THE TURTUK DAIRY📓!
On a solo trip to Ladakh, I wanted to visit Turtuk in Nubra valley, Ladakh. Turtuk is very unique as it was under Pakistan Administration till 1971 after which came under Indian Administration.
This quaint little village is nestled between the Karakoram range and the Himalayas and offers amazing views.
The green pedestrian bridge over the clean gushing blue waters of the Shyok river took me to my accommodation where I planned to stay for the night.
After checking myself in, I set out to explore and interact with the Balti-Muslims in the village. When the old-timers in the village, who would have been youngsters during this transition, were asked how they feel about being part of two different countries in their life time, all they had to say with a smile was “woh bhi thik tha, yeh bhi thik hai”.
Their day to day lives remain the same they say - farming the harsh land and growing their own vegetables with the lovely black-billed magpies found in the region foraging their own food.
The children of the village still climb trees (which city-dwelling children would find strange to hear) and sit atop stone walls and pass time between their studies and chores.
Another source of income for the villagers is from the daily influx of tourists and some of the attractions include the Indo-Pak Border view, an old ancestral house which is now a museum show-casing the Balti culture and the natural cold storage facilities which are used till date and were in fact quite cool.
As I walked along to the end of the village, I came across plenty of Apricot trees filled with fruit and is a major export from this region. Some of the villagers were kind enough to let me pluck some and taste the sweet apricots ☺.
The walk along the apricot trees took me to a cemetery (unlike one I have ever seen) beyond which lies the LOC (Line of Control).
While I didn’t cross the cemetery to see the LOC, I did visit another village – Thang, a few kilometers away from Turtuk for the LOC which I was very keen on, as my grandparents, on both sides, used to live in the region of Punjab which came under Pakistan during the partition of 1947 and had crossed over to India with meager belongings and had to start over from scratch to settle themselves and their children and extended families. A picture of the LOC from Thang is something I just had to click……
The simplicity of the people of Turtuk, their smiles and the amazing views from the village, was quite a humbling and eye-opening experience for me and I left a piece of my heart behind, in this quaint little last village near the Indo-Pak border……
