Writers Festival Part 2

Everyone enjoys the tea breaks, morning and afternoon. On Friday, they were held in the High School flagpole area, a popular sunny spot just outside the Parker Hall Auditorium. The Cambridge Book Shop from Kulri Bazaar set up a store that stocked many books by the presenters, as well as other local authors.

Here are Darab Nagarwalla '80 and current staff and Harish Kapadia, local well-known mountaineer and writer, enjoying tea. Note that the tea is served in unfired clay cups. These used to be the standard way tea was served on the trains. Unfortunately, they now use plastic.

After tea break Pia Singh, a Garhwal native, talked about her treks crossing the Garhwal Himalayas. These mountains contain the four sacred sources of the River Ganges, Yumnotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath. If you are interested in learning more about this area, read Stephen Alter's book Sacred Waters.

Susan Hunt is an Australian adventurer who has done many things, from extreme kayaking in Borneo, to climbing Everest. She said she does it to put herself outside her comfort zone. For some of us, that is very far out! Her presentation focused on answering the questions that she receives over and over. For example, they take Immodium before taking off on the last part of a trek to avoid stopping unnecessarily.

View of Everest Base Camp

Melting ice for water on Everest

Dr. V.K. Sashindran is a philatelic expert. He gave an overview of stamps from around the world that feature mountains. Everest and Mount Fuji are the most iconic.

A few of the Everest stamps from a variety of countries

Mussoorie Writers

Experience the Himalaya: A Mountain Festival

One of the highlights of being at Woodstock in the fall has been the Mussoorie Writers Festival. Steve Alter has been curating this amazing event since 2007. This one was a bit different; more about experiences than books.

To begin with there were five attendees who have summited Everest — several more than once. The majority of the presenters are dedicated mountaineers who have lived remarkable lives.

The Festival was opened by Steve, who introduced the Chief Guest, Loveraj Singh Dharmshaktu. He is a member of the Border Security Force, has summited 32 major Himalayan peaks, and climbed Everest six times.

Steve Alter

Loveraj Singh Dharmshaktu

A panoramic 360° view from Mt. Everest was shown on screen. You can see it here:
http://www.panoramas.dk/fullscreen2/full22.html

The first main presenter was Steve Swenson from Seattle. He is one of America’s most accomplished climbers, known for pioneering difficult routes and testing the boundaries of endurance. He has climbed both K2 and Everest without supplemental oxygen, as well as many other peaks in the Karakoram. Swenson is immediate past president of the American Alpine Club.

He showed us his film about climbing Sasar Kangri II, "The Old Breed." He went with two others, one young and another in his 50s, like himself. During the climb, which went up a previously unclimbed route, he became quite ill. In the end he had to be flown out.

K2 in the Karakoram

Steve Swenson

The second film of the morning was "Verticalmente DeMode," by Marizio "Manolo" Zanolla, an Italian rock climber. The film was breathtaking, showing him climbing a sheer rock face near his home. 

Manolo with his Italian translator

Clinging to the rock

Closeup of his hands

You can watch a clip from his movie on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saKNJpNmKuQ

The background sounds are wonderful — hammer banging, his breath rasping. This film is artistic and suspenseful, quite amazing.

An auspicious beginning!

Short Update

Hello again! I've been a bit under the weather this week and haven't had much to write about. Today (Thursday) is the opening of the Mussoorie Writers' Mountain Festival. Wonderful sessions all day Friday and Saturday! My long-time readers know this is one of the regular events here that I look forward to. I'll be photographing and blogging about the writers, movies and other presentations.

In the meantime, my friend Margo, who was here earlier, has posted a wonderful entry on her blog about why this place is so special. Take a look here: http://tehriroad.blogspot.in

I do have one photo for you -- taken from the path below the pushta being built just below the New Road. The man at the bottom of the picture was putting rocks into a bag, then carrying them up to the wall workers near the top. The distance between the new wall and the broken road is quite wide; when they are done the road will be back to a good width, instead of its current narrow lane marked off by boulders.

Tuesday Morning

I've been a tad under the weather the last few days, so haven't had much to say or post. I'm feeling much better today.

Saturday evening Dan went to a lecture meeting of a local arts group. One of the presenters was Sohrabi, daughter of Vinod. Vinod runs the antique shop by the Clock Tower; it used to be called the Top Shop, as Woodstock boys bought their wooden tops there for years. They have so many interesting things in the shop.

From the top of the hill where he went to the meeting, Dan got this amazing shot of the Winterline. The opening in the wall framed it perfectly.

