Amchi Mumbai!

This write-up is of 2019, my sojourn to Mumbai after a long gap of over two decades!

It has been a long time since I visited Mumbai though I lived here in late 1990s and my work took me away from it in Sept 2000. This was my second innings of life in Mumbai (earlier one was in 80s).

Now that I have returned to this city after nearly two decades, I am enjoying the city and its offerings of Nostalgia to people like me. In a sense, it is deja vu for me.

The hustle and bustle of the city has grown in geometric progression, no doubt, over this period but some of the things have remained undisturbed.

In the decades gone by, you could board a BEST bus even in the wee hours of the morning and the conductor would offer change to your Rs.100 note. Auto and taxi drivers were very honest in giving you the correct change if you didn't have it, after completing your journey.

I remember eating Paav Bhaaji opposite CST Station (VT Station, in the days gone by) and this was enough to carry on for the day. I haven't been to this side of the city yet in my current sojourn and I long to do this before I return to Bengaluru.

Back to the present, my experiences with the current day Auto and Uber drivers have been nothing short of very pleasant. Having taken a couple of trips to the city and locally in Navi Mumbai (where I am currently based), I found that Mumbaikars (Auto and Uber drivers in particular) haven't lost out on their integrity.

A couple of cases in point:
On a fare of Rs. 588, I would have had to shell Rs. 600 or (best case scenario) Rs. 590 in Bengaluru, in the garb of 'No Change'. To my surprise, I was given a full Rs. 12 back for my Rs. 600.
In another instance, I had taken an Auto to Vashi Station the other day and though the fare meter read Rs 34, the driver took Rs. 32 as he had taken the wrong turn and had traveled about 50-100 meters extra. Can you imagine such instances happening in any other city? I don't think!

Maybe examples like these are rare for everyone but fact remains that such instances make you feel more welcome to the city and also reinforce your faith in people.

Being in Mumbai during the Ganapathi festival is an icing on the cake. This time around, I couldn't enjoy much as it had been raining incessantly since the evening of 30th August. Even yesterday, the last of the days for Ganapathi Visarjan, it had rained continuously, preventing my movements.

I must admit, I didn't have the (earlier) zest to move around in the monsoon showers and was in the cozy confines of my aunt's home, which has been my base since the 22nd of last month.

The weather has cleared a bit today and hopefully, I will move out and meet a few friends in the city.

Keep reading and don't forget to send in your views and comments to this post.

P.S. I don't know why I didn't publish this 5 years ago?

An encounter with Miss World Contestants in South Africa.

Circa 1994 

Sushmita Sen had just won the Miss Femina India – Universe, by the skin of her teeth, snatching victory from another very eligible contestant – Aishwarya Rai. Her streak of luck continued in the Worldwide contest, as she went on to win the Miss Universe Pageant for that year. Most of us were ecstatic by her winning the World’s beauty title after 28 years of Rita Faria winning the title in 1966.

At the same time, many, if not most, of us thought Aishwarya got a raw deal by the judges as she was adjudged 1^st runner-up in Femina’s contest and she was more deserving than Sushmita. Be that as it may, on that day, Sushmita overshadowed all the contestants at the pageant and won the Miss Universe title that had eluded India for almost 3 decades.

While rejoicing in her victory, our immediate attention was on the Miss World title that Aishwarya was contesting, scheduled a couple of months later, in South Africa in October 1994.

A bit of background on our trip to South Africa:

As luck would have it, I was in South Africa then. We were on a tour to South Africa for a conference to celebrate our target achievement. By the way, we had to struggle our way to this coveted overseas conference, as the Finance function was easily the least important function to be invited to such conferences where Sales, Marketing and Technical functions ruled the roost.

