This book is a terrible temptation: a temptation to drop everything and search for your own little hamlet in the Himalayas. Dragging a reluctant family behind her, Bulbul Sharma did just that way back in the 1980s, and now more or less lives in Shaya, the hamlet she found in the Himachal Himalayas. (Sensibly she has not disclosed the exact location.) Shaya Tales describes the seasons (over a period of a year), the people, the flora and fauna of the little hamlet with understated affectionate humour. Be warned: achieving nirvana in paradise-like surroundings is not easy and requires staying power and good temperament. Hill people are justifiably suspicious of city folk (and may smile at you only after you’ve been around for 10 years), the weather can be a drip, bichchoo booti can sting and carpenters hard to find.


But of course there are the pluses: clean, crisp air, good food (and drink), watching your plants and trees grow, the fruits (a verandah full of apples!) and flowers, birds, insects and a general sense of serenity, which is completely missing in a city existence. Most of all, there are the mountains, which can put any city-slicker in his or her proper place. To ginger things up, there’s always the occasional prowling leopard and gossip and anecdotes and festivals. Also, you will learn to live with snakes, spiders, and some of the other creatures that inhabit the forests.


The book is embellished with Sharma’s sketches — too few, in my opinion: this would have made an ideal illustrated volume. It’s something you should pick up and read en route to your next holiday in the mountains, and hopefully you’ll give up your insane insistence on cable TV, video parlours, Internet café s in the flashy new resort you’re heading for.

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