BIRD TALK

RAYS OF NEW HOPE

As the rays of spring glare, the silent and gloomy winter days come to its end. Spring with its bright golden rays enters and infuses the soul of beauty in the universe. It gives way to bright sunny days and new life. The days start with the chirping of birds and gradually the greenery overcast all around and various flowering fruits trees get in full blossom. Once again we get to smell the sweet fragrance of different flora that bore varieties of beautiful flowers and delicious fruits.

This season provides new life to different species. The different species of Arial animal in this season collect straws to rebuild their nests that damaged in winter. With the dawn of this season kindergarten schools open where children’s clad in different shinning attires and having  smile on their faces also adds the charm of this season. Similarly other academic institutions like schools, colleges and universities were also open during this season.

This season also develops a new hope. Farmers having plough on their shoulder once again came down in their barren field and furrow it for cultivation. Businesses are also blissful and flourish during this season. It means from a small insect to a human being pleased with the advent of this season.

The migratory birds once again visit their old abode and collects straws in order to rebuild their damaged nests. Sparrow which we called ‘Nazbi’, Crow ‘Forok’ Hoopop ‘Puth puth’ etc are migratory birds that comes during this season. But there are some other species also in our areas that are so beautiful and have matchless features.  Birds like Abichubi, Toto bi, Brok bi etc. They are different in colours like black and white, yellow mix with black, light brown etc.  So these are the birds that reside in our area during summer season especially found in Broks (forest), springs water and channels.

‘Magpie’ which we called as Khashaqmuru, is a unique bird only found in our Ladakh region and has its worthful features. Similarly Ruveetmar and Tsintaliq are the birds that accompany with us during whole seasons of a year, especially during ruthless chill season.

Due to some ecological imbalance now many of these birds are became extinct because of the advancement in technologies, now these birds are rarely found in our vicinity and some of these birds that reside during the whole season especially during cold months that their thrilling sounds accompany with us and never let us feel the absence of those chirping sound of migratory birds.

Imagine, if these loving species which accompany with us especially during harsh winter season and enthrall us with their mellifluous voices are extinct.  Can we miss them and feel their absence? How we could enjoy and spent those harsh months in the absence of these enchanting sounds of those loving birds?

I appeal to the people of this snow land, its administration especially the concerned department to consider all this, if they are really concerned about these species. They must realize that these birds also have a right to life.

                          Abdul Hussain Muntazree

                           R/o  Chumikchan Sankoo.

             Published in 'Rangyul' a fortnightly Newspaper of Ladakh

Sankoo: Gulmargh of Ladakh

Sankoo is one of the tourist resorts in district Kargil, which is popularly known as the Gulmargh of Kargil. There is no doubt that the valley has everything for the people who are in quest of pleasure and cheerfulness.  It is so beautiful that one can hardly resist seeing it again and again. Many places in and around here are either having religious significance or are tourist attractions. Sankoo is about 40 kms away from its main city Kargil. Some of religious significance or tourist attractions places are as karchykhar chamba, cool springs, Batakhar and so many other tourist recreation places.

karpokhar shrine is really glorious among these. This shrine is dedicated to Sayed Mir Hashim, who was a Muslim scholar and saint. He was called to give lessons of Islam to a Buddhist ruler, Thi-Namgyal. In 16th century, Thi-Namgyal changed his religion to Islam. Tourists visit Karpo-Khar Shrine to offer prayers and religious ceremonies.

Sankoo is a place bound with greenery and has a variety of flora and fauna, different coloured of flowers which blossom mainly during the summers. On reaching Sankoo one can have immediate look toward the engulfed mountain valley full of green land, meadows on all sides. One feels overwhelmed on seeing the exciting view of this snow clad mountain valley. On the other hand one also witness the fresh and tidy air, clean spring water streams running through it, which also add to the beauty of this valley. Now with change in environment or due to movement of tectonic place these natural springs are constantly depleting. Its count is less as compare to its earlier count.  

The place is so attractive that even after spending days together here, you are never tired. It’s the one of the most picturesque, astonishing and a must visit place in Ladakh.  Every people can be seen clicking photography because of its natural beauty and posses the quality of wild, landscape and portrait photography.

 Each has charm of its own. Similarly Batakhar is another great historic monument in Sankoo area, which has also a big worthy history behind it. The local as well as the administration failed to preserve this great monument. This is located near Batacho glacier, which is one among the grand water source for the whole valley.  

All the locals utilize this water for domestic and agriculture purpose, except for drinking and cooking. Especially every farmer does good use of this superior water source, which brings the alluvial soil from high mountains which is very fertile and best for agriculture purpose.  The glacier at this place was large a decade back as compared to what it looks now. There are many more aspects which needed to be elaborated and discussed.

In brief it becomes our fundamental and primary duty to protect like these sources of water. Our administration has to look for prolong project to protect this great natural water sources because that day may not be far off when these glaciers will remain only as night mare. So its needs of the hour for public as well the concerned authority to take some advance step in order to protect these natural water sources, which are very important.

Abdul Hussain Muntazree

R/o Chumikchan Sankoo

DAYS I WANT TO REWIND

The days I want to rewind and remember once again are those days when I had the so called ‘freedom of speech and expression’. I would never forget them.  During those days I used to greet my friends, acquaintances and my relatives by short message services on daily basis.  I also used to greet them with picture messages especially on the occasion of their birthdays, weddings and other ceremonies.

I had a simple model of mobile phone in my pocket. I used to send messages to my friends and eagerly wait for their reply. I would often recharge my number with message packs, which was easily available in the market. Sometimes the communication network system provided different message offers and schemes. It also availed me from consuming expensive budget.

With the passage of time sending SMS’s to my friends and others became a nightmare for me. Every day there were different models of mobile phones of different brands, which are very costly? Besides purchasing such kind of highly configured mobile phone from which we couldn’t send a single message to our friends due to the SMS restriction.

Now every day I failed to explain the function of ‘message sending’ system, means the process through which we could send text or picture messages to our youngsters. They always asked me, how can we send a text or picture message to our friends and acquaintances through our mobile phones? I used to narrate them the whole process of sending messages by mobile phones and tried to understand them but they never got satisfied with my answers. At last they asked me a single question, why SMS service is banned in Jammu and Kashmir?

Abdul Hussain Muntazree  

published in Kashmir Standard, a weekly Newspaper

Supreme Leader visits Tehran Intl. Book Fair - Tehran Times

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei paid a visit to the 26th Tehran International Book Fair on Saturday, in which 77 publishers from different countries including Britain, U.S., Germany, India, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon attended the fair this year.