The end of an era: Abdul Ghani Sheikh (1936-2024)

Abdul Ghani Sheikh in front of the remnant of Leh’s historic boundary wall we ‘discovered’ during our exploration of the town in 2015.

Abdul Ghani Sheikh was a friend in a way that only he could be. We bonded over our shared interest in the joys of reading and writing. We would spend hours talking about something we had read or something we had recently written. I would invariably get a call from him in case an issue was delayed. There are times in the winter when he would request people travelling from Leh to Srinagar to bring him back issues of the magazine so that he could read them. Similarly, he would send his hand-written articles through someone who was travelling from Srinagar to Leh. And if he failed to find any such traveller, he would get someone at home to photograph the pages of the article or visit a local computer shop in Srinagar to scan the article and email it across. His commitment to writing and engaging in dialogues with his fellow scholars was beyond question. 

If there is one thing I learnt from Abdul Ghani Sheikh, it is to nurture a deep enthusiasm for knowledge, writing and reading. He spent a lifetime in pursuit of these and never seemed to age in this regard. Even as an octogenarian, he retained a childlike enthusiasm for books and knowledge, enjoyed the joys of writing and the excitement of freely sharing his wisdom and knowledge with others. This makes sense as he started his professional career as a teacher in a government school in Tingmosgang and later served as a principal in a private school after retirement.

A man of impeccable principles, he would be very disturbed when scholars would plagiarise anyone’s work or not provide proper citation. He would make meticulous notes on each thing he read to ensure that he attributed sources correctly when he wrote himself. He greatly valued originality of thought and style and always strived to improve his own skills, be it imagination or expression. And when he was able to develop a new and more effective method for narrating a tale, his excitement was palpable. He also had a very engaging sense of humour that allowed him to laugh at himself while also making light of various challenges he faced. Furthermore, he had a lifetime’s commitment to secular ideas and remained unflinchingly apolitical in his outlook and social engagement irrespective of the context.

A master of Urdu, he was equally proficient in English. His one regret, which he expressed on numerous occasions, was that he never learnt to read and write the Tibetan script (Bod-yig), which prevented him from accessing Ladakhi historical texts that were written in this script. He would lament how this created a major gap in his knowledge and he had to rely on translations of these texts whenever they were available.

He wrote many books and articles in his lifetime, which provide a measure of his intellect and personality. He is known for his collection of short stories, Zojila ke aar paar, Do muluk ek kahani,as well as Forsaking paradise: Stories from Ladakh and Frozen frames: Stories from Ladakh and novels such as Woh zamana and Dil hi to hai. He has authored over 70 short stories as well as a biography of Ladakhi leader, Sonam Norboo. His non-fictional works include Qalam qalamdar aur kitab, Ladakh muhaqqiqun aur sayahun ki nazar mein, Ladakh ki kahani, and Reflections on Ladakh, Tibet and Central Asia. He published articles regularly in a range of journals and periodicals including Sheeraza, Ladakh Studies, Ladags Melong, and Stawa. However, these books and articles only provide us a glimpse into the vastness of his interest, the reliability of his memory and the sharpness of his intellect. They do not provide us any clues to his warmth, inquisitiveness, inclusiveness, and generosity, which were a big part of his personality.

In addition, he prevailed over various interests and ideas, to ensure that the land in Chuttey Rantak was used to institute the Central Asian Museum, which is an ode to Ladakh’s historical links with Central Asia. Today, the museum houses a number of historical artefacts donated by various families in Ladakh that provide insight into the deep connection and exchange of goods and ideas that took place between Ladakh and its neighbouring regions including Tibet, Central Asia, Kashmir, and Punjab. Perhaps, the Central Asian Museum could be dedicated to his memory to encourage critical thinking, diligence in research, careful documentation, and the habit of writing and reading.

His passing marks the end of an era. He lived through several different chapters of Ladakh’s history. This included pre-independence times when he witnessed first-hand traders from Central Asia, Kashmir, Punjab and the plains of the Indian subcontinent exchange goods in Leh bazaar. He was also part of the change that Ladakh experienced as it became a part of independent India and then a world-famous tourism destination several decades later. At no point, was he out of step with his times. Instead, he emerged as a keeper of memories and shone like a beacon of stability at a time of rapid change. He shared his memories, experiences, and wisdom with everyone freely, irrespective of their background. In fact, I have been ‘guilty’ of ‘rewarding’ writers with an in-person meeting with him after they wrote articles for the magazine as many of them would request for a chance to meet him. He was a veritable institution by himself in terms of the breadth of his knowledge, memories, and wisdom. Despite being a celebrated writer, historian, and elder, he nurtured a deep sense of humility and was always open about the things he did not know as well as his ignorance.

He also served as the keeper of memories of a past that has all been forgotten. I remember a time when we walked around Leh town and he would point out different locations and share memories from his childhood and teenage years. We walked around the bazaar, along Stalam, and all the way to Skampari. During that walk, he would stop and chat with people—strangers and acquaintances alike—asking them about various historical landmarks and changes they had noticed in their area. The high point of that walk for us was the discovery of a fragment of one of the walls that historically marked the boundary of the old town precinct. We spent many days after that walk, excitedly discussing different aspects of Leh’s changing landscape and the remnant of the wall that had survived the ravages of time and developmental changes.

I extend condolences to his family. They are bearing the loss of a husband, a sibling, a father, father-in-law, a grandfather, and an uncle who has been an anchor for many decades. His passing is an irreparable loss to Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir as well as the country as a whole including all the students, scholars and researchers with whom he spent his, experience, time and energy generously. He served as a historian and a torchbearer of knowledge and scholarship with his prodigious writing that documented historical events as well as everyday changes that continue to take place in Ladakh as well as Jammu and Kashmir.

His passing is also a deeply personal loss for me. He was a very close friend and we used to spend hours discussing different ideas and books. In fact, he was the one who picked the name Stawa for the magazine from a list of potential names we had compiled. He reasoned, “It is important our youth learn the importance of perspective…”

By Sunetro Ghosal

Dialogues in a democracy

Ideally, democracy is a system in which all sections of society have a voice in governance. There will be differences of opinions and interests, which must be resolved through dialogues. This helps develop consensus on various issues while still allowing for differences of opinions as well as dissent. Media has an important role to play in this process.

The main pillars of democracy are legislature (elected representatives), executive (administrative structure), and judiciary (court of law). Media is regarded as the fourth pillar. It works in tandem with the other pillars while also serving as a check on them. Media is supposed to ask questions, increase awareness, expose shortcomings, celebrate achievements, enable dialogues etc. This includes print media, multimedia, radio, and new media (internet-based platforms).

What is the \role of traditional media with the advent of social media? I would argue that social media is a powerful tool that connects people and facilitates the flow of information at an unprecedented pace and scale. Its content is generated by individualised sources and is largely un-regulated though countries have started implementing regulations. In contrast, traditional media is an institution that is regulated by legal and ethical codes. In traditional media, trained professionals generate content and are expected to be objective and impartial.

Social media is akin to a virtual loudspeaker to broadcast individual views in cyberspace with real impacts on the world. In contrast, traditional media is a synergy of different interests that work together to generate potentially useful content. As mentioned earlier, media facilitates dialogues, poses questions and provides a platform to allow different interest groups to voice their views. In many cases, one has to crosscheck responses and claims to hold people to account.

There is a global trend of elected representatives using social media to voice their views. A good example of this trend is former American President, Donald Trump. He also illustrates the pitfalls of the overt reliance on social media without engaging in structured dialogues through traditional media, which remain an important part of the democratic process. There is a spectrum of political leanings in media too. However, unlike social media, media organisations have a legal obligation to be objective and impartial in their content.

Thus, while media-persons may express their opinions, it is not for media organisations to pass judgement—that is the job of the judiciary. Similarly, it is not for media organisations to develop policy though it can provide a dialogue around these processes, provide critical feedback etc.—policymaking is the job of the legislature. Lastly, media organisations can point out shortcomings in administrative processes but cannot provide those services, which is the role of the executive. Media plays the same role in civil society too, where it cannot replace other institutions but needs to work with them to facilitate constructive dialogues. The absence of such dialogues is a worrying sign for democratic systems especially when many people are choosing to communicate only through social media.

In this context, we have been trying to reach the hon’ble Member of Parliament from Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal for an interview. Our intention was to check the status of his election promises and to discuss his achievements and failures in office. In November 2021 when we first reached out to him, he asked for our questions in advance to prepare his responses. He has not responded to our calls, text messages and emails since. We have been discussing this within our editorial team and concluded that many of the questions had a confrontational tone, which was unnecessary. I collated these questions and I bear responsibility for their tone. Furthermore, in an editorial earlier this year, I had touched on this issue and said that we would publish the questions if we did not hear back from the hon’ble MP. Our responsibility to ask questions does not justify this form of coercion. That said, our editorial team is divided on this matter. One view is that after numerous failed attempts to reach the person, we should now publish the questions in the public domain and hope for a response. The other view is that we have been rather pushy and should be more patient.

