Visit at Badri's

From Atali you can see to a village on the other side of Ganga a bit up on the hill side. It is Nakutshi. I've been looking at the village lights many times and have been invited to visit the place several times. By Badri, one of the Aquaterra drivers, who lives in Nakutshi. He usually suggests me to stay for the night. Still it was only for a lunch, I finally made it to his home in Nakutshi and not least to visit his mother and wife.

Badri had instructed us to ask for his house, when we reached Nakutshi, and soon the entire village was involved in giving us directions. Badri's wife had been looking out for us so she met us and took us the last bit up to their house that is situated with a wonderful view of the valley.

We were Laila and me and I handled the Hindi conversation (I know, mentioned too often). Including the mandatory questions of our marital status and their concern because of two unmarried women in their mid thirties. That part Im used to and can easily cope with (nodding and smiling at all their suggestions usually helps). It was much harder to convince them that we wouldn't be staying for the night, but had to head back to camp on the same day, and that we had to because we were leaving for Delhi the next morning (and not able to postpone our departure).

Badri's family is as nice as him, which - as expected - made the visit a pure pleasure. No shyness at all and we were allowed to participate in/watch the cooking.

Besides visiting his house, I'd also promised Badri to visit his kids' school. So we did after lunch. Badri had called his wife in the morning to tell about our visit and had done so before the kids had gone off to school. Therefore, all the kids knew very well who we were, when we walked into the school. We arrived in time for afternoon homework at the porch in front of the classrooms. The kids tried to stay focused on their homework,but couldn't resist finding us way more interesting than anything their teacher preferred them to do, so we only stayed for a cup of water...

Location:Nakutshi Village, Gawhal