We were a huge team of around 120 people from different functions. I still remember a few of the issues we encountered in getting the formalities before embarking on this trip. I was working in the Brewery in Goa and we were told to get the yellow fever shot. Now, not all cities in those days had the facility for getting the yellow fever shot, but Panaji in Goa was fortunately equipped with one. This done, the next step was to get the mandatory warning on all Indian Passports during those years “Not Permitted to Travel to South Africa” endorsed as the Government of India lifted the travel ban a year earlier. So, we rushed to the nearest passport office to get this endorsement done. Again, we were lucky as we could get this done at the Panaji passport office, with the least inconvenience and sent the passport to get our visas. The hindrances behind us, we then congregated in Mumbai, to collect our passport post issue of visa, tickets for our travel and a princely sum of US$ 200 for our out-of-pocket expenses.

Strategically, we split into two groups and flew two different routes (the first one via Dar-es-Salam to Johannesburg and the other that I was in, via Nairobi to Johannesburg). This being my first overseas trip, I walked out very confidently through the immigration and into the transit area at Jomo Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi. The experiences I had heard of international travel, from my cousins, gave me empty confidence whereas I had that strange tremor inside me. On the way from Nairobi to Johannesburg, we had Peter Kirsten (former cricketer of South Africa and Gary Kirsten’s brother) as our fellow passenger. We had no cell phones those days yet we could click pictures with our gigapixel cameras (eyes) and I’m sure others did too. This got stored in our petabyte memory (brain) for any time recall!

On landing at Jan Smut International Airport in Johannesburg, we were amazed at the facilities at that airport. We waited for over an hour at the airport for our shuttle to the destination, which was over 140 km away. We understood that the first batch had already reached the conference destination. Our batch boarded onto two extremely luxurious buses (mind you, most of us had not seen such machines earlier) and eased onto our seats. The inner cabin was so quiet that even if someone gasped or breathed heavily, we could hear it. As we started to our conference destination, we were amazed to see that the drivers of our two buses were communicating over wireless radio headsets (another first for us from India of those days).

As we drove at a high speed of over 100 km/hr on the freeway, we were amazed to see that the first set of traffic lights was almost 120 km from the airport where we started. UB Group had just then invested in a few ventures in South Africa and Mabula Game Lodge, including a 14,000-hectare game reserve, was a significant one at that. This was the destination of our conference where we spent four nights and three days. Mr. Vijay Mallya, our chairman, presided over the conference, which had many a first for us in terms of work, entertainment, food, drinks, fun and frolic. One amongst them was the safari drives inside this massive game reserve. Another one was a night dinner in the wild – a spit-braai where a game (Impala or other antelope) was hunted and cooked over naked flames, after skinning and cleaning it. We watched so much of the game meat (Venison) being served during the night out in the wild, while in the camps we had a plethora of food consumed by normal people. We, vegetarians, in small numbers, were well taken care of by my colleague Ramprakash, who was deputed to this place from Bangalore Brewery and was a vegetarian too. He served this entity for 4-5 years and returned to Bangalore to assist Mr Mallya’s Secretariat. He was my boss during his second innings in South Africa when I too went on a two-year contract, stretched to 16 years and lasted till 2017. That is a story for another day!

Post our conference, we were huddled in shuttles (luxurious, to mention the least) for the next place in our itinerary – Sun City. We stayed in a hotel called ‘The Cascades’ opposite to the casino. This hotel was obscenely opulent with luxury cascading in every nook and corner of this place (an aptly named hotel indeed). Another first we encountered in the whole of Sun City was the experience of jolts of electric shocks on touching any metal surface. The railings, door handles, you name it in metal and it gave us a shock. Later, we found out that it was due to static electric charges on the highly polished metal surfaces.

We then were taken to a cabaret show in a huge auditorium that was very well performed by over 20 women artists. We indulged ourselves in the casino and a few other water-based theme parks. One, worth mentioning is the ‘Valley of Waves’ that created artificial waves at regular intervals. Then there was a 50-meter slide that brought us down into the water and so on.

After two nights there, we started packing our stuff and checking out of the hotel. It was then that we caught a glimpse of the beauty queens from various countries around the World, congregating at our hotel, checking in for their stay. Sun City was the host to the Miss World Beauty Pageant that year and as the contestants walked in, we were on our way out, with a heavy heart – of missing out on being with them in the hotel, for one and sad to see that we were forced to move out of this lovely place, for another.  

