Knowing the Kargil of ‘Kargil War’

The year 1979 is when Ayatollah Khomeini exiled in Paris at the time established the Islamic Republic of Iranmdashputting an end to Shahrsquos reign and ostensibly the Persian dynasty through what was called the lsquoIslamic revolutionrsquo Itrsquos also the year Kargil in Ladakh was deemed a fullfledged district by the state of Jammu amp Kashmir What could these two wholly disparate events separated by thousands of kilometres have to do with each otherThe fact that as you drive down the packed Kargil market you observe several posters of the Ayatollahmdash signifying a following that might befuddle an outsider The local resortowner Zakir Hussain Jafri tells me ldquoThat link is theological since about 80 per cent of Kargil are Shia MuslimsrdquoThe majority in Leh Four and half hours away is likely to be Buddhist Neither religion openly embraces alcohol and weed Nor do locals Sheeshahookah is favoured poison People in Kargil I notice refer to Ladakhi Tibetic language as Buddhist itself They speak BaltiPurgi As for music Kargil cabs without exception have the coolest Bollywood playlists north of Punjab perhapsThat we even think of Kargil as a proper city might befuddle Indians more Over a decade ago when Jafri 32 had moved to New Delhi for higher education building landlords would hear where hersquos from and go ldquoArrey Tum bach gaye yoursquore aliverdquo Kargil is simply known for the 1999 war between India and Pakistanmdashthe last conventional battle of 20th Century between two nuclear armed nations no lessIndian village Hundarman in Kargil the green stretch at the far end locals say is POKThat theatre of war though was about 6070 kilometres up from Kargil town which of course didnrsquot just survive fine it also took in people from Drass and Batalik sectors where the shellingbombings were on Those people moved in among residents of Kargil currently a lakhplus up to Leh who in turn set up community kitchens in their homes making hundreds of rotis a day to keep rsquoem all goingNothing like this had ever happened before Jafri recalls ldquoI remember in the early rsquo90s Kargil used to get a lot of foreign especially European tourists whorsquod come down to Suru valley for long treks expeditions Since 1999 the place also got internationally associated with a warzone they stopped comingrdquo The war lasted twothree monthsYou can tell the earlierobvious touristic fascination for Kargil though The mountains are barren light brown ridges They seem close enough to touch And they talk you into such calm submission before nature at its barest and most majestic that if you stay quiet staring for too long you might encounter the meaningless of life itself And Irsquom not talking about possible hallucinations nausea and breathlessness which might escape you if yoursquore inherently a lsquomountain personrsquomdashyes there is such a type I reckon Or you turn into one shortlyRiver Suru flows through the valley If you know better or with someone who does you could slide down to casually dip your feet into the river through a passage and a wooden bridge created not for travellers but for locals to walk to the village acrossmdashonce the river driessnows up in the winter monthsThatrsquos between mid to end November and April about four months every year when Kargil at harshly subzero temperatures is cut off from adjoining civilizations People here start preparing for winter earlymdashcollecting firewood drying up vegetables turning tomatoes into puree storing rice flour meatshellip ldquoSitaki stocking starts in Septemberrdquo driver Saeed Raza 29 says Winter is coming as we speakItrsquos the same months that the Pakistani Army posing as infiltrators had planned and then mounted certain tops in order to strategically place themselves over SrinagarLeh National Highway 1 in May 1999mdashto isolate KargilLadakh further through artilleryassociated attacks Alert shepherds had first reported this incursion to the Indian ArmyLocals donrsquot know these shepherdsrsquo names Thought theyrsquod be heroes But given the level of defence casualties that followed locals say the fityoung from many Kargil families were also recruited to help the Army as support staff for supplies etc They were compensated for it But since they were only temporarily commissioned unsure if any of them won proper gallantry awardsSteeply drive up 1015 kilometres from Kargil townmdashif you can avoid the car from falling off narrow ledges for roadsmdashPakistanPOK is right there at kissing distance looking back at you You see villages like Shilikse and the last one Hundarman that became part of India after the 1971 Bangladesh War that have immediate families locals say on both sides of the borderLine of Control ldquoThankfully with WhatsApp now they can at least talk to each otherrdquo Jafri saysFew years ago Jafri recalls the cast and crew of a ldquoSouth Indian filmrdquo he doesnrsquot know which had come down to shoot in Kargil city They decided to hire extras from among residents Itrsquod be cheaper A set of them were supposed to play Pakistani soldiers another set from the Indian Armymdashthis was a war film of course Locals he tells me pointblank refused to play Pak Army Those extras had to be flown down from elsewhere Nature at its peak of course knows no such nation statesMayank Shekhar attempts to make sense of mass culture He tweets mayankw14Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper