-Written by Rinchen.

Hustle- the name that the 21st century gives to life.

Yet, somehow in some corners of Ladakh, people are willing to give and not just get.

As I stood without a seat in a jam packed bus leaving from Leh to Chemrey, an elderly lady volunteered to hold my heavy bag on her lap. I refused because it would be too cumbersome for her. Then another young girl volunteered to hold my bag since she had a seat, so I relented. After some time I too got a seat. The other woman who had been standing beside me, let an elderly gentleman sit instead of herself taking the other empty seat. I then spotted another elderly gentleman and offered my seat in turn. Then, after a while a girl younger than me offered her seat to me. 

By now you would have realized that 40% of us were thinking of how to give up our seat for someone who needed it more than us. In reality we were just behaving how one should, yet the world is often not such one may say. Call it a domino effect of being considerate or tenets of public decency instilled in Ladakh’s people. Call it what you will, but the memory of that journey-standing through a crowded bus as it zipped past Trans-Himalayan mountains- is a symbol of Ladakh that I cherish. 

The journey reminded me of Gyalwa Rinpoche His Holiness Dalai Lama’s quote, “Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay.” In so many ways the quote sums up why both locals and tourists keep coming back to Ladakh no matter how far away they go. The first time may be a consequence of destiny or (tourist) destination, yet thereafter it’s always due to the people of Ladakh that both locals and tourists come back.

We, here in Ladakh, still seem to live in a society where decency, at least in the public, is both valued and practised. We must keep this spirit alive, because happiness by the end of the day is found in the little things.