The Great Travelers: Part Three- Peter Freuchen
I discovered Peter Freuchen accidentally… while on my second attempt to Roopkund Lake in Himalayas.
Roopkund still remains out of reach to me… first time… I developed mountain sickness… and second time… the inclement climate did not let me reach it… first time I aborted by attempt 5 kilometers ahead of Bedni Bugyal… and second time near Kalua Vinayak.
On my second trip there, in 2003, I met a Bengali gentlemen… in his early 50s, he was trying to get to Roopkund all by himself and two porters… two porters, one to lift his wares… and other to lift his books. That man was, incidentally, carrying some 40 books on his trip… and coaxed me to finally approach him and ask why he is carrying so many books.
I came to Afghanistan with almost 100 books, and one of colleagues at office, today, asked me the same question. I told him that I cannot live without my books… that Bengali gentleman gave me the same answer… and told me the anecdote from Peter Freuchen’s life…
Freuchen was a special traveler… very rich… he was from a breed of travelers who took up traveling as a mere hobby to prove themselves to the world… his life in general and travels in particular were full of anecdotes, of highs and lows… he learnt so many lessons while traveling and applied them in his real life… when with an amputated leg and failing health, he participated in Danish resistance movement against the Nazis, during the second world war… traveling taught him to never say die… even when he was imprisoned by Nazis… possibly to be executed.
The incident regarding these books goes like this… when once Peter was on a trip in Greenland… the weather was bad, real bad… and the entire contingent was somehow surviving… at one of the camps… Peter realized that he has left his carton of books behind at the earlier camp… he was inconsolable… and decided to mount an expedition to retrieve his carton of books… the team leader was aghast, but gave in to the logic of this determined man… The team leader gave him minimal resources… just two Eskimo escorts… and told him to meet the team at the next camp… thinking that such a proposition would deter him… but he was wrong… Peter, not only mounted the expedition, but also retrieved his carton of books, and reached the next camp… well in time…
Much of what Peter Freuchen became… was due to his father… who was a wonderful story teller… and told him stories of land far and wide… he bought Peter, when he was just in his teens, a boat, which took him on small outings in solitude… and probably fueled his ambition for larger voyages… to Arctic, Alaska, snowy north of Canada and Greenland…
Over these travels… he developed a liking for studying lives of Eskimos… or Inuits… as he called them. So much so that he was enchanted with the beauty of Inuit girls and married an Inuit girl, Navarana. After the marriage he lived with the Inuits for a decade altogether… developed an immense understanding about their society… and his accounts about them are no less than anthropological treasures. His wife, however, died in a influenza epidemic after 10 years of blissful life… after which Peter moved on to newer vistas… “Trying to forget Navarana”.
So touched was he from the simple ways of these people that he wished to be cremated like them after death and his ashes were strewn in the white lands, he loved so much.
His life is full of interesting anecdotes… once before marrying Navarana… he met a beautiful Inuit girl… and offered her a lift on his sledge… the girl refused and showed her hairs… which were untied… only after some days did Peter realize that offering an Inuit girl a lift meant proposing her for one-night stand… and untied hairs were an indication that the girl was menstruating. He didn’t know at that point of time that he would go on to marry an Inuit girl.
During the last legs of his travel career, Peter lost his way in Greenland… and had to make a snow-cave to survive till a rescue party came to rescue him… he was rescued after days… but in the process, he had a severe frost bite in one of his legs… that was later on amputated.
Peter realized that his travel career was over… but he did not lose heart… he knew that he had a vast repository of knowledge on the lands where very few dared to venture… he continued to accompany expeditions into these lands… now as an advisor… as a experienced man… and is said to have guided many successes.
He wrote a number of books on the region… a number of articles… novels… his novel about Ivalu an Inuit bride who comes to live in Copenhagen… is a heart wrenching semi auto-biographical account. It depicts the clash of two cultures, two ways of life… and a critique of ethnocentrism among Europeans.
Perhaps… he could foresee… that this ethnocentrism is soon going to take a monstrous shape… in the name of Nazism… He fought tooth to nail against Nazis… was imprisoned and was about to be executed… but somehow escaped to Sweden and then to USA… where he finally settled.
Peter Freuchen is not very well known… and I just chanced to know him… I thank that Bengali gentleman for introducing me to this great man… who imbibed the spirit inherent to traveling… of never saying die… and trying to contribute beyond their passion.
