Monks with a Cellpone!

Go
In Ladakh

Seesh! Never in my wildest dreams I imagined that my blog would get featured on the BBC. If you are as clueless as I was a little while ago, have a look at

This!

The two people who introduced me to blogs are my sis Alka and her husband, my dear brother-in-law, Amrit. My many thanks to them for introducing me to this wonderful world and being gentle with me when I wrote something, deleted it and again created a new website. They stood by it all.

Alka's Blog

Amrit's Blog

Now, let me go on with my travel tales. When I went to Ladakh I wanted to take photographs of people there. I often go to a very impressive website appropriately called 'GoNOMAD.'

GoNOMAD's Website

There I read an article about how to go about taking photographs of people in the regions we visit. It had a basic but a very good idea (I am sure it had much more, but this is what impressed me most) that one should ask for permission from people before taking their pictures. I followed this advice with all my heart and found that many people agreed to get photographed in Ladakh.

The first time I tried it and was given permission was the photo above. It may not be very clear but the gentleman at the rightmost corner is holding a cell phone. I was impressed. I met the group on my way on foot, to the Leh palace and the stupa, situated right in the heart of the city. We had an interesting conversation when I asked them if I could take their photograph. The monk with the cell phone said, "But why do you want to photograph us, boring people?" I pleaded, "Please let me, please." He then told me, "OK, whatever makes you happy. If that is what that makes you happy, you should go back to your place happy." I thanked them again and again.