Desicritics Author: Arun Bhat

Photo Essay: Beautiful India

Arun Bhat — Sat, 10 May 2008 08:41:30 EDT

It has been my long standing dream to travel all around India and capture its beauty permanently in pictures. The big country that we are, it takes ages to cover the nation from end to end, and to be at right places at the right time is all the more difficult. Especially so in the mighty Himalayas where the terrain looks at its best when it is coldest.

I have made a small beginning, and hope to extend the library over the years. Here is a sample of images from a few beautiful places, from Kerala/TN in south to Himachal in the North, from Meghalaya in the East(North-East) to Rajasthan in the west.

Let's begin with the southernmost point in the mainland - Kanyakumari, the only place in the mainland where you can witness both sunrise and sunset over the sea.

Kappad in Kerala is a small not-so-well-known beach in the northern parts of Kerala. It is not yet crowded and you don't see rows and rows of hotels there, yet. But the tourism boom in the country might change things in the years to come.

Karnataka is where most of my images come from, it being my home state. And it helps when there is no dearth of beautiful places. This is an image from Coorg, where romance of the hills is at its best.

A lake in Chikmaglur. Nestled among greens hills around it, which includes the tallest peak in Karnataka, only a short drive from Chikmaglur town.

Hampi is a different landscape altogether. Its hills are smaller and naked, with little greenery on the slopes. But the boulders on the hills add the magic that is incomparable. Winter morning in Hampi, on a mildly foggy day. It was a lucky morning; further trips to Hampi in search of this spectacle gave me something of a similar order, but nothing as good.

On a smaller scale, tiny leaves float on water stagnated to irrigate a paddy field in a non-descript village in Andhra Pradesh.

Moving further north, sunrise on the Ganga at what is known as the world's oldest living city - Varanasi.

And to east, Nohkalikai Waterfall at a place that was once known for maximum precipitation in the world - Cherrpunjee.

A high altitude lake at 14,000 feet high in the Himalayas. Located in Kanchenjunga National Park, the lake is almost 40kms away from nearest motorable road.

Travelling along the Himalayas westwards from there, Nanda Devi in Uttaranchal is one of the tallest mountains in the country, and is also definitely on the most beautiful.

And not very far from Nanda Devi's sanctuary is Corbett National Park, more known for the tigers but has great landscapes that is routinely ignored by tiger-hungry tourists.

Travelling further west along the Himalayas, mountains of Spiti offer a completely different spectacle. Its slopes are brown, with hardly any vegetation. It is like a high altitude desert and has a distinct beauty.

And Chandratal lake is where the Shangri-la is, period.

To the west, in Rajasthan are arid landscapes of the desert. Each part of the country has distinct landscape, and yet each is beautiful in its own way.

And here is one more image from the desert. Sand dunes on a pleasant evening near Jaisalmer.

Naturally, it is only a sample of what India can offer to the traveller. A life time is probably not enough to visit every corner of the country, but it is a satisfying work, even if it remains incomplete.

Earth Day Post: Minimizing Foot Prints

Arun Bhat — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 02:26:25 EDT

Much as I love to travel, a part of me is always feeling guilty about the footprints left by us travellers. Let's admit it, travel is hardly anything environment friendly. The least we can do is to try to minimize our footprints, or if possible, go Carbon Neutral.

It would be nice to scribble some tips and then forget all about it, but it is much better to say what I am trying to do myself. Here are a few things I have been consciously trying to do, things that have happened by themselves and things that I hope to do someday.

* Not to drive. I have cut down on driving trips drastically. Three years back, nearly every trip I made was in my car. Now I am also consciously cutting down on my driving. Even within the town, I don't take the car out unless I have absolutely no choice. I now use a bicycle for short rides around home, which were done with a car earlier. And if I remember correctly, I haven't made a driving trip since last August.

* Not to Fly. Flying is one of the least fuel efficient ways to travel. From the usual habit of flying everywhere(when I travel North-South, which is pretty long distance), I have started taking trains. It it not entirely successful, the basic reason being that train journeys require lot of planning in advance. And my return journeys are usually open, which makes things more difficult. When I travelled to Rajasthan this February, I managed to take the train to Delhi. But when I was ready to return, I could not find seats in any trains, forcing me to fly back. But I must admit that abstaining from flying is not entirely by choice. Since I have not been working 9 to 5 these days, I try to keep spending to minimum.

