Sunday, February 3, 2008

Photo of the Week - Sela Pass

Sela Pass

This was taken in Sela Pass, Arunachal Pradesh, on the way from Tawang to Bomdilla. We were stranded here for two hours.  The wheel of our Sumo wobbled and nearly came off, so we had to pull over in the middle of nowhere and wait while the driver and a couple of overanxious passengers discussed the problem. The driver didn't have a repair kit, it wasn't a highly trafficked route and nobody had a cellphone. It was going to get really cold with night-fall. Should the driver walk all the back to Tawang to get assistance? What were we going to do?

For me, it was no hardship. I hadn't wanted to leave Tawang anyway. Reaching it had been the most romantic, magical journey I ever undertook. The Lord of the Rings kind, you know, where you wander through a surreal landscape, overcome several obstacles, and finally reach the golden destination.  And now here we were - what a perfectly lovely spot to be stranded in. The sun was beautifully warm on the hillside where I sat and there was a carpet of tiny blue flowers that, a fellow passenger said, grew only in that particular area.  The clouds were misting over the mountain tops. Tashi, my Lhasa Apso puppy, was curled up in a ball on my lap. There was a profound feeling of peace and of how good my life was.

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