Eyes Wide Shut

I moved up to Windsong in Bandrol exactly five years ago. Even though the house was then 25-years old, my parents had never stayed beyond November, and would return in May. In these five years, maybe because I like taking photographs, I can see the change all around me. Two years ago, the Kullu Valley was paralysed when incessant rain cut us off for almost a fortnight, and though most of the damage was due to our own stupidity where in the name of development, anything goes, we seem to have learnt nothing at all.

The Kullu Valley, like the rest of the country, desperately needs to put environmental concerns above everything else. Screw the government, individuals who should matter as decision makers, pay lip service and shed crocodile tears in public, but then proceed to do everything to flaunt even basic common sense laws when it comes to themselves and this weird need to earn ever so much more money. I look around me, and the scars on every hill are screaming to be seen, but it seems no one really cares!

14 years ago I flew from Delhi to Leh with my daughters. The flight path in those days meant we would overfly Windsong, and if one started tracking landmarks, one could see the house below. The plane then overflew Rohtang and on the northern side of the Great Himalayas, the glaciated landscape was simply breathtaking. Half the manifest on the plane consisted of Westerners and the other half were my fellow countrymen. ‘Ah Himalayas… Himalayas’ was the chant from the foreigners, while Indians were squawking away saying ‘Switzerland… Switzerland!’

A decade and a half later, we will happily go half way around the world and ogle at the Alps and the Rockies, but here at home we will pontificate on what needs to be done, but do damn all ourselves. To make matters worse, almost on all committees and groups that are formed to ‘look at these issues’, those with a vested interest will always be there.

I share a few images taken five years ago just above Windsong that underline the need to preserve what we still have for our future generations. We must implement the laws and a zero-tolerance policy towards any destruction. Sad reality is, it’s every man for himself, and we watch silently as the leaves that were green, turn to brown!

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