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...
We stayed at the Mizka Homestay in Leh , a small, simple place, an old house extended to accommodate guests. It is located on one of the inner roads off the market, so was peaceful and quiet. There were 4 rooms on the first floor, for guests. One of these is actually a kitchen which doubles up as a guest room when there are extra visitors. All the rooms were occupied, since this was the peak tourist season, but we met only one other guest, a Brazilian from Copenhagen on a long tour of South-East Asia. Our room at the Mizka Homestay What I loved was the seating arrangement in the common/ dining area, which had these low seats, reminding me of the low palagas we sit on, in south India. The dining room at the homestay It was also interesting to learn that rice was the staple for most people in the region. I have no notes of the food we ate, in my diary… not surprising, since I barely notice what I eat, and am not very happy to experiment. But I do remember that we asked our hoste...