Saturday

On Saturday our dear friend Immu, receptionist in the Alumni Office, invited us for lunch. Immu is from Ethiopia, where she married an Indian teacher. They moved back here when he retired, to an estate named Wolfsburn. It is located high up, beyond Char Dukan, above the back chakar. We took the scooter up, as it is quite a long way from our house.

Immu cooked some Ethiopian food for us, along with some Indian-style veggies and salad. It was delicious! She even made injera, the batter for which takes a couple of days to ferment.

Doro wat, egg and chicken 

Injera bread

Wolfsburn is beautiful year-round, but right now it is especially so. After lunch we had a tour of the various rental units -- seven all together. Right now one man has taken two of them (with his five dogs!) and another is awaiting the return of a renter.

Ratan, a nice Nepali man, acts as caretaker and does all kinds of things for Immu. Since The Professor, as he was known here, passed away last summer, he has been a great help.

Immu by the bank of marigolds

Main House -- Immu lives upstairs

Newer rental unit

Older, occupied rental unit

Masses of purple flowers near entrance -- if you know what these are called, please comment!

Ratan - notice the flip-flops but scarf around neck!

Stairs up to living quarters

After lunch and the tour, we headed out. Dan got back on the scooter to go to the bazaar to get some supplies (and replace our defective wireless router, yay!). I walked over to Prakash's store at Sisters' Bazaar and picked up some cheese and a few other things. Then I walked down Zig-Zag Path to the school and on down to Hill Haven. It took me about an hour including the stop.

I was glad to see our front gate!

Buildling a New Pushta

Very near the place that our path comes out onto the New Road, there is an area of road that washed out during the monsoon. There are workers there rebuilding the retaining wall (pushta) below. The man in the photo below was using a sledge hammer to break up the large rocks into smaller pieces that could be used more readily in the building. I tried to get a shot that showed the sledge better, but this is the best I got. He has his foot on the rock to hold hit while he hits it. I watched him carry a rock over to the landslide area and drop it down for use in building the wall.

From the path above the road you can see some of the rocks and the same man looking down to check on the work below.

Looking straight down into the landslide area, you can see a couple of men working. The path they take to get there is extremely narrow and has a steep drop off. In this photo, I am looking directly down from the path above.

And just above, where the path goes on up toward Tehri Road and the school, the older pushta holding up the Doshisha front yard is looking a bit old. As the monsoons come and go, it will likely loosen, bulge, and eventually come tumbling down onto the road. However, it may be quite a few years before that happens. 

Supper at Golden

Thursday evening we finally made it into the bazaar for supper. We usually go to Golden Restaurant near the nonexistent Clock Tower the first week here. This was the third week, and we finally got there! I love paneer pakoras, so we started with them. Paneer is Indian cheese, like solidified cottage cheese. The pieces of cheese are dipped into chickpea flour batter and deep-fried. Absolutely delicious! You'll notice a small green chili included -- Dan loves those.

For the main course, we had chicken do piaza (double onions), Dan's favorite, and saag aloo, potatoes in spinach sauce. Chapattis for bread to eat with.

The walk home in the cool evening was lovely. The moon was about 3/4 full, the sky was clear, and the moonlight was bright. In areas where there weren't any street lights, we could see our shadows clearly. When we are here, we are always aware of the phase of the moon, because it makes a big difference at night. Living in towns in the US, people can go months without even noticing that there is a moon.

Above Springview we heard a loud sound from a tree up the khud, sort of a cross between a peacock and a smaller bird. It cried out repeatedly as we walked along; something like we've never heard before.

Walking to School

Yesterday morning I took some pictures on my walk up to school. I wish they would show the steepness of the hillside better, but you'll just have to imagine that.

This picture is taken from just above Doshisha. It shows the "New" Road (Mussoorie Bypass) with a bus going around the curve.

This shot shows how at several places there is a wide spot in the path where people walk to avoid the steps. Just to the right is a sheer drop-off, so being sure-footed helps.

These trees show the dead ferns hanging from their trunks. During the monsoon the trees are almost completely covered with a variety of bright green ferns. It is lush and beautiful. When they begin to turn slightly brown, we know the monsoon is coming to an end. Soon these will probably fall off in a high wind.

These steps are the most dreaded part of the walk for me. They are just above the New Road, below Doshisha. The bottom step is probably about 15 inches, and the next three or four are about 12 inches. My walking stick helps me get up these!

