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Naropa Festival 2016

Naropa & His legacy

A thousand years ago, a child was born named Naropada (Tibetan name Naropa) who grew to be an excellent scholar at Nalanda but left his materialistic world and his family to the path of enlightenment. At the age of forty he met his Guru Talopa and the next twelve years were the most introspective and spiritual learning period for him that led his attaining enlightenment.

Naropa Festival 2016, Naro Palace, Hemis Monastery

Fully decorated Naro Palace, the venue for the Naropa Festival 2016 and also where the six bone ornaments were in public display

At this moment

A peek into Minangkabau culture

Where the men rule but women call the shots!
There can’t be a more contradictory sentence than the one above but it strikes true everytime in West Sumatra.

It was late afternoon but still bright when I stepped out of Padang Airport in West Sumatra (Sumatra Barat). A designated guide received me and we started walking toward the parking lot. By force of habit I always look back to see how things looked like. I did so this time too and I stopped!

Padang, Minangkabau culture

Padang Airport based on Minangkabau architecture

In front was the beautiful

Day 1 of EBC Trek

Part 1: Kathmandu to Lukla 

Continuing from …. Day Zero at Ground Zero

Dawn Yawn…


Nilesh, the Trek Company’s representative called on me at 5:30AM to take me to the Airport, for a flight that was to depart at 6:15AM! Of course the previous day when I was making lofty plans, I had agreed to this in my moment of weakness. I hardly had a choice anyway, owing to the dependency on the fickle flights to Lukla.

Lukla, Kathmandu , Nepal, Twin Otter

A spectacular view thru a smudged window, on way from Kathmandu to Lukla

I was to take the first flight of Sita Airlines, or was it Tara airlines, maybe Sita Airlines owns Tara, or is it the other way round, maybe I am talking about Yeti airlines … maybe… oh chuck it ….did it matter?

Just then,

Club Mahindra Property in Cloud 9

I should probably say properties, since there are two. Club Mahindra, Binsar Valley and Binsar Villa.

We started our journey towards Binsar in the morning from Jim Corbett, which was our pit stop for the previous night after a long drive from Delhi. The sumptuous and scrumptious Kababs that we had wolfed down for dinner the previous night were properly digested and duly forgotten.

A view of the hillside town of Binsar

A view of the hillside town of Binsar

Day Zero at Ground Zero!

Nisha and I were already in Delhi for some work. I had planned to fly to Kathmandu from Delhi. This helped us in combining our combined Delhi business and my own Nepal business. Mumbai to Delhi leg of my journey perhaps was the most uneventful. Too mundane. It was so boring that I remembered someone who had said if you pay intense attention to boredom then it will turn out to be interesting. Well, in my case, while paying intense attention I just fell asleep.

everest base camp trek starting

Elephants at T3 airport New Delhi

So as per plan Nisha came to