The Girl With Himalayas In Her Backyard

by Sariga A V (India)

Making a local connection India

It was towards the end of a chilling December and my Anthropology fieldwork was coming to an end in the tribal areas of rural vizag. I was super tired with my classmates however I had to make a major trip at the end of this field work to Nainital ‘The Lake District of India’ with my younger sister.I had Soumya in Nainital my collage friend and I was going to her home and she is going to take care of the rest once I reach. So we started the journey and had no idea of the weather in Nainital on December. I boarded the flight with my sister. I could feel that the lost energy was regaining in the flight as it was taking off from Hyderabad heading New Delhi. I reached New Delhi airport around 1.30 A M. Then we had to take ‘Delhi Kathagodam Shathabdi Train’ departing from New Delhi station at 6.15 A M so we took a bus heading to New Delhi in the night and boarded the train in the next morning and arrived at Haldwani where Soumya stayed. However Soumya was not staying in her home but a big hotel of her own but it was under construction and the heating system was not working. I was heartbroken that that I could not even stand in the cold and did not even had any winter clothes to wear. Then Soumya came with all her winter clothes and tried her best to keep us warm and served us a delicious meal while occasionally wondering how we reached till there without proper winter clothing .Being a south Indian girl who never travelled beyond Hyderabad it was my first encounter with actual winter. The chilliness was creeping into my bones but it did not kept us inside. Anyway we were there to explore and we went to the local market to buy some more winter fittings. Suddenly Geethanjali came out of nowhere. She was Soumya’s school friend and we got introduced to her. Geetha helped us to bargain and purchase the best clothes and took us to her mother’s office for some warmness. Geetha’s mother was such a nice person and the next moment we found all of us including soumya were travelling to the top of the mountains to Geetha’s home where the ‘Naina Lake’ or Nainital situates. My sister was really sick of cold thank god there was Geetha’s mother. She cooked us delicious dinner gave us medicines for cold and we got introduced to her father as well. Then we all had tea in the yard counting the stars and I learned Nainital is one of the perfect places on earth for star gazing .The house was really warm with love and heat. That night was something I never forget in my life. In the silence of dark night with spine breaking coldness outside and warmth of thick blankets in Geetha’s room we were smoking weed, discussing men and laughing. It was such a fun night and next day Geetha made us wake up and we started climbing her back yard with a white dog called fluffy, reached a road and few steps from there I could see Himalaya peaks Trishul, Nanda Devi and Nand Kot . The local ventures and photographers were really nice to us since Geetha was their neighbor and got us clicked our photos in ethnic attires of Nainital. We reached Naina Lake around afternoon in a weather that felt like morning six o clock and Sumit joined us there. We took two pedal boats and roamed in the Naina lake for hours, had a good shopping from the local market and bought beautiful Nainaital Candles, visited Naina temple and Sumit bought us delicious Momos which is according to him “the best momos in the world” and lunch. That night again Geetha’s mother made delicious food and one special item was ‘weed chutney’ and of course weed is not just for smoking. The next day we left Nainital leaving lots of love behind . I went to Nainital with my sister and left it with a whole family and friends full of love behind me which I still keep in my heart.