During the last hours of the ride to Gangotri after sunset I dozed off as the bus bumped along in the dark at high speed, sliding across the seat as it turned left and then right, left then right.

On the trip back down the next afternoon, I realized the road we had traversed the night before: a single lane winding on the edge of a vertical cliff 200 feet above a raging river. I was on the edge of my seat for the first hour. I could never sleep under such conditions. Ignorance is bliss. Life in the material world, blissful, until we see we are headed over a cliff.