A stark Himalayan hillside glistens in the midday sun somewhere on the spectacular National Highway 1A in India’s Ladakh region. Widely praised for its stunning “moonscapes”, Ladakh is one of the world’s highest and driest plateaus with a predominantly Buddhist population. This mountain spot and moment, too, was rather Zen-like for me, a simple koan to the magnificence of monochrome that nature often throws at you. Its austere contrast also perhaps recalls - in inverted fashion - one of the world’