Nine years ago, fifty wonderful people gathered at Abbotsford Estate, my heritage homestay, tucked away in a quiet corner of Nainital for a literary weekend curated as the Abbotsford Literary Weekend – now known as Himalayan Echoes Literature Festival. Flowing seamlessly amidst the sylvan setting of Himalayan cypresses dotting the landscape, under the shade of the grand old oaks and the scented Deodars were words of poetry, shared wisdom, and gratitude towards the living world.
The ambiance and its inheritors for the day seemed enrapt with the colours of Kumaoni art, the rhythmic of folk dances of the Cholia warriors, the telling trials and tribulations of life in the hills and the resilience of mountain women in shaping the landscape of Kumaon. The mystic presence of the Himalayan Gods and Goddesses brought alive in esoteric avatars far removed from reality added to the surreal literary journey steeped in Himalayan heritage.
These curious and evolved individuals travelled to Nainital not just to enjoy the weather and the quiet charm of the woods. They wanted to unravel the stories and spirit of the mountains. They travelled miles to capture moments that would add to their repository of the numerous experiences that life has in store at each blind turn one takes. If you have not experienced the mountains, you have not tasted life.
Experiential travel has moved beyond a niche. The tourist is keen to explore the Himalayas, clambering over commercial pursuits of travel. An untrodden path off the beaten track into the wilderness opens vistas of wildflowers and untouched fauna. Authentic hand-crafted textiles woven by mountain village women artisans under local cooperatives and self-owned award-winning brands like Peoli, keep sustainable practices alive and free from exploitative practices of the industry.
Mountain art and design forms of Aipan patterns have taken a contemporary turn of visualization with Minakriti, an NGO working with women making national news every other day. The brassware utensils of the Tamta Bazaar and intricately carved wooden homes of Almora are living cultural sites to behold. The folk music traditions in form of the ritualistic Jagar that comes alive in the night, evoking spirits and ancestors alike with drums and cymbals, is a window into the sacred and unreal. Culinary traditions remain rich and hidden from the mundane, spiked with wild Himalayan spices that range from timur, a sister of the Sichuan spice, the oniony aroma from the hair thin strands of jamboo, wholesome grains of gauhat that can flush out gall bladder stones. The white rajma with its own flavours paired with madua bread, the local millet of Uttarakhand are just the tip of the Himalayan flavour profile.
Cutting across socio-cultural elements of any society is the oral and written word on every aspect of human experience in the form of literature. Literature brings to our fold tales of how people thought, ideated, and expressed freedom in their times. In each era, narratives evolve for the better or worse; it is subject to interpretation. But literature in all forms prevails, and so do art, culture, music, and culinary journeys—spurring us to keep our minds curious, deeply enlightened, and passionately imaginative. The traveller is in search of an authentic edge to their experience, a real memory that brings alive either the past or a newly curated experience that enriches their life. Literature weekend getaways are a window to travel into another spectrum of learning.
When the mountains come into your line of vision, when the perfume-laden fine air bursts through your lungs, when the sun rays filter through the thicket to illuminate your mind, there is no other emotion but to break into a song of ecstasy or seamless words of calm—the magnetic energy of the mountains draws one deeper into its mammoth arms.
Himalayan literature is replete with age-old history. Our saints and sages who lived and meditated for hundreds of years in the snow-clad caves of the Himalayas began with oral storytelling of epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana, which came into writing with Valmiki and Vyas, 1500-500 years BC. Imprints of the Pandavas and Lord Ram’s journeys are scattered all over the Himalayas, which in the travel world is branded as “Devabhoomi,” the land of Gods.
The soul-stirring 5th-century Sanskrit poet Kalidas’s work, Meghadootam, glorifies the beauty of the snow-clad peaks and majestic flow of the Ganges that nurtures and sustains the living world in unimaginable ways. Spiritual narratives in the form of hymns and texts by Adi Shankaracharya in the 8th century are inspired by the holy sites of Kedar and Badrinath in the Himalayas and take the inscribed form of esoteric hymns like the Saundarya Lahiri, in praise of the power and beauty of Goddess Shakti.
The 16th-century chronicler Abul Fazl, at Emperor Akbar’s court, etched the Akbarnama and Ain-i-Akbari, glorifying the beauty of the Himalayas seen from Kashmir. His court moved between Agra, Delhi, and Fatehpur Sikri.
Time travel two centuries ahead into the 1900s: Rudyard Kipling, born in Mumbai, spent his summers in Simla while working in Lahore for the Civil and Military Gazette as assistant editor and The Pioneer at Allahabad. In his personal travel account From Sea to Sea: Letters of Travel, he writes, “Something of the same feeling comes over one at the sight of the Himalayas as must have crossed the mind of Columbus when he first caught sight of the coast of America; that they are, but not for you.”
There was a time when the lower Himalayan ranges were easily sighted from Dehradun. In 1932, Jawaharlal Nehru spent fourteen months of imprisonment in the “Dehradun Gaol” during the Civil Disobedience Movement. He found comfort in proximity to the mountains. To quote from Himalaya, an anthology by contemporary mountain writers, Ruskin Bond and Namita Gokhale, Nehru wrote, “I would have welcomed the outing in any place, but the sight of the towering Himalayas nearby was an added joy which went a long way to removing the weariness of prison. Its solidity and impartibility looked down upon me with the wisdom of a million years and mocked at my varying humours and soothed my fevered mind.”
Nobel Laureate and pioneer of modern Indian literature, Rabindranath Tagore’s frequent visits from Calcutta to Ramgarh at the Writer’s Bungalow facing the Himalayas, was an inspiration for great works of literature by him, especially parts of Gitanjali written there.
To know the wild side of the Kumaoni region, great works by and on Jim Corbett, the hunter-turned-conservationist, take you into a world where man-eating tiger trails and the elusive leopard cat’s nature are woven into words that form a picture of adventure and suspense against the backdrop of the Himalayan foothills. Jim was born and bred in Nainital. He is an integral part of the Kumaoni folk chatter, our tea parties, bird watching groups, and safari goers in Corbett National Park. He is a living legend, and it’s the books that people read about him that keep him alive.
Among the contemporary writers Ruskin Bond and Namita Gokhale continue to bring the hills to love in their writings. When Ruskin Bond puts pen to paper, as he has for the last seven decades he transports us to a world where you can chase butterflies and glow worms, feed squirrels eating nuts off ones hands, revel in the excitement of midnight feasts over cake and jam tarts. He is affectionately known as the Indian William Wordsworth. Namita Gokhale’s books, on the other hand, delve deep into the feminine spirit of resilience, grit, and determination that Pahari women are endowed with. Her anthologies have amplified the storytelling legacy of Kumaon, following in the footsteps of legendary writers like Shivani.
Dr Shekhar Pathak, a devoted Himalayan scholar, reminds us of the power of connection: “Himalayan Echoes connects humans with literature and nature together. Any distancing between them must be avoided.” In this festival and in this place, we honour the mountains’ stories and celebrate a literary heritage that spans centuries.
* Janhavi Prasada, Hospitality Generalist, Festival Director, Himalayan Echoes Literature Festival 16-17th November, Nainital