theseekingspirit

It has been two days since India made history at the Gabba, the fortress of Australian Cricket and we still have the hangover. Bloggers ,Youtubers, Cricketing legends, TV channels and even India's Cricketing rival Pakistan is waxing lyrical about the Gabba Test win and the series win by India. No doubt this is a historic achievement (it took 32 years for a team win against Australia at this iconic Cricketing ground). People may say that Cricket is just a sport, and this is just another win, but this win is special and very emotional. Stuff that causes a lasting hangover for billions of Indians… Like many of my friends, I had given up on Cricket. Too many T20's, and too much in-your face type of Cricket had jaded me. This win shook me out of my lethargy as I realized the enormity of this David vs Goliath story. In this story, it is not a plucky David who takes on the sluggish but fearsome Goliath. This is a David that is bruised, battered, written off, lampooned on social media,...

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 t...