Water in our shoes, chill in our bones and smoke in our eyes because can’t keep the fire running was how we got introduced to the Winters of Basgaon. As we moved to our still cold, still wet, one room house with a Kitchenette and a toilet, the bathroom was not attached; it was the dawn of six month long Winters. When I write wet house I mean a wet house, we were so “can’t wait to move to our house in the mountains” at that time that we moved in with both plaster on the walls and mud floor not still fully dry. And we realised that very quickly but there was nothing else to be done now than try to dry the floor by making fire in a ‘Sagad’ all day and this was when we had no idea about how to make a fire or even how to keep wood dry. But we wanted to learn and learn we did, slowly but steadily.
We had Whiskey, our cat, with us at that time and she was our heater for the night, all three of us in the blanket keeping everyone warm. Then we got a real room heater because room was still cold. Then soon we got a Solar Water Heater for hot water which worked out on most days except the days when there was no Sun. Then it would rain and then it would snow and who cares about hot water when there is snowfall happening in your ‘aangan’, turned out we did. We very quickly learned that snowfall during the day and snowfall during the night are two completely different things. In the night the most important factor which inclines anyone towards loving the phenomena is missing, you can’t see it! And then in case of little to heavy snowfall Electricity would be another thing of longing, along with warmth. So Whiskey became the most important member of the family again.
And then the Sun would shine again, never understood the saying before, and everything would be magical again, you wake up floating at the fog in the valley, white Tawalekh and white Dador School. Sun shines so brightly at Nanda Devi you almost can’t look at it. Our neighbours would congratulate us on the first snowfall of the season and send fresh snow in a cup with jaggery sprinkled on top of it to eat.
The first winters in the mountains was one of the most challenging as well as thrilling experience for us and we went through it learning and unlearning everyday, with little help from the 5 days in Mumbai in the peak of winters. Now we are five Winters wiser and have found a friend in it who lets you rest and gather energy for the rest of the year.
