Satrangi's dance on the roof of the world

I saw pictures of Ladakh when I was in High School. Ladakh is on the northern tip of India, and is a high altitude desert. It’s on the edge of the plateau of Tibet, which is called the roof of the world. I remember being fascinated by the unique landscape that looked completely different from the rest of India. The few highland plateaus of the world (see Picture) have a unique climate. Since Ladakh is mostly above the tree line the landscape is unique. My high school dream of traveling to Ladakh remained unfulfilled due to lack of time and funds. I knew that my parents would be horrified if I even mentioned that I wanted to spend money to travel to Ladakh- a place thousands of miles away. I didn’t even bother asking them to take me there. They hadn’t heard of Ladakh and would be surprised to hear that such a place even existed in India.

 

In 1998, I watched a Bollywood Movie –Dil Se (From the Heart) which had a song ‘Satrangi Re’ (literally means seven colors). The song depicts the seven stages of love as described in middle eastern, sufi tradition. This amazing song was filmed in Ladakh amidst spectacular landscape and had an unbelievable combination of lyrics, music, cinematography and choreography. I was enamored by the beauty of Ladakh once again. My dreams of Travel fizzled out again as academics, career, and money (it was still quite an expensive trip for a student) to travel to Ladakh.  

Fast forward to 2009, another Bollywood movie “3 idiots”, again tempted me with the beauty of Ladakh. The leading man in the move “Rancho”, is reunited with his lady love Pia in Ladakh. The stark beauty of Ladakh shown briefly in the movie was enough to rekindle my desire to visit the place. Now the situation was reversed. I had the money, but sadly, no time! (The Irony of modern life… time and money are mutually exclusive).  Finally, in August 2012, I forced myself to make time and made the long awaited journey with my family to the place of my boyhood dreams.

As soon as we landed in the tiny airport in Leh, the largest town in Ladakh, we saw the unique beauty. The land, the air, the light, and the people were so different that it felt like a different country. We were advised a full day of altitude acclimatization since the oxygen levels are low. The following day, we drove to a few monasteries in the region. Some of these are so remote that “getting away from the world” felt like such an apt description.

 

The next day we braced ourselves for a grueling 6 hour ride to the “Pangaong lake”, one of the largest highland lakes in the region. A third of this lake is in India and the rest is in China. This was my much anticipated destination. This was where Satrangi danced, and where Rancho finally meets Pia…

Along the way, Bollywood had left a permanent imprint. A local Entrepreneur had opened a “Rancho’s coffee shop”. We continued, and went up through Changla pass (17586 ft from sea level) alongside snow covered peaks. The only restaurant (it was a shack really) mid-way was serving Maggi and Chai. We were famished and the “high altitude Maggi” felt like the best tasting food ever.

Back on the road again, we climbed down from the pass and into the endless landscape of barren mountains. Deep blue sky with sparse clouds created beautiful patterns all around. Every turn was an artists canvas. Our anticipation peaked as we neared our destination and started getting the glimpses of emerald waters of Pangong lake through the mountains. And then there it was, the Pangong lake right in front of us. We kicked out our shoes and rushed to the edge of water already forgetting the grueling ride.

Even the children stood speechless, awestruck by the beauty of the scenery. Each one walked by themselves on the edge of the water taking in the scenery, lost in thoughts amidst the gentle breeze, emerald waters and rolling clouds in deep blue sky. Jules Renard said long ago - “On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it”. At that moment, it felt like we had truly landed on one of those pieces of heaven.

 

 A couple of days later, after more sightseeing, as I was in a daze as I climbed into the outbound flight. It felt like the climax scene of Bollywood movie. The hero is being torn apart from his beautiful home and is going away to distant lands full of hardships in order to earn a living. He reaches out desperately to hold on to his piece of heaven as the train moves…. and then we were airborne the beauty of Ladakh faded away slowly from my vision.

 Three years hence, the beauty of the landscape is still fresh in my memory. I am just waiting for the next Bollywood movie to give me the push to go to Ladakh again.