As we made way for them to stay in our rooms, we moved on to our next destination, Johannesburg about 180 km from there. We were housed in a couple of hotels across Sandton, a posh business suburb and the location of the renowned Sandton City towers, a huge mall and business complex. We were warned not to venture alone or in twos due to the high crime rate in the city, hence, we always used to go out in groups. On one such outing, we were flabbergasted to see our humble Ambassador car in the Sandton area and I still have a photo of it in my archives. Probably it was the original English Morris Oxford or so or maybe someone was brave enough to import one.

The next day, we visited an old and abandoned Gold Mine called ‘Gold Reef City’. There was a show of melting Gold and pouring it into a block and some comedy around lifting the block with two fingers and if one could do it on the 30^th of February, they could keep the block. This too was a theme park with rides like roller coasters, etc.

We also went about 100 feet down the old shaft, guided through the tunnels and shown the veins in the rocks that contained gold.

Then, there was a short chopper ride that hovered for a minute or so, for those who were generous with their pockets.

Our next stop was the Oriental Market, a mall where the shops were owned and manned by persons of Indian origin. A few of us bought mementos here. A trip to Pretoria (the capital city of South Africa – hitherto most of us had thought that the capital city was Johannesburg) and drive past the parliament building (designed by the architect one Mr. Herbert Baker, who designed our Parliament House in New Delhi too) and return to Sandton Sun hotel.

The next day, we again flew in two batches back to Mumbai, en route to our home destinations.

The Miss World title:

Now comes the interesting part. I am unsure if we had a live telecast coverage of the contest, but I remember seeing the clippings of this and was mildly amused, not surprised at all, to see Aishwarya Rai winning the Miss World Pageant comfortably. Few of us had already guessed that she would win hands-down, as our point of contention was, ‘If Sushmita can, Aishwarya must’!

Still Wondering Whether That Was An Out Of Body Experience!

Drama In Real Life:

The year was 2015. A team of functional heads from the Head Office visited one of our Breweries at Butterworth, near East London. We were all holed up at a bed & breakfast close to East London and had to drive up and down to Butterworth. 

Working a couple of days to complete our assignment, we all headed back to Johannesburg. The flight was late in the evening around 7:00 pm. It was an hour-and-a-half flight to Johannesburg from East London and it was a SA Airlink Jet, not a big aircraft and the flight was full.

We settled down on our seats and the first half-an-hour was an eventless flight. The flight path was clear when we started in East London. However, it being summer, the storms were always looming around. After a bit of nibbling, I eased into my default (sleep) posture to catch some sleep. 

Then, we were caught in a thunderstorm, sooner than expected. The captain advised us to fasten our seatbelts and instructed the crew to follow all mandatory steps to ensure the safety of passengers. Drowsily, I straightened the backrest of my seat while folding the tray table. The aircraft maneuvered through thick clouds amidst thunder and lightning. 

For a minute, I slipped into a slumber with my thoughts going through the incidents of that day. In an instant, the whole aircraft shuddered and all the passengers screamed when we heard a loud sound. At the same time; while my eyes were wide shut, I subconsciously felt like I was floating around the bottom of the aircraft. It was then that I could see the lightning strike near the landing gear, and that was the sound we heard in the cabin. The sight of the lightning strike was so vivid and it kept haunting me for days. I knew that aircraft were quite insulated from lightning strikes we were safe inside the aircraft cabin.   

The next moment, I was back in the aircraft, waking up with a jolt and fully conscious of the surroundings in the cabin. Those who tried to sleep were wide awake and I could see the fright and anguish on their faces.

Thereafter, wading through the thunderstorm, we made it safely to Johannesburg. None of us spoke of the incident as we were all too shell-shocked to talk about it. There was no rain (it had already rained here and I could see the wet tarmac) to greet us as we made it to the parkade where we got into our cars and drove away to our homes.

