15th February
Today I've actually managed to lock myself in our room (an exceptionally rare act for some solitude) but discovered that to get some peace this tactic doesn't always work. Scott (alias Dr Biscott) has just treated Karak (and can I add that in Khati it is very rare for a male to undertake this task) who while high up in a tree cutting oak leaves for the families cattle managed to put a barianch ( a rather large metal cutting implement) through three layers of clothing and his knee.... Tota, Rohit and Neha (all 'small' people) have been screaming "Bonnie" up through the floorboards and Kusal has been chasing pipe fittings - all in the first hour of having the door closed. In the past on an infrequent occassion when the door has been shut, we've had people knock to then ask if everything is ok???
The rain started at midnight on the thirteenth and has rarely let up in the last thrity six hours. Due to increasingly warm winter weather what should now be snow is rain. When the low cloud that's draped like a shawl round the mountain conours briefly clears I can see white powder coated trees high up on the ridge.
I'm sure the fields of gehun (wheat) & jo (barley) are breathing a collective sigh of relief after a long dry period. Our days of cracking 2 centimetres of ice off our morning buckets of water as been minimal this season. This winter snow has been scant with a fall on the 31st December & 15th January, both of which we missed while on business in Delhi. However, in Almora I purchased some limes that were popped into a glued up newspaper bag. A while later I was sitting in our hotel room chatting when I looked down at the packet on the coffee table and noted a photo of a picture perfect Kumaoni village, complete with traditional houses, fields and mountains all covered in thick snow. As I picked up the packet and commented to Scott on how beautiful the scene looked I realised the photo was of Khati! The photo of the first snowfall had appeared in the local Hindi Uttarakhand paper a couple of weeks prior to it ending up as lime packaging.
The last snowfall occurred in the early hours of the morning of Basant Panchmi (8th February) day which falls every year on teh 5th day of Indian Magh month (January/February) and is the first day of Spring. The night before we had walked through town in the brooding night air with clouds mounting down the valley and through the night we were lulled to sleep by the soft sound of rain on the tin roof. Much to our suprise we awoke on the day of celebration to a white winter wonderland.
We headed up to the old stone Nanda Mandir (temple)just out of town to take in the panoramic view and th pristine beauty of fresh snow across this magnificent landscape that never ceases to amaze. On the 'bad' days when nothing appears to be going right with our latest solar project, a refreshing walk in the snow up to the temple, the inhalation of a few deep breaths while taking in the surrounding landscape makes you feel that all is 'good'! Our walk was followed by snowball fights in town but unfortuanately I'm a rotten shot!
On special days such as Basant Panchmi everyone cooks puris (can I assure you that a Kumaoni puri is a very different breed of puri compared to the rest of India) - an unleavened thick bread dough disc thrown into hot oil - and much of my remaining day was spent greeting a steady flow of adults and children beating a track to our door with an offering of the aforementioned bread and sprigs of barley (symbolising spring). The sentiment of including us as part of this community is wonderful but you can only eat so many puris at a time and then I was left wondering what to do with over 30 of them??? Unfortunately, only housebuilding or frisbee throwing came to mind....
Bonnie
PEAK
p.s. I'm sure we will eventually eat them all!!
