Chess, Chekhov and Tchaikovsky in the Himalayas

 Devendra Gautam

Growing up amid apple orchards and grain fields on the lap of Api, by the side of Humla Karnali and Humane Khola was fun, at least for a 'Gorkhali' kid of a senior government official. For the local people, all outsiders not from Karnali zone were 'Gorkhalis' back then and it was not unusual for the locals to dislike these outsiders. 

Most probably, this dislike wells up from the bosom of the snowland from the times of re-unification of modern Nepal. Launched during the reign of King Prithvi Narayan Shah about 280 years ago, the campaign met an abrupt end after the Anglo-Nepal war of 1814-1816 that dismembered Nepal as it forced her to cede swathes of her territories. But the old wounds continue to fester as the state apathy toward genuine concerns of the zone turned province even after a switch to federalism from the unitary state system.  

For outsiders, the Himalayan region offers a romantic view of life but for local communities, life is full of adversities of Himalayan proportions. In fact, there's nothing romantic about working the fields covered in snow, awaiting the weather to clear to enable swift airlifting of those needing treatment and replenishment of supplies, raising sheep and yaks and walking along treacherous trails, between rocky outcrops and gushing rivers.  

Climate change has actually made life worse in the Himalayas with receding snowfall, retreating glaciers and an increasing threat of glacial lake outburst floods (GLOF). 

As that is not the topic of this piece, let me take you back to a childhood of chess, Tchaikovsky uninterrupted through a cassette player, carrom board under the low roof of thatched mud dwellings and out in the open (designed to keep the houses warm even during the winter), horse-riding without a saddle as was (and still is, perhaps) the practice there, fun in the snow and a bit of schooling in between through a perilous, work-in-progress Karnali highway. 

Why just a bit of schooling? Because the school used to close during the winter that used to last about three months, disconnecting Humla from the rest of the world every now and then with Chilgadi (the native word for the airplane) unable to take off from and land at a short takeoff and landing (STOL) airport covered in snow. 

That left a lot of time for leisurely activities like horse-riding, listening to Deuda songs and dance that would go through all through those wintry, sultry Himayan nights close to our quarters, playing in the snow, playing many a game of chess and carrom board with government officials in various stages of their careers, defeating most of them — and teasing them a bit — and listening to Tchaikovsky amid steaming cups of coffee to beat sub-zero temperatures.

Those were the times when Russia (the United Soviet Socialist Republic) was elbowing with the United States for global supremacy.     

 be continued........