While I try to think of all the happenings on this flight, I don't know whether I can call this a dream (but then, how can I know where the lightning hit the aircraft) or was hallucinating (I wasn't on any drug or alcohol) or can it be ascribed as OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE? 

I have had my share of premonitions earlier in my life (a topic for another day). But this incident can't be considered as such, since I happened to witness this incident without any pre-warning. 

Fortunately, this incident neither deterred me from flying again nor caused any fear of lightning anytime thereafter and with the grace of God, I have clocked miles and miles of travel with a lot of smiles. 

My next write-up will be about my premonitions.

My second trip to the other Northernmost Union Territory, Ladakh.

It is close to a year since I made my maiden trip to J&K – Kashmir to be more precise. I am sure you all enjoyed the write-up about my visit to Teetwal and other places, posted on my blog.

This month I had a chance to visit the adjoining Union Territory, Ladakh and it was purely a business trip. However, at every available opportunity, my colleague Yogiswara and I didn’t miss venturing out for some sightseeing.

Let me start my travelogue:

Post introduction meeting with NDMA on the 13^th instant, we hastened to book the flight and accommodation at Leh. We were advised to have a spare day before starting out on our assignment, to acclimatise ourselves.

Purpose of our visit to Leh, Ladakh:

We started on the 18^th evening flight to New Delhi, where we had a layover of over 5 hours. While waiting for our connecting flight, we met a lot of travelers from Bengaluru. A few were peeved as their flights were canceled due to inclement weather conditions at Leh, the previous day. Another group of travelers with bike gears (helmets, jackets, et. al) is ready for their adventures.

Day 1:

Our flight was delayed by an hour and as we got closer to Leh, I could see naked mountains from my window, with sparse vegetation. The only green patches of vegetation were in the valleys, as can be seen from the below ariel pictures. 

We finally reached our destination by 8:00 am on a crisp yet cold Monday morning. The Kushok Bakula Rimpochee Airport is located at over 11,500 ft above MSL (mean sea level) just on the outskirts of Leh. Though it lacks the looks of the airports of metros or the second-ranked cities, it serves the purposes of travelers.

The location of this Union Territory is quite strategic for our country’s defence and hence, this airport is critical in its presence and is maintained by the Armed Forces and photography and videography are strictly prohibited in and around this airport. Any modification or upgradation of this airport to cater to the ever-increasing footfall in traffic involves a lot of coordination with various agencies.

Hopefully, with the improved peaceful environs here, we may see a bigger infrastructure for air traffic at Leh.

So much about the air infra here. 

We had arranged for a cab to take us to the hotel we had booked for our accommodation for the next 5 nights. Himalayan Eco Inn, Upper Tukcha Road was around 5 kms from the airport and we made it in 20 minutes.

While checking in around 8:00 am, the hotel's manager advised us to take a day’s complete rest, to acclimatise ourselves for the altitude as the oxygen levels were thinner. We could right away feel the impact of these low-oxygen levels as we strained to climb the two stories to our rooms. I could feel the increased heartbeat while gasping for breath and panting at every step. A first in my life, thus far!

The roads here are very narrow two-lanes and with vehicles parked randomly, drivers exert extreme care and patience in maneuvering their vehicles.

This said, we just had our breakfast (Poori and Chole – very delicious) after checking in. While at it, we were enthralled to see a few snowcapped mountains on the horizon. The weather was cold but the Sun was harsh. Looking down on the ground, we could find where the hotel kitchen found its veggies and fruits from, as they grew carrots, cabbages, cauliflower, radish and other greens not to mention apples. 

Since we had a sleepless night, while awaiting our connecting flights, we were dog-tired and dozed off till 2:00 pm. Waking up for lunch, we had a Veg Thali and Tavaa Chapaaties and mixed vegetable curry. I must say that the food was very tasty and sumptuous. This done, we retreated to our rooms for a siesta. Waking up around 5:00 pm, we just went for a stroll to familarise ourselves with the environs. We gasped for breath and panted our way throughout the walk. Our rooms were on the second floor and there was no elevator at the hotel, compelling us to climb up (puffing and panting). As said earlier, our first experience of this kind.

