We continued on after leaving Srinagar, our next destination
being a the famous town of Kargil.
It was quiet a long roadtrip. We started out after breakfast
from our hotel carrying packed lunch to have later on. Kargil is the second
largest town of Ladakh. We had a exhausting roadtrip before we reached our
hotel in the late evening.
En-route to the hotel we stopped over at the prestigious
Kargil War memorial. Looking at the Jawans stationed at the entrance, gives you
an intense pride and extreme honour for the country. The jawan who introduced
us to the memorial talking about its rich and not so old history, made us
realise the importance of the place and the honour and love one has for his
country.
The memorial itself is beautifully located amongst the hills
which has the indian tri-colour perched high. Giving one an immense sense of
pride. At the entrance to the museum there is a board on which tourists can
write their remarks. We wrote the only message that felt apt at the moment with all
our feelings at d forefront, the message said “saare jawano ko tehe dil se
salaam”.
Moving on inside, the museum itself has many pictures and
remnants of shell casings, bazooka firing and all sorts of things that spell
out ‘WAR’. Looking at the pictures one realises the gravity of the situation
which was there at that time, it also portrays the pride of the soldiers after
reclaiming the indian territory from the terrorists.
Going on outside there are names of all the jawans on a wall,
carved out in stone who laid their lives during the kargil war. There is also a
flame that remians burning in their wake. Our VEER JAWANS, definitely makes you
want to give them a heartfelt SALAAM. India is so much about culture and its
history.
With a new born respect for the motherland we moved on to our
hotel. The hotelier was very keen and welcoming. The rooms were spacious and
well furnished. There was a special arrangement for dinner for our group as we
were a big group. It was very well planned. The food was also excellent with
veg and non-veg being served separately. After having a wholesome meal we all
crashed and woke up to a beautiful morning with an even more appetising
breakfast.
We left after breakfast to continue our journey to the dream
destination “LEH”..
.. to be continued
