Ladhak is the beauty with little air

Ladhak is immensely beautiful. Naked, untouched, flawless….picture perfect. Scenes that I had imagined and had seen only in photo frames stood just in front of me. “It’s so well maintained’, was what I exclaimed when I first saw it at Leh Kushok Bakula Rimpochhe Airport airport. For those traveling first time must definitely look out of the flight windows for a life time Himalayan experience.

Never before had I seen the hills and the range of mountains to be so different, varied and yet so sync picture perfect. Probably, because I have all my life lived far away from the hills in the plains, amongst the maddening hordes of people and that this place was so dissimilar. Ladhak was simply so beautiful with its barren great mountainous range all around with very little green and no trees around.

The place is special very special …because of the sun shine in the blue sky with little cumulus clouds peeping out of the mountain peaks. There is very little or no vegetation and people cannot afford to plant trees too. “This would attract clouds and subsequent rains’, had explained one of colonel of the Indian army who had willingly played host to us. “ We are on the rain shadow side of the Himalayas and so it does not have adequate vegetation leading to the low level of oxygen. Rains would wash off the sandy and muddy mountains” It was then I realized that the persistent headache that we had developed was due to low oxygen and we had to be acclimatized first to the surrounding before venturing for more unquenchable mountain views.  

“You cannot take risks. People develop blood pressure and due to this unless you get used to this weather, it is difficult to stay here”. We were there for a week as guests with friends in the Indian army who promised to take us around. “Drink lots of water for better supply of oxygen to your body. Work and walk slowly” were the advices given before we planned our trip to the most exotic sites of Ladhak.

Leh is the biggest city of Ladakh and in first glance it appears it is one of those small hilly towns that would be immensely popular for its exotic location. But it has its own identity. A huge contingent of the Indian Army deployed on the India China border is headquartered in Leh. With low sex ratio still you would find women working as daily laborers with the Border Roads Organization (BRO) that builts beautiful roads on mountains.

The trip to Khardung La ie the Kardung pass was extremely exiting. Besides the meandering roads in the snow covered mountainous range, the low availability of oxygen makes it all the more difficult. But to overcome the simple uneasiness, drowsiness and nausea is the real challenge. Sleeping through the trip increases the discomfort but amazingly the local drivers are so well versed with the turnarounds, the avalanches, the muddy village paths that the fifty kilometer trip becomes a lifetime experience. Snow filled mountains of different colors, sizes, shapes would surround you and you are lead to the K Top said to be the highest motorable road on earth. All uneasiness would vanish as you lower height through the K top to North Pullu to Nubra valley that has got the double humped camels as the star attraction in midst of the grey sandy dunes.

Besides the Thiksey and Hemis Monastery, Shey and Leh Palace, Shanti stupa what more can be explored is another trip hundred and fifty kilometers up and down to Pangong Tso Lake, the brackish water  lake in the India China Border across Changla Pass. A young twenty nine year old Major of the Indian Army confessed when I complimented him about the place he lived. “It is beautiful with no air. Good to live here for vacation but hard on duty”. The high and lows of the roads leading to the lake for the four hour drive in low air area makes you believe that ‘nothing comes easy in life’. To really enjoy the beauty of this side of the Himalayas is adventures and the difficult path makes it all the more desirable.

China stands a few kilometers away across the blue divide of the Pangong  Tso (Lake). Even with minimal vegetation it is amazing to watch snow deer, yaks, Pashmina goats, wild horses grazing around in the very low dull green pastures. That makes the trip and ultimate adventure excursion. “Do they get adequate food”, I wondered. My driver cum guide Dorji explained, ‘You adapt with what is available”. Given said that this is worth mentionable that it could be the only place in India that I have seen the free sale of Oxygen cylinders for personal use. It’s so easy and handy for tourists available at all pharma shops as small perfume bottles. Also the deal is worth noticeable that if it is not used during high point trips it can be exchanged back in the shop once when you get back.

Only had Ladakh got a little more air, a little more electricity, little more water in the snow, life would have been much easier for the tourists and also for the people who really live in hard situations. Even in those hardships monasteries are built in the highest points above fifteen thousand feet and little monks in their maroon habits keep praying in the most difficult circumstances for a better world.

 

 

Is killing the killer the answer to contain rape in India?

I personally do not endorse the idea of ‘killing the killer ‘ and considering it to be a deterrent measure against rarest of the rare cases. Because living in a civilized world and considering myself to be representing the civilized community, I cannot bring myself to justify that merely by aping the killer and making him pay back in the same coin would serve to be lessons for aspiring killers.

I really see no logic to it.  Neither do I find any logic in the sane world marching on streets demanding ‘Killers to be hanged until death’ for rape crimes. What a brutality of humankind from people who are examples of sanity and civilization. People keep on protesting, shouting giving examples of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shariah Law where rape and murder convicts are killed in broad daylight so that it serves “a lesson for those daring to ever commit the crime”.

I know just imagining the thought of forgiving someone who could be as brutal as the Delhi rape case perpetrators is also beyond imagination. ‘We are not saints’ one of the girls protesting on the streets against cases of rape was heard shouting. ‘Unless criminals pay for their crimes they will not learn’.