This is the last bit before hitting Tehri Road. It is more narrow than any of the other sections, and the opening onto the road is quite small. Walking on the road, you could easily miss seeing that this is a major path down.

Once on Tehri Road, looking east, we see the road itself on the left, and (dimly) the ramp heading up to the school's back entrance. The road on the right connects down to the New Road, going just under Fern Oaks, where Saroj Kapadia lives. It isn't in very good shape, but it's used quite a bit. It is the only connection between the two roads from the bazaar to Second Jabarkhet. It is the most direct driving route between the school and the residences below. The two posts at the top of the road used to have a bar across, which made it impossible for trucks to enter. I think the bar was removed when some road repair work was being done so that materials could be taken down. The bar on the posts at the bottom of the road is still there. One time last week we were going down on the scooter and a truck was trying to go through. I'm not sure what happened; it backed up slightly and we went on around. 

Garden

At some point someone who liked to garden lived in Hill Haven. The front garden is fairly neglected, but a number of flowering plants are blooming away. Mums, daisies, and marigolds are identifiable (by me, not the most knowledgable!). Here are a few shots I took when the sun was out.

Bazaar Pics

Once again we walked into the bazaar on Sunday. It takes about 3-1/4 hours round-trip, going to the top of Kulri where the bookshops are located. We had a number of stops this time -- Broadway Optical to pick up my new glasses (they are great! and this time the lenses are on the correct eyes); Chandar Book Depot to get the newspaper and weekly magazine; Nirula's for ice cream; Ram Chander for a few groceries; Parshadi Lal for some medicines; the dairy for dahi; and last, the subzi wallah below the hospital. He thinks it's quite funny that we only get a couple of onions. This time I got the other veggies I wrote about yesterday, but he still thought it wasn't enough.

We thought the name of this shop in Kulri, opposite the Police Station, was interesting.

This is the back side of the Kulri Methodist Church. I don't know if anyone lives in the building, but there was lots of laundry hanging on lines in the courtyard.

The following picture was taken on Mullingar Hill as I was walking up. The green vehicle in the back is a sort of pickup that Khaliq's shop is working on. The road is basically one lane, so having three vehicles across is fairly tight! I was standing in the doorway of a shop.

This is a view of Landour Community Hospital from Tehri Road. A couple of years ago I posted some photos of the huge retaining wall being built.

In the middle of the road near the hospital, a common sight:  boys playing cricket with whatever they have at hand. They did have a proper bat. The plastic crate stands in for a wicket. While we were walking by, this young man hit the ball high and it landed somewhere above on the khud. Two small boys immediately started climbing up to retrieve it.

This landslide from the monsoon wasn't as big as the one I posted last week. But it certainly undermined this tree, that will probably come down next year.

Last spring we watched many improvements being made on Tehri Road. The new paving is mostly still intact, with some rough areas. The beautiful gutters, however, didn't make it through the monsoon all that well!

Sunday Supper

I've mentioned before on this blog that I don't do much cooking here. We eat lunch at school during the week, and it is a fairly large meal most days. In the evenings I generally make up some packet soup and we have grilled cheese or egg salad sandwiches with it. I have been getting cooking apples recently and cooking them up so we have some fruit cooked for dessert.

Today in the bazaar we picked up a few groceries. Dan often goes in during the week but on our way home from having poori bhaji we usually get a few things. This time we stopped at Ram Chander, where we got some butter, brown bread, tea bags and salt. I also stopped at the chemist (pharmacist) to get a couple of things. I thought I'd again try the "Nervup" vitamins that the orthopedic doctor recommended last spring.

Dan stopped at the dairy to pick up our weekly supply of dahi (yogurt). We buy a kilo at a time and they package it in a plastic bag with a rubber band around the opening. We have this insulated container that holds exactly one kilo. We keep it in the refrigerator. We use the dahi on muesli at breakfast and ladle it into most flavors of soup.

I decided to go all out today and get some vegetables for a change. (I always have onions, which I sauté and add to most of our soups.) Here they are on our marble counter top in the kitchen. The potatoes are very small; the green pepper is about half the size of most US ones.

I chopped up the potatoes and carrot and boiled them until they were tender. Then I sautéed the chopped onion in butter, added the chopped green pepper (called capsicum here) and some garlic. After that was well-done, I added the cooked potato and carrot. After they were all well heated and smelling good, I added two beaten eggs and some crumbled cheese on top. Here it is just before serving. Our skillet is about 8-9 inches, so it was just the right amount for two for supper! Very satisfying and I got to do a little cooking.