A couple of pics from the terrace of our hotel exemplifies the beauty of this lovely place. 

Day 2:

Post breakfast, we eased our way to the District Collector’s office, where we were exposed to a Table-top-Exercise of the Mock drill to be held on the 22^nd instant. This took most of the time as we closed off the meeting around 2:00 pm. We scouted for a restaurant catering to vegetarian food and hastened there for a quick bite. While at it, we had a glimpse of the main Leh Market and placed a bookmark, for a future visit.

We walked through this market for our next meeting with the tour operator Ishey Yangzom (who had earlier organised our pickup from the airport), introduced by a common friend. Her office was quite close and we were warmly welcomed by her and her daughter (who was working there as her assistant during the vacations). She draped a snow-white silk cloth on us to honour us as guests to her office, a tradition at Leh, I understand. We were treated to a tall mug of tea spiced with ginger honey and lemon. I must admit that this was one of the best teas, I had in a long time. While we discussed business and the environs in general, my colleague took her daughter’s help in buying some local stuff for his son.

I had the opportunity to discuss a lot of things with her when I came to know of her achievement in life. She, being the youngest of the family with two elder brothers in the army and her father being an electrician, took to the tour guide profession at a very young age. While on one of her tours, a doctor couple from Germany took a keen interest in her and after visiting her family, paid for her education at the University.

On completion, she got licenses for tour operations, guide and other ancillary activities. While progressing in her professional activities, she also adopted 3 girls and paid for their education. While the eldest is on the way to complete her masters in mathematics, the second and the third daughters are on the way to complete their under-grad. It was a very humbling experience to meet this young lady and hear of her magnanimous feat, in this day, age and in such demanding terrain. She confessed that she was hit very hard, along with the other residents of the valley, during COVID-19 rampage, when she was forced to sell her Gypsy to sustain herself and her family. A tear-jerking tale, indeed!

A write-up about her achievements is below, dated exactly two years ago:

She then arranged for the transport to take us back to our hotel and thereafter to Shanti Stupa, a couple of kms from where we stayed and we could see this from my room.

The stupa is built as a two-level structure. In the first level, a central golden Buddha image sits on a platform depicting the turning wheel of Dharma (Dharma chakra). The second level has reliefs depicting the birth of Buddha, the death of Buddha (maha-nirvana) and Buddha defeating the devils while meditating.

We spent an hour or so here, enjoying the lovely scenery with 360° views. Needless to add both of us clicked a lot of pics. A few are affixed below.

         
Some panoramic shots from atop Shanti Stupa: 

Day 3:

We had the whole of Wednesday 21^st August, as a free day and we started our quest to see other places surrounding this valley town. First of our stops was the Stok Gumpa (Monastery) and the Buddha Statue alongside. This serene location is worth visiting. Stok Monastery or Stok Gompa is a Buddhist monastery in Stok, Leh district, Ladakh, northern India, 15 kilometres south of Leh. It was founded by Lama Lhawang Lotus in the 14th Century and has a notable library including all 108 volumes of the Kangyur. A ritual dance-mask festival is held annually.

We then proceeded to the Stok Palace, opened to public in 1980 with blessings of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It encapsulates and reflects the lifestyle and history of royalty set amid the valley of Singey Sangpo, which is popularly known as the Indus River. The members of the royalty still reside in this palace and hence most of the palace is ‘out of bounds’ for visitors.

Some of the pics are below:

                                            

  

     

Our next stop was at the Thiksey Gompa or Thiksey Monastery, a Buddhist monastery affiliated with the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. It is located on top of a hill in Thiksey approximately 19 kilometres east of Leh. One of the main points of interest is the Maitreya (future Buddha) Temple erected to commemorate visit of the 14th Dalai Lama to this monastery in 1970. It hosts a 15 metres (49 ft) high statue of Maitreya Buddha, the largest such statue in Ladakh, covering two stories of the building.

