Kalakaaris Magazine issue 4

having a cup of tea in the warm wooden
house with a kinnauri family, listening
to their family stories or meeting a lama
predicting the future of a lady. Visiting
the Buddhist forts during the morning
prayers or tasting the homemade apple
alcohol distributed after evening worship
of Gupt devi in a temple. And I swear, I
can keep on continuing about these
lovely memories which are still fresh in
my mind.
I was keen to know the lives of Kanuri
people, understand their culture and feel
their hardships in this inhabited village.
I found the feeling was mutual to know
about each other’s life to live the life for a
few moments which is different from us.
I have never met such cheerful and warm
people. I got invitations from the
villagers as I smiled and nodded to say
hello. Sitting in their small
wooden houses they talked about social
and cultural values of Kinnaur. They are
big hearted people who love to drink and
celebrate.
In the weddings they would consume as
much as 600 liters of homemade apple
alcohol, that would be quite a wedding
to attend I guess.
The ladies do all the hard work of making
the drink and storing it however
they don’t consume it except the one,
that is being served for the Puja of
Goddess- Durga. Hinduism and
Buddhism are the major religions here.
I had the chance to meet a Lama in the
village and was curious to know how he
actually predicts the future. It felt it to
be like a game of ludo where he would
roll the dices and match the number
in his holy book. He looked at me if
I wanted to ask something about my
future and there was absolutely nothing
about which I wanted to know, I was
living the happy present.
K I Kalakaaris Magazine I 91