The Beauty of Ladakh

The Ladakh district of Jammu & Kashmir is the largest district in the state and Leh is the administrative capital of the district. Ask a traveler in India about Leh-Ladakh and you will find them telling you how it is their dream to visit that heaven on Earth. Ladakh in the Upper Himalayas lies in the Zanskar Valley and is considered one of the most beautiful places on the planet; the place is full of snow-capped mountains, hospitable people and breathtaking scenery. But traveling to Ladakh region is no mean feat it requires certain level of preparation and mental strength to survive in the biting cold of the region.

The region’s tourism potential was only recently discovered but lately it has garnered a lot of popular support and finds itself rushed with adventurers and the likes, every year during the summer as it remains closed for most part of the year. There are many highlights of the Leh-Ladakh tour that will just simply leave you enchanted to your core. Ladakh being close to Tibet is largely influenced by Buddhism and you will find the place full of centuries old monasteries which are a sight to behold in their own right.

Leh being the capital of the district houses most of the people in the region and has to its credit some very beautiful architectural marvels such as the Leh Palace, Stock Palace Musuem, many low-roofed houses and the famous Leh market where you can shop beautiful Tibetan artifacts and the likes. Another place where you can be mesmerized by this cold desert is the beautiful Pongang Lake which is the highest salt water lake in the world and the scenery around the lake is simply stunning. A third of the lake only falls in India and the remaining in the Chinese region; the lake reflects the sky’s color.

The list of things that one can do in Leh-Ladakh just goes on and on, you can bike here at Khardung La which is the highest motorable road in the world presently. The bike ride in itself is a treasure to preserve the exotic scenery; mountains and the wind make it one of the experiences of a lifetime. Leh and the Ladakh region is also a brilliant place for some high octane hiking and trekking, the treks in the region are challenging but the scenery you get to see and the thrill is more than enough to get you wearing your trekking shoes. The Leh-Zanskar trail in the region is full of waterfalls, steep hikes, shimmering streams which will captivate you like nothing else. 

Music: The Great Liberator

All across the world people agree that music touches the human soul unlike anything else, some describe it as the universal language that humanity speaks such is the brilliance of music and songs and lyrics that it can break hearts, mend them, bring people closer, plunge one into the deepest crevasses of human thought and make people go high on life as no other drug out there. Personally, I am an avid fan of music and have had a diverse taste in it. 

I am a fan of The Lumineers and Taylor Swift too (well accept it we all have hummed her songs at some point of time), of Linkin Park and Ed Sheeran, of David Bowie and the Indian folk and of semi folk, Bollywood and Coke Studio version of Pakistan. Music has been there for me when no one else was, it has made me cry, made me laugh and yes this may be a little weird to read but horny at times too. The best part of music and songs is that there is always a song for every situation be it sadness or happiness, anger or a fucked-up break up, marriage or comedy music is always there an omnipresent entity playing at the back of your mind.

Music is beautiful, music is magic it is perhaps the highest expression of our souls, our ambitions and are understanding of who we are. Music is the compensation of the Unknown for the fucked-up life we all lead (please pardon the language)!

Kerala - Story of an Unexpected Journey Part One

For me the best things in my life have happened when I have least expected them or hadn't expected them at all, so after almost convincing myself that I am going to have shitty college life to tend with on the 2nd of November, 2011 I receive a call from Swechha (a NGO working for the environment and other related issues) to be part of their Influence program and intern with the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala in the month of December the very same year.

I was knocked out of my feet literally, I was like finally my Cinderella moment had arrived. So on the December the 3rd I boarded the Duranto Express from Nizzammudin along with six more people out of whom I just knew one, Kshitiz. We were all quite excited to be being part of this unexpected of all journeys but none of showed our excitement rather the most excited of us all was our coordinator a you ng, good looking lady with brains. 

