Suni thi aajkal wo sapne bachti hain;

Kal mili toh pucha,"Kaise ho tum?"

Wo boli,

"Mudde pe aye? Tum bhi khareedne wali lagti ho".

Ek

Barso pehle aap humse kehte the,

Tum samundar baan jaao,

Hum naavik banenge.

Humne aapki baat maan li aur aapne vyavasay badal liya.

Do

Wo kehte hain aadat badal lo,

Kaise samjaho unhe ek aadat hi toh hain,
Jo kabhi saath nahi chodta.

Hello, Life!!

He asked me why you came here? I said how can't I, you are waiting for me since eternity!

My wish to go to Ladakh was a long pending dream which suddenly came true one day.

August 4th, 2018, after the delay of multiple hours, I landed in Leh at around 9:30hrs in the morning.

A sunny but chilling weather, surrounded by the rarefied air and an irritated face of the person waiting there to receive me had welcomed me to the Land of Broken Moon. I was taken to the Guest House, where I was supposed to stay the night. The mighty Zanskar Range from the front Balcony and the serene Shanti Stupa from the rare was giving me a scenic view. But feeling the Himalaya from the closest proximity possible made me so unstable that despite the RMO's warning of not to come out at the very first day, because of the chance of high altitude sickness, I came out from the Guest House Room, and there my Journey began:

Day 1: I walked for a kilometer or so and reached the Leh Market. I set down in the middle of the road and was sitting down there for a couple of hours, enjoying the local lady's conversation with the tourists to sell her product. Bought some apricot and tasted them afresh. 

Day 2: I was suppose to cover Magnetic Hills, Alchi Glacier and Monastery on that day. Morning 9:30 around I started my Journey. I must say, you should go to Leh-Ladakh only if you can enjoy the road journey and not waiting for the destination to come. That evening, I had the most unique experience of my life. By default I am a water-phobic. But on that day, I don't know, what had driven me so mad, I jumped into the mighty river Indus, where we were rafting a boat. I did not know swimming, but love for life taught me that too. The chilled water, surrounding Hemis mountains, and the distant sky, all made me feel like I was not in the world and came somewhere, where there is no pain. I was floating and floating until the paddler dragged me into the boat.

Lesson Learnt: Nature heels all your pains.

Day 3: That day I was suppose to cross Khardungla. After a journey of 3.5 hrs from Leh, I reached the Khardung-la. From Khardung-la I have reached a small town called Diskit, and visited the Matriya Buddha Monastery. From Diskit I came to the Nubra Valley, through Hunder cold desert and well maintained sand dunes. I have made a cute friend in Hunder. Here he is:

In Nubra, a Camp was waiting for me. I had previous camp experience in Nagalapuram. But here I was all alone. I was afraid a bit to be inside the tent house as it was near to the mountain and was made up of plastics. That day I understood, you are living, that itself is a blessing. 

Points to be remembered: Please don't be a photograph or selfieholic in Khardungla. If you stay there for more than 15-30 min, you may not be able to post your photo in social media, instead it will be used in your funeral. It is at a hight of 18500feet and Oxygen is very negligible.

Day 4: Following the Shyok River, I was heading towards Indo-Pak boarder. One side it was Karakoram other side it was Ladakh range. Word is very less to describe the kind of beauty I have seen. Yeah it was dangerous. But it was worth taking risk.

And there came the Turtuk Village. I must say, it was one of its kind. I was so mesmerised by the beauty of the Village that I ignored the rain, the stone fall and the darkness. That day I might have buried under avalanche of stones, but I lived the life to the fullest on that day.

Day 5: Due to heavy rain and stone fall most of the roads were blocked on that day. The Indian army soldiers were trying their level best to clear the road and seriously, hates off to your sacrifices brothers. You can not imagine or I can not tell you what I have experienced on that day. 

I reached Pangong Lake on that day. And I must tell you, the evening lighting effect in Pangong was a heaven in the Earth.

Day 6: I came back to Leh after Pangong and visited Shey Palace, Druk White Lotus School on the way. 

Day 7: This was an another expedition through the difficult yet beautiful terrain to the lake Tsomoriri. On the way to Tsomoriri, the green meadows and the cute little murmuts ( a kind of rodent ) playing there made me numb. I spent a quite evening in the lap of the Himalayas on that day and to be honest, all chaos inside me was silent on that evening at that altitude.

Day 8: I came back from Tsomoriri and on the way visited the Gurudwara Pathar Saheb and the Hall of Frame.

Finally, I came back to Leh airport, from where all I have started. I was happy, because I lived my life for 8 days. I was sad because I was leaving my soul there itself somewhere.

Thing to be remembered: 

1. Please take a thorough checkup of your health before living for Ladakh.

2. Please give time to your body first day to get acclimatised to the rarefied air. Don't do like me. I paid the price.

3. Please don't go alone. It is good to die happily, but not good to make your dear one sad.

4. Please go there only if you enjoy the nature, the rocks, the mountains and the rivers.

5. You may encounter some soldiers, please do not fight with them, accept your mistakes without argument. Do not do something that they are preventing you from doing.

