6th July 2010
As we drove towards Lamayuru and the moon valley, I hoped the sky would be completely clear and I would take many many pictures.
But that was not to be.
My folks wanted a tea break and they would not wait until after we had reached Lamayuru which was an hour or so away.
By the time we reached Lamayuru, it was evening.
I took a few pictures of the moon valley. Did not get to walk on it, touch it, feel it,..
We debated for a while if we should halt in Lamayuru for the night, decided to move on and drove on the Leh – Srinagar road.
As we drove upwards, the landscape below had more contours, more creases, more colours – how grand it would have been if we could cover that stretch during the day...
It got dark and all the beauty around went into oblivion.
With no prior hotel reservations or arrangements for the night, we were dependent solely on our driver for guidance and help.
For a long time, there was no village, no sign of human habitation. It was dark all around. At last we saw a few lights twinkling in the distance and we felt some hope.
We stopped by what was supposed to be a government guest house of some sorts. It was locked and the keeper was not in the premises. We felt marooned. The driver went to a few houses to make enquiries about his whereabouts and when he returned, the keeper was with him.
He unlocked the place and turned the light switch. It was tube light. It was an elongated room with some beds.
It was something to thank God for, given our condition of being in the middle of nowhere a few minutes before.
If I were alone, it would have been easier, for I never doubted my safety, but with my folks expressing constant fear and apprehensions, it was another thing.
“If only you guys could take your tea break later, I wouldn’t have missed the Lamayuru pictures having come all the way” said I.
To this they said, “if it were your cousins in your place, they would have made tea themselves for their parents”
Yeah right, they would. And that’s the only thing they would do for their parents. Making tea or lunch.
I alone, among all my cousins, was capable of taking parents to Ladakh and managing the whole trip.
That night, I felt very very lonely, wept bitterly and asked God why.
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