Pause and Resume

by Shravya Rao (India)

Making a local connection India

To beat the summer heat in my side of the country, I travelled to the cold dessert of India, Leh-Ladakh. The month of May was the warmest 8-16°C in Leh and they enjoyed as their tourism boomed and their business florished. Most people in that region worked for Border Road Organization, Indian Military or Tourism Industry. Why? I was yet to figure. On the Second day of my tour, I was to visit the highest motorable road in the world, The Khardungla Pass. When I started off, I was expecting to find bumpy, broken and narrow roads. So many metres up there, how could you possibly build beautiful roads? The soil is so grainy and sandy that finding a landslide is as common as finding a tourist in that region. Yet, the roads there were as stunning and smooth as my shampooed hair. So many workers constantly cleaning up the mess caused by landslides blocking the roads, so many others guiding vehicles to pass through and miliary men overseeing the same but holding weapons. The roads there encircling the mountains and are so dangerous. One wheel off the road and death is waiting thousands of feet below. I realized, the process is never ending, there's no day when road is left untouched by workers of Border Road Organization. Bravo BRO! On the Third day, I visited the Pangong Tso Lake. A freezing yet gorgeous lake in the Indo- China border 223kms from the City of Leh. The journey was more beautiful because of a unexpected snowfall that I got to experience. The even more unexpected part was seeing such a large numbers of Military troops at every short interval of time. The security process that we had to get through took time and that's when I got off the car to get some air. I walked down the road following the smell of hot and fresh noodles and found a military camp. The place was filled with people who worked for BRO and also few tourists sitting, using oxygen cylinders, covered in blankets, eating noodles and sipping hot water. Out of curiosity, I went to the entrance and talked to a man in uniform. Itseems the tourists were rescued from a van that was trapped under a landslide. Something hit me then; the scenic beauty of this region was so tantalizing that the life risk involved is hardly cared about. I could die, a few minutes or few hours later when mother nature feels like it. But even after knowing that, it was some sort of a spell on us tourists that keeps us wanting to continue. I realized, them military camps were not just for border security but also to help us spell bound tourists in case of emergency. On the last day of my stay in Leh, I went to the local market few metres from my hotel room, Looking for something to take home, something indigenious to this place. My eyes fell on the boxes of spotless bright red cherries that almost looked unreal! I went to the shop and enquired. He said they were just coming from the farm and were fresh and would cost 200 rupees per box that contained approximately 100gms of these cherries. I tasted one and immediately bought a couple of boxes! Must say, they were unbelievable! I was worried how long would they last till they spoiled. He said it would last a week easily. I then carried these boxes and went back to the hotel. The man in the reception offered to carry the boxes to my car as I was about to leave to the airport. While waiting for my driver, I asked the receptionist as to what do people do for livelihood here. He said quite unfazed, "Madam, Our livelihood is completely based on the summer months when tourists appear. March to Mid-June that is. We work for road organization, some in military, in farms, reopen hotels, tourist taxis, collect money, buy our groceries and survive the cold winter's when all we can do slightly well, is breathe." I fell silent and thought to myself. I realized, we comfortably enjoy visiting such regions because people like that exist!