The year was 1290 . A crowd had gathered around a clearing, where broken down pillars marked the presence of an ancient temple, now long gone. A young boy, just 14 years old, leaned against one of those pillars, deep in thought. Then, he began speaking, and the crowd fell silent, listening to his every word. He spoke without any notes, translating the Bhagavat Gita, from Sanskrit, which only the pundits knew, to the language everyone in the village knew and spoke – a variety of Prakrit which developed into the Marathi language. Even as he spoke, one of the men in the audience realized how momentous this event was, and how important this composition would be. He began writing down the words the young boy spoke, and this composition was named by its author and composer, the Bhavartha Deepika – the enlightening meaning (of the Bhagavat Gita). Now, the ancient, holy text, was no longer restricted to the pundits, but accessible to all, understood easily by them, composed as it was, in their...
Our journey to Ladakh began with a flight to Chandigarh, and a drive to Manali, our first halt. My earliest diary entries are all about what I would like to do, not on this trip, but on the next! Speaks volumes, doesn’t it, that I would be planning the next trip, even as I was setting off on one? Right on top of the list are the Chandigarh Museum, Naggar Castle and the Bijli Mahadev Temple…. Landscape en route to Manali A light rain accompanied us to Manali, and we reached our destination late in the evening - the Club Mahindra White Meadows resort. We had a lovely room with a small backyard, filled with blooming roses. We would have loved to spend more time relaxing and enjoying the place, but we had other plans for the day, which began with an unplanned breakfast by the road, in pouring rain! On the back porch of our room at Club Mahindra White Meadows Resort The rain reminded us of our honeymoon in Kodaikanal, when the mountains were awash with rain for our entire trip...