Himalayan Times (1953)

Six

'August, 1G 1953

rflimalnuatt vlimce

APOLOGIA

UY “MOOSA'*

This is translation of a soaked manuscript, found inside a small, sealed hamhoo tuhe. which was
picked up on the hank of a river somewhere in Jalpaiguri.

THEY had sat back in their arm
chairs, reading of the valliant etforts
of the climbers in their newspapers.
With smug sarcasm, they had sa'd to
themselves : "Never ’. Now it has been

accomplished, they are the first to yell:
s “Sacrilege!” The veil of the sanctum
has been torn asunder, the abode of the
Gods violated ! To them Everest is now
a grave, the tiny fluttering flags atop,
a weather-beaten, wooden cross. They
have written ‘Einis’ to the Romance of
Everest; the lure of the unconquered is
over.

But why should this- be so ? Ours
is an age of supermen, performing super-
feats—in spife of everything, we have
succeeded in reconverting the Mela Ground
to the swamp that it was, within just
two years-—in super timings A fraction ,
of an inch or a second can cieate a
record. The saga of Everest can goon
with, men. attempting newer records of
climbing' time, reaching the peak from
different approaches, or if nothing else
remains, trying to reach the summit
climbing ..backward. What I mean to
-. assert is, that ft is the spirit ' for true
adventure that really matters; a spirit,
that would be as hard to find in these
ariii-chair adventurers as a bottle of
Horlicks in Kalimpo’ng Bazaar. For true
adventurers, Everest will never rest.

But, Everest is far from me as I
stand by the frank of this river It is
called the Teesta. There is an old Lep-
cha folk tale wdiich relates how the two
lovers, Teesta and lisungeet, conspired

one fine, moonlit night to elope So
leaving their snow-clad abode and playing
fields, they left by different routes agreeing
on a trysting-place. Teesta impatient
to be with her lover, hurried directly
to the rendezvous. Rungeet, being the
true male, wandered around seeing the
sights, and arrived late. The courses of
the two rivers will bear this out. When
Rungeet saw that his mate had already
come and left the meeting place, he
exclaimed: “ Thhi sathha non thho!”

Which—as the Bible would say—being
translated means: “Arrived already and
gone !’’. The Teesta, of present usage,
is a corruption of ‘Thhi MI hha\ one who
reached earlier.

It is not unusual that I find myself
on the bank of this river. I have Rome
land a little higher up the hillside and
the river is my constant companion and
benefactor, 'lhe house and iand are
in sole charge of my wife and other
children. My eldest son and I are down
at the river fishing most everyday. We
use nets, which we weave ourselves
mostly from nettle fibres. 'I Ilfs trade
we have inherited from our forefathers,
ns also the chatmed weights, made of
an alloy of many metals, which we use
on our nets together with the ordinary
lead ones. These charms protect us
against the evil spirits, which inhabit
the deep, dark pools and also bring us
luck in our ‘throws’. Only last year one
of my neighbours refused to use the
charmed weights on a new net he wove,
condemning the practice as mere supers-

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