Terminals

I had traveled to Dharamshala with my friend DK to watch the indie movie festival there. The fest was very underwhelming the movies were so independent that they did not have a plot or a script or direction in particular. Maybe too much independence is not good thing.

The trip hence became everything about what was outside the movie festival. It became about alfresco tea shops overlooking the valley, tibetian food, tea and momos.

It was in one of the tea shops in Mcleod that we met Lhasang Tsering. A strong old man. You see him and you immediately remember the verse “Deep roots are not reached by frost The old that is strong does not wither” . He was lean and muscular , veins popping out of his arms.

We quickly introduced ourselves and asked him where he was from. He said he was from Tibet. He had been living in India since the Chinese invasion of Tibet in the 1950s. He was schooled here and was employed as a principal of a school for several years . We asked him what he thought about India? He immediately gave us a bookmark with poetry on it which read Thank You India. He has written that poem.

He said “ I love this country i am grateful to this nation but i would want to go back to Tibet, not the Tibet which it presently is which can only be accessed with a Chinese Passport which reeks of Chinese language and culture, I want to go back to a Free Tibet, the Tibet which had its own identity its own stories told in its own language.”

We were stunned by fervor in his speech. He added “ I know it’s difficult and nearly impossible, China is very strong economically, militarily, politically. But look, they have upset the entire South East Asia and Japan with the island claims, they have upset the US with the dumping of their goods. They with the control of Tibet has upper hand in every military attack due to the elevation and Tibet is the origin of all great rivers, China now controls all of them, one who controls water controls civilizations. The cause of Tibet is the the cause of entire South Asia, India should realize this. I do not need charity from India, I need partnership. I am not a beggar but a co-worker”

After this he became silent and no one could break that silence no one dared to, it was the silence of the wounded, of the one who have suffered injustice for half a century.

I believe that these are conversations of hope and despair that he has with himself everyday. He does not need listeners, these are endless debates within him.There a Welsh word which aptly describes such feelings.

Hiraeth: A homesickness for a home which one cannot return to, a home which maybe never was, the nostalgia, the yearning, the grief for lost places of your past.

After a few sips of tea we gathered courage to ask him a question. We asked how important is land, you have your people here and you have a community, cant Tibet be here?

He looked at us for a while and replied “ Have you read history, have you read about the plight of the Jews. It took them a holocaust to understand the importance of their own land. Our surnames do not have a village name since we have lost our village. We exist without material moorings. We need our land our home”

He gave us a few more of his poems and his visiting card, smiled and moved on.

Tibet survives in people like Tsering. Dhramshala is nothing more than a museum of the Free Tibet. Tibet might not be alive and thriving but it is curated well.