The Prize(/price?) of Brilliance

What's brilliance if not -

Van Gogh's self portrait,

Beethoven's symphonies,

Da Vinci's Mona Lisa,

Einstein's theory of relativity,

Phelps' Olympic golds,

Jobs' Apple,

Newton's laws of gravity,

Rowling's Harry Potter?

The common denominator among them, you ask?

Geniuses in their own right, all struggled with handicaps...

Creativity demands a demonic prize,

Van Gogh had to do away with his life!

So, a salute to all those still holding up -

in them -

An ocean of creativity -

not the doom of darkness!

For life can be a success and a tragedy at the same time,

But real success is when you are comfortable living both, big time!

So brilliance may or may not come at a price

But the prize you pay is what you decide!

Leh-Ladakh diaries

As I started my excursion to Leh,

I tried to capture all its beauty  

through my camera's lens

onto my brain's hard drive

And I must say there was a lot to marvel 

as I tried my best to register everything.

Breathtaking landscapes through flight's window on the way - 

mountains with lush greenary, snow-capped, some even appeared to be covered with clouds,

And then came sandy mountains - marked with rainbow like colors - magenta, reddish yellow, green

Nature casting its spell in its entirety!

A lot of monastries and palaces - which involved a lot of climbing and provided a bird's eye view - the best that nature has to offer.

  

Very high motorable passes - every biker's dream and delight.

A plethora of wildlife - home to pashmina goats, marmots, yaks.

Pangong lake at Indo-China border (- 30% in India - still better than nothing)

 

Perfect - the lake, the mountains, the sky - like a portrait

All peacock colors and the lake dancing like it.

Awe-inspiring star-gazing at night 

  

Also home to the confluence of Indus and Zanskar rivers (- where we went rafting too!)

And this one's for the record books - Magnetic hill - that seemed to defy gravity (- car stopped at slope seemed to skid upwards!)

And my account would be incomplete without mentioning that 3 idiots (the movie, duh!) was shot here (the reason for the increased tourists' influx?)

जहापना, तुस्सी great हो!

And talking about tourists, Summer season is the tourist season here since winter temperatures touch a freezing -25 degrees!

(Was it me being fancy or really) the sky was colored a different dark blue here?

Will leave that for the rest of the zillion tourists (and of course you!) to decide. 

Julley Ladakh, until next time!

अग्नि

मैं, अग्नि

- प्रकृति के पंच तत्त्वों में एक

यज्ञों में पावक संचालिका।

हीरा मेरी तपिश से निखरा 

रावण मेरी तपिश से भस्म

मुझे समझने के लिए तुम्हें कोई अग्निपरीक्षा नहीं देनी होगी

न ही कोई जोहर करना होगा

अपने प्राणों की आहुति नहीं देनी होगी

मैं एक आईने समान -

तुम्हारे स्वरूप को प्रत्यक्ष दर्शाती —

मेरे प्रभाव से सदाचारी प्रह्लाद जीवंत

तो प्रकोप से दुराचारी होलिका का दहन

तुम्हारे जीवन पर्यंत मेरी उपयोगिता

और जीवन का अंत मुझमें ही।