"Hey you, American beauty! Does your list of qualities have Indian beauties in it or not?" - I shouted from a distance.
"As far as my knowledge goes you are a beast, not a beauty." - she shouted back laughing.
I ran toward her so fast that she went apprehensive and her reflexes pushed her in a defensive posture against any onslaught of a beast speedily rushing toward her.
I posed like I would be pouncing upon her as she covered her face with her arms and closed her eyes tight. But when nothing happened for long, she opened them while fearing looking at what she would be finding in front of them.
What she found was sitting me beside her with my legs in the flowing water playing with it like hers were. It was all to play the game of life a little more colorful!
"You'd almost killed me." - she took a sigh of relief.
"Wasn't it quality?" - I asked her eyes.
"Yes, it was." - she was speaking from beyond her mind.
"Wasn't it beautiful?" - I again asked in the same tone.
"Yes, it was." - came her reply after almost one full minute.
"So, am I a beauty or a beast?" - I smiled naughtily.
She took out her parker pens and started writing something on her note pad as soon as we reached Khoksar and sat down to refresh ourselves near a small river flowing across the Lahaul valley in its width pouring its water into the giant river Chandra that flowed along the valley in its length.
Khoksar: The River Along
"Why do you write with a parker?" - I asked Eva as she finished her writing and closed her note pad.
"Why? ... Because I have them!" - she look surprised.
"But they are very costly!" - I clarified my point.
"Quality comes not for free on earth." - she smiled.
"I wrote my exams with the cheapest pen available in the market and I topped my district in my high school." - I stated.
"That was the quality of your mind, not of your pen." - she had dipped her legs in the speedily flowing water of the river getting a free massage out of it.
Khoksar: The River Across
"Isn't that quality?" - I pointed to the free massage that her legs were getting.
"It is." - she agreed.
"But it's free." - I stated a fact again.
"But I can't get my parker pens free!" - she took one of them in her fingers lovingly.
"Do you love them?" - I asked her with my eyes looking deep into hers.
"Yes, I do." - she confessed.
"Do you love me?" - I asked again.
She kept looking into my eyes for one full minute, and then said - "Right at the moment, I do."
"You didn't add 'right at the moment' for your parker pens!" - I drew her attention to the difference between her two statements.
"They have quality." - she showed one to me.
Eva's List of Qualities and One of Her Parker Pens
I took her pen in my hand and felt its touch for a moment, then wrote a few lines with it on her note pad. I had to accept to myself that it did have something in it that I had never felt in any of the pens I had written with till date. I gave it back to her along with her note pad.
"Doesn't it have it?" - she was curious.
"What?" I looked toward her.
"Quality!" - she smiled.
"Don't I have it?" - I was enjoying looking at her face.
"What?" - she raised her eyes toward me.
"Quality!" - I started laughing.
"Nope!" - she kissed me tight on my lips and said again after she was over - "You don't have a single thing in you that I can count as part of my list of qualities. But then is it my list of qualities only that makes a thing quality?" - she went into a pensive mood.
I left her alone and ran away leaping along the river like a deer - an act that I always did whenever I was in the lap of hills all through my life... my way to play the game of life!
Even my dental health was not less good than Eva's.
In my dental care, dental hygiene and teeth whitening had always been my first concern. I brushed my teeth as many times as I took something into my mouth even to munch a little though it was without a toothpaste that I was using my brush on my teeth. The main purpose was to drive away every single piece of food that might have got stuck in between the teeth, which if stayed there would certainly tend to stagnate and invite germs to attack the denture.
Dental Care through Dental Hygiene
Toothpaste doesn't do much good to the teeth, it's only the brush that does. You can say that the toothbrush is the need whereas the toothpaste is a luxury on it.
I am just joking! I use toothpaste on my brush twice a day, once in the early morning and another at late night before going to the bed. The rest of the times whenever I brush it is without applying a tooth paste on it. Once even a dentist friend told me that the paste was just a redundant thing as far as dental care including dental health and dental hygiene were concerned, and the brush was the real thing that did the job.
Whatever, I made friends with my brush almost 7 times a day (I munched that many times... only!). Health had always been a prime concern of mine.
But my teeth were not as white as Eva's were. Why? Only because I was a smoker, which tended to stain them on their outer surface! So once in a while I went to a dentist for my teeth whitening done, which s/he would do with a rotating machine in her/his hands scratching the stains from over the surface of the teeth one by one by one...
