Society & Culture
Kugti, Himachal Pradesh. 16,600 feet. April.
I was walking up to a sacred mountain pass with Gaddi shepherds and 800 sheep, when a freak snowstorm came — the kind no one in those mountains had seen in April for years.
The sheep scattered. Half the flock was lost. My fingers stopped working. And in the middle of all of it, Ajay — one of the shepherds — reached into his pocket and pulled out an old ₹500 note. The same note India had been told, months earlier after demonetization, was worthless. He rolled it. Filled it with tobacco. Lit it.
At 16,600 feet, in a snowstorm, the most valuable thing in the world was tobacco. Not money.
This is the story of Kugti. The trek I almost didn't survive.
Season 3 of Kathagram is a series of solo Himalayan trek memoirs by Neethu M Eldose — a former journalist, traveler, and storyteller. New episodes weekly.
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