Vertical climb to sarpanch's house
After an endless trek, we reached the hut of the sarpanch which crowned the peak of a hill. A group of women peeled apricots in his garden. Some of them were breaking apricot seeds to remove almonds. Hundreds of fresh walnuts lay on the floor. I resisted the impulse to pick up some walnuts.
As soon as I reached, my escorts spoke to the assembled women in Aryan and they began laughing spontaneously. Soon, two old women came out of the hut with burning roots of an unidentified tree in their hands (I later learnt that it was a juniper tree). I chanted the gayatri mantra silently in my mind. I was about to experience the cleansing ritual of the Aryans. This was mandatory for all outsiders who entered their village. The old women, started chanting in unison (sounded like German) and the eldest one brought the juniper smoke close to my face and symbolically waved it across my body.