During the time of COVID we have had the time to look at our own backyard and to show you what it looks like where we are based in northern India.
Most people who have been to India or imagine what its like tend to think of noise, colour, pollution and crowds. We want to show you something different.
In this video Ashish, one of our inhouse tour leaders, shows us around his village of Ballah near Palampur. Is is a small local village where people live simple lives and care for its environs. They live as a community – knowing each other for most of their lives.
Ashish lives in a joint family with his father (who spends most of his time away working) and his sister and her children. The large house is also shared with a couple of his father’s brothers, their wives and children and now wives and children. They live in houses – more like duplexes, cook and eat separately but still are there for each other in times of need. The community spirit is very strong in India where the family unit and familial ties remain strong as they have for generations with loyalty and interderdependence at its heart. A very different life for us bought up in western culture.
When Ashish is not tour guiding, he works in our office, is a wizz on accounts and is now teaching Hindi online while studying for a Masters of English.
Thanks Ashish for sharing your part of the world.
