Lahaul road: beyond the tunnel

Aman, Kashish and a road stitched together by strangers, mountain weather and rajma chawal.

The road beyond Atal Tunnel opened into Sissu, Jispa and the direction of Shinku La. With Aman and Kashish, each stop added someone new: another traveller, a shared route, a mountain that made me wonder what it would be like to camp beneath its night sky.

By the return journey, a plate of rajma chawal felt like the natural ending to a day built from distance and cold.