Longing in love for Ladakh

Those who've been to India's great lakes region and high altitude desert Ladakh come away falling for it, or being a bit shaken out by its sparse harshness. NITIN DAS is a film maker and Ladakh did get hold of him. Here he pokes us – Does the seemingly barren have an energy or is one speaking with the heady lack of oxygen that has swung many a head in Ladakh? Like Prabuddha Dasgupta, the talented photographer, who wrote in his book on his Ladakhi journey, ‘an exploration of India's last wilderness, on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, and final stronghold of the old Tibetan Buddhist way of life. A solitary journey through a tortured and beautiful land… A visual communion with a fragile yet impressive culture in the throes of change, and a threatened landscape exploding with stark, uncluttered beauty... an enigmatic loneliness on the edge of everyone's world.’ Nitin's photo essay too muses on the confusions of change in Ladakh, through its capital Leh. He does so with an affectionate power, alternately ticking colour and black & white glands of his photo-vision. He also reminds us that India has landscapes where you might least expect a breathtaking autumn. Where the seasons can be sharp, but also a subtle rage.