6. This is a cold desert, you will not see any population kilometers after kilometers, be prepared for it.

7. Try the glacier water on the streams and the pickle and dal you will get at road side dhaba. 

8. Please do not fight for things to be too costly( specially food); they are providing you food at an altitude you can not imagine.

9. Please take your regular medicine along with you and some more for altitude sickness, do ask for any help you want. They are very lovely people.

I started with a He. He was the brother sleeping peacefully in Martyrs' Ground at Hall of Fame and the mighty Himalayas comforting him in surrounding.

I wish I could be with both of you!

Ek

........ ........  ........

Zindagi ke daur bhag ne tumse dosti hi kahan hone di,

Hota to shayad mishal baan jaata.

Do

........ ........ ........

Tum kahan kho gaye zindagi ke shor main,

Aaj sannate main tumhari bahut yaad aayi.

Teen

.......... ........ ........

Barso pehle kabhi thikana bata diya hota toh

Aaj shayad hum bhatakte nahi hote.

Aur kuch

.........  ......... ........

Zindagi sasti h sahab,

Jeene ke tarike mehenge hote h... (Gulzar)

The Unfinished

He sighed and uttered,

“But you know why?”

She understood his compulsion,

And said “Good bye”.

He walked past the dry leaves,

And she felt their pain in her heart;

They cried under his footsteps,

But he was rift apart.

The silent evening felt asleep,

And the birds in their nest too.

She stood still with the biggest lie,

And he started a new life’s vow!!

Just beside You

I had a dream to have you;

In my wonderland I walked with you;

You were my prince charming in white horse;

My angel with Phoenix bird;

You were here, I was there,

The gap between us was extended so far;

Now, I have a home just beside you,

I can sit just beside you,

It is magical to have the breath

In lap of you and the sky’s underneath

Oh the mighty sea with serene blue

I am in love with you….

Probably

I could not find you, when the time was right,

 I could not have you, when I was content;

I have lost everything; happiness, urge to live a life and so on…

Somewhere, far behind the mighty Brahmaputra or the serene Purvanchal

They bid goodbye to me,

Never to return.

The flute also now a day stopped ,

Behind the bushes;

Which made me lively on every moonlight nights..

Night jasmine’s smell doesn’t make me crazy now..

Infect, I have forgotten how the clear sky was

On every autumn evening.

Winter mornings how the foggy paddy field unveils

And awakes up, I could hardly remember..

Had you been come before, I had a hidden treasure for you,

Which I built for you only unconsciously.

There was a dream of taking you to the kingdom, where I was the princess,

There was a dream of taking you to the garden, to the hills to the forests and to the heaven…

Where I was always happy once,

Where I could have told you lot of stories, without any character limit;

Where I could have asked you to touch the calm waterfall, the soft tea leaves;

Where we could have spend the whole moonlight night

Among those people, who have nothing but the joy of life..

May be I would have rested on your shoulder on the bank of the river,

Which always comes into my dream,

Had I been meet you in the right time,

I would have been happy by now.

GROUND ZERO

“Had I been able to walk with you, I would have walked”—He told her concentrating on tying the loosen shoe lace. The loaded sea breeze crossing horizontally made her shaken, so as his voice made her soul. The crowded ambient suddenly turned into a Death Valley amidst the pin drop silence between the two. Thousands of words, she used to write for him lost their path somewhere between truth and destiny. He knotted the shoelace tight enough, stood up and said, “I cannot walk the direction you are walking anymore, it is too sunny. I am tired by walking too long since last one hour and I need shadow now. ” She smiled, looked towards the endless sunny road and started walking, as she was already determined. He paused for a while; took a deep breath and started moving calmly towards the other direction of the road, shadowed by the trees. Peacefully he reached the diversion, from where he has started walking with her. He stopped, looked back and sighed. She still continued walking. The hot sun above and the firing ground below were making her nearly fainting and there was still time for both sunset and her destination.

LIFE

He smiled proudly when his fingers were being searched by a tiny life standing four feet below his shoulder, for walking. He smiled more proudly when the tiny life reached one foot below his shoulder and was no longer in the need of his fingers for walking. He was in tears when the tiny life exceeded him both vertically and horizontally in life.

The tiny life started flying in the new horizon it has made for itself. The new identity made him forgotten that it was nothing but a tiny life till yesteryear, which was protected by a secured shoulder and two caring hands.

Suddenly one day, the tiny life packed its luggage, closed the door angrily and moved out of the home refusing to accept that he suppressed all his desires, only to make the desires of the tiny life fulfilled. He did not think of buying new cloths for himself to ensure that the tiny life could wear of his choice on every occasion. He silently put off the earthen lamp, and broke down into tears in the darkness of the night, holding the hand of hers.