Rape is indeed an act of severe violence that even if the victims survive they would be almost dead for their entire life. I can say this with conviction because I am a woman, with a very small daughter living in constant fear of not going out alone to certain places, living alone or even thinking of going out alone at night for the most of my life. I know and have been brought up to believe that I am a vulnerable section of the society and need to be only in safe places under constant care and support of male members of the family.

But here I am talking of something else. I am talking about criminals whether they should be paid back in the same coin or not. So first this story of a criminal I almost saw being killed.

On 14^th August 2004, teen rape convict Dhananjay Chatterjee was hanged early morning at 4:00a.m at Alipur jail amidst outcry from human rights activists against hanging the guy who had served fourteen years in jail for the crime he had committed. I as a young journalist had waited for his death along with fellow reporters outside the Alipore jail that night in August. In between cups of tea the whole media contingent waited and waited until morning to have a glimpse of the man who had pulled the noose and take shots of the man who had just been to the gallows and was gone.

I had really then wanted him to die and be punished as harshly as possible for the crime he had committed to a fourteen year old way back fourteen year ago. The victim a little younger to me would have been almost grown up to be like me had she lived.

But then I felt the eerie surrounding the death of the criminal. I was also imagining that the perpetrator would have also not been the same man after all these years. Who knows he was already a changed man? He had spent his fourteen years in a correctional home (jail).  Was it anyway civilized to do the same to him (kill him) now after he has been through this major correction process of his life.

It is true…his action deserved severest punishments and his action could not be undone. But this was also true how come we remain civilized by answering him in the same coin.

I have sincerely no sympathies for Dhanajay. He took away a precious life…just as I have one. And I strongly relate to Hetal the victim who lost her precious life only because she was a woman…weak and fragile to be killed so easily. Dhanajay remained weak, aged, fragile in the same way after so many years and the stronger civilized world of us was taking away his life.

That moment I felt it was simply the different viewpoints that altered the scene of crime. We were on the other side doing the same as what Dhanajay the powerful criminal that fatal night felt while killing Hetal.

This is not again about equating both the actions. One was the action and the other reaction. Killing a person who is in custody or already convicted of his crime is no big deal. He is weak, dependent and prisoner…what more can be taken out of him.

But now the question also arises as to how his execution can prove deterrent…Rather what appeared to me was the fact that merely Dhanajay’s prosecution led him to the gallows. Now if that be the case then criminals of his stature would now not just commit the crime but also try to evade the law. Here then there will be more chances of committing double crimes of not just the action as such but also the cover up.

Yes, rape as a crime has to be deterrent. But how is it possible in a country where one citizen (women) has restricted permits to visit places at restricted timing. I believe rape as a crime is against a sexual community with the idea to suppress, overpower and eradicate the very existence of womanhood.

This definitely cannot be stopped by punishing people who have committed violent sex crime by giving violence in return.  The need is to stop the crime first and then hunt for criminals.

We have to stop the crime and rectify the criminal and not do the opposite of rectifying the crime scene and stopping the criminal. The latter will definitely not serve to be a great lesson to be taught.

Feku versus Pappu war: Which side are you?

I am no great Rahul fan. And consciously I could never endorse Narendra Modi’s policies. Yet the ongoing debate on the Feku versus Pappu hash tags on social media has left me amused. I want to join the debate with some of the arguments like if there was indeed a choice between a Feku and a Pappu and they happen to be the only available options, who would be then considered best for my nation and which side will I be.

First the Pappu…. My husband’s pet name is Pappu. In India almost every mohalla will have someone named Pappu or else identified as Pappu. Pappu is a pet name for an innocent, sweet child who was not into any crafty business.  Pappu is a dumb kid, would be ignorant of things, can be fooled easily but he is harmless. He might not have great achievements in life but he could be reliable, consistent and devoted.

Indeed it has been true that in India people make fun of the Pappus only because they were naïve and could not make their way up by any means.

If Rahul Gandhi symbolizes the Pappus of India, he could be the one representing many young Indians who have consistently worked all their lives and got nothing much in return. So when Rahul made friends with painter Girish in a train journey to Mumbai couple of years back I can understand his willingness to befriend another Pappu of the country.

I am particularly impressed when this emerging Pappu the leader, talks about India being a bee hive. I as a young student during early school days have written essays on the bee hive and how does it depict a great world in itself. The queen bee is the mother bee, identified for laying eggs and giving birth to the progeny even as the workers take care for rearing and advancing the community. The drones that happen to be the male bees die just after fertilizing the mother bee. And the rest of the community labors hard to collect the honey for the younger community to grow and prosper. What an amazing story of life and inclusive growth.

I identify with the hundreds of the worker community who would strive and toil for development growth and life of their own world. And most of we Indians have lived like them, happen to be them. So when the Pappu who is hoping to lead the ‘Pappuland’ talks about the beehive India his dream land, I see myself in it, my role in it.

Not that I would ever want to work and strive just like another worker bee but that where is the option. It is my world and it is the way I have lived all through.