We were pleasantly surprised to meet a family of 3 (M/s Kuppanna, Lakshmi and their enthusiastic daughter, Megha) from our neck of the woods in South Bengaluru. Had a good chat and came to know of a lot about a few common friends, education and profession. Exchanged our coordinates with them. An avid traveler, Megha has seen a lot of places around the world. 

Some of the pics are below and the second and last panoramic pic shows the river Indus flowing too.

Entrance to the Gompa.

  
   

Library of ancient scriptures.

 

 

Exit gate of Thiksey Gompa.

We then pushed off to Shey Palace and Monastery complex. These are structures located on a hillock in Shey, 15 kilometres to the south of Leh, is best known for the three-storey statue of Buddha Shakyamuni. Made of copper, the statue is said to be a one-of-a-kind structure in the region. The palace complex is sprinkled with many Buddhist chortens.

Some of the pics are below:

 

We had our lunch mid-way and then landed at our final destination of the day, The Leh Palace.

Leh Palace, also known as Lachen Palkar Palace, is a former royal palace overlooking the city of Leh in Ladakh, India. It was constructed circa 1600 by Sengge Namgyal. The palace was abandoned when Dogra forces took control of Ladakh in the mid-19th century and forced the royal family to move to Stok Palace, where the descendants reside even today (covered in our visit to Stok Palace). This structure is built against a cliff and covers 9 floors, overlooking the city of Leh. Its facade resembles that of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. Leh Palace's roof offers amazing views of the Ladakh region and the Stok Kangri. We captured a lot of pictures in all angles from atop this palace.

Archeological Survey of India (ASI) is maintaining this palace and has done a decent job of it.

On the 6^th Level, there is an auditorium that keeps running the movie about the importance of this palace.  

Some of the pics snapped from this palace are below:

Though this is not from the Palace, this map was found at the restaurant where we had lunch.  

    

 

   

Temple in the Palace premises.   

Monastery behind the Leh Palace.  

Entrance to the Leh Palace.           

Mr and Mrs Shelare from Mumbai.   

While here, we met with a couple (Mr. & Mrs. Shelare) who had come all the way from Mumbai, on an Aprilia Scooter. When asked ‘why a two-wheeler’ – he said people can relate to us if we on a two-wheeler rather than a four-wheeler. Mr Shelare is a photo journalist and has covered many a location across the world. They have been camping in Leh for over a month now, documenting the local cottage, village and indigenous industry and they said they still have a lot to cover in the next month or so. Both their children are married and have their own families, he said. He added that they have no responsibilities towards their children and are living a carefree life.

Hats off to this couple!

We met two more youngsters from Karnataka, one a Medical student from Kolar and another an ex-employee of Cognizant now settled with his own business in Mysuru. They reminded me of my carefree college days when I used to go on adventurous trip at my whim. They had come to Leh by bus from Chandigarh and narrated their story of how they had hitchhiked their way to Pangong Tso (lake), which has become a famous attraction for its picturisation in the movie 'Three Idiots' and their ordeal of thumbing a ride back to Leh. Believe me, this is a 4-5 hours journey one way and our jaws dropped when they said that they rode all the return way to Leh, on the back of a Tipper truck. Well, at the cost of not boasting, even I had done such adventures in my prime days but certainly not in such locations where the elements are so hostile. 

So much for socialising a this place.

My colleague, Yogiswara, was in awe of this palace and the scenery all round from the roof top, as he kept repeating that his day was made. 

Panoramic views of Leh town from atop the Leh Palace:

We were supposed to visit the Hall of Fame and the Sound and Light show but had to defer this as we had to plan for the next day’s event, the reason of our visit. So, we returned to our hotel for the night.

Day 4:

The next day was the Mock Exercise on Earthquake, across Leh and Kargil districts in the morning and the second session at Kargil district on flash floods that went on till late in the evening. These sessions went on well and we monitored sitting at the Command-Control Centre, very close to our hotel. That night we savoured the local delicacy Thukpa (a soup with variety of vegetables and noodles) and relished it so thoroughly that we had it the next night for dinner too.

