Monday, May 29, 2000
Journey To Ladakh- Part 4
Rasik Shah
Rasik Shah was born in the Indian diaspora in the colonial apartheid type society of Kenya in the early forties. Having grown up in a multi-ligual, multi-racial society, he studied law in the London of the early sixties and went back to Kenya, practising as a criminal lawyer. He migrated with his young family to Canada in 1974 and practised law in Vancouver till 1995. He has been conducting trekking tours to the Garwhal region of India in the last few years and is now retired from law, writing full time. He has short stories at the following sites:
1. "The Ngong Hills" at www.dorsai.org/~tjhubsc/ngong.htm
2. "At the Dentist's" at www.es.co.nz/~treeves/rasik.htm
3. "The Discreet Charm of Nairobbers" at: www.litnet.mweb.co.za
4. http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/%7Erbb0/academic/projects/okri/discussion.html#magicalrealism
Currently he is working on a novel set in Kenya. He plans to lead a trekking group to Gaumukh, the source of the Ganges in September, 2000. (See his articles on the Gangotri-Tapovan trek in the previous issues of Sawf), and a jeep safari to Leh, Ladakh overland from Shimla via Lahaul and Spiti in the summer of 2001.
Please address any queries to him at: rshah132@home.com
|
 |
On Day 5 of starting point in Delhi, the plan is to travel northwest from Shimla to Rampur and Sarahan. We have very pleasant memories of Shimla and the warmth of its people. Apart from the Swiss swami, I met a most impressive teacher called Krishna who was particularly knowledgeable about the flora in Himachal Pradesh and the various herbs that grew wild everywhere. Leaving Shimla at an altitude of 2130 meters we head towards Narkanda at 3143 meters through a winding mountainous road which under the constant Monsoon drizzle is becoming more and more soggy. We have a relatively uneventful journey to Rampur, but our progress through the soggy, mud road is slow and we decide to stay on in Rampur for the night. We check in at a very pleasant HPTDC rest house and take a round of the town, visiting an old palace of the Maharajah of the region, now converted into a museum.
 Chili lines up a great dinner for all of us in the evening, having taken over the kitchen, using our own groceries and cooking equipment. The next morning we are off to Sarahan. The weather is getting colder and many of us in the bus wrap ourselves in our sleeping bags to keep warm. We are to experience difficulties on the road to Sarahan. It is a dangerous, winding, slippery road carved out of the mountainside.
 Traffic is heavy, lines of trucks with heavy cargo loads, trudging up the mountainous road, spewing diesel and churning out mud as they meander through the mud, sometimes hitting cliff edges dangerously, an inch or two before the edge of the road. At one point a truck had lodged itself into the mud at a sharp angle against the rock face of the wall on the upper side of the road, blocking the whole road to any traffic movement on either side.
We are to spend hours and hours to wait for help to arrive and pull out the stuck truck. It was not clear to us what help was being waited for. A road works tractor was parked further up, but there was no sign of the driver, who was said to be due back, some time that afternoon. We had given up on how the mysteries of the rumourmill up on this high mountain region network functioned. We gave in and rested inside the bus, stretching out in our sleeping bags. Already, one or two people had developed headaches, signs that high altitude was having its effects. Anand Vaidya, the ayurvedic doctor on board with us, handed out some bright, ruby-coloured ayurvedic pills to those who complained of any early signs of altitude sickness. These usually worked wonders - to the extent that I was recently told by one of the members of the party that Anand's pills were laced with some special narcotic herb! I have no doubt that Anand would have told us if that were the case. In fact, Anand was to prove an extremely useful member of the team, both medically and in terms of his leadership capabilities. In the times ahead when we faced some emergencies, he showed exceptional qualities as a man who could take care of things and do the right thing in any dangerous or threatening situation. I recently contacted Anand in India and dug up some details about his background for the purposes of these articles.