* Simple things - like behaving properly in environmentally sensitive regions is something I have been doing for a very long time now. Things like dispose garbage properly, take care of your consumption, avoid being noisy in the jungles or burning wood, etc. I once stopped consumption of tea(once part of my daily diet) and switched over to coffee(which is also destructive, but to a lesser degree), when I was disturbed by seeing sprawling tea estates in erstwhile thick jungles of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is more personal move though, I would not go around telling people to change their food habits much, except not to waste too much food.

* Some thing that I strongly hope to do in the next few years is to go Carbon Neutral. The strategy is simple - buy land and start growing trees there and do little else. A few people have been doing this already, and this is a project I am very keen to do once I have some extra money in hand. And then, as and when there is surplus money, expand the periphery of the forest. I am not sure when I can begin on it, but hopefully in less than 3-4 years from now. Ah, I can just imaging a long stretch of my private forest and going there birding every morning, makes me smile.

* Another thing I hope to do, but don't know when and how I can start - to volunteer in our National Parks and surrounding villages in projects aiding conservation. I nearly teamed up with folks at Eaglenest last year but had to drop out due to some constraints.

The Highlands of Himachal

Arun Bhat — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:17:11 EDT

At 10,000 feet, it is difficult to take that people would be living a life that is not entirely different from plains. Rugged mountain terrains, lack of roads and connectivity of any kind, strong people who walk miles together with heavy loads on their back are some things that cross the mind. But Spiti is different. The weather is harsh and the terrain is not very friendly, but comfort has seeped into the region in the modern days. There is good tarmac on the unusually straight road. Their farms are irrigated and they even SBIs in small villages. BSNL has invaded the territory, and most likely you can sit there and watch youtube videos with a good mobile phone and a laptop. Yet population density is low and weather can be forbidding in the winters, making it not the nicest place to live in.

We drove from Manali to Spiti via Lahaul region and Kunzum La, and were surprised to see the progress. The floor of Spiti valley is wide and has a lot more vegetation than uninhabited Lahaul that we left behind. Asphalted straight roads took us through Losar, the first village in Spiti and then to Kaza; it was not very different from being in the plains except for the views of the mountains on both sides. Villages appeared on the road every now and then, and there were a few people waiting on the road for transport to Kaza. Losar, with a population no more than a few hundreds even has a branch of State Bank of India. They probably had a mobile network too - we spotted towers in Kaza, which was not too far away. Villages have irrigation facilities and people were out working in the fields. From the uninhabitable terrains of Lahaul, this was a complete change.

We stopped at Losar for lunch and reached Kaza around 4pm. We wanted to refuel in Kaza, but it was Sunday and the only government owned fuel station was closed. Our driver Mangal explained that they only work from 9 to 5 on weekdays, true to the style of a state owned business. But some begging seemed to work, and the operator came down to bail us out.

Ki Monastery is only a short drive from Kaza town, but its location gives it a distinction from its neighbourhood. Placed on a hillock, it stands apart from rest of the valley, with construction crowding the hill.

We entered the monastery and stood in the inner courtyard, confused and wondering which way to go. A door that seemed to lead a sanctum was closed, and so was another door in the opposite direction. A small wooden staircase led into a dark arena and we pondered on taking it. Just then we heard a monk speaking with a feeble voice behind us, offering his assistance.

The friendly monk opened the doors of the prayer hall and led us inside. He had a typical round Mongoloid face with small blood-shot eyes and bugling cheeks. His ochre robe clung to his body in a manner not very different from a sari. He spoke with a deep high pitch voice that seemed to be coming from the bottom of his larynx.

Ki Monastery is 800 years old, but most of the buildings are new and there is no visible evidence of its past. The buildings that stand today are made of white washed mud plaster and wood to support the roof. More buildings, built with cement, are coming up in the periphery to accommodate more students as well as tourists. Dalai Lama had given a visit to the monastery some time ago, and the chair where he sat and the bed he slept on have been preserved neatly. 'Dalai Lama used to sit here, he used to sleep in this room,' explained our guide as he took us through the monastery.

The monastery was spread around a prayer hall where the monks assembled. A few deities of worship, a kitchen and smaller prayer rooms surrounded the prayer hall. An old kitchen built many centuries ago still existed though not used anymore. Our monk escort showed us the utensils of yesteryears and asked to take a seat on a bench in the center. 'We now use this room to honour the guests,' he said and poured us tea from a pot. Over the tea, I questioned in him length about the past and present of the monastery.