Day 5:

Our last full day at Leh. We had an early day as we regrouped for a de-briefing session at the Command-Control Centre. After a couple of hours session, we had the rest of the day for ourselves. Before we ventured out, we had a good snooze. Having charted out our itinerary for the rest of the day, we started off to the Hall of Fame by around 4:30 pm. The entrance is luxuriously anointed with various ammunition in addition to armoured personal carriers and recoil-less guns. It is a very fine gesture to have Buddha’s statue welcoming the viewers to this amazing memorial.                                       

                 

 Memorial with the Flag and all Colours unfurled!

  

Silhouette of the hill in the background against the setting sun!

Memorial awash with the fading sunlight!

     

          

Glimpse of the Hall of Fame at night.

   

   

 

          

Note on Hall of Fame:
Source: https://www.lehladakhindia.com/hall-of-fame/

Hall of Fame is a museum constructed by the Indian Army in memory of the brave Indian soldiers who laid down their lives defending our country in the Indo-Pak wars. The Hall of Fame Museum is located on the Leh-Kargil Road, about 4 kms from the city of Leh. It stands as a reminder of the great sacrifices made by our soldiers to ensure the safety and security of our country.

The Hall of Fame Museum, consisting of two stories, is divided into various sections which contain several displays. In the upper floor, there is a section named OP Vijay Gallery. Here, you can see the various kinds of weapons used in the Kargil war, along with the various arms and ammunition captured by the Indian Army during the war. On the same floor, in yet another section, various kinds of apparel and amenities used by the Indian Army in the Siachen region have also been displayed. Some of these show the pictures of army posts on the glacier, living accommodation of the troops and the training process of the troops on ice walls, besides others.

If you head to another section of the same ground floor, you will find the pictures of Kargil War on the walls. The pictures provide an elaborate and fascinating account of how the Indian Army fought the war. There is also a wall named “Lest We Forget” which displays the photographs of those soldiers who laid down their lives defending our nation. It’s a very moving sight to come across and reminds you of the enormous sacrifices made by our soldiers to ensure that our country is safe and secure from foreign aggression at all times.

On the same ground floor, there is also a projection room where you can watch a documentary on “Operation Vijay”. One particular moving sight on this floor meets you in the form of a frame on a wall named “The Last Post”. This was the letter written by Captain Vijayant Thapar to his parents some days before he attained martyrdom. Upon reading the letter, you are overcome by a profound sense of grief and pride, while your eyes well up with tears. You are reminded of the bravery and exemplary courage displayed by our soldiers while performing their service in the line of duty.

On the ground floor, there is a section which displays the history, culture and other associated facts with Ladakh. It also consists of a souvenir shop where you can buy several items including t-shirts, caps, coffee mugs and pashmina shawls, besides others. You can also get a photo shoot clad in the Ladakhi attire in the photo shop and get the prints after paying a small amount of money.

While we hastened to complete our visit to the Hall of Fame, due to time, we were to return again after a couple of hours to this place to watch the Light and Sound show. So, we sneaked a visit to Pathar Sahib Gurudwara, which was around 19 kms away.

Pathar Sahib Gurudwara:
Source: https://www.incredibleindia.org/content/incredible-india-v2/en/destinations/leh-ladakh/gurudwara-pathar-sahib.html

It is popularly believed that during 1515-18 when Guru Nanak was returning to Punjab via Srinagar, after travelling to Sikkim, Nepal and Tibet, he had rested at this place. When he reached Leh he sat here to meditate. While here, Guru Nanak vanquished a demon who was trying to crush him with a boulder.

Legend: During his third Udasi (religious journey), Guru Nanak stopped in the region to meditate while traveling from Sikkim, Nepal, and Tibet to Punjab. While meditating, a demon threw a large boulder at him from a nearby hill in an attempt to harm him. However, the boulder softened when it touched the Guru and he was unharmed. The gurudwara is believed to have been built in 1517 to commemorate this event and houses a sacred boulder that is said to have the Guru's body imprinted on it.