But then this was the dentist I will never be able to forget all through my life. I went to him for getting my teeth whitening done and he made me sit on his dentist's chair. Then he took out his rotating instrument, switched it on and brought it to my first tooth to scratch the first stain off its surface.
Teeth Whitening
But before his machine would touch my tooth, he stopped his hand where it was. Then he switched off his instrument and said - "Shall I give you a humble piece of advice?"
"Yes, what?" - I asked.
"Don't get your scratching done." - he caringly said.
"Why?" I asked again.
"You have an excellent denture and a commendable dental health. Don't let it go weak by getting your stains scratched on your teeth. Just take your dental care by keeping your dental hygiene right and these stains will do no harm to it. They are only a cosmetic thing and not a health problem at all. And even if I scratch your stains today or else do it with the help of some other teeth whitening kit, they will come back there within no time spoiling your teeth whitening in the hands of cigarettes you smoke, which you are not going to leave I suppose." - he was smiling as he was saying all this to me.
Another Whitening System
"I am impressed... but are you an enemy of your own profession? I am your customer after all and you would have earned from me!" - I was awe-stricken by what he had said to me not bothering for the money he would have earned from me.
"You are more my client than my customer and your welfare comes before my income." - he gave an innocent smile to me again.
I thanked him and came out of his clinic never to visit another in future.
I am 57 today and never needed going to a dentist for any problem in my teeth till date!
Dental Health
Eva had never smoked, so her dental care not only took care of her dental hygiene and dental health but of her dental beauty as well!
She must have turned 60 by now to play the game of life still young, and must be having her dentures intact like I have mine, I hope.
As we separated, she got a bad shiver in her dentures. I got worried for her dental health as her teeth were chattering too hard making a sharp sound of hitting each other - the lower and the upper - and she could have broken one or two teeth of hers like that if they were weak in their roots.
Teeth Chattering
I spoke out my concern to her, hearing which she started laughing aloud though with a shiver in her laughter as well.
"What makes you laugh at me and that too when you are shivering so hard?" - I rebuked her a bit.
"At your concern!" - and she kept laughing.
"What is so laughable in my concern for the person I was in the arms of a minute ago?" - I challenged her laughter again.
"Not for me, for my denture... your concern for my denture makes me laugh, you monkey!" - she kept laughing with shivering.
"Now you say me monkey!" - I mimicked her complaint she had voiced before we had come closer to each other.
Dental Health
"So it's equaled. Our accounts are clear. You stupid, I am laughing because you doubt if my dentures are weak. I have never visited a dentist even once in my life and that is not a small thing for a person who lives in the U.S., since going to a dentist is like going to your Sunday church in that country. My dentures are in a superb condition. It's only that they are shivering a little too hard right now. I doubt it's because my body touched the snow more than yours did. No?" - she said naughtily to me and again started laughing while shivering.
"OK, let me check your dentures for their health..." - I sought for an excuse to try giving her dentures a hot rub of my hands.
"Oh, your hands are snow-cold. They will really come out if you touch my teeth with them." - she screamed.
"OK, let me try this..." - I put my tongue inside her mouth and massaged her gums warm with it. Then immediately it occurred to me that I should blow my hot breath inside her mouth, which would sure give her some warmth inside to come out of her bad shiver in her denture.
The maneuver really worked like a miracle. Within a few seconds was Eva back in her normal dental self!
And just to play the game of life a little naughty now, I started counting her teeth with my tongue.
Eva's dental health was really very good as was her dental beauty, being as attractive in her looks as her skin was!
Eva had painted her face white with a sunblock to save her celebrity skin from getting freckles on it as we started on our way to Lahaul Spiti on foot.
Sunblock
She had no skin rashes, no uneven patches of color on her face, nor even those white spots on skin that I always had noticed on western faces quite often along with freckles on them!
Celebrity Skin
She took a lot of care of her health, as she knew she would have to face a real problem if she fell ill traveling so far from the place where people knew her in the US. She wanted to play the game of life healthy, without any illness in her body; as well as beautiful, without any freckles on her face!
Freckles
Here she was all alone by herself!
No, now she knew me... but I too was a vagabond so far away from my place where people knew me too.
