Celebrating 6th of July.

Finally I found time to write the 6th July celebration. What a day, I went with my friends to Pungug village (12 kms from the place I stay) to celebrate the birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama amongst the locals and the Tibetans alike of the nearby villages.
It was the first time after 7 years I actually had been here in Leh on that day. For the past years its always been in somewhere in the plains. But I never really party or enjoy. This time perhaps was an exception, apart from me some of my friends have not seen this day at Hanle for a long time so we expect a small gathering will be just perfect.
The day has gotten off to a much better start than the rest of the time I spent here, so far. Instead of being sick at work, I was getting hugs from dozens of my staffs and friends with everyone anxiously watching the beautifully decorated cultural program.
On the sporting event side of exciting things, we played a friendly cricket match.. a limited over match against a visiting team from a nearby village. The game was particularly challenging because most of us never played such an innings at such a place and my teammates explaining to eachother... how the local youths arrange their sets and make strategies: what's coming up next, and you really have to get all the opponent team all out ahead of time...phew! I kept the stumps and had to lead those, since our bowlers had practiced the sets ahead of time. The other folks mostly got a warning when they were being hitted for fours and sixes and they just jumped in when they get them out. Luckily the sky was good. In th end, we won the match.
Far at a corner, people gathered to get a glimpse of the horse racing for which the horses have been trained from months for this event. There were around 35 beautifully decorated horses for the competition. Our cook stood second and his brother got the eighth spot in all. We took our vehicle at a far place near the stream and there we enjoyed to our tune. Meanwhile I noticed one horse being brought for our ride. So hurrah!! That was it... I simply didn't stood at all from then on.
We all danced, and danced ..peeping in every tents pitched there and joining the beautiful folks outthere with their dancing steps to the local, tibetan, hindi and english tunes alike.
It was a bit of a culture shock going straight back to work early nextday, after one full day playing, riding and dancing out in the lush green plains, but I'm adjusting. I got myself captured riding on a decorated horse and will post that and a few pictures here, from the day 6th July soon....