The train journey from Delhi till Ernakulam was one of the finest if not the finest train journey I had undertaken in my life, I have had the luxury to have traveled by train through many parts of our beautiful country but this two day long journey with these six people and a few more JNU students was very special. Unlike traveling with parents here we had the luxury of getting down at every fucking station be it a regular station or some godforsaken 'No Man's Land' one we got down and the best part of the whole journey was sitting at the door listening to Coldplay do what they do best - intoxicate you with their music.

Finally, on the afternoon of the 5th we arrived at Ernakulam, but our journey till Periyar hadn't end till now from Ernakulam we headed straight to the Kerala State Roadways Transport Corporation (KSRTC), getting an auto wasn't much of an hassle as we head a fellow Keralian help us out with that. The bus transport system in Kerala I must admit is one of the cleanest, smoothest and travel friendly I have ever seen. They are so well organised and helpful, which was a pleasant surprise for someone belonging to the Northern part of the country. 

Anyway so we boarded the bus for our final journey till Periyar Tiger Reserve in Thekkady, Kerala near the town of Kumily and my friends what a bus ride? I don't reckon any single one of us can ever forget that bus ride. It was to put it simply and due to lack of a better word - Kickass! Nothing short of being a hitchhiker on a Formula One race car such was the skill of the driver.

But it was not only the ride there was an incident that occur during the ride which had us all, well most of all remembering our mothers for the first time since we left Delhi..more on that in my next post. 

Stay Tuned and keep commenting..

LIFE: A TEST OF CHARACTER

Life I believe, always has these funny ways of testing a human being's character. You must have often found yourself in situations you believe you shouldn't be in but somehow you are there and when you are there what do you do, do you compromise with the situation or do you face it with your head held high, terror in heart and tears in eyes? It is the answer to such questions that defines a person's character to us, we all have read about heroes in our favorite books how they are so unwavering of their values, principles and all. But real life ain't that easy. Real life is grueling, long, tiresome, and stretched out. Testing not only your values or principles, that is the easy part but your very need for existence. 

I remember there was this friend of mine who use to cry out to me his need for optimism, that how the people around him are making him so negative, that he can't be what he wants to be. What do you say to a man like that, you tell him to shut up and just do what he is doing, that you have bigger issues to handle or do you help him. I wanted to help him but how I asked myself? Should I just lend him my ears and wait till he stops wining about it or should I tell him what I really feel? 

At such times I find myself saying "what the heck man? What can I possibly do to comfort him, his answers lie within him. He has to know them himself, if he believes in staying optimistic and wants to weed out all negativity then go ahead do it." But people is it really that easy? Can he do such a thing, remove each and every person who is negative from his sight? No he can't. But what he can do in my view is to show his character, stand by his ideals of positivism no matter how much negativity there is, he has to be determined to not let those people screw up with his mind, he has to keep believing in his principles and who knows after some time he will be strong enough to shut himself up to them. My friend did exactly that he held on and today he still walks and lives with that optimism not caring about the negativity around him, he showed us his character in doing so. Of course he did not do this on my advice, all these things were going on in The Uncharted Territory of My Mind. 

The Introduction

Now then to tell you why I have started this blog will be a nice effort on my part to out an out bore you. Like all of you I too have certain thoughts and things that keep going around my mind like a flock of birds lost in the sky finding the best spot to land but never finding it. So today the thought that has been doing the rounds in "The Uncharted Territory of My Mind" is the obsession and harmfulness of the social media in well some of our lives.

 We are as human beings I believe have caught ourselves up in this cobweb of the social media and information era that we have gone to the height of not being ourselves and trying to portray to the world an image of ours that is not us, all in order to look 'happening' and 'cool'. 

A friend of mine use to say to me that Facebook is giving her the creeps, she finds herself not worthy, not happening and not so interesting. I said to her that 

"just remember this, the way you feel envious of others life by looking at their profiles in the same way there are a lot of people around you who must feel envious of your life."

The crux of the matter is that we all try to be someone else, and in that process have forgotten that the best things in life happen to those who are willing and courageous enough to be themselves, do what they love and be what they feel comfortable in being. 

Ahh!! I don't want to be sermonizing but as I mentioned earlier to share is my job, to like it or hate it is yours.