With Delhi and NCR’s air declared the filthiest in the country, we decided to run away to Uttarakhand along with a band of friends.
This time, we planned to explore a little-known hill station called Lansdowne, which is also the headquarters of the Garhwal Rifles. As a proud Kumaoni, I was prepared to pooh-pooh the Garhwali part of Uttarakhand (an old feud between these two territories), but what we saw blew my prejudices away.
The resort we stayed in offered the most spectacular vista of the Garhwal Himalayas, called the Kedarnath range that straddles the horizon like a fortress of snow. From the first ray of the sun that tinges these awesome peaks pink to the colourful sunset that paints the entire sky orange, we were treated to sights that nourish the soul. This stunning range stands behind the Kedarnath temple and is part of the Gangotri group of peaks.
It is the western range of the Panchachuli range that is visible in Kumaon and the peaks that we proudly point out there – Trishul, Nanda Ghunti, Nanda Kot and Nanda Devi – look so remote and tiny beside this vista of Chaukhamba, Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gangotri. As for the sky, I know now what cerulean blue means. The area is also one of the few blue pine forests left in the country and the densely forested ranges around us were a feast of blue and green. Pretty terraced fields add to the picture-perfect villages that dot the area. Thanks now to solar power, the isolated houses there glow like fireflies in the stygian darkness that envelops our mountains after sunset.
Thankfully, the Army has kept the area inviolate so far but already there are momo-sellers and Maggi points all along the way to this hard-to-find hill station. I dread the onslaught of the intrepid Indian tourist who will surely come to pollute the mountains and leave empty packets of chips, plastic bottles and play loud music. Just as I was forced to confront the old Kumaon-Garhwal snobbery, I have to confess that the Indian Army runs its cantonment areas far better than our civilian governments.
Within the Army headquarters area, there was not a trace of litter. Their spit and polish of the old colonial bungalows have kept them exactly as they were when first built 102 years ago. The furniture (Burma teak, no less), the parade ground and the mess (with a billiards room) have to be lauded. I was reminded of the equally beautiful properties that our civilian officers were bequeathed and rue what they have been reduced to.
The Parade Ground was full of Agniveer recruits being made to practise for their passing-out parade at the end of the month. For many of these fresh-faced youths, this was their first encounter with the rigour and discipline of a structured routine. Many may be absorbed by the Army and paramilitary organisations, others by security agencies, while some will get seed capital to start a venture. No wonder we saw young village boys running up and down the hills to prepare for a life in the ‘paltan’, always a popular outlet for hill people.
Several countries make army service compulsory for all pre-college girls and boys so that they get a taste of the hard life they must face after they pass school. There are many who have issues with this form of indoctrination, yet given the alternate drifting life when many take to drugs, alcohol and crime in the absence of a purpose in life, I have altered my views on this scheme.
Now for a takeaway from the Bihar elections that most commentators have pronounced as a victory gifted by the women of Bihar to Nitish Kumar and the NDA. The most important fallout of this for me is that women voters will henceforth be taken very seriously by all our political parties and more space will have to be made for them in government budgets, jobs and political representation. As a woman, I rejoice at the recognition (however grudgingly made) of the power that women hold in dislodging the patriarchal system that has used its brute and brutish power to keep them invisible within homes and behind veils. Not just in Bihar and India, if the world were to move in the direction of giving women a chance to decide public policy and conflict resolution, you can take it from me the world would be a more just, equitable and peaceful place.
Giving women a role in forest management, ecological matters and care for the aged and infirm would tap into wisdom that Nature has blessed women with. Men are completely deficient in emotional intelligence (I often say this is a manufacturing defect), so keeping the house running smoothly with everyone cared for is always considered a woman’s job. What else is running a country but a scaled-up version of running a home and family? Above all, women are less prone to corruption, though there are exceptions we cannot forget.
So hurrah for the women of Bihar, and for Nitish Kumar who has spent many decades pulling up the women of his state from the miserable plight they were doomed to live under the patriarchal system that never recognised their worth. One day, when I am long gone, my granddaughters will inherit a world that they will thank us for fighting for their liberation.