Himalay here I come

I don’t know how papa got hooked on to Himalay. He had an intense affection for nature. I can only deduce that his childhood in small villages, accompanying his older sister on her Gujarat pilgrimages during his late teen years – because she needed someone to carry the luggage, and be the male accompanying a bunch of ladies - although he was not into rituals and stuff. I also think that his days in Poona hostel with a bunch of friends who liked to roam around Shivaji’s forts in the Saihyaadri range of mountains sealed his mountains attachment.

But specifically, Himalay? I can’t guess. Perhaps only after coming to Bombay, and meeting some of the doyens of mountain journeys – of whom there were many in Bombay in the 40’s as well as today!– did he get the Himalay bug. Two such well travelled and well known individuals in Bombay of the 40’s were Ashok Mudgaonkar, and Navaneet Parekh. Pappa met both of them, spoke of his desire to travel in the Himalayas. They were very helpful with information,  loan of maps and books and tips on places to visit for best views and so forth. But one question from them shook pappa to the core. How much money do you have for such a trip? You will need at least 10,000 rupees! Pappa’s salary at that time was around 200 rupees, and these people were talking about 10,000! All vacations from then on were near Bombay, Mahabaleshwar or Matheran. And finally built up the courage to go to Kashmir in 1956. One friend from the mountain aficionado community told him “these folks travel in great luxury, so 10,000 may be their budget, but you will not need so much! And that is exactly what happened. Our Kashmir trip was 68 days door-to-door, and expenses were 1228.00 rupees, in spite of first class travel in trains!

Pappa must have sipped the Himalay nectar perhaps 40 times between 1956 and his departure for the beyond. Till I took off for IIT and hostel life in 1968, we trekked as a family except one early attempt by mummy and pappa. Subsequently, the two of them did 7-8 treks without me. Mummy’s last trek – all of us together – was also Janaki’s first: Kashmir of course! Our family treks continued after mummy passed away in ’84, and we squeezed in one even from Singapore. Pappa missed one part of Himalayas, but did not mention it as a regret – only in passing when discussing “where next”. That was the Himalayas in the North East of India. It helps to mention why we missed that area. Most of the taller peaks of Himalayas were in the west and central parts of the Himalayas. Many European mountaineers came to climb peaks there, and the British made efforts to provide administrative infrastructures in those areas – not in Nepal of course since they did not rule Nepal! As a result, there was plenty of information available about the western and central Himalayas, for trekking as well, but little about the Himalayas east of Sikkim. Typically, infrastructure development in the North East was not well established either.

We started with Kashmir in 1956, and 27 years later, Janaki’s first was Kashmir as well. Kumaon is beautiful, but relatively smaller than Gadhwal (I have Romanised the native pronunciation of the name), but given that the five celebrated pilgrimage places are in Gadhwal, both information and infrastructure is plentiful. We did 4 treks in Kumaon; including Vaidehi’s first, and mummy-pappa’s last trek by themselves, to Milam glacier in eastern Kumaon near the border with Nepal. We have done many treks in Gadhwal, even I have been to Badrinath 4 times! Mummy-pappa too did 3 more without me accompanying them in Gadhwal. We have had a long and fond connection with Nepal across 5 treks, 2 without me between 1965 and mid-seventies.

Nepal of those days was quite different from India although Himalayas are contiguous across both countries. One key factor was that the British had not ruled Nepal – a clear monarchy – and thus infrastructure was indifferent, and urbanisation was far away – although air travel was common if you did not wish to walk! The people of Nepal were simply marvellous, often putting our urban civilized behaviour to shame with their openness, self esteem, generosity and warmth, in spite of being quite poor. (unfortunately the developments of the past 20 years tell a different story, but I am a stranger to Nepal of those years and now. While I do not know how the people of the mountains may have changed, I have great faith in the ethos of the mountains. I believe that the vastness, the enormity and open vistas of the mountains affect the personalities of the people of live there – the sons of the Himalayan soil!) We began with Muktinath and pappa-mummy di the last one to Phoksumdo lake.

Then came Himachal Pradesh, and we have trekked there many a times. Every time the word Himalay pops into my head, the vision of the Khajiar meadow, the cold of a rock backed cabin of Shetrundi floats in front of my eyes along with a photo of mummy crossing a “beli” bridge across the Chandrabhaga in Lahul. The Lahul trek that pappa-mummy did – without me – was probably their loveliest. From Manali to Kistawar. I think they took 15 to 20 days to  cover what vehicle currently complete in 6 – 7 hours! Our eastern edge of trekking was Darjeeling and Sikkim.

We have visited other parts of India, but this is a place for Himalay talk only! But Pachamadhi (again I have Romanised the local pronunciation) was quite a memorable place. Mummy-pappa have visited Melghat tiger reserve near Amravati, and followed a royal route into Ranathambhor – not in terms of luxury, but because they got to spend a few days in a Royal hunting lodge deep in the forests there. It just so happened that we did not travel in southern India, but no regrets! However, pappa and mummy did go to Ooty and Kodikanal after their marriage and before ’56.