Magic of mountains from Ladakh to Kashmir comes alive through paintings and pictures
Telegraph | 3 February 2025
A breathtaking view of the Milky Way from Zanskar in Ladakh on a new moon night. The evolution of Sandakphu, the highest point in Bengal, over the past 50 years. Lively watercolours of Kashmir. Shots of faces that say a thousand words.
The magic of the mountains came alive through pictures, paintings and anecdotes at an auditorium in central Calcutta on Sunday evening.
The evening was marked by audio-visual presentations woven around the Himalayas. A series of paintings on Kashmir was the opening act.
Krishnajit Sengupta, 50, a professional painter, visited the Valley in March 2023. He made a series of watercolour paintings there. The subjects range from houseboats on Dal Lake to snow-laden Sonmarg.
Most of the paintings are in colour. The portraits of the local people are in black and white. “Their lives are pale and their braces sombre,” he said.
Sunday’s programme, at the Moulali Youth Convention Centre, was aptly titled Let’s Talk Mountains 2025. “This is the third edition of the event, which started in 2023. As the name suggests, we want people to talk about mountains,” said Riddha Datta, founder of Altitude Adventure Holidays, which organised the programme.
Tanay Das, a 31-year-old information technology professional and a passionate photographer, was at the helm of another session.
Das loves capturing the mountains from dusk till dawn when most trekkers head back to the camps or other accommodations.
“Being at a vantage point on a new moon night is the best time to see the shining stars. On a full moon night, when the moonlight caresses the snow-capped peaks, it feels surreal,” Das told The Telegraph.
He showcased a series of stunning pictures. One of them, was of the Milky Way galaxy on a new moonlight, taken at Zanskar in Ladakh. It was clicked in August 2023.
Sandipan Mukherjee, a schoolteacher by profession and photographer by passion, showcased a series of portraits of people he met in the mountains.
Mukherjee made six trips to Nubra Valley in Ladakh between 2012 and 2017. He has authored a book, with pictures and short essays, on Nubra.
One of the encounters was with a man at Turtuk, about a kilometre above the village, where Mukherjee would climb in search of better mobile connectivity.
He would often see the man, sitting there and looking at the snow-capped peaks across the LoC.
“After a couple of days, I asked him what was he looking at. The man said ‘brother’ in the local language,” said Mukherjee.
The man was a resident of one of the border villages that were on the Pakistani side but became part of India, literally overnight, in Operation Turtuk on December 15, 1971.
Another session on Sunday featured two men, aged 70 and 29. They talked about the evolution of Sandakphu. the highest place in Bengal and known for stunning views of Mount Kanchenjunga and Mount Everest.
“For most trekkers, Sandakphu is their debut trek. In the 1970s, Sandakphu barely had a couple of accommodations and almost no amenities. We would carry rations and stoves because we had to make our food there. We also carried blankets,” said Ratan Lal Biswas, a veteran traveller to the mountains.
During a trip to the same Sandakphu in November 2022, Indranil Chaudhuri, the young traveller, saw the Fifa World Cup match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia at his hotel.