{"id":3333,"date":"2016-10-23T15:49:33","date_gmt":"2016-10-23T15:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asoulwindow.com\/?p=3333"},"modified":"2020-06-05T08:17:01","modified_gmt":"2020-06-05T08:17:01","slug":"mygration-story-migrants-of-ladakh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asoulwindow.com\/mygration-story-migrants-of-ladakh\/","title":{"rendered":"#MyGrationStory – Migrants of Ladakh!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture above – What you see here are the people from Dha Hanu Village,<\/strong> 160 kms northwest of Leh. They are called Brokpa<\/strong> aka Drokpa<\/strong> and are billed as the last Aryans in the valley. It’s said that their ancestors were once a part of Alexander the Great<\/strong>‘s empire. Look closely and you will see blue or green eyes, brown hair and fairer skin. On special occasions such as this, you can find them wearing a ‘flowerpot’ on their head.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once an isolated region of India few knew or cared to know about, Ladakh is now a popular destination for many. Tourism since the 1970s has opened up opportunities for people not only from the state of Jammu and Kashmir but also from other parts of country, including far away states like M.P. and Maharashtra. A renewed interest by tourists<\/strong> in the last one decade has kick-started lot of development in the region and it is only going to grow in future. Some of it is bad, some good.<\/p>\n

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Muslims performers from Turtuk near Indo – Pak border.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Bhojpuri speaking workers<\/strong> from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar toiling it in construction work and restaurants, Punjabis selling comfort food (Read Chola Bhatura, Kadhi Chawal) to Thukpa weary tourists<\/strong>, Kashmiris<\/strong> selling carpets and oddly, fruits and vegetables and Nepalis<\/strong> working in hospitality industry make Ladakh a polyglot place. Not something which I expected before I visited Leh. Internal Migration<\/strong> is also rampant. Many people within Ladakh region travel to Leh and other touristy places in season to make the most of it. During winters, they either retreat to their villages and \u201cdo nothing\u201d or take up seasonal jobs<\/strong> (Driving, cooking etc) with army in inhospitable sub zero conditions.  But then such migrations also took place even before the tourism boom. Many Punjabis and Muslims from Kashmir<\/strong> had settled here mainly for trade. Ladakh was also an important destination when it was the part of ancient \u2018Silk Route\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

These migrants made my stay in Ladakh interesting. The dark skinned laborer from Bihar who stopped my car en route to Pangong Tso<\/strong> for water and food looked incongruous in the empty; often gloomy landscapes of Ladakh. Happy Singh<\/strong>, a Sikh from Kashmir persuaded me to have \u2018langar\u2019 (Community meal) at the Gurudwara with much warmth and a big smile. It could have been any place in Punjab. Another Sikh man<\/strong> sold books and other Ladakh merchandise in Leh at his store \u2018Book Worm\u2019<\/strong>(Next to Hotel Lingzi) for the past 20 years. Then there was the Maharashtrian<\/strong> who listened to Marathi songs from the movie Sairat<\/strong> every time I crossed his path. One of the journalists who accompanied me took me to his middle aged uncle\u2019s home who had a second home in Leh (bachelor\u2019s pad?) and was a contactor with the army.<\/p>\n

They had all re-created their smaller versions of their hometown in whatever way they could. But they all also blended well with a culture much alien to them, bound together with that thing called Indianness.<\/p>\n

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Gulzar and Abdul – Swag mode on!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n