Destination
LEH

It is the land of breath-freezing chill and breathtaking views.
A.J. Philip gives a glimpse of life in the Cold Desert

An IAF transport aircraft takes off from the country’s highest- altitude airport.
Photo: Manoj Mahajan/The Tribune

IT was a dream journey. Inside the navigator’s cabin in the Indian Air Force transport aircraft, it was not very comfortable for the two of us. But Wing Commander Nicholas Roy not only made it enjoyable but also gave us a fascinating description of the places we overflew and the peaks and valleys we saw, as he directed the flight path in consultation with pilot Rammurthy.

Roy, a veteran navigator on the Chandigarh-Leh route, knew the landmarks on the way like the lines on his palm. In less than 50 minutes, we flew by places like Kasauli, Shimla, Manali, Tiger hills, the Manikaran, Kar Tso (lake) and the Indus river valley and reached Leh. We had a panoramic view of the town and the hills surrounding it as the aircraft touched ground.

Suddenly I remembered the late Rev Kushok Bakula, Ambassador to Mongolia, who was my host in Ulaanbataar, telling me that his monastery Sankar Gompa was the closest to the airport. Yes, there it was, bang opposite the runway, perched on a rocky hill. The civil airport in Leh is named after this warm-hearted monk, whose popularity in Mongolia had to be seen to be believed.

The shutterbugs that we are, we started clicking only to be noticed by air force personnel, who came running to prevent us from shooting. We realised the piquant situation we were in only when the officer asked us for our authorisation letter. Neither did such a letter exist, nor did the officials in Leh know about our programme. Soon, the station officiating in-charge Group Captain B.R. Krishna arrived to sort things out.

Krishna checked on the walkie-talkie to tell us that the temperature was 1.5 degree centigrade. "You do not feel that cold because there is no humidity here. If you were in Srinagar with this kind of temperature, you would have been shivering". That explained why we could brave out the freezing cold.

Overlooking the airport was the newly installed statue of Air Commodore Mehar Singh, known as the "Saviour of Ladakh". When this remote district was in a danger of being overrun by a Pakistani force from Skardu, a decision was taken to fly troops to Leh.

Flying over hills and peaks ranging from 15,000 feet to 24,000 feet, with minimal navigation tools and cartographic aids, Mehar Singh landed his Dakota at the highest airstrip in the world on May 30, 1948. The faith in him was such that none other than the commander of the land forces in the Srinagar Valley sector, Major General K.S. Thimmayya, who later became the Chief of Army Staff, accompanied him on the pioneering flight.

It is a different matter that Mehar Singh, whose adventures and exploits have inspired and would inspire generations of Air Force personnel, left the IAF in circumstances that did not redound to its credit. The statue, installed on June 20 this year, is a small tribute to the legendary flyer.

Krishna drove us in his Maruti Gypsy to the office of Air Commodore K.S. Gill, who was on leave, and gave us a little lecture on the importance of getting acclimatised before venturing out. "During the first six hours, you feel normal. Afterwards, you may have problems like headache and drowsiness. I advise you to take bed rest for the whole day. I will send a doctor to give you some preventive medicine". I never told him that the doctor did not turn up.

We were in Leh, enroute to Siachen. It was no good to tell Krishna and others that it was Defence Minister A.K. Antony who had facilitated our visit. They wanted written orders, a task that eventually fell on us. After pulling a few strings in Delhi, our helicopter ride to Siachen the next morning and back was finally cleared.

At Khardungla IV, our accommodation, named after the highest motorable pass in the world, we learnt why an electric rod, instead of a geyser, was provided in the bathroom. Water expands when it freezes. So the water container in the geyser will break when water turns into ice. So geysers are not used in the Ladakh region.

Leh does not have proper electricity supply. The whole Air Force station is dependent on diesel-run generators for its electricity needs. Every time I switched on the electric rod to heat water, I felt guilty. But there was no alternative. After a good nap and with no discomforts, we decided to explore the town a bit.

A short drive took us to the Shanti Stupa at Changspa, on the outskirts of Leh. Built by the "Japanese for World Peace" to celebrate 2,500 years of Buddhism, it was inaugurated by the Dalai Lama in 1985. The best spot to view Leh is the Stupa. Small wonder that tourists visit it in droves and Yahoo’s Flickr site has numerous photographs of the beautiful landmark.

Our talkative but helpful driver, a Himachali, shared with us his plans for the future. He had already done his masters in Hindi literature. He had a B.Ed, too, to boot. Once he clinched a government teacher’s job in his home state, he would leave the Air Force and avail of the full pension benefits. He was as keen to show us the Zorawar Singh Fort and Museum as we were keen to visit it.

For starters, General Zorawar Singh Kahluria was a great military strategist, whose loyalty to Kashmir ruler Gulab Singh was as unalloyed as pure gold. Known as the "Napolean of India", he crossed the paths of people belonging to the Buddhist, Muslim and animist faiths but never interfered with their religious practices. Plunder and robbery were as alien to him as air-conditioners are to the Ladakhis.

The museum was closed but the resourceful driver managed to get it opened for us. It contains invaluable artifacts associated with the great General, like his clothes and weapons. Surprisingly, his military endeavors were balanced by a life of modesty and restraint. He was so honest that he would transfer to his master any gifts or tribute that came to him. He did not leave behind either vast properties or deep coffers for his descendants, only a legacy that makes every Indian proud.

