Mavis Heath

The letters suddenly stopped arriving. When I last heard from Mrs. Mavis Heath, she was in a hospital in Kenya. Finally, a brief fax message informed me that she had passed away in August 1994.

Though I never met Mrs. Heath, we corresponded very regularly for many years. In fact she read The Himalayan Journal from cover to cover and corresponded in detail, first with my predeccesor Soli Mehta, and later continued the association when I took over as the editor. She had travelled to the Himalaya twice and very vividly wrote about her first view of this great range. She used to write little poems and describe the life in Kenya, where she lived in a small place called Naro Maru with her husband. Her husband passed away a few years ago and she choose to imagine that he had gone to the Himalaya! Her love for the range was so strong that she wanted some permanent association with it.

Through her several letters, I gathered that Mrs. Heath was British, settled in Kenya for many years. After the war she arrived in India in August 1947 at the time of Indian independence. She was employed as a cypher officer with the British High Commission. In two years, till end of 1949, she had her fill of the Himalayan range. She trekked to Kullu, in and around the Kashmir valley and extensively in the Garhwal range. Like many of us, the first view of Nanda Devi made her dance, as she quotes the Indian bard Kabir about this in one of her articles,

In her last years she had troubled eyesight and after an operation, doctors advised her limited hours of reading. She reserved lots of it for The Himalayan JournaV. Through letters she became a family friend, sending postal stamps for my children, inquiring about their studies and recommending some friends to visit us, which they did.

Life’s associations are sometimes very strange. This is one such association where the Himalaya, letters and the Journal brought two persons from distant countries in contact with each other. We are sad at her passing away. I am sure she is looking to the Himalaya in spirit, wherever she is, and dancing with joy!

HARISH KAPADIA