Pappu talked of me, like me. Naïve with may be no great magic wand to undo things and only hopes of a refreshed new beehive. When he says that he is not a politician and wants to work as an ordinary worker, somehow I get a feeling that he is no queen bee but the ordinary worker bee just leading the swarm of bees towards finding honey. Or even if he was the queen bee, he could do little to change the bee hive. The hive grows big with collective effort and not just by one queen bee syndrome.

Now the Feku. I have known the Feku for some years now. He talks business, I am told. With his magic wand he took away the great Tata’s Nano project from West Bengal the sick, outdated, dying state to ‘Vibrant Gujrat’. Look at the ‘Gujrat Model’ people say. Roads are great, ports have potential, people are entrepreneurs and the air has vibrancy and enthusiasm. All big investors are moving there, investing….developing.

Feku advises people of moving ahead and not looking back to the gory past. People are prosperous, happy and positive. Feku talks of ‘Gujrat ki Asmita’ and any criticism to his era of golden rule is seen as a blow to the self respect of six crore people of Gujrati self respect.

Feku gives examples of the ‘Gujrat model’ of prosperity where everyone is an entrepreneur and a business woman innovated pizza with her add on desi recipe some two decades ago beacuse of the magic of Gujrat of today. How people have moved to Gujrat leaving other places for business and livelihood! I am amused..awestruck and wonder about the dream land and dream world.  

Actually the word Feku means ‘The Exaggerator’. As kids we would listen to ‘Feku’ frien ds and tell them ‘to give away more so that we could wrap around’. (fakiye fakiye hum lapette hain). I was just wondering how our ‘Feku’ friend can give away stories with such efficacy to make the concept of dreamland look so real. 

At least he does whatever he says, says one. Don’t you know what changes he has brought in these years of his tenure in Gujrat. ‘You can’t just keep living in the past of 2002’. “He has really changed Gujrat”. Have’nt you heard the stories of development?

I have…..I have heard so many stories of prosperity, development, vibrancy, investment, enthusiasm and advancement. I have heard of the ‘Gujrat model’ and have heard tales of self proclaimed ‘Vikas Purush’, and his so called ‘hard decisions’. Oh...I have heard tales of development as to how big investors patted the government and how investors find scope of development in the developed state.

Oh I keep hearing ….I kept hearing the tales from the Feku and keep wondering if these were fairy tales. Which government has been criticized vociferously by any investor ever? Were they not bestowing accolades, when the new government came to power out staging the communist rule in Bengal after thirty five years? Investors have to look up to the government for infrastructural support and politics free governance for smooth functioning of business. And they would do the same whether in Bengal or in Gujrat.

I know Feku keeps telling that people had voted him for three consecutive term. But people had done that to so many governments before and are doing that to so many governments now.  People had voted the communists in Bengal for seven consecutive terms before voting them out. The Congress had ruled the country for five terms before the emergency. But how does just ruling consecutive terms in a state make anyone eligible to rule the country. The question is do people know that the Feku wanted to make voting mandatory in his state through a bill or else prosecute people if they did not. Underlining, if there was a scope of also prosecuting people if they did not vote the Feku or ever dared question his concept of dreamland.

Feku’s regime is known to be mastering the art of fake encounters. I wonder if that was the origin of the name ‘ Feku’.  Or were they the tales from the Fekuland that went to the making of the ‘Feku’. Nowhere in India has ever seen senior police officers of the rank of DGP facing prosecution for fake encounters. How can this be attributed as the signs of prosperity?

Let’s not forget the Nano car showcased as greatest achievement of Feku regime was because the people of Singur did not give their farmland in exchange for cars. Let’s us also not forget that Feku wants people to forget that 2002 ever happened in his kingdom but never reaffirms that it will never be repeated. He has never expressed apology for failing to save his own people who also contribute to the six crore gujrati asmita. 

Feku talks of giving reservations to women political participation at grassroots panchayats forgetting the fact that the one bill that is still pending in his state has been implemented in many other states of this country and is a successful model. Feku forgets that women are not mere mothers, wives or daughters but equal citizens of the country. Women’s reservation in politics is actually inclusive politics and mere proposals do not make an achievement story.

Feku talks of the five crore Gujrati’s self respect and how he enjoys their support. Is it true that even sixty percent of the total vote of Gujrat were actually in his favour. Feku is on Facebook, on twitter but does he actually know how many people have access to Facebook or Twitter in his own state. Does he have a count as to how many people still are in refugee camps in his state? Does he have a figure as to how many people have been prosecuted and convicted for human rights violation in his prosperous state? Does he also have a figure that how many people in his own state did not go out during the day of elections and where do they live or which community they come from? 

Feku does not include me in his vision. I don’t figure in his success story. I am not included in the self respect account of the six crore Gujratis.

Where do then I figure in his tales? If the success story of six crore (mere hearsay) people showcase the life of one twenty one crore, it is a real fake assessment. 

I will not be for Feku as his estimation to attend to 1.27 billion Indians only through what he has done for much less than even the six crore people of his state is nothing less than just an over statement.