A Journey To The Lama's Land, Part - 11

A Journey To The Lama's Land,  Part - 11

We will now go to visit the Line of Control or L.O.C. In fact, we will go to see the Indo-Pak border. Our Car will not be allowed to go there. For local site seeing you will have to hire a local car at Kargil. Our Hotel had hired a local car for us. 

Gradually after crossing the crowded Kargil town we were climbing at the top of the hill by our car. The road is rough and broken. The River Indus was flowing at the very bottom.  Pine trees stand tall on both sides of the road. The beauty of this path is incomparable. 

On the way up, the driver showed us an Indian Army bunker at the top of the hill. During the winter, the whole region is covered with thick snow. Our soldiers here remain strong and vigilant in any condition. Salute to their patriotism and devotion. Long live the Indian Army, long lives the great India. 

The position of the two countries is in a stone throw distance from the Line of Control. From this side of us we can see the houses and even a mosque, on the other side of the hill. Both sides are might be equally vigilant and I think the families of the soldiers on both sides are also waiting anxiously every time for the good news of their loved ones. "Hey the soldiers of the King of Halla, What benefit you will bring by fighting a war with your neighboring state? Are you unaware that fighting a war with your neighbors is only brings an evil to the mankind?"   Standing at the border line, this song from great film maker of Bengal satyajit Ray's one of the famous movie, suddenly came to my mind. Kings are fighting on their own benifits and only the common people are becoming the worst sufferer. 

Keeping Indus River as our witness, we came back after visiting the L.O.C.  

If you are sitting with this bouquet of boundless beauty, O emperor, O my lord, then why have you gathered so much violence here? No matter how many names you share for yourself, we know you are the one and unique for everyone, everyone is your children, yet why you are playing this death game? O lord, please protect your creation from destruction.

Further along the Indus, there is a wide plateau near the Indian Army barracks known as The Kargil Plateau. A Shiva temple has been built here under the supervision of the army. This temple is known as Plateaunath Baba Temple. The soldiers of the army themselves worship, offer prayers, offer offerings at the temple. Quite a clean and pleasant environment here at this temple. We sat in the temple and watched the puja and aarti and got hot pudding prepared by ghee as prasad. The soldiers of the Rajput Regiment had performed Shivastuti and Bandana with purity of heart. 

I liked this place very much. This place also has a story. Just at the back side of the present temple, a man lived in a small hut before 1971. He was taking great care of animals, especially to dogs and cows. This man, a devotee of Shiva, never spoke to anyone. So the locals thought him as a crazy person. During the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971, when the Pakistani army was terrorizing the whole of Kargil by dropping huge cells, mortars, etc., and the sound of those horrific explosions shook the whole of Kargil, a large number of cells fell on this plateau.  But at this place,none of the cells exploded. Calling the people of the nearby village, one day the man requested them to pick and throw them up in the side drain. No one dares to touch them for fear of an explosion. Then the man himself began to push the cells one by one into the drain  and each cell began to explode loudly. Seeing this, the people of the village think that this person is not an ordinary person. This man boldly told the people of the village that no evil would ever happen on this plateau if everyone worshiped Shiva with devotion. 

Suddenly one day this man was nowhere to be found in this region. No one even knew the name of this person, so the temple was built by the locals in the area and became famous as the Platunath Baba Temple. We returned to the hotel after seeing the temple. Yet the fading red sunlight did not end the last vermilion game in the waters of the Indus.

I could not understand when it was nine o'clock in the night as we all reclined in the chairs on the long verandah in the second floor of the two-storied hotel on the banks of the rippling Indus River, accompanied by the dim darkness of the evening. There was a call from dining room informing us that our dinner is ready now. 

Starting with sweet corn soup in the starter, the taste of several items of Indian and Chinese cuisine soaked our taste buds. Faizu, our driver, informed that the procession of Muharram will come out in the street tomorrow morning. So we have to start our journey in the morning as soon as possible, otherwise who knows how many hours we will have to wait if we get stuck in a traffic jam. Everyone went to bed early.

To be continued...................................................................................................................