News from Ladakh, 40 days after the devastating floods. Trip to india

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I landed at Leh on September 13 just outside the airport and my eye was immediately attracted by a long line of people, with sticks of incense and flowers in her hand, which wound up at the crossing for Choglamsar.

They were waiting for the Dalai Lama, who in his program to visit Kargil and Bodh Karbu had included a ride to Leh to give comfort to dysfunctional families and to see with his own eyes the traces left by the storm broke over the region last August 6 . In the afternoon, 25,000 people headed to Lamdon School to listen to His Holiness.

She was penetrating, his message. The crux of the matter: What is 'success in Ladakh and' terrible, and it took the pain of all those who have suffered personal and material losses. However, no 'Ladakh was only to be plagued by bad weather, we think Pakistan and China where there have been losses even more' big here. I am here with you in your time of grief, but now you have to react. It is useless to grieve: it hurts is yourself that to the dead. What 's happened is past, now we need to let go. We can recite the mantra, will be of benefit to you and loved ones who have lost, and so 'you can at least do something for them. Now we need to focus on the future: we saw how little it takes to destroy what nature 'that has taken years of work, and from this disaster, we must draw lessons: learn to choose the right place to build houses and buildings, and constructed stronger and stronger. Think of how futile to spend all your time and your energy to accumulate money and material goods, and try to become better people, to help each other instead of competing.

Forte also the reaction of Ladakh. In the evening there was to discuss what was said by the Dalai Lama, and to be agree with his words, gave him the courage to look ahead. These people predisposed to happiness, joy and laughter there is even comical to see some sides of the situation, like this: I told a friend who had just bought a few bags of cement from a Kashmiri shopkeeper, 100 rupees per bag, not he had enough and the next day he had bought other, only that the seller had raised the price from day to day. Then his friend, indignant, the noted that karma would punish him for so many dishonest ', and here's the next day the water has destroyed the house and took away all their bags of cement remained. So strong that experience, his friend and 'succeeded in lowering of 5 rupees a kilo of tomatoes sold by another Kashmiri: told him he was a dishonest and that he would end his shows in the next storm. ...

I heard a similar story about the sellers of adobe and Chushot to Shey, two places where the earth and 'more' suitable for the manufacture of bricks. They too had raised the cost in error, and that they themselves have suffered the biggest losses.

The areas most affected were lower, near the Indus River: The lower part of Leh, Saboo, Choglamsar, Chushot, Shey. Turning machine tracks you see: houses destroyed, fields destroyed, trees uprooted. Many of the stones ... the power of water has brought down 'by force, leaving them alone in its wake. It was also destroyed in the great wall Shey hands, and now I'm at work a group of smiling maidens: one to clean up a stone carved with a brush, and are placing on the wall.

On the other hand, in the direction of Lamayuru, the areas most affected are Phyang, Nimmu, Basgo, Ney and Themisgam. But the roads are perfectly viable, the 4 bridges destroyed have been replaced with military bridges, whereas the bridges linking the banks of the Indus and with the other 'back in time putting a pulley with a basket, to pass at least some good. In the stretch between the bridge of Alchi (left intact) and I saw Khalsa due.A Leh hotels and shops are functioning normally, all 'the more' missing some supply because of the prolonged curfew in Kashmir. But the street life and 'the same as always. Soon there will be local elections, and it shows a great bustle of possible candidates.

Epidemics, cholera, rotting corpses, the polluted water on which the media have insisted on so many days if not weeks, of these things I have not seen the track. I've heard of two camps for the displaced, which cover a total of about 300 people, where people waiting for prefabricated promised by the Indian government before the winter, are still living in tents. Surely people who are first to return to normality 'will have to wait a long time. But in general I have sensed that reacts Ladakh, who wants to leave the tragedy behind them as soon as possible and quickly returns to life every day. I just hope one thing that tourists will return as soon ....

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