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Journalism of Courage
Days before the Indian and Chinese governments open up Nathula, one Army porter of Village Yakla, just 16-km from the frontier with Tibet, is already on a nostalgic trip. Now 76 and worn from over half a century of labour, Oloh crossed over from Shigatze in Tibet into India 56 years back.
8220;I decided to go on a long trek with a few friends. We just ended up crossing the border. I don8217;t know where they are, some might have gone back, some might have died but I have stayed on,8221; Oloh says, his dark house overlooking the winding mountains that roll down from the fabled pass he once crossed.
After marrying Phuboh about four years later 8212; she also crossed the border at Nathula from Shigatze 8212; Oloh spent the last half-century making a living the only way it is possible to do in the sprinkling of villages and settlements that dot the 56-km road from Nathula to the Sikkimese capital.
With an unemployed son in Gangtok and a daughter who runs a provisions store in Kochi, Oloh and Phuboh continue to live on their own. 8220;My daughter is doing well and keeps telling us to live with her. We visited her four years ago, but it is too hot in Kerala,8221; Oloh says.
Scores of Tibetans continue to live at the large Ravangla refugee camp not far from Gangtok, a facility where Tibetan infiltrators are rehabilitated into the rest of Sikkim. 8220;We feel bad about what China did to our country, but what can we really do? Anyway, we are very happy here,8221; Oloh says.
