Summer home in Mussoorie, Lower Himalayas, 1980 – isolated house in left 1/3 of photo.
We lived here, at 6500 feet, and each morning climbed up to 7500 feet for Hindi language school.
Our “home” was really an apartment beneath a Protestant church, but the congregation’s hymns assailed our ears only on Sundays.
Several times a week, the vegetable seller would appear outside Steve’s room, which was really a porch, and the two would haggle over costs. It was, we were told, a courtesy to engage this way with any vendor, and Steve made sure that the final price was a good one for the seller.
My first room was an inside room, no windows, and spiders the size of one’s palm. I quickly made my room on the other porch. The main disadvantage was that, when the pre-monsoon rains began, I felt I was being fired upon by a machine gun as the hail of drops hit the corrugated metal roof.