Having a riverside room has its disadvantages. And when electricity is available only for three hours between 7.15pm and 11 pm every day, there is not much one can do at night except sleep or try being one with nature. And there are fewer things more alluring to me than say, being in Dah at night. First of all, you experience pitch dark. Not the city-bred folks’ “pitch dark”. The darkness in the mountains is quite something unexplainable. Dark and silent... absence of noise made by men and their machines. And the hostile desert that is Ladakh does not have much trees, so no rustling either. Therefore fewer birds or insects. No crickets, no toads, no owls. It’s dead silence therefore. Second is the sky - its like being in the heavens, feeling one with objects a billion miles away. And thirdly, the river... the sound of life. And if you are with just yourself, in the dark, looking up at the sky, or down at the river, you’ve known unbounded joy... and peace. The effect of the roa