DELHI IS NOT LADAKH

Ladakh is my home land: it is the place where I born. It is the place from where I got my primary education as well as the moral education. It is the place where I spent my child hood as well as adult hood.  I am proud to say that while I was born in Ladakh, I can speak my mother tongue, Purki. I am also well acquainted with our culture, tradition and customs.

 My loving parents educated me and the credit also goes to my respected teachers. My parents admitted me in a private school from where I completed my eighth standard, and after that I gained admission in a Government Higher Secondary School. For further studies I was sent to Srinagar, and I completed my graduation as well as my post graduation in Kashmir.

After completion of my post graduate studies I got an opportunity to visit our national capital i.e. New Delhi. There I met with some new friends from Ladakh and Kashmir. So it proved for me with a new kind of exposure and experience. After discussing and spending days with them I observed several things that I want to put in black and white.

 With due humility and reverence I want to set out some queries before Ladakhi parents, who send their loving sons and daughters outside their mother land, Ladakh, at very young age.

I hope that parents always ask their wards about their studies and education and, of course, it should be their prior question because parents spend a lot of their earnings purely for the education of their children. But, dear parents, do you ask also…

Do they eat food daily on time? What food do they eat?

Do they take Namkeen tea with baked oven bread as we do in Ladakh daily in the morning?

Do they drink cool and fresh water like we are blessed to have available in Ladakh?

How do they manage to live in a suffocating room in congested streets, where as in Ladakh we live with nature?

How much do they need to pay for one kilo of vegetables that in our home we have our own vegetable garden?

How much do they need to pay for one kilo of rice that in our home land we get it subsidized rates from govt. ration store?

In what temperature are they living compared with the cool and even weather we have in Ladakh?

So Delhi is not Ladakh where we get all those blessed facilities. If one bears all those struggles, it is because they have a hope that tomorrow they can serve their respected parents. They aspire to contribute to their society; they have to prove themselves a source of pride for their parents, society and nation.

Then I want to pose few questions to our respected leaders: the chair holders and to those who declare themselves the voice of the voiceless. Dear respected leaders…

Have you ever thought that our nation builders are away from their birth place?

Have you ever thought about those who had left their parents, home, and society purely and simply for their education?

And do you people give any thought to those degree holders who are now wandering here and there after completion of their degrees?

Dear respected leaders have you ever thought about the facts that we, the young Ladakhi’s leave everything, even having our loved ones near us, solely to obtain education from the outside world, spending many years doing so? 

 And God forbid that someone coming back home from the outside world has to face the dismal fact that their respected soul ‘parent’ has departed from this materialistic world. Or, in a similar way one has to shed their pearl tears when they experience that a loving ‘brother or sister’ has left this world. Or also that one did not get a chance to see the face of their loving grand mom, grandfather or their kith and kin during their last funeral rites.

As the children are sent outside Ladakh at very young age, our Ladakhi culture is subjugated by other cultures, trends and norms. In today’s era we hardly witness the use of our mother tongue such as Purki, Balti, Sheena, Bhoti etc by our young people.

Our traditional attire Goncha, Sulma, Papu or Kapsha has now become an item in literature. Not only that but also our traditional dishes: Thookpa, Paba, Marzan, Khulaq, Chaqa (curd) Mar (ghee) are rarely tasted by our youngsters due to the influence of modern culture. So collectively we have to save our culture which is our identity before we lose it.

With this write up I want to give a message to our legislatures, chair holders and guardians of our LAHDC Kargil and LAHDC Leh, that our youths are busy with their studies outside from our districts. They were burning candles at night to study and are living a life of hardship and struggle.

So you are the peoples that have to take care of them and to think for their future and most importantly, the future of Ladakh. The children need facilities in Ladakh so that they don’t need to leave their mother land for the sake of education at a very young age. The one’s who return home after completing their studies needs opportunities to show their talents and to work for the future of Ladakh. Now it is time to take a positive step before our youth become prey to unemployment. 

 Author:  Abdul Hussain Muntazree R/o Chumikchan Sankoo Kargil

published in Heritage Himaliyan Magzine