LEH, MANALI
Camping Heaven-Side
Travelling from Manali, its not just Sarchu that gives you a high. Bara Lachla Pass & Pangong Tso too offer out-of-the-world experiences
Harsimran Julka
IF YOU are one of those who have always wanted an extreme holiday in the toughest mountain terrain, try Sarchu, a small district in Himachal Pradesh connected to Ladakh on the Manali-Leh route. Sarchu is unique in a sense that it just has an endless road surrounded with cold desert mountains. The absence of trees or habitation in the area makes oxygen levels drop to a bare minimum . For the adventurous, its a high in itself, as it tests the body and the lung power.
The area is completely snow-covered in winters, so much so that the tarmac laid for carrying heavy artillery up to Kashmir may not be visible. Moreover, the sub zero temperature in most parts of the year, may test your bodys resistance to the cold to the extreme.
It is advisable to carry an oxygen cylinder, if you are really not sure of your lung capacity. Diamox (acetazolamide) can speed up the process of acclimatisation, if you are ascending to almost 17,000 ft in the Himalayas from the northern plains (Delhi or Manali), in a single day.
Diamox forces kidneys to excrete bicarbonate . This makes the blood more acidic, which increases the amount of oxygen in the blood. Water bottles are a necessity at such heights. The lack of oxygen in the air, makes the body suck O2 from the blood. Lack of water, may lead to cyanosis (deoxygneation of blood leading to blue coloured skin). Its advised to stockpile a dozen bottles, if you are camping for the night, alone.
Sarchu, has become a favourite with adventure tourists, despite the harsh conditions. There are no mobile towers and no electric poles. So, the three or four camps, which operate in the area, run on diesel power.
Night camps are available at anywhere upwards of Rs 1200 a night. The camps take care of the food and other necessities. There are no petrol pumps in the region. The last petrol pump is in Keylong. So, its advisable to take your own share of gasoline, especially if you are unsure of the mileage your car or bike provides. The only petrol pump you get after Keylong, is after 400 km, in Leh. Hard cash is a must as there are no ATMs. Sarchu, is not the only place which will give you a high, if travelling from Manali. Bara Lachla Pass, which is snow clad in winters, overlooking a frozen Suraj Tal lake, might give the toughest of people jitters when driving on the slippery tarmac. A snow storm makes many an army vehicle topple. Bara Lachla pass is a place to camp only if you have the best protective gear feather coated sleeping bags and wind-proof sleeping tents, and ample woollens to cover yourself against the chilly wind.
Another great place to camp, if youre going towards Leh, is at Pangong Tso (Tso means lake in Ladakhi). The 130-square kilometre wide lake looks crystal blue in the morning. The lake changes colour from blue to purple to light green to dark blue as the sun passes over it. The water is salty sweet, and it is one of the highest salt water lakes in the world. About 70% of it lies in China, only 30% in India.
Make sure to take your provisions along, if you are camping at Pangong Tso as the only inhabitants there are migratory birds. At night, the lake offers a out-of-thisworld view. The clear dark blue sky with stars reflecting in the lake, surrounding snow capped mountains at 21,000 ft offers a camping experience which very few places in the world can offer. Its camping heaven-side !
NAVI GATO R
BY AIR:
Nearest airport is at Leh
BY RAIL:
The nearest railway station is in Kalka.
BY ROAD:
There are regular bus & Tata Sumo services to Leh from Kalka
PACKAGES:
Rs 5,500 per night at The Grand Dragon
Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh
Govinda Govindaa!
Nestled amidst peaks of seven hills of Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh, Tirupati Balaji takes you to another level of faith
Prerna Katiyar
MORNING 5 am, you are standing in a serpentine queue waiting for your turn for the final darshan at Tirupati as the devotees old and young chant in chorus Govinda Govindaa without a pause. Your mind is still confused reflecting on the thought whether all the efforts and the wait is worth for. You are thinking why you are here just because you have heard about the shrine from so many people or is it to satisfy that religious streak that almost every Hindu inherits from birth. What is it that pulls crowds from different faith and religion to this holy shrine, you wonder!
But when you have the final darshan, all your bewilderment, doubts and fatigue is put to rest. Thats the impact Tirupati Balaji has on you.
Our visit to Tirupati Balaji, nestled amidst the peaks of the seven hills of Tirumala in Andhra Pradesh, was simply luck by chance . We were on a short trip to Bangalore . Thinking that staying in the malled hi-tech city was not the kind of break we had planned, the idea of visiting the shrine crept in. So we booked the overnight bus and a darshan package for Tirumala-Tirupati reaching there in about seven hours.
Hitting Tirumala, the base station for the final journey to Tirupati temple, our escort took us to a cottage. And after an hours break, we headed for the shrine that is some 20 km from Tirumala. The journey across the sprawling hills and meandering road was quite an experience in itself for us metro-dwellers .
To facilitate the darshan, there is a computerised system allowing pilgrims to book their tickets well in advance and allots a fixed time for the darshan. Our darshan timing according to the token was 7:30 am. An amazing feature of this temple was that you are not rushed off immediately after you have the darshan. The chants that run in the background create a perfect backdrop. Lord Venkateshwara Swamy or Balaji the main deity is said to the incarnation of Lord Vishnu.
Our experience till this point was troublefree but when we exited the main mandapto collect the prasada that you get only in lieu of the token, we realised that it was lost! Hence began the hard part of first trying to figure out were we might have lost it and then to find some alternative way to get Bhagwan ka prasada. To our disappointment, we were told that one cant get the prasada by giving cash. Token we couldnt find but thankfully we were able to find our escort who was waiting for us outside. Some local dialect, some jugaad and some moolah finally did the trick for him to arrange the prasada for us. Thank God we got it!
