Saturday, 22 February 2025

Life in the Mountains - Part 2

 “The mountains were his masters. They rimmed in life. They were the cup of reality, beyond growth, beyond struggle and death. They were his absolute unity in the midst of eternal change.” - Thomas Wolfe

Trishul in clouds
Views of the Kumaon Himalayas, like this, are only for us The Great Indian Tourist. For life on the mountains must continue, earlier the seasons dictated the pace of life, now it is calendars and global warming.

Mules are used where the walking track has been
widened
Building a house at the end of a walking track is difficult, all the supplies have to be brought by mule or by hand. Now that cutting and selling wood is not feasible (it’s mostly pine which is not good for construction), the building has to be of modern materials got from outside. Pathways have to be found for mules, where earlier a man trudged, now mules go.

A very tired mule
 Mules did four rounds where I was staying, hauling sand, and cement. The Tor rods were hauled all the distance by men. More and more people from the plains are buying or leasing traditional houses, tearing them down, and building unsightly monstrous behemoths in their place. 

the working man
Most of the labour is from other states, paradoxical though, as the younger generation from the mountains are leaving as there are no jobs to be had...


people who own houses, come infrequently...


...otherwise houses remain locked
clothes that have dried and are ready to be taken in...
Drying is with the sun, clothes are washed when it is bright and sunny and put out to dry. So are the vegetables, most of which are grown on the property itself. 

Pumpkins grown on the property, these are
being readied for Shivratri
And life must go on, the eternal cycle of drudgery. The Munni Devi's of the mountains gather firewood, look at the sky, if it is a clear day...

gathering firewood


"Your faith can move mountains, and your doubt can create them." — Swami Vivekananda


Wednesday, 19 February 2025

Life in the Mountains

"Beyond the mountains, more mountains.” —Haitian proverb

 
Trishul wreathed in clouds
The local village people do not climb for a view. It is part of their everyday chores, from gathering firewood to going to school, to building a house,  it is a hard life. Especially for villages where one has to walk to get to.
Munni Devi gathers firewood...
...and walks away
Firewood is the sustenance of all villagers in the mountains.  Though gas has come, it is still in the nascent stages and is a luxury to use for heating. One saw a man carry an empty cylinder to be exchanged for a full cylinder, imagine carrying that back, two kilometres each way.
From heating to eating and everything in between,
it is done through wood. 

school is what it is
In village schools there are more kids than classrooms.  In the school one visited, there were three rooms for six classes. 
farming the land for what meagre crop there is
The children go to cities for jobs else they do what their parents did, look after cattle and farm. 

the daily menu...
School going children are a boon, as there one meal less to feed them as school gives lunch, though one wonders how filling or nutritious the lunch is.

Life is hard here in the mountains, harsh weather conditions, limited access to resources, and challenging terrain make it especially difficult.