Ladakh is a ‘Cold Desert’, but the snow-capped high mountains ensure that there is a stream of water trickling down during part of the year. These form little rivulets, streams, rivers and lakes. We witnessed a confluence of streams, rivers and lakes in our week in Ladakh. As expressed in my blog post on “Soothing … Continue reading Ladakh: A Confluence of Rivers and Lakes

Ladakh is known as the Cold Desert. We understood the real meaning of this phrase on our week-long visit to Ladakh this summer. We had visited and seen the beauty of the White Desert, the Rann of Kutch, white salty marshy desert! And here we witnessed the rugged, natural beauty of Ladakh! There was hardly … Continue reading Snow Storm and Sand Storm: A Day in Ladakh

Jannat: Heaven on Earth is how Kashmir is known as. The world's most beautiful garden on the top of the World. HIndi Cinema shot on the Dal Lake in the 1960s an 1970s, Kashmir ki Kali. Heroine Sharmila Tagore the young beautiful Kashmiri woman, we recall from our childhood! So many decades spent in India … Continue reading Kashmir: Heaven on Earth: "Jannat: Yahee Hai Yahee Hai"

In Russia, Stalin conceived of the idea that the common man must also experience the grandeur of the palaces! As they spent a lot of time in the underground, he felt the Moscow Metro stations, started construction in1935, should be as grandiose as the castles and palaces. However, he was unable to build more than … Continue reading The Grand Metro: Moscow II

Russia is a country that has undergone a lot of turmoil over the centuries. People have suffered. The authoritarian rule of the Tzars was followed by the pains of revolution and then what is called the totalitarian rule during the Stalin era! All over Moscow you see this tumultuous history depicted. Kremlin is a fortress … Continue reading State and Religion: Kremlin and the Orthodox Russian Church, Moscow I