Anand comes from a line of ayurvedic doctors in Surat, Gujarat. He followed in the footsteps of his forefathers in pursuing this career. In his younger years he got interested in mountaineering and completed some Outward Bound courses, and later some mountain rescue training. He would tell us about some of his enthralling mountain rescue adventures later on in this trip. His ayurvedic background is impeccable. His grandfather, Dr. Bapalal Vaidya was a pioneer populariser of Ayurvedic medicine. He wrote about 45 books on ayurveda. He also founded the Surat College of Ayurveda and an Ayurvedic hospital in Surat. Anand's father was a professor at the aforesaid college. Anand himself has been practicing ayurvedic medicine since 1982.
Anyway, it was a long day's journey to Sarahan, the gateway to Kinnaur. We got there just about as it got dark and were glad to find that we still had accommodation at the Rest House where we were booked for the previous night.
The next morning after a sumptuous breakfast which Chili and the staff served us on a table laid in the centre of a soccer field, we walked around looking at the famous Bhimkali Temple, built in a curious blend of Hindu and Buddhist architecture, a mix of Nepali and Indian forms.
We did a lot of walking, taking advantage of the sunny weather for the first time for some days now, always conscious of the need to acclimatize for the times ahead. In the late afternoon we went to the central square in the village and enjoyed watching the kids play their games in this very healthy-seeming environment.
The next day we headed for Shangla, partly along the old Hindustan-Tibet Road, taking a diversion into the pretty Bapsa valley and camped at the edge of Village Shangla.
En route, it was fun watching the carefree Himachal belles, shepherd girls driving cattle home and carrying heavy bails of hay.
The next morning we walk to the nearby village of Kamroo to see its magnificent Hindu and Buddhist temples. After lunch, we drive to Kalpa, and then to Nako, where we camp..
After Kalpa we have been getting into high Himalayan terrain along the Tibetan border, stopping at Nako, for overnight camping. In and around Nako, we see a blend of Buddhist-Hindu culture, plentiful gray slabs of rock everywhere, often inscribed with engraved letters the words "Om Mane Padme Hum" in a Tibetan script. The words literally meant "the jewel in the lotus".
The next morning, outside our tent we found heaps of those stone slabs. Melinda and I were washing our faces, using hot water from a bowl and a piece of soap, which I placed on one of the Om Mane Padme Humh slabs. As we stood rinsing our hair, a young lad of about fifteen came running towards us, shouting warnings in Hindi about not using those sacred slabs for such mundane purposes such as washing ourselves. Actually all we had done was place a bar of soap on one of the slabs. But the boy warned us that the gods would be angry and it would start raining heavily if we continued doing what we were doing. I decided to complete my washing for another minute or two, and lo and behold, heavy raindrops started falling. The boy was very agitated, saying "I told you so" and insisting that we remove the soap from the sacred slab. Realizing my insensitivity, and the fact that the gods were proving the boy right, I quickly removed the soap from the slab and put it away. Soon the raindrops withered out and it was dry, the boy gone on his way.
Soon, on our way to the ancient town of Tabo, we pass stone chortens in white limestone, hardy relics in a windswept, desolate landscape on to one of the most remote, cut-off regions of the world.
Rasik Shah is leading a trek to the source of the Ganges and Tapovan this year in September. There will also be an overland jeep safari of Ladakh in the summer of 2001, going via Lahaul and Spiti. See future issues of Sawf Magazine for Rasik Shah's articles on Ladakh and past issues for the articles on Ganges and Tapovan trek.
For further details or inquiries please e-mail him at: rshah132@home.com
In India his trek and tour organizer is:
Neelamber Badoni
Trek Himalaya Tours Pvt. Ltd.
The Upper Mall, Jhulaghar
MUSSOORIE (UP) INDIA
Ph. 011-91-0135-630491
Telefax: 011-91-0135-631302
E-mail: trekhimalaya@vsnl.com
Or:
neelubadoni@rediffmail.com
Credits
- Photographs taken by the Chris Friesen.
 Start a discussion on this article
|