'Life was much difficult before,' he explained and spoke in length, 'it was not easy to procure food and other daily needs. Now the government helps us. Procuring fuel and wood was a big problem, since there are no trees here. Things are much better these days, we are well connected and well provided. There is a problem of good teachers though, Tibetans don't get visa(permits?) very easily and we will have to manage with local teachers.'

Tibetans requiring a visa or permits to get to Spiti was news to me. I asked why is it so. 'They could come and go easily in the past,' he said, 'but people of Spiti were innocent and Tibetans misused us. They would take our sheep and eat them. They would steal things. So they had to be restrained.'

'Why is your monastery located in such remote place? Why are you so far away from civilization? Why do monasteries tend to be in some far away mountain or top of a hill?' There were simply too many questions I wanted answers for.

The barrage of questions was probably hard on him, but he was patient. He took some time to think over it and said, 'it is to escape from the everyday world.' I waited for him to continue but he did not seem to have more to say on it.

He escorted us back to the entrance after the tea, and humbly welcomed us to visit again. The goodness and hospitality of the people of hills never ceases to amuse me. 'We have rooms to stay for tourists,' he said, 'next time you come, do stay with us.'

We made a brief visit to Kibber village before returning to Kaza. At more than 4000m, Kibber used to pride itself as the highest inhabited village in the world once, but the credit has now weathered down to highest motorable village. With the expanding road networks, I am sure they will soon become the second, and later third highest and so on in the days to come. They will have to search for other things to fill for highest _____ village in the next few years.

Kibber is very close to the Tibetan border, and is mostly inhabited by Tibetan Buddhists. There are just a few dozen houses and all of them look similar. They rely on livestock to make a living, but as tourism is making inroads, a couple of guesthouses have sprung up. Kibber had electricity, and even boasts of a school - a few things which they can probably use with the 'highest' tag in the years to come. As we were returning from Kibber, driver Mangal told us in an tone of discomfort and disgust - 'you know, people here eat beef.' I think he waited for us to come back strongly in response, but unconcerned that we were, he must have been disappointed. He repeated the words again with a hope that he may not have been heard earlier, even as we continued to gaze through the window, admiring the views of Spiti valley below.

The evening in Kaza was much different. It was a town full of chaos. Guesthouses littered the streets and everyone was offering a room. A few professionally run resorts too had sprung up in the outskirts of the town. But there was no power supply late into evening and most of the guesthouses did not even have water, owing to some temporary problem in water supply. The ever-reliable Mangal finally found a guesthouse with water where we checked in for the night.

Backpacking Armies and Their Local Influence

Arun Bhat — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 02:38:43 EDT

A few years ago, I was surprised when a friend who came back from a trip to Hampi told me that they had to live on pastas and pancakes and not Idli-Sambar. I then did not understand how a remote place like Hampi ended up in dishing out trans-continental cuisine. Unknowingly, that was my first ever encounter with the world's backpacking masses on the move, armed with lonely planets and off to cheap destinations to spend the extra money they have earned(or received on dole) back home.

As I changed from an idler to traveller over the years and explored the country, often meeting these backpackers, staying in their dens and eating out in restaurants that dished out croissants, mueslis and humos to satiate their palate, my opinion about them changed from initial awe to respect to ordinary, and eventually nothing positive to speak about.

It is often said that travel helps to expand your mind and enrich your life. To travel is to indulge in the experience of new locales, feel the pulse of new places and cultures, learn, understand and absorb the goodness. But a considerable portion of the backpacking crowd appears only interested in firing away with their digicams and camcorders and go back to boast about their Round-The-World trip at home. I would rather ignore such travellers, but can't help notice how they have changed the economies of tourist locales and subtly influenced the cultures.

It is an article rumbling about impact of this influx in South East Asia that put me to some serious thoughts. How are the five million and growing in number of tourists who arrive in India impacting the local mindset?

Changes in Hampi were very visible. An army of enterprising locals had adopted to suit the needs of backpackers who arrived in large numbers every winter. Restaurants served from a menu that read like that of a place probably in Israel. Even a few who displayed a South Indian dish or two in their menu said they no longer make it. Unlike many years ago, a white man was not stared at and failed to surprise people even at places far away from where the action is. Children carelessly surrounded them and locals comfortably spoke to them and were sometime eager to please them to extract the maximum.

