From the Himalaya: travels and tall tales. Personal interests: @malayraunsil
Based in India
- Tweets 9,448
- Following 90
- Followers 4,643
- Likes 19,594
Daboo dug the pit and I shoveled the dirt and from time to time we looked up at the terrifying expanse above us, ridges sharp as knapped obsidian trying in vain to puncture the skies, the glacial air rushing into our worn jackets, the sand smarting in our eyes.
September 2026.
ALT © Malay Raunsil
1
3
35
633
I hobbled through that grand geological curse, past those souls trapped in those stones howling, begging and repenting, trying to inch closer and closer to that stream; they're close, so close, their salvation has been in sight for a million years.
September 2026.
ALT © Malay Raunsil
1
26
657
अक्टूबर की शुरुआत एक धमाकेदार लतीफ़े के साथ 😜😜
एक बार एक गंजा नाई के पास जाता है, टोपी उतार के कुर्सी पर बैठ जाता है। नाई उसके सर पर दो बाल देख आगबबूला हो उठता है:
"इनको गिनूं या काटूं?"
गंजा (शर्माते हुए): "भाई इन्हें रंग दो।"😝😝
—लोटपोट मैगज़ीन, सन् २००६/२००८ (?)
2
221
Almost halfway through Waiting for the Barbarians. Next I think I'll pick up the Alexandria Quartet.
2
2
10
600
'One huge, nameless rock in the front was ascending,
When I marked the sad spot where the wanderer had died...'
—Walter Scott, 'Helvellyn'.
Somewhere in the Eastern Himalaya, May 2026.
ALT © Malay Raunsil
3
26
473
The trail cooks fuss over the herders, boil tea for them, offer to replenish their rations: sugar, oil, flour. The rains will get uglier and some lambs will slip off slopes and crack their skulls. May the herders come back soon, grinning and bearing gifts of fresh carcasses.
ALT Somewhere in the Western Himalaya. June 2026. © Malay Raunsil
1
17
334
The mule baron crosses the high pass every two weeks. He's always in a thick shepherd's jacket and worn Wellington boots and wears his umbrella like a shotgun, slung over the left shoulder.
ALT © Malay Raunsil
1
24
430
From the little of Herzog I've seen and read, he has this innate fascination with the primordial divine, the kind one feels in one's bones in the wilderness or in deserted landscapes, before it was articulated/polluted (?) by priests, prophets—hell, even shamans. I like that.
1
328
Didn't know about Terray, just looked the book up. Fascinating. Apparently the phrase *as is* appears in the film too; been a while since I saw it. Thank you for pointing me to another interesting book!
1
1
103
Wandering may settle some of my natural curiosity and my urge to explore, but then I am tugged back by a longing for home. I have a compulsion to wander and a compulsion to return—a homing instinct like a migrating bird...
—Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin
© UV Bisht
4
18
679
Reinhold Messner on the summit of Nanga Parbat, 1970. His brother Günther died during the descent, separated and buried by an avalanche. Reinhold lost seven toes to frostbite and was rescued by shepherds.
"We had a choice between waiting for death and going out to meet it."
1
23
589
