What do the mountains mean for someone who grew up in the Himalayas? Our member Ms D. Bhattacharya, who spent much of her life in the North-East, speaks to us about her abiding love for the hills.
Many people go to the Himalayas to travel. The mountains are a nice break from city life for them. But for me, a girl who grew up in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, and Meghalya, the mountains are home. Now that I live in Kolkata, in West Bengal, it might appear strange that I have never visited Darjeeling. When I used to mention this to my husband, he would joke that I don’t need to go to the hills anymore since I know a place like Shillong so well.
I have spent a lot of my early life in Silchar in Assam, where I was born, and, later, in Shillong, Meghalaya. I have been to Arunachal Pradesh, to Bhalukpong and Itanagar, during my early years. After getting married, I lived with my husband in Kohima in Nagaland, where he was posted, for close to two years. There we spoke Nagamese, a creole language spoken by most inhabitants of the state. One of the places I liked to visit was the Kohima War Cemetery, a war memorial dedicated to the soldiers of the 2nd British Division of the Allied Forces. I used to read with interest the epitaphs, beautifully composed and inscribed on plaques and headstones. In those days many places in Nagaland were quite remote, so I wouldn’t travel too far from Kohima. Towards the end of my husband’s career, we spent 10 years in Guwahati.
In 2010, I travelled to Kashmir, and neither my husband nor I thought that it surpassed in natural beauty the sights we saw in Arunachal, except for the Dal Lake in Srinagar. We took the opportunity to go around the lake in a shikara. The waters were pure, pristine, and the mountains reflected in the lake were enchanting. We then travelled to Pahalgam and Sonmarg, where we saw snow, even in the summer! I did not take the chance of riding on a horse, and because I had my daughters with me, we decided not to trek to the peak.
The fact that I grew up in the mountains and have been accustomed to them does not mean that I find them mundane or in any way ordinary. On the contrary, having grown up there, I have come to appreciate its true worth. For me the Himalayas continue to symbolise unspeakable beauty.
(As narrated to Support Elders by our member)

Winter is around the corner, and we spoke to our member Ms K. Ghosh about her love for the colder months, childhood memories, and the vast array of winter foods she has always looked forward to.
All year round I wait for winter. I dislike the heat as much as the rains. During these months I avoid going out as much as I can. Nowadays, with the city turning into a concrete jungle, the summers are getting from bad to worse. I feel bad when the Support Elders staff have to visit me, and I try my best not to ask them for help. I feel it is difficult for anybody to work in such conditions, and so I try to be as self-reliant as I can. But come winter and my mood changes. When we were younger, winter meant trips: school trips, picnics, and trips with the family. Those times were simpler too. A trip to the zoo, and a picnic on the grass in the gardens, meant a lot to us. I grew up in a joint family and we were a big group. School trips were a different dose of fun because it meant we would be travelling with our friends. We used to be taken to Bandel church, Diamond Harbour, Dakhineswar, Belur, and we’d enjoy it very much.
Winter also meant special foods and sweets: Pithe (sweet pancakes stuffed with coconut and jaggery) and payesh (kheer or rice pudding) were my favourite wintertime sweet dishes. My mother would fry nimki (savoury treats) as always but along with that we would get a whole lot of dishes made from winter vegetables, which I used to love. It is possible to get cauliflower and frozen peas throughout the year now, but when I was younger these items were a winter specialty. My mother would prepare karaishutir kochuri (flatbreads stuffed with peas) and dhakai paratha (a flaky, layered flatbread). My father used to dislike eating out and so he insisted these dishes be cooked at home. When I got married, my father-in-law, who was quite the opposite, would take us out and try and convince us to eat the varieties of food available outdoors.
Along with good food, winter has always meant peace to me: peace and pleasant weather. When the bustle and grime of summer and the constant battering of the rains die down, winter arrives with its comforting hand. I look forward to the coming months and hope to enjoy it as much as I can.
(𝘈𝘴 𝘯𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘌𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘺 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳)