Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Terry King and his climbing partner Paul 'Matey' Smith were caught in the same
stalemate. They had permission for a new route on the northeast ridge of Nanda
Devi. Like us, they had to get into the Nanda Devi Sanctuary to get to their route.
Terry and I worked out our tactics after our first fruitless meeting with Mr Ram,
the administrator of the IMF, in his stifling, cramped, little office near the Sansad
Bhavan, India's parliament buildings. He was a small, polite man and rather frail
and timid. Terry, like Voytek, had no patience or sympathy for the system that had
first granted us permission, and then withdrawn it through no fault of ours. It was
completely unfair. We played on the theme.
'We're here in good faith, you've taken our money and now you refuse our per-
mits. We will speak to the Alpine Club, the BMC and all the magazines and make
sure that no British climbers come to India ever again. Blah, blah, blah' we ranted
on. The poor man simply nodded his head and kept saying, '
Accha
, but why not go
to Devistan,' a mountain that sounded to us about as interesting an objective as
the beach at Blackpool.
Suddenly Terry lost his temper completely. He grabbed the IMF secretary by the
scruff of the neck, lifted him in the air, swore and then dropped him back in his
chair. He turned and stormed out of the office. The stacked mountains of yellowing
paper all round the office threatened to avalanche as Terry's retreating steps
echoed in the stairwell. I sat stunned for a moment and then said:
'I am sorry about Mr King. You see Terry King is a famous actor with the Royal
Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon. All actors have terrible tempers as
you know.' It was a half-truth. Terry taught stage fighting with lots of repertory
companies including the RSC.
Mr Ram was clearly interested in this news. 'Ah, an actor you say?' Light was
dawning in the secretary's face as he saw a way to escape another tirade. He
reached for a pad of paper and wrote down a name and telephone number. 'Go and
see Mr Singh tomorrow at the Ministry of Interior. He is a big fan of British actors
so maybe he can help.'
And so it began, our little act - the good guy/bad guy routine with a twist. Early
each morning for nearly a week we travelled in rickshaws to offices and met with
government bureaucrats, moving slowly up the ladder. We would inevitably be re-
ferred to someone else and in the stifling afternoon heat wait at the door until we
were told to come back in the morning. As we climbed ever upwards through office
blocks to larger offices, Terry's reputation as an actor spread. He could well have
been cast in the lead in the RSC's next production of
Hamlet
the way his perform-
