Himalayan reading

Dilliwala

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kullukid

Raghu, I think you'll find this of interest: KK

http://www.newlives.freeola.net/inte...ill_aitken.php

Dilliwala

"You can’t stay in India on boiled water; you have to come round to the Indian way — if you get a bug, it’s for a purpose. It’s easier to live that way, too."
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nyraghu

Yes, Dilliwala, I felt that a pointer to your entertaining explanation for the a.m. excesses was in order :-)

Thanks very much, KK, for that interesting link. Together with the other interviews, it promises to provide a lot of interesting reading. Obviously, many quotable quotes from Aitken there; here's one I liked: "The Director of Education said: Don’t you know if you leave at 24 you’ll commit professional suicide — what about your pension? I thought: God brought me into this world. He’s beckoning me, He’s not saying: Your pension, my boy, first get your pension." I am surprised that after all that, Aitken seems to have ended up with Satyanarayana Raju. Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

Raghu.

__________________
colorless green ideas sleep furiously

Sadanand Kamath

Raghu,

You may like to add two more Aitken's books on the Himalaya in your bookself:

1. Touching upon the Himalaya - Excursions and Enquiries -2004, Indus Publishing Company.

2. Riding the Ranges - Travels on My Motorcycle, 1997, Penguin.

Sadanand

__________________
Sirf ek kadam utha tha galat rahe shauk mein
Manzil tamam umr hame dhunti rahi.

[Just one wrong step on the way of the quest
My destination looked for me all life long]

nyraghu

Thanks, Sadanand, for the suggestions. I had leafed through `Riding the Ranges' in a bookshop, but somehow passed it by. I'll try to get that and the other book here.

Raghu.

unclelach

I was fortunate recently in finding a remaindered new copy of the 2000 edition of Eric Shipton's "Nanda Devi" combined with H W Tilman's "The Ascent of Nanda Devi". Both books were published first in the 1930's but have been available more recently in the respective authors' collected works. The combined edition is titled "Nanda Devi: Exploration and Ascent".

The 2000 edition includes an introductory memoir by Charles Houston who was a member of the successful 1936 expedition and who accompanied Tilman on a perilous exit from the Nanda Devi sanctuary. Houston, who has outlived Shipton and Tilman by decades, points out that the 1936 expedition was an American initiative that somehow was taken over by the Brits.

Can heartily recommend Shipton and Tilman as highly entertaining and frequently amusing writers.

nyraghu

Yes, the Shipton and Tilman books on the Nanda Devi have been on my wishlist for quite a while. The trouble is that they are a bit expensive in India. I guess I just have to grit my teeth and shell out the requisite INRs soon.

There is a zany anecdote told by Houston about losing the expedition's tea supply, which seems to illustrate the differences between the two groups. Perhaps old hat to people here, but those interested in Himalayan literature may find it worthwhile to browse through Bill Buxton's pages on mountaineering books.

Raghu.

unclelach

Thanks nyraghu for your links. I found the Houston interview particularly interesting. Must say as a strictly armchair mountaineer that the humour in many mountaineering accounts is far more of an attraction than the recounting of tragedy.

H W Tilman was a quite formal Englishman and famously was reluctant to be on first name terms with his climbing partner of several years, Eric Shipton. On the 1934 Nanda Devi exploration, Tilman had agreed to Shipton's suggestion that they address one another as Eric and Bill adding "But it sounds so silly".

Tilman wrote that upon he and Odell reaching the summit of Nanda Devi in 1936: "I believe we so far forgot ourselves as to shake hands on it".

I'm at present reading the 2007 English translation of Heinrich Harrer's autobiography, "Beyond Seven Years in Tibet". Harrer revisited the country north of Dehra Dun where he twice escaped WW2 internment. Harrer's book mistakenly reverses Tilman's Nanda Devi summit anecdote stating that Odell and Tilman forgot to shake hands. The Harrer book is still quite a good read.

nyraghu

You may then like the BBC h2g2 guide on How to Climb Mountains.

Raghu.

paintbusters

Kim. by Kipling. If you are in india and and have not read it, youre missing half of what is around you.

unclelach

Re "How to Climb Mountains"

Raghu, yes it's best to remain lighthearted. I'm afraid I have never been a climber or himalayan trekker but I do enjoy the stories, photographs and even video clips of others who have been there. Must say that your Kuari Pass photos on your Home Page are superb.

unclelach

One of India's attractions is that much of what Kipling saw and then included so vividly in his writing may be experienced today.

I find Kipling's English language versions of Indian vernacular rather irritating. I have read why Kipling attempted to reproduce Indian language speech forms in English but it doesn't really work for me. I haven't learnt any of the Indian languages myself and know very little from my LP phrase book.

Perhaps some IM folk who know Hindi, Hindustani, Urdu or Bengali, being languages used by Kipling's characters, could comment.

Rob_The_Pom

'Mountains of the Mind' is well worth a read (but covers the Alps as well as the Himalaya).

'Nanda Devi' by Hugh Thompson (I think) is a very nice read.

__________________
There is no God but Dawkins and Hitchens is his prophet.

nyraghu

I too like Kim, and had even read it to my daughter, who also enjoyed it. However, living just 3 km from the Grand Trunk Road, I find it a bit hard to pay much credence to Kipling's romanticism. What I do like about the book is the combination of spying and the Himalayas as the backdrop for the relationship between the Lama and the boy, and the mixing of known places with fictitious ones having tantalising names like Shamlegh-under-the-snow. Ruskin Bond in his writings often mentions the "great ramp to Mussoorie," but I find the description of the mountains proper much more interesting, e.g.:

A related book on my wishlist is `Quest for Kim' by Peter Hopkirk.

Yes, I too enjoy the wit in many books on the mountains. Thanks for the comments on the photos; I've conveyed them to my spouse, who was the photographer.

`Nanda Devi' (2004, Weidenfeld & Nicholson, reissued 2005 Phoenix) by Hugh Thomson has, I think, been mentioned before in this thread. I have read the book, but found it a bit dilettantish. Descriptions of the 2000 expedition to the Inner Sanctuary, of which Thomson was a member, are interspersed with dramatic accounts of diverse topics such as the explorations by Shipton and Tilman, Indian mountaineering controversies, and Chipko. He even gets the place names and geography wrong, e.g.:

I have seen neither references to Dev Prayag as "Devra Prayag," nor road signs on NH 58 pointing to distant Triyugi Narayan. I think Thomson's book was just a piece of quick work to cash in on the 2000 expedition. Anyway, people who are interested in the book can read his related article in `The Independent.'

Raghu.