Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Occupation zone
We had a fantastic time on our trip to India - I am going to milk this for blog stories till the end of the year for sure. But sometimes a little something happens...
We were in Leh, and after having spent the whole day exploring we ended up at Mall road. There were 2 Scorpio loads of us, and since the guys were taking forever, getting the digital cards downloaded, I asked dad if us women could just take a vehicle and return. He said no. we had to wait.
As you can see, Leh is the smallest of towns and at night pretty dark. As we were all returning to the camp, there was this narrow little bridge type of place and we could see that an army jeep had gone off the road a little. Our Scorpios were civillian, hired vehicles. Suddenly we heard some yelling. We had in any case slowed down, to negotiate the narrow gap. We ignored the yelling, and it grew more insistent and abusive. The driver stopped looking scared, and rolled down his window. A JCO stuck his head in and asked in filthy Hindi, why we had not stopped , "abbey m*** roka kyo nahin? " And then demanded that we take the passengers in his jeep and drop them somewhere pretty far.
My dad then, in his most freezing voice said " suno, main XXRank YY name hoon aur abhi hamein us raasta nahin jaana". The volte face ws something to watch. The soldier immediately saluted, theek hai sir.
We were all a little stunned. And I timidly ventured, "he was not exactly asking for a lift was he?" Dad said," beta, this place is under army occupation. Ladakh tow thik hai, friendly territory, nothing like Kashmir" My dad, I migt add, despite a distinguished career has reatained both his judgement and his conscience, or may be because... but I am a daddy's girl.
And I thought about it- I mean if you can commandeer a private vehicle without a qualm in Ladakh, there is a lot more one can do in Kashmir. He was in the North East and he told me once that the government is creating another Kashmir there.
So who's watching?
Dad has been away from home since the earthquake, overseeing relief ops near Srinagar. And he will be away for a few weeks more at least. As are many of my good buddies in the army. I know they are doing great work. And I also know that army supervision breeds resentment in many different ways. Power corrupts - absolutely.
We were in Leh, and after having spent the whole day exploring we ended up at Mall road. There were 2 Scorpio loads of us, and since the guys were taking forever, getting the digital cards downloaded, I asked dad if us women could just take a vehicle and return. He said no. we had to wait.
As you can see, Leh is the smallest of towns and at night pretty dark. As we were all returning to the camp, there was this narrow little bridge type of place and we could see that an army jeep had gone off the road a little. Our Scorpios were civillian, hired vehicles. Suddenly we heard some yelling. We had in any case slowed down, to negotiate the narrow gap. We ignored the yelling, and it grew more insistent and abusive. The driver stopped looking scared, and rolled down his window. A JCO stuck his head in and asked in filthy Hindi, why we had not stopped , "abbey m*** roka kyo nahin? " And then demanded that we take the passengers in his jeep and drop them somewhere pretty far.
My dad then, in his most freezing voice said " suno, main XXRank YY name hoon aur abhi hamein us raasta nahin jaana". The volte face ws something to watch. The soldier immediately saluted, theek hai sir.
We were all a little stunned. And I timidly ventured, "he was not exactly asking for a lift was he?" Dad said," beta, this place is under army occupation. Ladakh tow thik hai, friendly territory, nothing like Kashmir" My dad, I migt add, despite a distinguished career has reatained both his judgement and his conscience, or may be because... but I am a daddy's girl.
And I thought about it- I mean if you can commandeer a private vehicle without a qualm in Ladakh, there is a lot more one can do in Kashmir. He was in the North East and he told me once that the government is creating another Kashmir there.
So who's watching?
Dad has been away from home since the earthquake, overseeing relief ops near Srinagar. And he will be away for a few weeks more at least. As are many of my good buddies in the army. I know they are doing great work. And I also know that army supervision breeds resentment in many different ways. Power corrupts - absolutely.
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Gypsy, this is terrible. Sometimes the best of minds and intentions are trapped within structures of oppressive use of power. I'm amazed that even after all these years of international attention on human rights abuses the Army hasn't straightened its act. Well, we have our political order to blame.
I was reading the post with a normal reader's view, ie about what U wished to write, but when u said that ur dad siad the govt was building another kashmir in the NE, all my view zoomed into there. Yes, I remember u wrote about the amunitions about the next Kashmir on Mikra's post. Ahem. believe me, if we leave it the way it is.ie giving a free run to the govt, its going to be a lot more uglier than Kashmir..because it already is suffering worse than Kashmir. and only getting worse. I am afraid that our race might get even wiped out.
Interesting blog, honestly... India sounded fun.
-Ryan Carl Mercer
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-Ryan Carl Mercer
http://www.ryanmercer.com
http://www.payformydegree.com
http://www.ryansthoughts.com
Hi TM, yes terrible. And I love how the first sentence reminded me of college. But you are right. And if Abu Ghraib taught us something, it is that this act can not be straightened. Guys with guns in power=bad moon rising.
Welcome Anthony:what I can I say, except that it is sad to think that you are suggesting to genocide of sorts. The all encompassing obsession with the material and rejection of self examination as a society will be the end if India. I believe it is possible to both make money and have a social conscience - Ok I am sounding like a psedo already. Take care buddy!
Welcome Anthony:what I can I say, except that it is sad to think that you are suggesting to genocide of sorts. The all encompassing obsession with the material and rejection of self examination as a society will be the end if India. I believe it is possible to both make money and have a social conscience - Ok I am sounding like a psedo already. Take care buddy!
I just got back from Kargil, which is still pretty much surrounded by the army. We were conducting a survey in the region, but despite papers issued by the Central Government, we could not go into some of the more sensitive areas like Chiktan and Panikhar...
However, I think it's important to distinguish Leh and Kargil from the rest of Kashmir. There is no crime or militancy in the region, and while the locals consider the extensive army presence an annoyance, that widespread fear and resentment of the military is not there...
However, I think it's important to distinguish Leh and Kargil from the rest of Kashmir. There is no crime or militancy in the region, and while the locals consider the extensive army presence an annoyance, that widespread fear and resentment of the military is not there...
I am not suggesting anything pal.. But a wrong sparka nd things might get very uglu turns, and with youths dying everyday, its really scary because the population itself is very small and some people are either just stubborn or too selfish.. We don't ask the govt to provide jobs or spoon feed us, but at least if we had the right infrastructure, Industry would naturaly have followed. Why in the last 50 years of development, we still don't get a railway connection... Why are there no infrastructure developemnts.. it is not just the central govt but there is a certain nexus.. encompassing many many groups.. I understand the centrl govt. stand.. we have only 2 MP and how can two MP ever have a voice in a democracy.. but the state govt is worse.. well.. its a long story.. I rarely discuss these things in my blog. We consider it our own problems..
I feel clueless.
The only thing I will add to this post is that 1 and a 1/2 years ago 2 friends of mine and I decided to go for mountain hiking and stuff to leh. My mum said 'NO'.
I remember the fight I had with her (rebellion at its finest) and it wasn't until the point where I packed my suitcase to leave that my dad intervened.
I didn't go.
I'm pretty glad.
The only thing I will add to this post is that 1 and a 1/2 years ago 2 friends of mine and I decided to go for mountain hiking and stuff to leh. My mum said 'NO'.
I remember the fight I had with her (rebellion at its finest) and it wasn't until the point where I packed my suitcase to leave that my dad intervened.
I didn't go.
I'm pretty glad.
Sphinx: that was a stray incident. Things are not that bad and I would encourage everyone to visit Leh. its lovely.
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