The Legend of the Yeti Glacier

 

The Legend of the Yeti Glacier

 

By Saran Rai

At a corner of a busy road, a woman sits with a baby in her lap, begging from passersby. Only a few pay attention to her. Moved by her pitiable condition, I ask, “Sister, the baby is crying. Shouldn't you feed him milk?”

“This baby in my lap isn’t my child; he’s my husband,” she replies. Stunned by her response, I start wondering if she’s mentally unwell.

“How can the baby in your lap be your husband?” I ask.

For a moment, she gazes far into the distance, and then she looks at me. “This baby in my lap is my husband,” she begins. “We were a married couple living thousands of kilometers away at the foothills of the Himalayas. Farming and sheep herding were our livelihoods. We lived together for over forty years and raised our children. When they grew up, they flew away like young birds leaving the nest. Where did they go? They never returned.”

“Where is your husband now?” I inquire.

“Here, in my lap.”

“No, what are you saying? How can a baby like this be your husband?”

“This is the consequence of the waters of the Yeti Glacier,” she replies.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“That day, some of my sheep went missing, so I climbed beyond the snowline, higher than usual. There, I saw footprints of the Yeti. Following those tracks, I reached a glacier lake. Exhausted and thirsty, I drank from its waters. As soon as I drank, my sixty-year-old self transformed into a seventeen-year-old girl. Amazed by my reflection in the lake’s pristine water, I returned home.

“When I reached home, my husband didn’t recognize me. After I explained everything, he decided to visit the glacier himself. The next morning, he set off. But even after two days, he didn’t return. I went back to the glacier looking for him and found my husband transformed into a small baby, lying by the lake. I carried him back to the village.

“But the villagers didn’t recognize us and refused to believe our story. They didn’t let us stay there. After that, carrying my husband, I walked for a month and arrived here. With no means of livelihood, we survive by begging.”

Listening to her story, I find myself unable to decide whether to believe her or not. I keep looking at them. Could such a glacier truly exist? A glacier that grants youth...

 

 

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