There is merit to both arguments. We need to find a way to perform our responsibilities to continue asking questions, including uncomfortable ones, while remaining respectful and resisting the temptation of self-righteous belligerence. We should also make an effort to reach out to others in public office for similar dialogues.

By Sunetro Ghosal

Sunetro Ghosal is a part of the editorial team at Stawa

Air travel during COVID-19

In retrospect, I feel like the proverbial rat abandoning a ship before it sinks. When I left Leh on 8 June, its COVID-19 tally was around 90-odd positive cases. By the time I reached Mumbai and the fog of reverse altitude sickness started to lift, Ladakh’s toll had started pumping steroids as it zoomed past 500 in the span of a few days. Unfortunately, I am not sure if my transition from Ladakh to Mumbai marked a move to safety or a jump from the frying pan into the fire.

My journey entailed a flight from Leh to Delhi, a five-hour wait and then another flight from Delhi to Mumbai. I chose Air India for this journey as it has a liberal baggage allowance and, in my experience, seems less likely to cancel flights when there are too few passengers.

I reached Leh airport two hours before the flight. The new systems at the airport were fairly well-organised. Perhaps, it helps that the passenger traffic at the airport remains low. I managed to enter the terminal building within seven minutes of reaching the airport. The bags were duly sanitised and I was asked the one question I had been dreading. In my head, the words “Aarogya Setu?” evoked images of our hon’ble Prime Minister and his cronies evangelising a phone app as a panacea for all evils. I nervously showed the staff members my Rs 1,400-phone and the person nonchalantly directed me to a window where I had to register my details.

So far so good. I will admit that it helped to speak a semblance of Ladakhi as the staff seemed far more courteous and helpful in Ladakhi. It may have been my imagination but the same people seemed a little more impatient in the Hindi and English that they were using with my co-passengers. I was also struck by the fact that most of my co-passengers were males. Of the 40 to 50 passengers on my flight, there were three women: Two were family members of an army officer, while the third was a Ladakhi girl.

It took me a while to get used to the lack of human contact and technological innovations at the airport. I have mastered the art of looking innocent when I hand my boarding pass/ticket and identity proof to the policeperson on duty. They generally respond by casting a look of deep suspicion in my direction. Instead of this modern-day ritual, I had to hold the paperwork in front of an impersonal camera, while the policeperson peered into a computer console behind a glass barrier. I detected no expression on his face as I held my papers up and then behaved like a convicted criminal by removing my mask and peering amiably into the camera—I was disappointed when I was not asked to show my profile to the camera. I missed that look of deep suspicion as I was simply waved inside by two police personnel maintaining a liberal dose of social distance from me.

I tried hard to assume my look of innocence once again for the benefit of the baggage screening staff. One of them was kind enough to accuse me of carrying a multipurpose tool in my cabin bag. I hardly own any tool but still jogged my mind to remember if I had one by accident. My GPS handset was the only possible explanation. I showed the friendly staff the handset and confessed that I have never owned the kind of tool she accused me of having in my bag. She remained disconcertingly warm, smiled and waved me through. I must admit that I was starting to miss that gaze of suspicion I associate with airports and security personnel. That said, I was warming up to this new-found sense of dystopia.

Once inside, I was fascinated to see everyone follow social distancing at the airport. Except one off-duty soldier who wanted to carry all the goodies he had bought from the canteen in his luggage. He managed to get into arguments with airline staff and policemen at the airport as each of them objected to different aspects of his aspirations. Overall, check in and security clearance was fairly straight-forward once you grew accustomed to conversing with cameras and holding up your paperwork for these infernal appliances. At the security check, I missed chatting with the person on duty. These conversations are generally interesting and enlightening. Instead, the policeman took a practiced step back like he was about to launch an attack. He then used the extra-long handle of his metal detector to do an aural check around my body and waved me through. The airport staff in Leh did a good job of avoiding human contact and the lack of crowds ensured that processes were smooth.

