| End of July last
year we moved back to the UK. For three years before that we lived
in India with brief interludes in Bangkok, the UK and Germany. Most
of our time in India we spent in the Himalayan village of Manali,
which is situated at the end of the Kulu Valley in the state of
Himachal Pradesh, approximately 550 km north of Delhi. The first
winter we fled the freezing temperatures and sweated along the South
West Coast instead. The following year we braved the cold –
equipped with a bukari (oven), tons of wood and charcoal, body warmers,
numerous jumpers, scarves, gloves and in my case even a couple of
pairs of long johns (as Woody unerotically denounces them) or leggings
as I like to call them in an admittedly Germanised English.
It’s not so much travelling in India
as it is living in India (or more specifically living in Manali)
with short travelling intervals (either to the South or around Himachal
Pradesh). It’s great to get to know the people, their style
of life, their attitudes, instead of just passing through and getting
a very superficial impression of a place. As for the understanding
of a place, its culture, its people, it seems to be impossible to
fully comprehend its intricate social and religious life, the never
ending number of festivals with different and largely opaque purposes,
the different proclamation and rules made by devtas and devis (gods
and goddesses), the firm belief that if the goddess gets angry the
silver masks of her idol becomes black (and will become silver again
without cleaning once the anger has subsided). We can ask about
these things (and get contradictory replies), we can observe and
take it or leave it, but we never can fully comprehend it. You probably
have to be born here for that. But anyway, it’s a nice place
to stay.
Read
full Manali article...
Kirsten Mar 03/ updated Sep 05 |
