Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
In the final episode of her Bedni Bugyal travelogue, Jennifer Nandi crosses a bridge and a river into another consciousness, one that holds the tranquility of the Himalaya and perturbation over its future in delicate balance The snow-clad flanks of the hills reflected in Bedni Kund was a vision that sustained us…
In the penultimate episode of her Bedni Bugyal travelogue, Jennifer Nandi revisits the Himalayan hamlet of Kanol, tucked into a fold in the vast district of Chamoli and haunted by the ghosts of ancient forests long lost to the logger’s axe Our reception committee at Kanol. Behind them, Satish and…
In Wan, Jennifer Nandi marvels at the great Himalayan night that has no trouble falling, and laments how so many city-dwellers look skyward and never see the stars The guest house at Wan adjoins a grove of some of the tallest deodars in all of Uttarakhand The village of Wan is…
Distances in the Himalaya can be tricky, especially when pointed out desultorily by a guide deprived of his liquor. Thus captained, we descended the bleak slopes of Bedni toward the village of Wan. Jennifer Nandi’s spellbinding Bedni Bugyal travelogue continues… The descent from Bedni Bugyal With our faces turned towards…
In the charming alpine meadow of Bedni Bugyal life goes on as if on another planet, though Jennifer Nandi notes that our inexorable worldliness has preceded our arrival here Life’s symmetry, reflected in Bedni Kund Trishul peeks fleetingly behind scudding cloud and the earth is white. I can hear melt-…
We arrive at Bedni Bugyal, but only barely. Food, shelter and rest are in pitifully short supply. Add to that the prospect of two long, cold, terrifying nights at 11,000 feet. An hour later, Bijoy comes up to us to beg a sip of water. I point wordlessly to the…
Pressed to ascend an indefinite distance to the alpine meadow of Ali Bugyal, Jennifer Nandi’s mind fastens to thoughts of self-preservation and meditations on the Zen of climbing Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we set off from Didana the next day on what we’ve been told is roughly an “eight-kilometre easy trek”…
