My Blog - Knowing the unwritten laws of the land

Knowing the unwritten laws of the land

5
Nov

On our way to Mussourie, after trekking in the Panwali-Kantha area of Uttarakhand, we stopped at the gigantic Tehri dam: it was begging to be photographed. We whipped out our cameras and clicked away.

This 260 m high dam is India’s tallest dam and the fifth highest in the world. It was constructed at the confluence of the Bhagirathi and Bhilangana rivers. The project supplies water for irrigation and fisheries in rural communities as well as drinking water and hydro-electric power to cities as far away as Delhi.

What we didn’t know was that taking photographs was taboo! There weren’t any visible “Photography Prohibited” signs, but the officer at the barricade—who saw us stopping to photograph the dam—wouldn’t permit us to drive across the dam because we had stopped to take photographs. So, we backtracked a little and took the old route: down the mountain, across the valley, and to a bridge that was much further down the river. The driver was upset! The trekking guide and his staff were upset! But, I was ecstatic because by driving across the river we got a much better view of the dam and its impressive spillways.

The detour also gave us a closer view of New Tehri, the town to where some of those affected by the construction of the dam had been relocated. The original town of Tehri, along with thirty seven villages, now lies at the bottom of the reservoir. Residents of eighty-eight other villages were also affected.

After crossing the river, as we wound up the mountain, the road got so narrow that we had to do some off-roading at one of the steeper curves to get around a stuck truck. (It seemed like it would need to be dismantled to move it out of the way.) The alternate route also forced us to go through an archway that was intentionally constructed to limit the width and height of vehicular traffic on that road.

The only way our jeep could get through was if all the luggage on the luggage rack was offloaded …… and reloaded. This exercise gave me plenty of time to explore.

Seeing me peering down at the dam, a bystander (the one with the motorcycle) told me where I could get some fabulous photographs of the dam. I burst out laughing. I was in front of a big blue sign with large white letters that said PHOTOGRAPHY PROHIBITED. But, apparently, most photographs of Tehri dam on the internet are taken from the viewing area down the road from where we had stopped. There were even cutouts in the mesh for taking photographs ... less than a 100 yards from the photography prohibited sign!

Fate gave us lemons and we made lemonade! I’ll never know if the sentry at the barricade was being kind or not, but I realized we can ignore explicit signs as long as we understand implied ones—the unwritten laws of the land!

Blogger : Mrinalini Watson Host Institute : Rupayan Sansthan Jodhpur Categories : Student Researcher Comments : 0 Comment

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