Sasan Gir - The wild side of Gujarat

In July 2010, I visited Yúnnán which means South of the Clouds in Mandarin. The road from Dali to Zhongdian or Shangri-la is flanked by jewel green fields; farmers in broad round hats, bent over, working their fields. Yúnnán is generally cloudy in the morning but by 2pm, the wind picks up and then starts an awe-inspiring dance of clouds chasing each other across the grasslands and mountains; a play of light and shadows that speaks to the soul directly. We loved the scenery and the little villages we passed so much that we could not take our eyes off the big picture window of the bus.

By 3:30pm we reached Shangri-la and called Han, our host. For the first few days, we were going to stay at a youth hostel away from the town, in the grasslands. The Youth hostel, a beautiful old Tibetan house is only a 5 min drive from downtown but as beautiful as if it is 5 eons away. While my husband was checking in I wandered off and climbed to the 3rd floor balcony. The wind hardly stirred and the sky was heavy with leaden clouds. It seemed like it would rain any minute and as I stood there, mesmerized, breathing in the fresh moist air, it started pouring. In a few minutes, as fast as the rain had come, it was gone. The downpour had left the grasslands fresh and fragrant.

And then the play of light and shadows started. It was still leaden where I was standing but a little further off, the wind picked up and blew the clouds around and the grasslands were colored with myriad shades of yellow and green. A rainbow streaked down from the leaden sky like God's brushstroke. My eyes were moist at this marvel. The photograph I have of that moment is one of my most precious possessions.

After dinner, we were sitting in the youth hostel yard. Suddenly power went off in the whole of Zhongdian. But though it was a dark, moon-less night, there was a pleasant light around. We then realized that it was star-light. Having lived in big, polluted cities where it is difficult to even see stars, it took us a while to realize that we were surrounded by zillions of stars that seemed so close and so huge that we could have put out our hand and touched the diamonds. Though it was freezing we huddled there, marveling at the heaven above us for almost 3 hours. For as long as I live, I'll never forget that amazing day and night which brought me closer to my own Shangri-la.