Little bits

Because I was busy moaning about the weather and sickness, I never really mentioned the little, memorable things. Before falling ill I did get to see a bit of the town and reacquaint myself with familiar faces. There had been a lot of recognition, shaking hands, exchanges of ‘how are you?’, and sitting drinking tea with old friends. Many faces here are unfamiliar to me, but there are some who were here when I first lived here seven years ago. Many of the younger Tibetans move on if they can but the traders, the beggars, the monks and nuns, and many of the Indian traders have stayed. Of course those faces change a bit. While we all age, one of the women lepers sadly seems to have lost a little bit more of her face, so while she is recognisable she has clearly deteriorated. The man who lived in the little metal box on the Jogiwara Road still lives in his metal box, and other such signs of poverty remain.

But it was a real pleasure to see my friend Yeshi (formerly Tracy to those of you who knew her). Yeshi nursed me through times of sickness seven years ago, and pushed me up the Yong Ling steps when I was exhausted and she was six months pregnant. She finally returned home to give birth to the very beautiful and lively Machig, a daughter who now bounces through life with insatiable curiosity and energy. Machig had known about my existence and like most children was excited to meet a new friend. As we walked out from the tea shop where we met, heading off to dinner, she took my hand asking if we were going to my house. I needed to use what I call the ‘Richard Gere toilets’ - so named because the actor was one of the sponsors to build this much-needed facility. “No Machig, we are going to dinner but I need to use the ladies,” I told her. A minute or so later, as we stood before the overwhelmingly smelly entrance to the underground convenience, Machig looked up with childlike wonder. “Is this the way to your house?” she asked in joyful fascination. Thank goodness no, I thought, while laughing loudly.

Some of you have asked how McLeod has changed since your own visits. It is difficult to say except that more buildings have mushroomed up in the valley, and the main cinema shack on the Jogiwara Road has gone - in fact that entire building has gone with nothing there but rubble. The post office seems less trustworthy - when I went to post a bag of blankets to my sister I was told by a female clerk who has worked there for a couple of years that there is no sea post and no surface/air mail, only air, which of course is much more expensive. According to her, all sea post has been suspended from India since the 1st January. I paid up but later checked the India post website, which mentioned surface/air mail as a quicker option to sea and a cheaper option to air. There was nothing saying that either service was suspended. So yesterday I went back to the post office and asked the woman about surface/air mail, at which she simply turned her back on me and ignored me. So I repeated the question a couple of times until the clerks began discussing it between themselves. One of the male clerks repeated to the woman what I had said about the India Post website, so eventually she told me that yes, surface/air post did exist but it was unreliable, which was why they were not using it. I could use it, she told me, but so many packages were being returned. I did not feel there was any reason to believe her, especially when she later told Simita that books were sent by sea. (The suspended sea service??)

Although McLeod Ganj is very inland I definitely smelt something fishy. The post office used to run a very good service with tourists sending huge packages on a regular basis. But now if they are sending everything by air, tourists will be spending double the price on postage. So now two shawls I had promised to a cousin in Australia are packaged up but have not been posted because the postage would make them more expensive than what she could buy in Melbourne.

Even before this postage hike I had told Simita that I saw the female clerk in the post office as a problem. Before she arrived a couple of years ago, it seemed to run more smoothly. Yesterday this was confirmed by Yeshi who told me that the woman had ‘a reputation’ for being unhelpful. Pity.

Business in McLeod is quiet too. As HH only gave a one-day teaching this year, the traders missed out on the one-month trade that usually sets them up for most of the year. No teachings, poor world economy and awful weather have all taken their toll… awful weather? Heaven be praised, the sun is out and it is a beautiful day…