PTSD

Corridor Conversations

As I was walking into my office at OOD Uni this morning:

RandomStudent: Hello, I haven’t seen you around before
(P: Department is fairly small. Everyone is quite recognisable)
P: I haven’t been here long. I am only here for the semester.
RS: Oh, where are you from?
P: Nepal
RS (after a pause): You don’t sound Nepalese
P: ---
RS: Mt Everest, right?
P: Yes (in what way? Did she imply that I was Mt E? was asking if I lived there?. I wasn’t sure but a positive answer seemed fairly harmless)
RS: So, do you know when it was there?
P: (I wondered if this was a rhetorical question)…umm..always? (or maybe she wanted to know about the shift and collisions of tectonic plates which led to the Himalayas being formed? Was she a geologist? Or perhaps she wanted to hear other narratives of how the mountains came into being. I tried to think)
RS: No, when was it discovered…d’you know?
P: Well, I am not sure (I forbore to point out it would be fairly difficult to miss a rather large mountain which looms over its surroundings. And, there’s an entire mountain chain of which Mt E is a part. And people live on its lower slopes. So, I presume they knew it was there)
RS: You don’t know? But, it is your history.
P: Sorry, I hadn't really thought about it (No, I doubt if people wake up in the mornings and wonder about when some random person (well, Mr Everest, I presume) came up and named something that was pretty much always there. I am sure if the mountain disappeared, it would be noticeable but, usually, people don’t tend to start their days by acknowledging “Oh, good. Mt Everest is still there. I can get on with my day now”. I am not implying it is not noticeable from Kathmandu, for it is. But that it would be more noticeable if it weren’t there)
RS: Oh.
P: See you.

I’ve been spending the morning trying to find out more about this (yes, yes, it is work. It’s called discovering one’s ethnic/national roots). In case yous are wondering, Mr E didn’t even name the mountain but some other bloke did, in Mr E’s honour. Not too sure what Mr E thought about this (and he was SIR George E, not a mere Mr). Also, before being surveyed (ah, modern technology), it was apparently called Peak XV by the very imaginative survey people. Nepalis call it Sagarmatha (“head of the sky”) and Tibetans Chomolongma (“mother of the Universe”): So, the Universe is local (yet managed to get Elizabeth yesterday. Networks in action? :-)) or is it just Nepali/Tibetan imperial tendencies in operation?

posted by Priya @ 9:07 AM