Here no one did... but now Eva was with me.
"I can give you my sunblock if you want. It will save your skin from sunburns. Do you want?" - she offered.
"I will look like a ghost if I too paint my face with it." - I wasn't in a mood.
"You mean to say I am looking like one!" - she showed her ready punch to me.
"No, not you, you are simply looking the snow-white incarnation of Venus like this but I am sure I won't be looking anything even near to Cupid at all. I don't want to look a monkey." - I made a monkey-like face.
"Now you say me monkey!" - Eva again warned me.
"Not to you, only to myself am I imagining! How can Venus be a monkey?" - I again saved my skin, smiling.
"I am not Venus." - she said looking down at the snow as we were stepping with each step of ours three feet deep into it.
"To me you are... more than Venus!" - I casually said.
She stopped moving. As I turned my eyes toward her I found her looking at me with her eyes wide open, and so were her lips like they had forgotten how to close down on each other. She was looking at my face with awe in her eyes. ... And then I found myself looking into her eyes without winking mine at all... eye to eye...
... And the next moment we found ourselves lip to lip... and then skin to skin... removing all her sunblock from over her celebrity skin that it really was... not only on her face but her total body as well!
Celebrity Skin
The warmth of our skins didn't let us feel the cold bite of snow at all, and by the time our skins separated from each other, they had already turned reddish in them! We couldn't say if it was from the heat of the passionate touch with each other or from the bite of the cold snow below us.
"I'll click snaps to submit photos on Lahaul and Spiti to magazines and to publish some photo cards to sell. Will you come along?" - Eva asked me the next day.
Lahaul Spiti Photograph
"How many days?" - I asked.
"Say 15 to 20." - she was hopefully looking toward me.
"Done!" - I gave my consent.
"Hurray!" - she jumped up with joy and pulled me along in her dance of elation.
I liked her passion and followed her footsteps with mine.
Lahaul Spiti Photograph: Mysterious Beauty
"Will you submit photos to non-English magazines too? What kind of photos will you like to shoot for photo cards?" - I asked after she got exhausted and we sat down on a stone.
"Either the most beautiful ones or else the most rare... in fact, both! I never submitted to a non-English magazine but I may..." - in her happiness she was sounding like a bird chirping aloud.
"You have your film rolls sufficient?" - I thought I should remind her.
"They are what cover the most of my space in my rucksack. And I am very particular about their quality as well." - she was sounding like she was a real good photographer.
"Your camera is quite good too. I suppose it must be quite costly as well." - I expressed my curiosity.
Lahaul Spiti Photograph: Chandratal
"It's the top model canon camera and gives real good results. You will yourself when I shoot you as my model with imposing hills in the backdrop and rivers in front. I'll submit photos with you as model to the best magazines in the U.S. and publish beautiful photo cards to sell all around the world. It will be a lifelong remembrance for both of us." - she was very enthusiastic as she told me all about her canon camera that she almost seemed to have fallen in love with.
Lahaul Spiti Photograph: Baralacha La
"So I am going along as your personal professional model there!" - I smiled at her plans, just to play the game of life a little naughty.
"Why? I can pay you too, if you want." - she went apprehensive about my joke.
"Shut up and pack your bag. I'll do mine." - I slapped her soft and started pulling out the pegs of my tent from the ground.
"Are you married?" - I asked Eva as we were sipping tea together.
"Marriage license? You mean that shit of paper, which can any moment be torn into pieces and dumped in the garbage box? Not interested!" - she had a scornful smile on her lips.
Is That A Valid Marriage License?
We were sitting by the side of the river on two big stones with our feet and legs inside the flow of the river, holding two hot cups of tea that I had made on my jungle stove; and now we were sitting sipping it tastefully.
"You mean you will never marry too!" - I was looking intently at her face.
"Will you?" - she looked at me with her two piercing eyes.
"I can't say no though I have no plans to, nor do have I any intentions like that as of now." - I tried to clear my unclear stand on it.
"But I can! I can say a no for sure. Because I know what marriage means..." - she left her sentence incomplete and started gazing into the water flowing under her feet.
"Why are you so bitter about it?" - I wanted to dig her deeper.
"Is there anything in it to feel sweet about at all? Do you think so?" - she turned her face toward mine.
"Why do we go for it then?" - she was older than I, and more experienced too!
