PART 2: THE JOURNEY
In the last week of June, 2009 I went to Gamshali, a place deep into the Himalayas in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand; a place where once my ancestors used to live. It is the second last village of India towards Tibet (now China); and until 2003 one had to walk about 14 km to reach there. As a child I had only heard stories about the place, my ancestors, the festivals; Gamshali was a place from fantasy land for me. When I visited the place in 1996, I was captivated by its beauty; I was in one of my bed time stories, it was magical, I was living my fantasy and it was way better than watching Avatar in 3D.
13 years later, while I was returning to the place again, my only concern was if the child inside will be able to relive the magic again. And one of the reason for my worry was that my perspective had changed over the years. Physically, it is now at least a foot and a half taller with an additional myopic vision; and mentally, <umm ….> well, I have gained a lot more information. And when I reached the place, the same feelings gushed back; although the village seemed a bit smaller now.
I had coincided my trip with the biggest of all events in my community, “HOM”. Hom is a 12-yearly event, a series of rituals which lasts for 7 days. Although I didn’t know the purpose of it and couldn’t understand the meaning of the rituals, I selected this duration of time for two reasons: a) Gamshali was one of the place where Hom occurs, b) all of my relatives would come. The reason I why I only heard stories about Gamshali and not live there is that my father had a transferable job. We hopped from one place to another; so I never truly belonged to one particular place. And to the one place I had the sense of belongingness to, I had never lived there. Hence I had never met most of my relatives; and I thought Hom to be a good platform to start.
For once in my life I was not the only Fonia to be around; there was a whole army of us back there, available in every shape, size and age possible. My biggest problem were my aunts and uncles, they were so many that I lost count, and it didn’t stop there. Our ancestors had to create a whole classification of them, assigning them a code name based what relation they have to which of my parents. In a day, I had been introduced to hundreds of them, each with her own unique code. I was confused to my core, and to top it of, some of them were younger than me.
Apart from this confusion, I had a very pleasant time; and my plan one became clear to me. I wanted to make a movie, and I had done some candid camera work during Hom; so I decided I would make a documentary out of “Hom of Gamshali”. Although the research is still going on, and I might have to go back, in order to get more video clips; the movie has taken a direction.
During my Gamshali trip I traveled to most of the places around it, within a radius of 9 KM; with my relatives. The place was distinguished with an unimaginable beauty; the reason being minimal human intervention. After Hom was over, I came down to Joshimath along with my aunt and few cousins. I had a week long stay in Joshimath, and utilized that time to visit Valley of flowers and Hemkund Saheb.
There was a gap of few months between the time I graduated from college and the time Hom had to start. During that period, I first visited Bhutan with my parents. We had a week long stay, and went to Thimpu and Paro. I was so mesmerized by the place, that I wanted to stay there for at least a year, but alas financial plus time constraints. After which we went to the Nathula Pass and shook hands with the Chinese soldiers. Finally when Hom was over, I had to go back to Bangalore, as some of my friends called for me. During all this travelling, I forgot to get a shave and a haircut; and while I was telling this to Bhotia, he said you can get one in Hospet, I have a very good shop right next to my home. Thus Jai and I traveled to Hospet, in order to get our haircut; and also meet Bhotia, Priyank and visit Hampi in the process.
As I spent time close to nature, I felt humbled by the mountains, cherished by the flowers, energized by the river, loved unconditionally by mother Earth. And while I enjoyed the nature around me, it occurred to me that mother Earth is doing pretty well. She will never be in any kind of trouble, it is foolish of us to think so. She is not the one in trouble, infact it is us who are in trouble and we could use a different perspective.
After spending almost 3 months in continuous traveling, I was now exhausted. And I headed back home as my last trip of the year was over (the Hospet/Hampi one). As I reached home, and found my beloved bed, I could only wake up after three days completely fresh again. My fresh mind started to think about something I started back in college, something I am passionate about, something for which I took the year off. And it is then that I and Jai started the process to implement what we once ideated….
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