My uncle was going on a photography trip to Ladakh in the autumn, and I jumped at the chance to escape my Mumbai penury and accompany him, my aunt & my cousin Nikon. A friend helpfully lent me his camera and a few rolls of film.
Before leaving I carefully copied out this map from Lonely Planet, learnt all the main roads & landmarks of Leh by heart…
This is one of the first sketches. I was so excited that I didn’t need time to acclimatise myself, and within hours of reaching Leh ran around the town and did a few sketches as well!
Somewhere here, on our way to Alchi our jeep’s tyre got punctured. I think it was the first of the day. Anyway my uncle & Nikon got out their cameras and I got out my sketchbook. The brightness of the copse of autumn leaves just could not be captured with paint! On the right hand page are some photos from around Leh.
These sketches were drawn as I explored the Leh fort.
Along the Kargil road, we stopped at this farmhouse while another puncture was fixed…
Here we are, eating lunch at Badshah, where we had the best Kashmiri food I’ve ever eaten. My uncle and aunt are silhouetted against the window, through which you could see the main streets of Leh.
Most of the Himalayas & the Karakoram range at this altitude are made up of these green and violet coloured rocks. on the left is the map of the road we took to go to the valley of the river Nubra and the Shyok.
A willow tree with the most amazing twisted bark, and yet another halt on the right. I tried to capture the sparkling clarity of the Indus here but all I got was this greenish color.
This is Nikon reading Lonely Planet before bedtime – he never took off a stitch of clothing on the entire trip!
The photos are here.
inktales 