Mental Excursions

Bye-Bye Tawang! Life of c onstruction workers in the hills is tough, yet  the look of wonder in their eyes and  charming smiles  show no complaints!  I had wrapped up last week’s Tawang Diary with our drive to Bomdila.  We reached this small town, also the district headquarters of the West Kameng district, around 5.00.p.m. It was a lot warmer here and we were comfortable without any heavy woolen garment. I was told there is a monastery and a craft museum worth-visiting in town. But due to paucity of time, we merely took a walk to get a feel of the place. It looked like construction of houses and shops was going on everywhere and I hoped that ‘development’ would not cause environmental damage the way it had done in Uttaranchal. Maintaining the unexplored beauty of an area vs promotion of tourism is always the catch -22 situation. The shops near our hotel were selling beans of several colours and kinds and many dried vegetables/herbs. From our b...

Tawang Diary 5 No Adjectives can do Justice to Tawang! Tawang War Memorial  I had shared with you (last week) about our visit to Bum La pass. During our descent to Tawang, we were mostly quiet. We did not stop at Joginder Singh gurudwara on the way back because of the high pile of snow covering its entrance, nor did the driver stop to have army chai ka langar (free tea).  The driver, sensing the heavy mood inside the vehicle and in an effort to lighten it, insisted that we visit Sangetsar Tso on the way. Tso means lake in Tibetan. The lake was a grassland till 1971 when an earthquake changed it into a water body. Sadly though, people’s fascination for renaming has worked here too and some have started calling it ‘Madhuri’ lake after film star Madhuri Dixit shot a song here for her film ‘Koyla’. The tall trunks of trees stand in the water, giving it a unique character and birds flock here. You can have hot momo s, chhole-bhature, spicy maggi , tea and coffee in the army can...

Tawang diary 4 Standing with our Jawans at Bum La Bum La 15,200 feet Due to uncertain weather, which causes treacherously slippery roads and poor visibility, red or green signals are issued daily for visiting Bum La, the border pass about 37 km from Tawang. Remember, I had told you that it had been pouring? The rain lashed through the night, so we were keeping our fingers crossed. Luckily, the next morning, sun shone through the clouds in the sky, and with the green signal, our trip was on. After an early breakfast, we piled into the SUV and with our eyes permanently gazing at the green of Tawang quickly changing to a landscape of not only rugged snow-covered mountains but snow all around, driving on the zig-zag roads coiling upwards, we sat expectant, curbing our excitement. Bum La was what we had come this far for. Bum La pass, which had seen a savage battle during the 1962 war, is one of the agreed meeting points for security personnel of China and India. It is open to Indi...

The Tale of Indian Bravehearts Last Saturday, I had left off at describing the Nyukmadong War memorial. After that, the milestone for us to cross the following day was Se La pass, about 67 km from Tawang. It is the mountain pass which connects Tawang and West Kameng districts of Arunachal Pradesh. With increasing height, the temperature had gone down, the roads had sharper turns. Even in May, w e could see snow-covered rugged mountains everywhere. G usty, chilly winds bounced tiny snowflakes around and fluttered the prayer flags, and no human population except army personnel could be seen anywhere.   One must cross Sela pass, said to be the only high-altitude mountain pass in the world which can be accessed by vehicles, to reach Tawang. The water in Paradise Lake, frozen solid in winter, now showed ripples due to strong winds. Ideally, we should have been grateful for this break from the baking plains we came from, but being human beings never satisfied with what we have, we ...