Himalayan Echoes

Last week, Nainital – a city in the Western Himalayas, was bustling with activities as the Himalayan Echoes was being hosted. Every part of the Himalayas is an open museum where you interact with lovely views, everchanging shades of the sky and hills with thriving oral history, art, craft and literature. I was there to participate in this wonderful festival hosted in a wonderful venue, Abbotsford Estate, where the skies, hills, ideas and chirping of birds meet. It is always challenging when you get a setting so picturesque that you tend to lose your chain of thoughts sitting on the stage, gazing at the lovely view in front. It was three days of fun. Great sessions, art, music, craft and the conversations on the sidelines!

Janhavi Prasada is the curator of this event, supported by an amazing team, and advised by Namita Gokhale, without whom hardly any literary festival can happen. Janhavi and her family oversee this magnificent property that can be used as an example of how one can approach tourism, travel and destination management in the Himalayas. She left her journalism career to nurture this 150-year-old family estate to a unique destination. When she was in Nepal for the Himalayan Future Forum in February 2024 hosted by the Nepal Economic Forum, she shared about creating a “sustainable ecosystem” anchored around the property engaging with the local communities and showcasing local art, culture, literature, cuisine and beyond. With the world moving towards experiential tourism, this model would be something to replicate across different nooks and corners of the Himalayas.

The sessions were insightful, and I was honored to be on the panel with another Himalayan citizen Shekhar Pathak, who has devoted his life to research on the Himalayas and advocating for sustainable solutions. We discussed ‘sustainability’ beyond the usual use of the phrase to deeper aspects towards the future that require a transformation in attitude in redefining development beyond building roads, dams and hard infrastructure. The emphasis for me has always been on people-to-people relationships to be able to learn, share and exchange ideas on how people are really redefining and internalizing change.

The impact of climate change has been visible and the results each year are graver than the earlier ones. When air pollution hits, it does not look at political boundaries, nor do the birds flying care where the boundary starts or ends. In the recent landslides in October, the entire Himalayan belt suffered at different scales. When flooding begins in Tibet, there are landslides in Nepal. We need to take a holistic approach towards these issues rather than look at national solutions. This can only happen if there are platforms for people to meet and exchange ideas, and share challenges as well as solutions that one can learn from each other. The region requires more platforms that provide opportunities to undertake these exchanges.

The exchanges are not limited to developmental issues, but also the appreciation of the diversity of the Himalayas is equally important. Ten-year-old Karma Sonam Demath from Bhutan stole our hearts as she sang, danced and explained to us the intricacies of the different forms of art. She along with her father Pema Samdrup gave us a glimpse of the diversity within a country of eight hundred thousand people and the rich traditions that are being passed down for generations. There are fewer opportunities nowadays as we get glued onto our smartphones to be able to interact with people who are the crossbearers of art and culture. The younger generation is required to carry on the traditions and interpret them to the global audience.

There are also generational gaps that are becoming evident. We see there are fewer people-to-people exchanges in the younger generation today. It was wonderful to meet people of the generation who were aware of Nepal and have visited and hosted guests from Nepal. But the same is not true in the younger generation which has many options than to get to know one’s, immediate neighbors. At the Himalayan Future Forum we hosted in February 2024, we had a youth fellowship program that allowed young people from Nepal to get a glimpse of the issues that impact the future of the Himalayas. At the Himalayan Echoes, young students and professionals got this opportunity too and there is a need to explore how these can be institutionalized within the country and with the other countries. How does a young person from Karnali get to learn about Koshi in Nepal and how does someone from Sikkim or Nagaland in India get to learn about Himachal Pradesh or Uttarakhand?

With Janhavi and Namita, we are in discussions to see how this model of Himalayan Echoes can spread across the Himalayas and we can bring people and conversations together to build a better future for the Himalayas.