An evening spent in the lap of Mount Everest (29,029 feet) at the remote Tibetan village of Tingri (14,107 feet), offered us an opportunity to admire the world’s highest peak from close quarters. The near vertical north face of Everest in Tibet is the reason why expeditions to the top...
Nihangs, the last guardians of the Sikh martial spirit, roam freely across the Punjab (western state of India). Their nomadic lifestyle is dedicated to praying the almighty and practicing the Sikh martial arts. They maintain these traditions from the time of the 10th Sikh Guru, who left this world in...
“I felt so baffled and excited that I called out to my companions, fearing to be a victim of a hallucination : ‘Look there! What is that? Look!’ ‘Tso! Tso! Pangong-Tso!’ they shouted, and threw their caps into the air triumphantly, as if they had conquered a mighty pass;...
Between the banks of desires & reality, Faced with conflict, Life acquires a meaning. Life is a series of conflicts between inner thoughts and external pressures. Coal must undergo deep earth pressures to become a diamond. Rice must undergo hardship of pounding to become white. Steel...
In journey of life, humans are in a constant race to “want” more, beyond what they “need“. Seldom do we share our hoardings and probably one in a million, ever reflects on the essence of being. Animals are far better than us. Even in death they offer their body...
It was today, 339 years ago, that Guru Tegh Bahadur, the 9th Guru of the Sikhs displayed an act that no other prophet had ever done. He sacrificed his life to protect the right of any individual to practice a faith of his choice and to not be pressurized into...
When opposites collide, it results in conflict and hostility. In their embrace, there is love and friendship. The law of creation is nothing else but a dance of celebration! Mount Merapi, is the most active volcano in Indonesia, with a history of regular eruption since 1548. It last...
When “The Great Game” (political aspiration to control Central Asia) was being played in Central Asia between political powers of Britain, France and Russia, it was Sir Aurel Stein (1862 – 1943) a Hungarian adventurer, who led an expedition to Taklamakan desert (present day Xinjiang, Uyghur Autonomus Region of China)....
Recent calamity caused by floods (Sep 2014) in Kashmir Valley has uprooted thousands. We have closely followed this catastrophic event as large members of our clan reside in Srinagar. Good thing first, everyone has been rescued. For three days there was total information black-out. It was a tiring time...
At Jama Masjid in Old Delhi, photographing a man absorbed in Namaz (muslim prayer), my thoughts meandered to the complementary practice of “discipline” and “letting go”, as taught by Baba Sheikh Farid of Shakarganj. Sheikh Farid (1175 – 1265) was a Sufi saint born at Kothiwal in Multan (Pakistan)....