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September 14, 2015

The Spiti Story-4

You can find the first three parts of the story, here , here and here.

Visiting Ki Monastery was a treat to our eyes and hearts. For me it was eyes, for many it was the heart. Talk about having a camera in your hands, but then nothing to regret. Some people believe in 'Dharma' and some people believe in 'Dharma thorough Karma'! :D

We had to visit one more monastery near by and so when a Lama approached us with a request of dropping him there we were more than happy. We wanted to know more about Lamas and so it was a win-win situation. The Lama talked about those cold months where Spiti wears the blanket of snow. Each monastery stocks one year inventory of  eatables and other necessary things. The supply chain engineers in the gang approved of the complex supply conditions here.

When we reached the next Monastery, he said he would take us around which made us happier. We walked down to the village, chit chatting about the life cultivated here by locals. We saw a group of foreigners with their geared bicycles and silently paid respect to them. We kept on climbing wherever the Lama took us, we saw amazing scenic beauty from different levels of the hill. SIL, Mr.ISB and Friend K managed to climb the last level where he declared that we can see fields here but for some reasons the temple is closed. We, left outs had lost interest in climbing by now and were more into framing those green fields with Himalayan peaks in background.




The Lama now wanted to be with us for our journey to the next destination - Losar, which was more than a couple of hours away, where we had to stay that night. Now, SIL and Bro-Buddy found something fishy and we took the help of our driver T. He listened to us and formed a plan to get away with the Lama. We all sat in the bus and our helpful driver T told him something which we did not understand but Lama asked us to continue without him. We were relieved. The Driver T told us that the Lama was mentally unstable. We were, :O

Our next destination was coming closer after some hours, which were killed by sleeping , talking, sleeping, eating, again sleeping ,some shopping - local crafty stuff and talking. Our driver took us to a small field which had one single yellow roofed house with cattle grazing near by. Similar to what we as kids used to draw in our drawing books! :)


Our bus was now riding on a straight Kachcha road under an umbrella of  the dark black sky. The sky was cloudless. It was like that Navratri traditional ghaghra with a lot of 'Aabhala' (Mirrors like buttons in different shapes and sizes) stitched on to the fabric. My SIL also managed to lose her fancy woolen cap by peeping out of the window of the car to see that lonely yet glamorous sky. The Bro buddy was mentally ready for the star-shooting activity, ah, clicking this sky with his fancy devices and tripod.

By the time we reached the Guest house arranged by Nomadic, it was Dark. Darkness was more than frightening. People went straight to their rooms to freshen up. While SIL managed to take her Not-So-Powerful nap, rest of us gathered in Friend N's room to chitchat. Listening to some humorous incidents in Friend N's life was so unique that first time I felt, some body had my eyes and ears (and mouth too) to register generic and yet not normal incidents happening in life. Once we were told that the dinner was ready we all went to the most warmest room we had seen in last few days.

This room had an old coal based heater, Indian sitting, frames with Spiti photos and books all around. The heat we all wanted that night was coating our bodies slowly thanks to the heater. After the dinner some of us went to our respective rooms while the two male species of our gang went to the terrace which was a part of the coldest dessert in the world that night, I along with SIL tried to cover ourselves as much as we could and went there to meet them. We managed to stay there for 5.57 minutes there and decided to go back to our room. We were anticipating the end of the day, little less we knew that the night was the 'Gyan ki Raat'. We found wisdom that night.

Friend N came to our place to ask how was our trip to the terrace,where guys were trying to click the gorgeous sky. We started talking on it and on different people around us and different situations we are/were facing and philosophy and Bro-buddy and marriages and quotes and spiritualism and love stories and,. One guy attempted to join us while Mr.ISB was fast asleep in the next room. At 3 am we decided we should sleep and the collective wisdom later on made the 3/4th of my post here.

When we got up in the morning with  sweet day dreams of seeing the most beautiful place in  Spiti-  'Chandratal' that day, we were surprised by the beautiful landscape in the day light when we peeped out from the balcony. Last night, it was difficult to see and feel the beauty around the guest house. Some times our mind does not permit us to see the silver lining in our lives. Because we judge the situation, the person and the face. That is how worries and bias generate.

A mug full of coffee and good old Alu ke Parathe made us ready to seize the famous Chandratal!

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