Leh - The Air I Breathe: The Last Post

It’s the last few miles to Leh and we zip along the highway, under the cover of darkness. I am in a state of complete peace and satisfaction. There is a little excitement though, which is hidden in me. And that’s for the trek on the next day. I think the joy from doing what you love to do, is way greater than being forced to love what has have been thrust to you. Most of us have to earn these moments. And that factor always make these priceless ones. What if life was so simple that we would get to do what we loved to do – always and every time? Would they be still invaluable? May be. May be not.

And that is how life is. Sometimes so uncertain and so accidental. That’s how it treated me when I returned to the hotel that night.

I get the shock of my life when I hear that Chadar 2015 has been cancelled due to the danger posed by the formation of an “artificial lake” along one of the tributaries of Zanskar. It was supposedly 200m deep and was swelling up every day. Authorities feared that the lake could burst out any day and imposed a curfew in the Zanskar/Chadar area. There were alternative treks arranged to compensate this loss but I didn’t want to avail them. I left Leh the very next day to Delhi and then onwards to Calcutta. In the end, I had spent <48 hrs there. Not only the cancellation burn a hole in my pocket, it punctured my soul.