A Pilgrim a Garhwali – and other stories

A Pilgrim and a Garhwali
At Pipalkoti while on a trip, Atulbhai and I sat on a bench near the main road. We were awaiting the arrival of our other party. Soon a pilgrim, quite well dressed, came by. He was going to Badrinath on foot. He sat on the bench for a rest. We got chatting and learnt that he was from Kanpur, once he owner of big sweet shop which he bequeathed to his sons. His wife had passed on and he was now on a two year pilgrimage on foot. Expecting begrudging replies, I enquired, ‘ Do your sons respect you and give you money? ‘ “Yes of course. They worship me, they give me money, why not? I have brought them up well with Sanskar. Until recently, my father was alive . I looked after him well and my sons have seen that. So they have this Sanskar to look after parents. I am not thrown out, but I wanted to see the world this way. I talk to them on the phone every 2-3 days and we are a happy family.” Still he was walking like a pilgrim in true sense. ‘Can we do some sewa in anyway?’ we asked, – meaning to check if we could assist him with money or food, as is the custom. “No, what sewa you can do? I have too much for such a pilgrimage” and he walked on. We never asked names of each other, but this stranger left me with meaning of a true pilgrim.

A little while later, the bench was occupied by a Garhwali. A retired policeman, he was going to the bank to collect his pension. He had served in Manipur!!! It seems in 1950s, Manipur had trouble with rebel groups and the local police were hand-in-glove with rebels from both factions. A senior police officer from Garhwal was appointed there. He recruited 500 Garhwalis, trained them and inducted them as policemen in the troubled Manipur. Like Gorkhas, they brought things under control and stayed on until they retired. Now they earn special pension for serving in Manipur! May be these Garhwalis are one of the reasons why Manipur continues to be a part of India today.

Being Pushed
I have a strong dislike to being pushed. I hate putting up my achievements as a mountaineer on display. When people go beyond limits in their praise for me, I am compelled to do otherwise as an act of rebellion. Even during my training course, I refused to toe the line and was even awarded a B grade.Today I show off as ‘the longest surviving best B grade mountaineer ! It never bothered me. Many students are hesitant to admit that they received a B Grade. That’s why I love this non-competitive sport. Same with admiration and awards. They do not hang on me. Some great awards or a line of appreciation from a worthy source always makes me proud but others, I forget immediately. I attribute this to the grace of the Himalaya. With best awards in the world coming my way, as Aamir Ali put it ‘it should not become a blase.’ There was of course some great enthusiasm, like that I had for the Patron’s medal.
Once, on a local hike, the son of an architect came with us. His father was very proud that his son was joining the great Kapadia with Ashwin Popat (his contact). As always, as we went up easy slopes towards Harihar Fort, I lost the way and we went into the jungle.! As I cut through the bushes, the boy was lagging behind and soon started getting nervous and finally cried. Once on safe ground I asked him what happened, we were never in danger. He said “What will I tell my father. I lagged behind and could not walk. He will scold me. He wants me to be the best and asked me to perform well’. I thought this was too excessive pressure on the boy who I am sure did not enjoy the hike.

Instead, I love a boy like Varun scared on the slippery steps. When we met at New Hampshire after few years he said : “Ya I trekked with you and I remember, I chickened out!”. To be scared is an essential lesson and to respect this scare is survival. Eric Shipton said: ‘I do not want to be the best mountaineer in the world; I want to be the longest surviving one’!

Blind and Kangchenjunga
Amidst all the plethora of climbing activities, a group of blind ladies climbed Dzongri Peak near Darjeeling. They were scared and were constantly urged on by their escorts. Finally, at the 4200m summit, their ecstasy knew no bounds, but one of their escorts was in agony: ‘When I saw Kangchenjunga from the peak, I begged God to give them sight for at least a second so that they could see that glowing peak. How do I tell someone who has never seen red in her entire life that the peak was on fire, or about the beauty of the red rhododendrons? How do I explain a Himalayan sunset to them? There is much for us to be thankful for and how little do we realise this!’ A thing to remember, when next time in the mountains we act blind.

Christianity in North East
In Darjeeling, I met an elderly gentleman from England. He was born at Tezpur at the foot of the Tawang valley, as his father was running an educational institution there. It still runs and he comes often to visit it and support it. This institution is supported by Christian fathers though it is not a missionary school. I started talking about Christianity in the Northeast.

