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The Himalayas beckon
TRAVERSING THE WILDERNESS Keki Daruwalla PHOTO: S. MAHINSHA
Be it his verse or prose, places and people have always played a prominent role in Keki N. Daruwalla's works. His latest venture, "Riding The Himalayas", with photographer Ashok Diwali, stays true to this characteristic. This time though, he has called his work a travel book. Portraying nature at its most beautiful and intrinsic, mountain photographer Diwali's pictures add the right zing to Keki's lilting prose.
Be it in Joshimath, Badrinath or Ranikhet, Keki had spent many years in the Himalayas. His eldest daughter was born there; his book, "A House in Ranikhet" is a tribute to this quaint little Himalayan town; his poetry is often pregnant with reference to life in the Himalayan range. But this time this former police officer has done something new.
He recounts in the Niyogi publication a journey of 15000 km from Siachin to Kibithy, the north-eastern most point of Arunachal Pradesh.
Keki, a Sahitya Akademi awardee, recalls that traversing the entire Himalayas by car was not an affordable trek. Finding out where diesel was available in the middle of wilderness was a regular task. That this writer of the "The Map Maker" travelled through Italy in a car some years back was probably not of much of help here.
But nothing could equal the feeling of seeing the tip of the Himalayas or the sun flecked scenes from Cawloon, he adds.
The journey
Starting from Delhi, Keki and Diwali's journey took them first to the Siachen range and then through the Kumaon region, the Garhwal Himalayas, Nepal, Bhutan, Assam, Nagaland and finally Arunachal Pradesh, all in a span of 78 days. From braving the harsh winter to spotting orchids growing wild on the hillside, from sighting snowy peaks to rainforests, and more, their journey had all the thrill.
Like Keki, Diwali too has been a nature lover, a trait that brought him to indulge in mountain photography 30 years back. This award-winning photographer has superbly caught the Himalayas, at times with very little sunlight.
NEETA SINGH ANAND
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