Life’s tough in that part of the world. The sun’s blazing hot at noon as you’d expect in high hilly regions; the atmosphere’s thin in these places. But the spirits are high and the hearts unreservedly big. Every day’s a struggle, the people struggle their way and manage to live on somehow; go on in life! The wind is chilly once dusk sets in. There doesn’t seem to be much clothing to protect from the cold air that develops quickly as the temperature plummets drastically at night in places located high above sea level. Yet nature seems to be reasonable to those who have a big heart to lend.
Hospitality is a virtue to possess to keep the docs at bay (mind the term)! These are people who have never seen the clinic as we know, yet they are fit and perpetually in the pink! They have natural medicines that they pluck along as they make their way to the fields. They do not know the office that you and I would imagine. Yet they work overtime and are sound professionals of sorts. They ain’t troubled when crude prices sky-rocket $200 a barrel. Automobile is one possession they could never comprehend. Bearish trends and bouts in the stock markets are of little concern, currency transactions are a thing they deal with most seldom. Catastrophes are not of great concern. When tremors come, they do not worry, for they live in huts of leaves and branches, not skyscrapers or marble-plated structures. They possess very little to lose in the first place anyway. Sleep takes over as they lie down after a hard long day; there is no time to flip and turn.
They are skillful and know the tricks of life or rather the tips to survival. And this is perhaps the reason of that smile, the smile they wear every time you look into their tired eyes. Is that really a smile sometimes I wonder? Perhaps they cackle at me, perhaps they see my plight. Should there be a situation of survival, perhaps they know who’ll stand and who’ll snap!
