We started leisurely from Khati, around 7:30 am. Our target was to reach Dwali, then taking time and accommodation into account, we would try to push on to Phurkiya. The path from Khati to Dwali is about 11 Km, mostly level paths on mountain sides, with the occasional climb. I reached Dwali around noon. I was the first to arrive with one of our guides. I sat at a tea stall on the mountain side overlooking the green valley with is converging streams of river.
Listening to the roar of the river, the gentle sun, nestled among trees and hills, sipping warm tea, reading Eric Newby’s “A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush”, I thought it was all very bohemian. I asked myself, could life get better? The answer was, “Just rid the place of the damn Bengalis.” The bring along their huge luggage, stoves and concerns of food. Their porter was practically crushing himself under the weight of his luggage.
My friends slowly trickled in. Due to shortage of accommodation in Phurkiya, we decided to stay at Dwali for the night and push directly to Pindari the next day. By evening the IAS group and the brats caught up with us. As expected no book reading was possible with them around. It was much more interesting to listen in on the IAS guys. There was enough bickering and chaos to suggest these guys had no chance of leading, let alone reforming, a byzantine third world bureaucracy.
They repeatedly threatened to lodge a complaint against their guide. “No tayilet, bathroom na”. Their English was broken at best and hindi was much worse. The Gultis, like gultis from any other walk of life, mingled only among themselves. The other southies were the same.
“What yeej the condition man?”, more cribbing about rooms followed. It took them 10 mins to decide that a chlorine tablet for 10 ltrs needed to be broken into 10 pieces for ten 1 ltr bottles. Drinking water directly from the streams and waterfalls gave me little raptures of joy. Here were the future rulers of India trying to purify something that needed no purification. Even the girls had no Kiran Bedi-esque charisma. They looked like tortured housewives pushed into jobs for extra income.
(To read a Short Itinerary of the trip: click here)
No comments:
Post a Comment