Prayaan: A journey to Ladakh and Within (Part 3)

The silent waters of Pangong on a cloudy morning. (courtesy- Akanksha Srivastava)

Really calm and still waters. The colour of the lake reflecting a shade of the grey sky. The sky was overcast that Sunday morning, a remainder of the mild snowfall that had occurred the previous night. Steady winds could not depress the groups of tourists into their tents, many of them were out walking by the roads along the lake- the engineering marvel of the Border Roads Organisation to reach places and points where there is no human presence otherwise. The sun is constantly playing peek-a-boo, and with its shine teasing the water to display the many shades of blue that Pangong Lake is known for. The barren and harsh mountains surrounding the lake and the gloomy weather notwithstanding, there is an amazing sense of serenity in this place. A couple of gulls from behind the far mountains close in steadily. Their beaks and eyes focused intensely, they just grow from tiny to big, majestic creatures that swiftly spread their curved white wings and swoop down into the waters to join a few of their friends. The waters ripple. After a couple of minutes everything is still- the water, the birds, the sky and the mountains.

Just to sit on the odd, jutting and bigger rocks for a few minutes, completely basking in the silence, despite the many tourists moving about the other side of the banks, Pangong Lake is a meditative zone indeed. Of the 130 km of the lake area, only 40 km lie on the Indian side and the rest with China. Just to remind us of the fact, some non-offensive firing happens on the other bank of the Indian side. Some smoke and the flock of brown headed gulls take flight.

Somebody flicks a flat stone across the surface, it skips once, twice, thrice and sinks into the massive lake somewhere. The ripples track its movement and silently drown with the stone. Silence again. Still, serene and surrendered.

Thr flight of a brown headed gull over Pangong's waters. (courtesy- Angarayan Sundarakalatharan)

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Technically, that Sunday was the only holiday in our travelling workshop- Prayaan. The Saturday afternoon before setting off to Pangong Lake, a 6 hour journey from Leh Town, we visited the Ladakhi Women Travel Company. It was started by the young Thimlis Chorol in 2009. She did not want to go back to her village after schooling and remain her father's farmhand. So she chose to come out and start the travelling company that now arranges treks and home-stays in the villages across Ladakh's different valleys. In three years' time she had 15 women working with her on the initiative; though the company caters to male clients, it primarily focuses on employing women as trek guides and travel planners for the tourists. She pointed out how Ladakh was losing its charm because all the people who came there were "tourists" and not travellers. Everybody had a schedule and a list of places to go and see and be in, no group of people just wanted to experience Ladakh at a leisurely pace. It was quite challenging at the start, Chorol said, to start and manage a company employing just women. "In Ladakh, biggest challenge is everybody wants a government job!" Understanding that context because of our previous interactions at SECMOL, Nang and Umla villages, we could truly see why Thimlis Chorol was an everyday revolution- she was breaking many stereotypes!

At Pangong Lake looking at all the tourists, who were piling in one evening and scooting off the next morning, just like us, clicking a few photographs to register their footprints at yet another travel destination; it sunk in what a refreshing change in attitude Chorol was. To stay with the villagers, to employ women, to experience Ladakh as a traveller.

But what followed on the couple of days after the contemplative break at Pangong Lake was a full fledged attempt at understanding and helping PAGIR in making Ladakh an equal-for-all society. People's Action Group for Inclusion and Rights (PAGIR) was started in 2006-7 by Mr Mohd. Iqbal. A person with multiple disabilities himself, Iqbal's whole intention on starting PAGIR was to advocate for an equal society for all Persons With Disability (PWD) and push the local government to implement its schemes and policies effectively to benefit the same group of people. It was heartening to see the hope and enthusiasm in PAGIR's work to create a difference, if possible in all sectors- education, health, social welfare, tourism, livelihoods-, for PWDs in the villages of its outreach area. In 2010, PAGIR also launched the Himalaya on Wheels- a tourism initiative to Travel Another India.  As with previous experiences in rural India and few others in the cities, I could only imagine how challenging it would be for this group of people to fight for their rights and inclusion. Our visit to Stok only made it evident.

It was a village like any other in Ladakh. Small brick and mud houses, poplar and apple trees, overseeing Mountains and the bright, clear sky. Five of us trooped past the barking dog at the gate and climbed the weathered down staircase to meet Mr Rigzin and Ms Stanzin. Both were residents of Stok and beneficiaries of PAGIR; but their heart-rending stories of personal difficulties and challenges threw us completely off-guard. Rigzin had lost both his legs in childhood and he stoically admitted to have never travelled beyond the confines of his village, ever. Earlier he used to help his father run a small shop, but competition from another resident forced him to shut down the shop. Now his father, mother, sister and brother-in-law provide for his needs through whatever they make of their living. And there was Stanzin, who was affected from Polio. Her husband deserted her with two children and all the help she gets from the government, like Rigzin, is a meagre Rs 400 per month as pension. That is less than 10 USD at the going rate and how does  one manage to not only look after oneself, but manage two children with that paltry amount?! It was hard battling overwhelming emotions of empathy, and anger, looking at the sad eyes of Rigzin. And how easy I have continued living a life without bothering to make a little space for PWD! All of us have had those momentary thoughts that advocate for equal accessibility to all, but what after that?! My questions were taken up at the Department for Social Welfare and Justice, Ladakh District, the next day. Two of us, from the five met the Deputy Director, Ms Tsering who seemed all motherly and concerned about the issues of PWD. But nothing more. When we asked pertinent questions about the reservations in jobs, accessibility and completion of correct data of disability forms, maybe an increase in the pension and definitely health camps at frequent intervals, ambiguous answers, passing the buck and plain apathy met us. This was the altruist, paternalistic Welfare State that our forefathers dreamt of and the one that we beget! The same response met all our other friends from the Departments of Education, Public Works, Health and Tourism. It forces me to doubt the intentions of such governments. It would take immense resilience of a PWD travelling across the harsh terrains of Kashmir only to be knocked down like this and yet, try again, with hope to get something  out of the Government!