Once inside, I realised that I had not received the visor that many of my co-passengers were already wearing. I probably missed this part of the process when I took a slight detour to meet friends at the airport before moving towards the security screening.Anyway, the airline staff had accounted for clueless passengers like me and they duly ensured that I received a pack with a visor, a mask, a hand-sanitiser, and gloves. In return, I was asked to fill a health form confirming I was not suffering any symptoms, had never tested positive for COVID-19 and would not blame the airline for any risk that air travel posed to my health. I duly handed the form over to the staff who asked me to wear the visor as I was about to board the bus to the aircraft. I had mixed feelings about this. The visor made me feel like I was going into war or was about to be kicked into outer space. There was a blue plastic film on the visor that blurred my vision and I also started feeling like a hostage being led to a secret hideout.

The airline had ensured that seats were left empty between passengers to maintain social distancing. I was still struggling with the visor as it was stuffy and inspired me to think of health conditions such as claustrophobia and heat-stroke as I could barely see anything around me. Anyway, the flight departed 20 minutes before time and reached New Delhi in the hour that this flight generally takes. Am not sure why they had allotted an hour and forty minutes for the flight, except perhaps to shift the flight into a different fare category as the government had issued a time-based cap for flight fares.

Delhi was a different world altogether. I suddenly appreciated the visor-induced blurriness of my vision. I had the freedom of imagining Delhi without bothering with the reality around me. As I waited in the security check in the domestic transfer section, I was pleasantly surprised with the space that people were affording each other. I also noticed that many people were wearing white or blue kurtas. Finally, the heat got to me and I removed the visor. This was when I realised that the ‘kurta’ was not what it seemed. On closer scrutiny, it turned out that all these people were wearing Personal Protection Equipment (PPE).

Somewhat alarmed, I messaged a close friend who is a health professional to check if this was a necessity that I had neglected. He responded with an evolving response that went from denial, shock, alarm, weariness and finally, humour. He first accused me of joking. Then he refused to believe me. I sent him photographs to prove I was not joking or delusional. He stated that the people were wasting PPE and depriving health professionals of it. He explained that a mask should suffice for protection during a flight and that “the visor adds 7% more protection.” Finally, he started joking that I was in safe hands as there were so many ‘healthcare workers’ at the airport.

Despite enjoying the air of dystopia, I was fascinated to see how people negotiated their sense of normalcy. This included people who seemed to have taken the Prime Minister’s oft-repeated term of “Corona Warriors” to heart and turned out in their body armour (read PPE), while others treated the mask and visor with careless contempt or fashion accessories.

The number of people at Delhi airport was much higher than Leh but much less than what one generally encounters and expects there. Also, the airport staff was making an effort to implement safety measures, things were better organised than otherwise. The airports and airlines seemed to be making more efficient use of available space and time though flying at less than half capacity may not necessarily be the most efficient use of fuel.

Furthermore, old habits die hard. I saw many instances of people forgetting social distancing and the importance of wearing a mask when they felt they were ‘competing’ for a better deal in the form of a seat, larger space for their hand luggage or the fastest route out of the aircraft. All of us had to fill the omnipresent health form before we were allowed to board the aircraft.

The flight to Mumbai was delayed by three hours due to ‘technical reasons’ that the airline and its staff neglected to share with us passengers. So, we all sat inside the aircraft without air-conditioning and soaking in sweat under the mask and visor. After all that drama, we managed a fairly uneventful flight to Mumbai. Most people still rushed for the exit door as soon as the flight landed as though there was a prize for the first person to leave the aircraft. The airline staff tried to get some order in this madness but gave up after a point. Once outside the aircraft, everyone was asked to fill a health form that asked the same question as forms I had filled in Delhi and Leh earlier in the day. In each case, I was asked if I had symptoms or had tested positive and that I was releasing the airline from any liability for health risks I faced during the flight. After a point it seemed like bureaucracies simply enjoy creating work that has no consequence. I am not sure if anyone even bothers to read these forms.

The medical staff at Mumbai airport looked weary and exhausted. They gave the distinct impression that everyone has resigned the future to its fate. I finally reached home, exhausted and tired, around 2230 hours and quietly lapsed into home quarantine despite receiving no instruction from the medical staff at the airport. My left hand was stamped with some information that was illegible as it smudged immediately. The stamp survived two baths and disappeared altogether in three days.

Photographs and text by Sunetro Ghosal

Sunetro Ghosal is a part of the editorial team at Stawa