Our return journey to Bangalore had to start in the night, so we had enough time to visit other temples in the town. The escort told us that close to a lakh pilgrims visited the shrine everyday and on a few occasions , the number even reached six to seven lakh. Being one of the richest shrines of the world, the bhet offered at the temple runs in billions of rupees. It was an experience to watch the counting of the donations that happens in a huge hall. Donation of gold jewellery and coins also form part of the bhet no wonder the temple is the richest of all. Many people get their hair tonsured here too. The amount of hair collected daily is over a tonne. Interestingly , the hair is sold by the temple in a public auction to international buyers for use as hair extensions bringing in over $6 million to the temples treasury.
So when at Tirupati, feel the difference, try the local meals, visit the nearby temples and parks, keep your hair or lose it, but for Gods sake take good care of your token!
NAVI GATO R
BY AIR:
Tirupati airport is at Renigunta, 15 km from town
BY TRAIN:
It is connected to all major towns of Andhra & big cities of South India
BY ROAD:
It is 253 km from Bangalore & 145 km Chennai
PACKAGES:
Rs 1,800 a day at Fortune Kences Hotel
Islamic cultures
Adding Value To Humanity
Islamic cultures have nurtured global trade and civilisation
Raza Elahi
US president Barack Obamas historic speech in Cairo, which called for a new beginning between the United States and Muslims, had references to Islams contribution to civilisation. It is a befitting reply to Islam bashers, who have boxed Islamic culture, particularly Arab culture, into crude stereotypes. Post-9 /11 Islambashing has almost become fashionable among western scholars. A whole bunch of intellectuals has sprung up in the West, linking Arab culture to violence , hate and fanaticism. Any violence committed by any group, or any unrest in Palestine or Iraq, is a specific response to a specific pathological , political circumstance, not an endemic variable of Arab culture as Samuel Huntingdons clash of civilisations and other western theories describe such face-offs .
Since time immemorial the essence of Arab culture has been trade, not war or suicide bombings. The region gave birth to civilisations such as the Assyrian and Babylonian in Iraq, Phoenician and Canaan in Syria and the Pharaonic in Egypt. After the advent of Islam, each of these cities was a major capital of huge empires through various stages of history that presented the world with sciences, art, culture, philosophical thought and civilisations that form the basis of study in all major modern universities.
Islam was an extraordinary gift to the world of business with its pragmatic, tolerant , humane, logical and international ethos at a time when other cultures were busy burning witches and widows in other parts of the so-called civilised world. The evolution of market hubs such as Baghdad and Cairo, the emergence of Arabic as the business lingua franca from Spain to Sindh, the missionary activities of Arab merchants in South East Asia were all legacies of the advent of Islam.
Seven centuries ago, Baghdad and Damascus were world financial hubs. The Arab world, under the Abbasid caliphs, had trade relations with all major nations from China to Italy. The Assyrians mapped out a road network to enable them to transport African ivory, Caspian furs and Indian spices across their empire. Two millennia before the advent of the dollar and pound sterling , the gold coin, Persian daric, introduced by Darius the Great, was the currency of choice from Greece to the kingdoms of India. The financiers of Mecca and Damascus set up letters of credit, bills of exchange, foreign agencies, primitive contract laws and custom duties centuries before the bankers of Renaissance Florence and Tudor London.
Empires came and went, kingdoms were established and fell, but trade remains one of the institutions that truly defines Arab culture . The earliest civilisations of the Middle East evolved on the banks of the Nile, the Tigris and the Euphrates . Their trading links with Mohenjadaro on the Indus, Dilmun in the Arabian Gulf and the Hellenic ports of the Aegean islands demonstrate that international markets existed centuries before Christ.
The Silk Road to China, the Amber Route to the Baltic, the evolution of trade-linked cities such as Petra, Baghdad, Mecca, Sidon and Damascus were the centres of Arab power politics for centuries. From ancient times till modern days trade activities have always flourished in the region.
The modern example is the rapid progress of the ancient trading and pearling settlement of Dubai , which was on the trade route between Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley civilisation. In 1830, it was taken over by a sect of the Bani Yas clan led by the Maktoum family that still rules Dubai. The elders of this family decided to build on the expertise of the inhabitants of Dubai and concentrate on trade. This policy powers the economic miracle of Dubai.
The ruling family recognised the value of international trade as an engine for wealth creation decades before the petrodollar era. When oil was discovered in 1960, the bulk of its revenue was invested in creating the worlds biggest man-made harbour in Dubais Jebal Ali. Today, some estimates peg Dubais non-oil revenues at over 90 per cent of its GDP, and the average per capita income in excess of $19,000.
Excellent infrastructure coupled with business acumen has helped the nationals to expand their trading horizons. Dubai encouraged Indian, Yemeni, Lebanese and Persian traders to settle. At a time when socialism and command economies were prevalent in other parts of the world, Dubai was unique in its preference for an open economy and regional trade. At no time, however, has the Dubai government forgotten its Islamic roots. It is the governments endeavour to ensure that no Muslim will need to travel more than 500 metres to pray in a mosque. Dubai is certainly a winning mix of trade and religion.
Commentators who have concluded the Islamic world is a failed and violent society are wrong as religion and trade walk hand in hand in Islamic culture. Obamas approach to the Islamic world is a positive shift in official US policy, and some compensation for the hostile environment created by Islam bashers.
