Oliver Benjamin
me in the care of an old Nepali who was supposedly skilled in the
healing arts. After a moment of waiting, the man appeared from his
outhouse. He was a funny-looking little old fellow with a long black
beard and a Michael Jackson T-shirt. His head was wrapped in a
turban that looked as if it hadn’t been washed during his last three
lifetimes. He spoke briefly with the sherpas and then broke out in a
hysterical laughing fit. Presuming he was laughing at my stupidity. I
thanked the sherpas, handing them a wad of cash. They nodded
gratefully and departed.
“How do you feel?” asked the man, whose name was Haridas.
“Terrible,” I grumbled.
“Terrible? But you must be so happy that you didn’t fall off the
mountain!”
I shrugged. He shook his head in confusion and then instructed
me to lie down on a straw mat inside his hut where he proceeded to
wrap my ankle in a cold, herbal compress. After feeding me some
tasteless soup, he went to sleep and left me by myself with only my
thoughts to keep me company.
“How long before I can walk again?” I said before he left.
“Mmm. One month,” he said.
“You mean I have to stay here for a whole month?”
“Mmm. Unless you grow wings like a bird!” He laughed a high-
pitched laugh, then pulled the expression on his face down into a
mere grin and put me to bed. When I told him that I would pay him
for his help, he just nodded and laughed to himself. When I tried to
engage him in conversation, he continued nodding but said nothing.
I began to get worried. An entire month in a hut in the Himalayas
with only this laconic man and nothing to do? I would go mad with
boredom.
I slept fitfully and awoke early the next morning. The sun coming up
over the mountain was shining through my window and making it
difficult to go back to sleep, so I wrapped a blanket around my
shoulders and, using a long stick for a crutch, hobbled out of the hut.
Haridas was sitting in the lotus position with his eyes closed, his
palms resting face-up on his knees. Seeing as how I had nothing
better to do, I watched him for a while, and found myself becoming
hungry and impatient. What was he doing just sitting there like that,
I thought. What a waste of time. If you want to sleep, it seemed to me,
then sleep, and if you want to be awake then be awake, but this
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