Come to think of it, Tibet would have been part of India if his Tibet expedition had not run into rough weather and many of his soldiers had not lost their limbs to frostbite, the deadliest weapon Zorawar Singh encountered. Dusk had fallen as we came out of the mud-walled Fort. Three children collecting firewood outside the museum panicked when we readied our cameras. After a little bit of cajoling, they began to giggle and laugh.

From there we headed to the main bazaar area of Leh. The footpaths were all taken over by vegetable and curio sellers. The minarets of the main mosque towered over the streets. "I will show you a tree planted by Guru Nanak Dev. It has miraculous powers. Within a few days of praying there, I got my promotion orders", said the driver as he led us through a narrow path beside the mosque.

Stories abound about the tree, once the tallest in Leh. An inscription there says, "Sacred Tree" known as "Datun (Miswak) Sahib is everlasting memory of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji (Rimpoche Lama) the Great prophet who sanctified this place by his sacred visit during the year 1517 while on his second missionary tour (2nd Udassi 1515-1518). He put this Datun (Miswak) here, which became a huge tree in Ladakh area where there was no tree at the time. This sacred tree is well known among our Muslim and Buddhist brethren for its sacredness. The aim of Guruji was to establish greenery in the highest desert of the world as well as in the hearts of human beings."

The driver spent a few minutes praying with his forehead pressed to the tree. Maybe for his next promotion or for the coveted teacher’s job! It was time for us to return to Khardung la IV as the temperature had dropped beyond our tolerance.

The bed had a Chinese electric device that kept it warm through the night. Since it was on high-heat mode, I had to wake up a few hours later with the heat having become unbearable.

We got up early to get ready. I forgot the saying, "Be a Ladakhi while you are in Ladakh", when I got ready for a bath. I had no clue that the toothpaste could freeze in the tube, until I pushed a small piece onto the brush and finally into the mouth. It was like brushing the teeth with a piece of ice. The water was warm but it was a torture taking off layers of warm clothes in sub-zero temperature and, again, wearing them.

We were at the helipad on the dot, only to be told that the weather was bad and the Khardung la was cloudy with little visibility. Wing Commander Nishant Sharma, who was to pilot us, kept looking at the Pass and telling us that the situation was deteriorating, rather than improving.

"The weather here is treacherous. It looks like we may have to abandon today’s programme". Sharma’s words had an element of certainty. Was that the end of our dream visit to Siachen? "Don’t get disheartened, you may be able to fly tomorrow" said Krishna, mainly to comfort us. He asked AV Athavale, a young Maharashtrian, who feels thrilled every time he flies a helicopter, to show us the hangar.

Sharma and Athavale belong to Siachen Pioneers, a helicopter wing of the IAF, raised in 1984. It got an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for undertaking the largest casualty evacuations. The hangar is always kept in moderate temperature so that the helicopters do not have starting problems. In Leh, parked diesel vehicles are started every hour to keep these in running condition.

How long can one see a hangar? We decided to go to the magnetic hill, located on the Leh-Kargil national highway, about 30 km from Leh. A signboard marks the location. The hill has magnetic properties, strong enough to move vehicles. The driver stopped the vehicle and put it in neutral gear. Lo and behold, it started moving against the gradient. "Even trucks are pulled uphill," said the driver, who wanted me to click him with his fancy mobile camera.

He drove us down the road for another kilometer to show a tributary of the Sindhu merging into the river that gave the country and my niece their names. From the road the river looked close but only when we tried to throw a stone into the river did we realise how far it was.

Belief has it that Guru Nanak meditated here in the 15th century. The Army has constructed a gurdwara called Gurdwara Pather Sahib here to commemorate the event. In this gurdwara there is a big stone on which the imprint of the body of Guru Nanak Dev is engraved.

The priest, a soldier, told us the story about the stone. When Guruji was meditating here, a local "rakshas" who controlled the area did not like it. He pushed a huge piece of rock down the hill to hit Guruji. But surprisingly, it stopped short of hitting him. When the "rakshas" saw it, he became so violent that he gave the stone a kick. He also showed us the imprint of his foot.

I felt the "rakshas" of hunger as the watch ticked 2.30 p.m. Though my friend Colonel Anto Chacko was waiting for us at the Fire and Fury officers’ mess to have lunch with us, we accepted the priest’s invitation to have langar, which consisted of roti, dal and pickles.

Colonel Chacko, who heads the Sadbhavana wing of the Army, which has built bridges and hostels, and dug several wells and planted countless trees in a bid to establish better Army-people relations, showed us one such bridge, which was nearing completion. On a request, he took us to the Moravian Church, built in 1892, easily the highest functioning church in the world with about 200 members.

Set up by the German missionaries, the church has withstood the vicissitudes of wars and climes. "Do a Google search on the church to know more about it," said Rev Elijah Gergan, the parish priest who had to leave for an urgent appointment. The German missionaries at Leh were treated as "enemies" during the first and second world wars and even arrested by the British forces.

"It was the local people who provided them sustenance during their period of trial" said the priest as he showed me the spot where the great archaeologist, explorer and cartographer Aurel Stein’s leg was amputated because of frostbite.

From there we went to the Catholic Church, hexagonal in shape, which caters mainly to the Catholic Army and Air Force personnel. It is the highest Catholic Church in the world. We left Colonel Chacko at his quarters and returned to Khardung la IV. A peg of brandy with hot water was all we needed before we had dinner and went to bed with the prayer: "May Khardung la open for us and may we be able to complete our Mission Siachen". (To be concluded)

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