Tuesday, April 13, 2010

A one-on-one with Nature


She looks stunningly beautiful in her gown of green… but when she bares it all, there are simply no words to describe her. I discovered this as I traveled along the winding roads from the Garden City of Srinagar towards the Barren Beauty of Ladakh.


Every traveller is always looking for something- be it the sights a new land has to offer, the high that adventure gives to all those who seek it, or just an escape from their everyday lives... Each travel is always a quest. My travels are a quest to seek the missing link between Nature and myself.

When I embarked on my trip to Ladakh with my family and some friends, I never thought I'd hear Nature speak so close to my ears... It was a journey that touched something in my very being.

The journey began with a flight from Mumbai to Srinagar and then a two-day drive along winding roads through the most mesmerizing landscape I've ever seen, to Leh. The drive was as much an adventure with myself as was my stay in Leh.

As the road leaves the city of Srinagar, winding towards Leh, Nature sheds her beautiful green gown and strips bare. It is impossible to decide whether She is more beautiful in her green gown, embellished with life in a million different colours, or as she stands naked, every curve displayed in its splendid perfection.

Once you get over the stunning beauty of the barren landscape, you begin to notice the little details that make the view perfect and even more memorable. The clouds flaunt the cape of their shadows among the hills, adding more shades to the already multi-coloured yet barren surroundings. They almost tease you to come and join them in their game of running about among the mountains; a game which you can sit and watch for hours...

One of the strongest emotions that the surroundings brought out in me, was that of solitude... the desire to be left alone. Any company seemed intrusive, so much so that even my thoughts disturbed me. I wanted to become a part of my surroundings; timeless like the mountains.

At the end of the first day of our drive from Srinagar to Leh, we passed through the village of Drass, the second coldest inhabited place in the world, and landed in Kargil. This area still had the remenants of the Indo-Pak war of 1999. Shell marks, memorials and stories from the villagers gave us a small glimpse of what those times must have been like. It is really saddening to think that these beautiful guardians of the North now need guardians themselves.

The halt at Hotel Siachen in Kargil was only for the night, but it was a much needed break for for a group of tired bodies that were getting used to the freezing dry wind instead of the humid sea-breeze and the pure, thin Himalayan air instead of the the Mumbai air, thick with pollution.

Morning brought with it the call of a far-away land that I had heard so much about, along with the promise of adventure. As we once again braved the winding roads, the landscape now looked more dangerous, almost as if you need to prove your courage and determination before you were granted entrance to Nature's guarded halls. To make matters worse, we shared the roads with huge supply trucks and army convoys, that came face to face with our vehicle, forcing us to the edge of the road just to continue our adventure...

As I looked outside the window of our mini-van a thought struck me... The mountains around me are so ancient, that every stone, every pebble must have a story to tell, if only we would care to keep quite and listen. The streams, waterfalls and glaciers that cut across the mountains look like the veins and arteries of the Earth. If you keep silent long enough and listen carefully, the breeze, gently whispers to you of her adventures and beckons you to join her... I could hardly wait to meet the people who had grown up so close to the heart of Nature.

After close to 35 hours of travelling and around a thousand pictures, we reached the gates of Leh. Symbols of Buddhist faith greeted us from all sides and a sense of reverence of all God's creatures encompassed me. Navigating through the narrow lanes of the city, we reached Hotel Khangri- our abode for the next six days.

To be continued...