have served such a grand feast for you, yet you are eating this simple food from poor person's hands. "Have I done something wrong?” Hearing this Nanak Dev took a piece of poori from Malik Bhago’s dish in one hand and a piece of Bhai Lab’s makki roti in the other hand. Then he squeezed the food in this palms. Everyone saw that drops of blood flowed from the hand which had Malik Bhago’s poori and drops of milk flowed from the other palm having the makki roti. Everyone was surprised.

Then Guru Nanak Dev smiled and said, “Malik Bhago, you exploit and torture the labourers who work and earn for you. You eat of their blood. It’s their blood that is flowing here. Bhai Lalo works hard and eats his own labour, thus milk flows from his food.  Only saints can have such vision and perception.  So in my opinion it is not good to pass judgement on others at the first meeting or get enchanted by their flimsy material wealth, which would disappear anyway with passing time. As everybody knows that we cannot take anything from this world along with us. 

* Do not get me wrong material is also very important, but don't give it undue importance, that you have to compromised on morality to hoard it or never let it win over relations. Because at the end of day, what matters most is your near and dears and certainly peace of mind.

 Along the way through my life journey, I have also gathered a few "Impressions", which I have shared with readers in my travelogue. 

"Don't ever think, work should/could, be done by hook or crook and impressions does not matter, people forget. 

Because my dear, "impression does matters or only thing that matters is impressions you are leaving behind and people do not forget." 

My special regards to great impressionist french painter Oscar-Claude Monet. Lately I have acquired a strange habit of getting lured or I can say mesmerized by the geniuses, in any field.  All those known or unknown people, who lived or are living, left their imprints or impressions on the sands of time, and became immortal.

My humble obeisance to all of them, and I feel privileged to know them through their work. The list is too long but I would love to share a few names with my readers- Vincent Van Gogh, Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Agatha Chirstie, Somerset Maugham, Jane Austen, Alex Haley, Ayn Rand the list is too long, and they all had left deep imprints on me and the millions of readers alike. I had lived their books through their characters.

Last but not the least is our lovable Ruskin Bond. 

Thank you all.

pic web.