Even when businesses adjusted to their customer, there was hardly any evident cultural change. Inside their homes and within their mind, people remained the same, followed the same practices and worshiped the same gods. The way of living of most people hardly suffered from any external influence.

But the most important change came in terms of profusion of crime. I was never a witness or was not subjected to it, but guidebooks warned of dangers of wandering alone or staying out late into the night. Newspapers often screamed of penetration of drugs and ease of their availability. And crime usually follows where the drugs go. Of course, the moral brigades did make plenty of talk on our culture getting ruined and spread of ‘immorality’, but there was nothing apparent to those claims.

Everyday life in Hampi was largely not influenced, but things were much different in Pushkar. A town that is known for hundreds of temples around it was now crowded by hundreds of backpackers' dens all around the lake, nearly killing the charm of the place. The feel of the temples was gone and it looked like a ghetto, packed densely with shops selling colorful cloths, ethnic jewellery, trinkets, books and internet centers. Nearly every house around the sacred lake was converted into guesthouse that let in travellers. The charm and essence of the original temple town was completely lost.

There were clues that helped me imagine a time when Pushkar was not a tourist center. The hundreds of temple that surrounded the ghats remained, but were now overwhelmed by shops and restaurants that around them. The ghats were intact too but there would have been more place to breath easy and relax. Without all the construction, it would have been a picturesque location with the lake nestled between sandy plain at one end and nag parvat range on the other, and a few fields of mustard scattered here and there. Camels and marwari men with wide moustache and cushy pagri would have roamed the streets that are now crowded with backpackers.

Even when the atmosphere has changed considerably, Pushkar has been guarded from any kind of cultural corruption. Ghats are strongly protected by the association of local priests to retain their ancient essence. Footwear is banned anywhere near the ghats and so are cameras. There are signs all around the ghats telling ‘foreigners’ to ‘behave’ and respect the local tradition, and it has been followed scrupulously. Men and women on pilgrimage bathe in the lake in comfort without worrying about camera touting strangers, and perform their pooja without becoming exhibits to curious onlookers. With cameras not allowed around the ghats, most backpackers arriving at Pushkar spend no more than a few minutes at the ghat and while away rest of their day hanging out elsewhere.

The most bothering change that has happened over the years is the attitude in the travel industry. It being easier to squeeze more from the purse of a foreigner, most services prefer to keep the less generous Indian traveller away.

Waiters at restaurants often ignore the Indians deliberately and expect that they do not come back. Once entering an internet center in Jaisalmer, I was turned away saying that the connectivity is down even when a foreigner was sitting right there browsing. Some small hotels in and around Goa do not entertain Indian visitors in peak seasons. I have heard of a Canadian visitor of Indian Origin looking for a room in Majnu Ka Tilla near Delhi, who was rudely told on his face that they don’t give out rooms to Indians, but was welcomed when he showed his Canadian passport.

I have seen a few signs in Jodhpur’s restaurants that read ‘tourists only’, it probably meant they do not want Indians inside. A friend I know could not make a planned trip from Port Blair to Havelock Island in Andaman on the new year eve because it was the high season and the limited boat tickets were sold to foreigners in ‘black’, at a higher price.

But the increase in number of backpacking foreigners arriving in India has effectively helped the local economies in tourist places. The holidaying Indian middle class prefers resorts and mid-range hotels built by professional organizations that bring employees from cities and far away places, but backpackers bring money to low-budget guesthouses usually run by locals. They eat in small restaurants, buy from tiny shops owned by local artists and tribes and use local guides. All this has served good for the economy of the rural population in popular places like Goa, Sikkim and Himachal.

Speaking of cultural changes, India has weathered many assaults on its heritage in the past and has survived without much change. A globalized economy is far bigger threat to culture than the changes that tourism can bring in. Environmental degradation is a serious issue, but domestic and foreigners tourists contribute to it alike. The most bothering changes that come with the flood of backpackers have been the increase in crime, penetration of drugs and change in attitude of the service industry. Scarlett Keeling case may be an extreme example of what could happen, but crimes of smaller proportion are more common. With inflow of tourists to India growing at double digits for many years now, all these things are probably here to stay and expand.