Ms Stanzin (Left) and Mr Rigzin (Right) of Stok village narrating their difficulties in coping with their individual disability. However, what I find as the biggest disability is the apathy of the government in ensuring the implementation of schemes and policies benefitting PWD.

PAGIR was not the only organisation that seemed to be doing more for Ladakh than the Government. We had the chance to interact with Mr Jigmet Wangchuk, the Director, at Snow Leopard Conservancy and Himalayan Homestay Program (SLC). Started by his father, Rigme Wangchuk in 2002, the NGO has been doing phenomenal work in preserving the snow leopard and at the same time augmenting the incomes of the villagers in those valleys with the Homestay program. Their modest, but immensely valuable collection of photographs, sightings, pug-marks and other specimen samples of not only the snow leopard but also the Blue Sheep, Himalayan Wild Fox and few rare birds of the region is a remarkable step to maintain the eco-system of a fragile zone intact. By creating the Homestay rotation system and the Conservation linkage funds- where all the villagers will take turns to host homestays and contribute to the conservancy- they have made the residents of Marka and Sham Valley partners and stakeholders in the process. Something that the Ministries of Environment and Forests and Tourism must definitely take up as their own tasks- to conserve the wildlife of the place as well as generate income through tourism for places that have no livelihood options during winter.  Browsing through SLC's souveniers and wildlife 'museum', my mind rushed to graceful flight of the gulls at Pangong. What a sight that was! It will take dedicated efforts of an entire civilization to keep such winged friends in their habitat….

Mr Jigmet Wangchuk, director SLC. He has had an inspiring and enthralling journey of preserving the wildlife and promoting livelihoods in Ladakh's mountains.

On the way to and from Pangong Lake lies a village called Tangtse, far away from the rest of the civilization in by Ladakh's standards of remoteness. I had first heard its name from Chuskit, a student who hailed from Tangtse, at SECMOL. She had described how far and unconnected the village was, way beyond the army checkpost at Chang La too. This village however seemed to be well electrified, not just from the grid, but a lot of solar panels lined the roofs as well. It must have been one terrific effort to reach such a nondescript place, I had thought then. On the last day of our stay, we got know how. It is a projetc village of LEDeG. The Ladakh Ecological Development Group (LEDeG) in collaboration with the Indian Army had installed a solar plant in the village, a project worth 1 million Euros. LEDeG, our last NGO visit, was started with an objective to provide and promote eco-friendly and sustainable livelihoods for Ladakh's residents. They are involved in several initiatives including few micro-hydel power projects, creating and building eco-friendly, solar heated buildings and processing of agricultural produce. They provided livelihood options to women SHGs by marketing their Pashmina wool products, seabuck thorn cosmetics and Apricot jam/squash, etc. LEDeG are hence pioneers in Ladakh creating many "green jobs". With a visit to their apricot processing warehouse, our workshop in Ladakh came to an end.

A bird's eye view of the Leh town and adjoining villages. Poplar trees dominate the vegetation, just as the mountains dominate the skyline. 

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"… and right now, the sun is bright, the air is cool, my head is clear, there's a whole day ahead of us, we're almost to the mountains, it's a good day to be alive. It's this thinner air that does it. You always feel like this when you start getting into higher altitudes."

Buddhist flags adorn the skyline near the Shanti Stupa in Leh. The beautiful Himalayas are the omnipresent wonders of the district.

It is true that there is a stillness, an inner calm and a opportunity to introspect that only mountain spaces can provide. If two completely opposite words can be juxtaposed- like barren and beautiful- it befits a place like Ladakh alone. Prayaan had pushed me on to some planes of thought that I had ignorantly missed earlier. A narrow perspective of even rural issues, I had limited my thinking only to the problems and lifestyles of the villages in the plains, coasts and deserts. Why I never thought of the mountains, I do not know. A prejudice when shattered, perhaps, offers a greater learning than to learn something afresh. Hence, when exposed to the  travails of Ladakh's mountain rural communities in terms of  climate, livelihoods, education, ecology and whatnot- there was a cloudburst of new questions, thinking and learning. Through the sweeping roads of the mountainside, along the curves of River Indus, across the brown rocky terrains, amidst the lean towering Poplars, beneath the gigantic bright blue umbrella- there was all the time in the world to unlearn and relearn. That perhaps is the biggest learning- the necessity to constantly unlearn.

As long as that, everyday is a good day to be alive!

Panorama of the Pangong Lake, just as the sun peeped for a small bit. The iridescent colours of the lake- myriad shades of blue and green and occasional grey- was a sight to behold. (Courtesy- Akanksha Srivastava)