Pakistanis who became Indians

 Pakistanis who became Indians

Leh diary-3

You remember one of our team members fell sick in Diskit? Fortunately, we were in town for two days and she could rest the next day. One of us stayed back to take care of the unwell person.

Therefore, it was only three of us who got into the car around noon (the power supply timings delayed our departure) the next day to explore the area, albeit in accordance with our itinerary.

From Diskit it takes nearly two and a half hours to reach Turtuk, a village on the Indo-Pak border. Crossing two steel bridges on the way which allow only one vehicle to pass at a time, we continued in the mountains. At an army post just before Turtuk, ID proof of the riders and drivers are to be deposited which one takes back on return.   

On way to Turtuk

Needless to say that in view of the sensitive location, the area is heavily guarded by the Indian army. At one point where a board said You are under enemy observation, I wanted to take a photo and asked for permission from the lone soldier on duty in that silent, desolate area. He refused and the law-abiding citizen that I am, now you are deprived of the picture of that unique signboard.

We decided to continue our journey to Thang, the last village on the northernmost border and stop at Turtuk on our way back.

Turtuk and Thang, both annexed by the Indian army in the 1971 war, are parts of Baltistan and the Balti people living here, whose destiny was rewritten half a century ago, still follow their old customs.

Radhika Gupta in Poetics and Politics of Borderland Dwelling: Baltis in Kargil says

Balti is a generic term that is routinely used especially by the Buddhists in Ladakh to refer to all Shia Muslims in the region (Grist 1998). However, the Baltis are a distinct community whose ancestors migrated from Baltistan to Kargil and Leh before the Partition. Most Baltis came to Kargil as traders and are still referred to as hatti-pa (shop keepers). https://journals.openedition.org/samaj/3805

Don't mind the spelling please!Photo: Gyanesh Tewari 

Thang was opened to Indian public in 2019. By now the villagers are used to the curious tourist traffic and keep to their own lives. So we did not have guided tours or descriptions by the village head as has been told in many trip reviews found on the internet.

Tired of walking up and down in the village with unpaved narrow roads or streets, we stopped at the nearer viewpoint to have a look at the view across  river Shyok.

Across Shyok from Thang the mountains are in Pakistan. Like men working in car parks, there was a man with binoculars at the viewpoint who charged Rs 100 for a dekko of the view across the river. Before he handed me the binoculars he told me a flag pole and two Pakistani bunkers were easily visible in the mountains. Suffice to say, I saw nothing except some houses among a patch of green a little higher up the river just as we see on our side of the border. And I wondered if on the other side too people had come up to a viewpoint to see the Indian side and Hindustanis from there.

Strange are the ways of human behaviour and relations! The most touching for me was when we asked an old woman in the village, “Before 1971 you lived in Pakistan, now you live in India. You changed countries during war!”

Her matter-of-fact reply shook me. “We just remained in our village. We did not move. The borders moved.” And I wondered what country the villagers divided by the border, felt allegiance for.

There was another point further down from where you can get a closer look at the area beyond the river. Of course, a fence runs across the border and some bikers’ vlogs have shown the pictures.  But walking the track to peep into the neighbour’s house did not seem like an enticing idea to us.

With nothing more to do there we turned back, stopping for a few minutes at Turtuk. The village offers homestays if you want to experience time in the border areas. The villagers grow apricots and fresh fruit was being sold in both Turtuk and Thang. We did not try ‘offroading’ and stuck to the convenient paths laid by the Border roads Organisation. One small regret though which I had later was trying out the Balti cuisine which uses local ingredients besides mainly buckwheat (kuttu, used chiefly in place of grains during fasts in India) and of course is served in wayside eateries and small shops.  

There was visible excitement in our group for the trip the next day as we headed to Pangong.

The Leh- Agham- Pangong route was almost flat plane, the road good and the nearly six hour journey comfortable. 

Finally we stopped at a vast expanse of water of such hues of blues which took my breath away. This was the Pangong Tso or lake and across the lake are the mountains where our army has built a road and we could see vehicles moving.

Photo: Gyanesh Tewari

These are the moments when you feel there is something mightier than the human brain which can build such wonders. Water, rocks and mountains do not care for boundaries drawn by humans.

Only about 40 per cent of the lake lies within the Indian territory and rest is in China (part in the disputed Aksai Chin and the rest in Tibet, actually). The lake has saline water and for security reasons there is no boating allowed in the waters. It freezes in the winter. It has a sandy bank and some marshy area on Pangong side.

After Sarthak and Archna Jains’ experience in tented accommodation early this summer, we chose to stay in a ‘resort’ instead. They may be advertised as cottage or resort, but they are independent one room with a bathroom facility, with bed besides breakfast and dinner served in the dining room (no room service). Just as in a hot desert, in this cold desert too, the day was very warm and sunny but the night was intensely cold. The sky was so clear that we could see milky way at night, something that I had not seen in the city skies since childhood. You came out of the warm thick quilt to sit outside for your morning tea and soak in the view and the rays of the rising sun quickly warmed up the chilled animate and inanimate world.

Sandy bank of the lake and desert like vegetation growing there.

There are no hotels in the sparsely populated area, though more and more tented accommodation are coming up. The place where we stayed at was to close for the winter the next day i.e. October 1. The owner explained that harsh winter made it uneconomical and practically difficult for them to run it.

Pangong lake came into the realm of common knowledge with Aamir Khan- starrer 3 Idiots. In the last scene of the movie Rancho (Aamir Khan) is seen manouvering a drone at the lake where his friends finally find him. And like pilgrims, tourists stop for selfies and photos at the spot where the end of the film was shot.

But I sure am getting sadistic pleasure in pointing out to all ye lovers of 3 Idiots and fans of Aamir Khan that the school where Rancho taught (also shown in the final scene of the film) is not at or near the lake, in fact not within a couple of hundred kilometres of it; it is in Leh town (to be included in the next and concluding part) and the lake is where it is. So much for showing reality! (To be concluded)

                                                                                          -Anupama S Mani