"That's what I could never understand though I am trying to." - she smiled.
"Why did your parents marry then?" - I tried to bring her closer to the point.
"Marry? They bitched each other... in more ways than one. I am a product of a broken marriage and a broken family that tore its marriage license away flicking it into the air! So I am out now to play the game of life the way I find it right." - she stood up straight in the river flowing under her feet.
She had a canon camera and two parker pens with her and she loved writing with them as much as she did clicking snaps of what she wrote about, with her camera.
Those were the days when digital cameras hadn't yet hit the market.
Canon Camera EOS XT 8MP Digital
And she loved traveling more than she loved herself.
It was Eva who met me a week after Jean had left for France. She saw my tent and was sold on it.
"Could I also pitch my tent along yours?" - she spoke her first sentence to me.
"The land is not mine... or it's as much yours as mine. Go ahead." - I said.
She was an American who had set on a world tour that she had planned to complete not in a hurry but at leisure. She wanted to play the game of life on quite her own terms. And our ways quite matched each other's too. So we turned very fast friends very soon.
I helped her in pitching her tent. It was a red color two men tent that made a beautiful combination with my yellow tent in the backdrop of the green trees around.
As the pitching was done, she took out her camera and snapped me with both the tents in the background.
Canon Camera EOS 30D Digital SLR
"You love photos?" - I asked.
"I need them more than I love them." - and she started laughing.
"Why?" - I got curious.
"They earn me money to live and travel around the globe. And there is one more thing that shares company with them - my parker pens!" - she showed me two beautiful, sleek pens that she wrote her memoirs and travelogues with in order to send them to the magazines that would happily pay her so much for single article as would be sufficient for her to comfortably stay for full 6 months in a third world country like India.
Two Parker Pens
Those were the days when there was no Google or the Internet, and real good snaps with real good copy were in real great demand by the magazines like National Geographic and like!
May be it is still the same scenario but I haven't checked it lately.
Jean and I were together to play the game of life and Christmas (French style in French culture) for 7 days and he got me familiarized with his culture so much during this short period as I wouldn't ever have been even if I myself had gone to and stayed in France for 7 months if I could!
He told me each and every tradition and custom of his culture - the famous French culture on earth!
France, especially Paris, always remained the world capital for high culture, fine arts, wine and fashion.
French Culture: French Wine
The French are basically peace-loving people. That was why Hitler could literally walk over France without any resistance being offered by the French on their part.
Jean was also one peace-loving guy - very soft and very emotional deep inside his heart!
Once as we were sitting at a teashop at Marhi playing chess while sipping tea outside the shop in the open, I noticed him noticing something away from his move on the chessboard. I moved my neck in the direction of his sight and found a couple hugging and kissing each other very passionately outside their tent.
"Hey, Jean!" - I addressed him.
"Oh... yes!" - as if he was awakened from a deep trance out, he looked at me and started giving me a shy smile.
"Aye, you are a French and they are Indians. The French are supposed to be too far advanced compared to Indians as far as expressing sex in public is concerned. They play the game of life more open than Indians do. Isn't it?" - I teased him.
"Yes." - he quietly said and started concentrating on his move.
I took a sip of tea and closed my eyes to feel its hot taste in that chilling cold we were sitting in. As I opened my eyes I again found Jean looking in the direction of the same couple still hugging and kissing with the same passion, as it was 10 minutes back.
I kept looking at Jean's face who was deeply engrossed in the scene in front of his eyes whereas for me his so sentimentally looking at them was much more interesting than what he was looking at.
His eyes turned to me and again he gave a shy smile. Closing the magnetic box to play the game of life rather than playing with the dead chessmen, he started telling me about his girlfriend who lived in the suburbs of Paris where his father had his agricultural farms living a typically French style peaceful life there.
French Culture: A French Beret
"I will go back to France now" - Jean declared after a long pause of silence - "and meet my girlfriend and hug her... and kiss her as long as..." - he left the sentence incomplete and started laughing shyly.
That was his last day with me and the next day he was sitting in the plane flying toward France in the direction where Jean's girlfriend lived with whom he would play the game of life the French way he had seen the Indian couple playing the Indian way.
Were the two ways different any way in their spirit?
Or do we all share the same human passion all over the earth across all its cultures!
US $265.00
