Kashmir /2

The best thing about a vacation is that you don’t have to get up at 6 o’clock in the morning, at least not every day. And since Firdaus promised to come only after 9 AM, we felt all the more relaxed in the morning. While going through a much awaited leisurely morning, we were getting ready and having breakfast, when Firdaus called. He was halfway to Sonamarg from Srinagar, and just wanted to politely inquire if we have woken up, or were still in bed. After we assured him that we are indeed all set to go, he was pacified and we continued on our breakfast. Till yesterday, we had learned a few important things about Kashmir, including the good nature of people, huge portions of meal, dinner being served early etc. Another thing that we learned this morning was that it was essential to carry cash in Kashmir, because plastic money is not accepted everywhere, and ATMs are far and between. Sonamarg is a tiny hamlet, and we were told that the marketplace is just a few hundred metres from the hotel, on the east… “Bas, mushkil se adha kilometre hai Sir”.

So duly after stuffing ourselves with a sufficiently heavy breakfast, we started our walk towards the market, where we would be able to find the ATM. It was not yet nine by then, and we had more than a half hour before we could slip our deadline of half past nine, as promised to Firdaus. And while we were walking by the Sindh river, we learned our next lesson of life. Never trust when a villager tells you the distance. I had earlier read about it around twenty years back in a book titled “The Man-Eaters of Tsavo”. It was a wonderful book about a British engineer laying down a railroad in Kenya where he encounters two man-eater lions. I have always been fascinated by wildlife, and this book strengthened the love between me and forests. It was in this book, that the author John Henry Patterson, talks about the typical Swahili response “Mbali Kidogo” whenever he asks a local how far it is. The literal meaning of Mbali Kidogo is “just a little far”, but in reality, he had to walk for miles before reaching the destination.  This was primarily due to the difference in walking habits among the city and village people, the latter walk so much and so often, that the distances seem a little shorter to them. I recalled this phrase when we were walking towards the Sonamarg market, the half a kilometre seemed to continue for one and half kilometres at least. The army is omnipresent in Kashmir; you will find an army settlement at every corner. Even in Sonamarg on our way to the market, we went past a small army camp.

Even while we were so close to our brave soldiers, I was not feeling very happy. Of course it has nothing to do with the presence of the soldiers. I was worried about the next step if we found the ATM to be non-functional. Surely there would not be another ATM within a radius of fifty kilometres, and we do not have enough money to clear our hotel bills. Luckily for us, our fears were unfounded, and we could indeed take out sufficient money to clear our worries for next two days. By then, it was pretty close to the deadline of half past nine, and we called up Firdaus to fetch us from the market. He happily drove down in less than two minutes, and within the next five minutes, we were on our way to Kargil. Firdaus told us that we will have to cross the Zojila pass on the way.

My knowledge about mountain passes started from primary school when I first read about the famed Khyber Pass. I had made up an image in my mind that the Khyber Pass would be a narrow straight road with steep mountains on both sides. But afterwards, I had seen pictures of different mountain passes on the internet, and realized that a mountain pass is actually a long winding road. The pass actually goes around the mountain rather than cutting through it. Both I and Somodatta are fond of seaside holidays as compared to hills, and Zojila was going to be my first mountain pass. “La” means pass in several Himalayan languages, so you will find Bomdila in Arunachal Pradesh, Nathula in Sikkim and so on. After a very short while, we started climbing up the mountains. Slowly, we could see that the hills are getting barren and there is no sign of vegetation. Due to this, the soil and rocks in the mountains are often loose, and landslides are a common occurrence in this part of the world. The army does a commendable job every single time, clearing up the road and making it fit for travel once again whenever there is a snowfall or a landslide. Because of the frequent landslides, the road is quite muddy and rocky, and frighteningly narrow at some places. The highest point of Zojila pass is around 30 kilometres from Sonamarg, and is at a height of 3500 metres, approximately seven hundred metres higher than Sonamarg. After getting off the Zojila pass, the car stopped at a place called Zero Point to give all of us a break.

