Thirty years in search of General Zorawar Singh

Not all who wander are lost! Hundreds of human skeletons, some with frozen flesh attached to them, can still be found around Roopkund (16,500 feet), a remote glacial lake in the lap of Trishul massif in Himalayas. The presence of these skeletons was first discovered in 1942 by the Himalayan...

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Tumult of existence

A journey across the salt range in Pakistan enabled me to reflect on the tumult of human existence, our daily battles between the realms of spiritual and existential desires!   From the abandoned remains of Choa Baba Nanak Gurdwara (left picture), where Nanak spread the message of spiritual love, as...

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White Cloud

A white summer cloud once arose, in harmony with heaven and earth, to freely float in the blue sky from horizon to horizon following the breath of the atmosphere. It abandoned himself to the breath of the greater life, allowing it to lead him beyond the farthest horizons to an...

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It is ME

In Pakistan at Mansehra, as I peered into the hall of the Mansehra Municipal library, in front of the marble structure in which once the scripture of the Sikhs would be kept, now there were tables placed with newspapers! In the hall where the community would once attentively sit on...

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Illuminate

Nanak sang the songs of love to ‘illuminate’ the hearts of mortals! However today, ironically, at a short distance from the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in Pakistan where Nanak breathed his last, a barbed wire along the Indo-Pak border remains ‘illuminated’ with high powered lights even during the bright daylight! Nanak’s...

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Kafir

If we all can passionately advocate that this world is a bouquet of coexistence then differentiating words like ‘Kafir’ that breed one-upmanship can hopefully lose relevance? ‘Kafir’, a derogatory word has its origins in the Arabic culture and applies to anyone who holds a different view about the Creator and...

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Rear view

One’s who forget history are destined to relive it! While the past can’t be changed, but it can serve as a rear view mirror to guide us into the future, to not repeat what could have been avoided. At Rawalpindi in Pakistan, with a heavy heart, I gazed into a...

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Heights of Depth

During a visit to Pakistan in October 2014, I had an interesting encounter with a Fakir, who in a moment of smile had said, “Climb the heights of depth!” For years, I was focused on scaling the ‘Heights of Height’, and am now attempting to climb the ‘Heights of Depth’....

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Muzaffarabad (Pakistan) : In search of roots

Postman to my father, “Sunder Singh, this is a strange postcard and I believe it is for you.”   With a two line address that just read “Sunder Singh, Gorakhpur,” it could only be a divine intervention that the postcard sent from Rawalpindi (Pakistan), found it’s way to my father...

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