The hill from where the demon threw the Pathar (Rock) at Guru Nanak ji and the impression of Guru Nanak ji on the softened rock.

We saw a few cycles with identifying boards of the riders from Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. Quite brave ones as I remembered my own bravado during my hay days.

  

We couldn’t wait for the langar but we had delicious halva, as prasad.

       

Light and Sound Show at the Hall of Fame:

At the stroke of 8:00 in the evening, there is a light and sound show at this venue, with a 6-dimension laser show depicting the battles won and sacrifices of our brave soldiers at various encounters with the enemy forces, from both sides. This awe-inspiring show of 45 minutes is sure to give goosebumps and bring tears in the eyes of spectators. It concludes, as expected, with the singing of the National Anthem and the vibe it creates must be seen to be believed.

Photography/Videography is strictly prohibited for the duration of the show and hence I haven’t posted any pics of the same.

This pic was taken before the show.

Just to mention, on this day there was a tragic accident in Leh in which 7 teachers were killed as the bus they were travelling fell into a 200 ft gorge and many were injured. The markets in Leh were closed in a gesture to mourn the dead and support the bereaved. I had planned to bring some locally grown small apples and apricots but couldn’t go to the market.

Yet, our driver was insistent that he could find some vendors and surely, there they were. I could get some apples and apricots that concluded my trip and am I glad that I could accomplish all that I could see and do, given the sparse timeframe? Indeed!

The weather had been cold during the morning, evening and night but warm during the daytime. I had carried a few warm clothes that weren't used at all.

We had ordered Thukpa again for our dinner and probably we relished this more than any dish in Leh. As we retired to our rooms to hurry up with the packing. We had our flight to New Delhi at 8:30 am next day and we had to check-in our luggage through to Bengaluru and get a physical boarding pass as Digi-Yatra is not yet available here. Our reliable driver Thongso was at our door by 6:00 am and off we went to the airport.

The hotel staff was very hospitable, especially Mangel, who took care of, our sumptuous breakfast, lunch and dinner, but even our simplest of needs. The kitchen staff knew our requirements to the T and dished out what we wanted.   

Thanks to you all and hope to see you again, albeit leisurely.

Note to the first-time travelers to this and other such places of high altitude:

1. Take a day or two off on arrival at such places, to acclimatise yourselves to the lack of oxygen.
2. Drink lots of water – keep hydrated (no mixing of Alcohol with it).
3. You will puff and pant at slight strain while walking on an incline or climbing steps. This is normal. Take breaks and don’t be embarrassed to do so.
4. Most of the places of tourist interest; involve climbing of steps, gradients, etc. Be prepared.
5. Lack of oxygen also induces sleepless nights. Don’t worry if you can’t get sleep till the early hours of the morning. This is normal.
6. Buy stuff here as souvenirs and don't bother to bargain - a normal practice. The traders in Leh are very uncomfortable when it comes to bargaining.
7. Another thing to be aware of is that most of the stuff comes from Srinagar, New Delhi, etc. Not much is made here, I understand.
8. Food takes a longer time to cook due to the altitude and gets cold in no time, if not consumed hot and fresh from the stove. We were told by the hotel manager to order lunch or dinner, well in advance. Breakfast was complimentary and included in the tariff (obviously, there is no free lunch!). The food though, was a bit on the blander side and lacked the spices that we are used to. We supplemented this by consuming a lot of green chillies, along with our food. 
9. Avoid walking during late nights and in the wee hours of the morning (Particularly Leh) due to plenty of stray dogs. They say that the dogs don’t harm you but the dogs don’t know that they shouldn’t harm us!

Looking forward to my next trip in the next few months, albeit to different places, hopefully and God willing!

I, sincerely thank you for going through a rather elaborate travelogue and would request you to drop in a line or two with your comments. This will help improve my expression for future write-ups.

Jai Bharath!!