Heaven is in …

The best thing about having a already lived so many decades is that the balance between “want to do” & “have done already” shifts.

So I’ve probably already been to 90% of the places that I will ever visit.

So at this stage, if I nominate 2 places as “heaven”, chances are that these won’t be toppled by other places anytime soon.

I counted roughly and I’ve spent at least one night in about 70 towns / villages in India. The number in other countries might be slightly smaller but the total is definitely more than 100.

So this sample is good enough for me to draw a conclusion of what I consider as “heaven” – that will hold until the end of my life.

So here is the verdict:

1. Ladakh – in some remote sparsely populated hamlet in the Himalayas

This spot is at a height at the junction of two mighty river-fields where the Nubra river meets the Shyok river seen below on google maps. At that spot I am swept away by my imagined visions of caravans of traders that passed over these paths over the centuries. There is a sublime connection to this spot that I can neither understand nor explain… but the experience of that connection is real and deep.

It was the sight of the pre-winter mountains – brown and stark without any snow – that made me fall into a deep connection with them. It was only in the next visit that I saw them in their full splendour, covered in snow. The 8-9 times that followed the Himalayas were more gorgeous each time. Killing the body with the temperature but driving the soul to higher and higher orbits of joy. There are a thousand photos of this place that I can never have enough of.

Sigh! Is it possible to die because one is struck by the beauty?

+++++

The second place is the West Coast of Sri Lanka

Luxury is having solo time. With no Gulliver’s pegs dragging you into anything other then the desire of the moment. Luxury is having freedom. And freedom is heaven.

Am lucky to have these two places – that my soul is equally soaked in. Places with silence. Places connected deeply to the earth.

And it takes just a single moment to go back there in my memory – close my eyes and I can even smell the ice in the air in the vast open spaces in the Himalayas.

Or hear the palms sway in the amazing Sri Lanka.

It is memories like this – and dreams for more of the same – that make me feel so wealthy!

Sundays I set aside time to dream… and I dream of going back…

Sunday ramblings…

***

jaina mishra

May 2026