For all of us who have stayed in the North-East and have had the chance of travelling between Shillong and Silchar by road, we know that all the buses take a break at Ladrymbai. We also know that Ladrymbai is the worst place to take a break because it’s always very cold and the food options and toilet facilities are the worst among all places. Zero Point reminded me of Ladrymbai. Predictable as we are, we asked for three cups of Kahwa and a plate of anda-maggi. Firdaus whispered in our ears warning us not to buy anything as everything is highly overpriced, but we really wanted to have some tea. From here, the road conditions seem to be improving, and we rolled on our way to Kargil. After driving through a little more than an hour, Firdaus said that we were approaching the place where the war was fought. On the left, we saw the word Tololing painted on a hill, and realized that we had approached the war zone. I told myself that I will stop to take a picture when we are nearer. Immediately afterwards, we saw the gate of Kargil War Memorial on our left. It seemed that Firdaus had not been here earlier, and was not aware whether this is open for public. But then we found the parking and entered the sprawling compound, designed in the memory of those who had laid down their lives in the Kargil war of 1999.

 Most of us would be aware of the causes, proceedings and outcomes of the Kargil war. After the Simla Agreement signed between India and Pakistan in 1972 in the aftermath of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, it has been a practice that both nations moved their troops to the warmer locations during the winters. Same practice was adopted by the local villagers and also by quite a few people of Leh city, as there is nothing much to do in terms of trade during the winters. In the summer of 1999 when the villagers came back, they found infiltrators in the region. These infiltrators had started shelling on the NH1D highway, the only road connecting Leh and Srinagar thereby disrupting the complete traffic and army movement. Later on, we also saw a wall that the Indian army had built overnight to protect the highway. The initial response from Pakistan was that these intruders were terrorists and that the government of Pakistan had no hand in it. Finally, after a long battle in extremely hostile conditions, the Indian army could drive away the enemy from our territory on 26^th July 1999, and since then this day is celebrated as Kargil Vijay Diwas, named after Operation Vijay, the codename given to the Kargil war. There is another Vijay Diwas, which is celebrated on 16^th December, which commemorates the day in 1971 when the Pakistan army surrendered to the Indian army in Dhaka.

The war memorial brought back the memories of the Kargil war, and also reinforced the sacrifices that our soldiers had to give to retain the sovereignty of our nation. We spent almost an hour in the memorial, after which we proceeded towards Kargil. We reached Kargil by around two in the afternoon in the Zojila Residency hotel, which we had booked earlier. One problem that we started to encounter in the hotels in Kashmir started from here, and it is possibly due to the low influx of tourists. Very few hotels provide hot water round the clock, and it is a common practice to have warm water in the morning and evening only. As luck would have it, most of the time, we were checking in to the hotels in the afternoon, and were forced to wait for an hour or two before we could freshen up.  We had by now, made it a practice to order Kahwa wherever possible. After having a refreshing cup of Kahwa, we went out on a short walk around Kargil town. Our room overlooked the Suru river, which was a tributary of Indus. The main street of Kargil also went along the banks of the Suru river, and there are a few bridges to connect both banks. Due to the high altitude and lack of vegetation, the air is much thinner in Kargil and Leh, and we were warned about the problems of breathlessness. Normally, it is very difficult to predict who would be affected by it, as there is no distinct pattern like exercise preventing it, or smoking aggravating it. Somodatta had started to feel mildly short of breath, and we had a fair bit of walk, so we decided that it would be a good time to return back to our hotel, and go for an early dinner. In spite of not having legal regulations against alcohol consumption, we rarely found alcoholic beverages being sold or consumed in Kashmir. Not that it bothered us to a great extent, but I felt that more supply of alcohol may boost the business around tourism. Of course, the local customs have to be respected, and societal norms should be given priority over money.

Next day’s trip was to Alchi, which was at a slightly longer distance than what we travelled today. Firdaus had requested us to move out earlier, and we were pretty tired too, so the bed was hit quite early. Till now, everything has been very smooth, and we prayed it to remain this way itself.