I stayed in Leh for a week. Everyday was the
same. Camera shy Sonam Uncle used to wake up at 7 and do his daily prayer. I
would wake up to suffocating smoke. It used to be the incense that uncle lit every
morning. Like us, they don’t light one or two incense sticks, instead they
light up a whole bunch of them. The incense also doesn’t have a particularly
pleasant smell.. Its just smoke. It took a couple of days of getting used to. Dolma
aunty used to wake up at 9 am and go straight to the kitchen. Can you imagine
if we people had the luxury of waking at 9! Even housewives in the cities don’t
have that luxury. Padma, Dolma aunty’s youngest daughter and I, used to lay
awake watching Chota Bheem or Doremon until aunty would come with breakfast. She is 10 and studies in class 5. The rest of the day was spent visiting relatives, helping Padma do her holiday homework, watching TV, strolling around the city. The day ended around 5pm. The streets would be completely deserted by 6pm. Evenings were spent watching DD Leh, a 1 hour program and then Karan-Arjun kinda movies. Padma and I mostly spent the evening dancing away to Ladakhi and Tibetan songs. Dinner was usually between 8-9. We would be off to bed by 11.30.
Lazy 10 am in the morning inside
10 am outside
Me and Padma
In Ladakh, bathing, brushing etc, are not on the
priority list in any season. Breakfast was had sitting in the razai, roti in
hand with old mango pickle in it, sharing a bowl of previous night’s dal with
Padma. Minimal use of utensils is a priority. There are no maids there and
Dolma aunty has to do all the washing. There was this one time when I accompanied
aunty to the kitchen with plates and tea cups one evening. She was washing them
while we chatted. It so happened that she forgot to wipe them dry and left
several of the damp plates on the surface. After about 5 mins she realized what
had happened, I didn't understand what was happening until I saw her wedge them
out with a steel spatula as they had frozen stuck to the stone surface.
Frost on the window every morning
Icicles on the window.. had never seem them
shaped like this. Always thought cartoons exaggerated them.
New Year’s night was spent watching a special 1
hour program of DD Leh, the whole hour 10 to 11 (I think) was in Ladakhi. It
showed the year gone by in Ladakh- The booming tourism, The Leh festival in
Sep, Hemis festival, Losar among others. We had to sleep by 11.30 pm because
the power was out and it was pitch dark to do anything else. The entire city was also asleep by then.
What surprised me was the continuous power
supply, so i enquired about it. Electricity to Leh is usually supplied by a giant generator located bang
in the middle of the city. Power was supplied only from 6 to 11pm everyday in
summer. But in winter this time, there was power all through the day, leaving
of course, minor power outages. I was told that a new Hydel power plant had
been set up on the Zanskar. No sooner had I asked the question,
the power went out and didn't return till the next evening. Rinchen informed us
that the Zanskar had frozen! Problems that can arise only in Ladakh..
Rinchen is Sonam uncle’s brother. He is the go
to guy for vacationing in Leh. You only need to tell him the places you want to
visit and bham! Everything is ready. Extremely sweet guy, he visited everyday
and gave me company lest I should get bored.
Rinchen
On one of the days I accompanied Padma to the
skating rink. Ice hockey and ice skating are very big in Leh. Ice hockey tournament
is held here annually and teams from the armed forces and other countries also
participate.
Padma and her friend skating
Of the 7 days that I stayed on Leh, my birthday
celebrations lasted 4 days. On 3rd Jan, we had chocolate and strawberry
pastries that we bought from a local bakery. On my actual birthday – 4th, I went and bought Aloo Tikkis, apparently
they are aunty’s favourite and Jalebis. Yes, you get the famous dilli ki chaat
in Leh throughout the year.
Me and Padma all geared up
This guy got a whiff of the aloo tikkis we were carrying and
followed us all the way from main market to chubi
Aunty made her special Momos for dinner. The momos
were made in typical ladakhi style out of wheat flour and were stuffed with all
available veggies and paneer. On the third day aunty made chicken. Though I am
a vegetarian, uncle insisted that Veg Momos was not a dish fit for birthday
celebration and a non-veg dish should be made. Being a flexible vegiesaurus I agreed
to have the gravy of the chicken dish, which as it turned out was the dal of
the previous night :-)
The next day, Padma tried freezing a mixture of milkmaid
and milk in an ice tray in the FRIDGE! She wanted to make ice cream for my birthday.
The mixture did not freeze inspite of being in the fridge the whole day. Disheartened, Padma
agreed to have it as it is for dessert after dinner. But by the time the ice tray
made the journey from the fridge in the kitchen to the living room, it had
frozen. We had milk ice cubes with toothpicks sticking out of them :-)
Padma
with her ice tray ice-cream
Although I had decided not to take a bath,
eventually I decided to have one for experimental purpose. So, I did bathe. Aunty heated the water with an immersion rod and it was surprisingly pleasant. Only
problem was it became freezing cold by the time it hit my feet. Aunty
warned me not to step outside with wet hair or they would freeze. Trying to be
a daredevil I stepped out to hang my towel for drying and freeze they did! Tiny
icicles formed all over my head. I tried clicking them but my camera could not focus. It was fun scrunching and crushing the icicles.. only to find icicle and hair pieces in my hand!
frozen feet after bathing.. trust me they were looking blueish :-P
All in all, it was a trip like never before. I
was completely alone but was never alone or lonely to the point that for 2 days
I forgot to call up home. The family was so loving and caring that I did not
miss mine even for a minute. I have travelled to many places, but have always
remained a tourist, here I was at home.
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ReplyDeleteSuch fun.
ReplyDeleteAnd you remained a vegetarian even after having the chicken gravy eh? Dal is all that is in your fate ;-)
lol.. couldn't do dharm bhrasht just cause aunty served it so lovingly na? :-D Also i was apprehensive of my tummy being so queasy.. so didn't want to experiment.
DeleteSeems you had a lot of fun :)
ReplyDeleteCheers
CRD
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteWow..splendid account. Will it be possible for u to recommend anyone for help with stay during last week of January 2014?
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ReplyDeletethese kinds of information.