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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Decay & transformation

Decay, a journey to death Transformation, a journey of youth   As she played the violin, a shimmering candlelight  created the moment of ecstasy, proclaiming that the next phase of transformation is awaiting to happen.   Death is the least understood and most emotional phenomena, mostly cloaked in stories from...

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Never without other

Bromo is a perpetual reminder that the beauty is transient and never without its other. Like any volcanic heap of earth, it is a story of fertility and death, tranquility and disaster.   A misty morning spent in tracing the tragic in the serenity of the Indonesian highlands reminded me...

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Humps of Nubra

The journey from Singapore to Leh (Ladakh, India) meant going from sea level to 3,505 metres in less than 24 hours. I had not had time to acclimatize and my heart was pumping hard to maximize the intake of every molecule of oxygen in the rarefied air.     Early...

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Kashmir – The Afghanistan Frontier

Kashmir, the land of shawls, snow and sun, Was being eaten by Afghans like a bun. excerpt from “History of Sikhs (Vol V)” by Hari Ram Gupta   A little known fact is that if not for the ambition of Maharajah Ranjit Singh (Lion of Punjab, who ruled from 1799...

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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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Mind Horse

Mind is a stubborn horse. It always does what it is supposed to do, leading naturally to the path of least resistance. This mind horse can however be directed on a constructive path by riding the saddle of self-reflection, holding the reins of patience and balancing on the stirrups of...

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You are not

I have wandered in search of your existence! In the midst of the glamour of this world to the fringes of solitude but you have remained a mere perception!   I have been taught to believe that you are a reality and this worldly existence a mere perception! However in...

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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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