The early tea plantations were run by the British and hence they exploited the plight of workers for cheap labour. Soon there were some among them who had a religious bend and thought that something must be done to help these workers. Thus, started the first Christian inroads into the area. They met in Rome to discuss the formal induction. At that time Jesuits were busy in Education in civilized work and others busy in Africa. So, it was decided that Baptists would take over this area and help the poor. Thus, started a long relationship of almost 200 years now. First to be converted were the people in Nagaland and Mizoram- completely tribal belt – who were converted and today these two communities are 99% Christians. They could not make much headway in Assam, Tripura and Manipur where Hinduism was strong and people were not so deprived as they were from princely background. Similarly, they could not make much headway where Buddhism was prevalent. The Arunachalis, have various forms of nature-worship religions, and though they were very poor tribal people yet they were very rich in traditions. Also these tribals were hostile and even killed the British soldiers, leading to punitive missions.

A documentary on BBC showed how Christianity survived in SE Tibet, and these areas correspond to the areas north of Arunachal. The early travellers had spread the message, built some churches and given aid to local chieftains. This was a unique case where Buddhist people had converted to be Christians. They have Churches which have survived the onslaught of the “Gang of Four” and Cultural Revolution. Inside the Church, it is totally a Buddhist atmosphere, seating arrangements like how Lamas used to seat, and ceremonies being performed in the same manner and fervor. The only change is that instead of huge statues of Padmasambhava there is a statue of Christ and a huge cross.

How faith rules! I wonder in thoughts and hearts do these people distinguish between teachings of Buddha and Christ? Or are they same ? Curious isn’t it?

Nanda Devi- no problem
On the French-Indian expedition to Nanda Devi traverse, the Indian leader had promised the moon. Nothing much materialised and the expedition failed.
The French leader walked towards the Indian leader and said in halting English:

“You said helicopters, no problem-Ha? Where are they?
You said many porters no problem-Ha? Where are they?
You said all food, no problem-Ha? Where are they?”
And then throwing is ice axe on ground in disgust he said : “Anyway everything No Problem!!! “
And gave a grin.

Meeting Dalai Lama
After a long and hard travel, we reached our roadhead at the Lingti valley in Spiti. There was only one road, a rough road going to Kaja. We had seen Dalai Lama giving a Kalchakra sermon a day earlier at Tabo. At 9 am as we got up, we saw two jeeps coming towards us. Just two- in those days security was not an issue. As it approached us, we saw Dalai Lama in the first one. I bowed down with Namaste and so did the others. Jeep stopped!!! Dalai Lama returned our namaste and waved us in. He asked in English what we were doing out there in the wilderness. So, I said, “There are many mountains in this valley and we are off to them.” He looked at the valley and said to me: “Be careful – always in mountains. Will you see Tibet from there? “ and smiled . He gave us a blessing enough to last the life-time!!! It was great to meet him one to one, in private, in mountains and get the blessings!

Siachen My First Visit
When we went to the Siachen glacier for the first time, our Indo-British team went to meet General I K Mehta, as I remember. After tea and introductions, General asked Dave Wilkinson and Steve Venables, my British members, if they had much climbing experience. I interjected to say ‘Sir they are some of the best climbers in the world and they have climbed on ice and rock and peaks that are difficult and………..’. So General turned to me to ask: ‘And what about your team?’ Before I could reply Dave started ‘Oh Harish is moving force in Indian mountaineering and he and others have climbed peaks like…………’. With a twinkle General stopped him and said, ‘Ok, if you guys stop scratching each other’s back, we can get on with some business!!!’

George Schaller
Snow Leopard is a great book and a very sensitive one. There have been movies on Snow Leopards but never to match this book. In Canada, I spent two full days with George Schaller who has done a lot for the world environment. We chatted, but then poor me , totally ignorant about the subject was at a loss for words. Patiently he explained everything so beautifully that it definitely got meinterested. He also talked about a few books that he has written. As we drove through the Canadian forests, he would suddenly stop the car and point out animals which we never realized were there. This is called s“practised eyes” which come from a life-long interest. One of the great moments of my life was when he came to Mumbai and I had another long chat with him. All should read his book; “Stones of Silence”.