His life story means a lot to me… his life itself was a journey… a journey that inspires me… and tells me to never say die.
Roopkund still remains out of reach to me… first time… I developed mountain sickness… and second time… the inclement climate did not let me reach it… first time I aborted by attempt 5 kilometers ahead of Bedni Bugyal… and second time near Kalua Vinayak.
On my second trip there, in 2003, I met a Bengali gentlemen… in his early 50s, he was trying to get to Roopkund all by himself and two porters… two porters, one to lift his wares… and other to lift his books. That man was, incidentally, carrying some 40 books on his trip… and coaxed me to finally approach him and ask why he is carrying so many books.
I came to Afghanistan with almost 100 books, and one of colleagues at office, today, asked me the same question. I told him that I cannot live without my books… that Bengali gentleman gave me the same answer… and told me the anecdote from Peter Freuchen’s life…
Freuchen was a special traveler… very rich… he was from a breed of travelers who took up traveling as a mere hobby to prove themselves to the world… his life in general and travels in particular were full of anecdotes, of highs and lows… he learnt so many lessons while traveling and applied them in his real life… when with an amputated leg and failing health, he participated in Danish resistance movement against the Nazis, during the second world war… traveling taught him to never say die… even when he was imprisoned by Nazis… possibly to be executed.
The incident regarding these books goes like this… when once Peter was on a trip in Greenland… the weather was bad, real bad… and the entire contingent was somehow surviving… at one of the camps… Peter realized that he has left his carton of books behind at the earlier camp… he was inconsolable… and decided to mount an expedition to retrieve his carton of books… the team leader was aghast, but gave in to the logic of this determined man… The team leader gave him minimal resources… just two Eskimo escorts… and told him to meet the team at the next camp… thinking that such a proposition would deter him… but he was wrong… Peter, not only mounted the expedition, but also retrieved his carton of books, and reached the next camp… well in time…
Much of what Peter Freuchen became… was due to his father… who was a wonderful story teller… and told him stories of land far and wide… he bought Peter, when he was just in his teens, a boat, which took him on small outings in solitude… and probably fueled his ambition for larger voyages… to Arctic, Alaska, snowy north of Canada and Greenland…
Over these travels… he developed a liking for studying lives of Eskimos… or Inuits… as he called them. So much so that he was enchanted with the beauty of Inuit girls and married an Inuit girl, Navarana. After the marriage he lived with the Inuits for a decade altogether… developed an immense understanding about their society… and his accounts about them are no less than anthropological treasures. His wife, however, died in a influenza epidemic after 10 years of blissful life… after which Peter moved on to newer vistas… “Trying to forget Navarana”.
So touched was he from the simple ways of these people that he wished to be cremated like them after death and his ashes were strewn in the white lands, he loved so much.
His life is full of interesting anecdotes… once before marrying Navarana… he met a beautiful Inuit girl… and offered her a lift on his sledge… the girl refused and showed her hairs… which were untied… only after some days did Peter realize that offering an Inuit girl a lift meant proposing her for one-night stand… and untied hairs were an indication that the girl was menstruating. He didn’t know at that point of time that he would go on to marry an Inuit girl.
During the last legs of his travel career, Peter lost his way in Greenland… and had to make a snow-cave to survive till a rescue party came to rescue him… he was rescued after days… but in the process, he had a severe frost bite in one of his legs… that was later on amputated.
Peter realized that his travel career was over… but he did not lose heart… he knew that he had a vast repository of knowledge on the lands where very few dared to venture… he continued to accompany expeditions into these lands… now as an advisor… as a experienced man… and is said to have guided many successes.
He wrote a number of books on the region… a number of articles… novels… his novel about Ivalu an Inuit bride who comes to live in Copenhagen… is a heart wrenching semi auto-biographical account. It depicts the clash of two cultures, two ways of life… and a critique of ethnocentrism among Europeans.
Perhaps… he could foresee… that this ethnocentrism is soon going to take a monstrous shape… in the name of Nazism… He fought tooth to nail against Nazis… was imprisoned and was about to be executed… but somehow escaped to Sweden and then to USA… where he finally settled.
Peter Freuchen is not very well known… and I just chanced to know him… I thank that Bengali gentleman for introducing me to this great man… who imbibed the spirit inherent to traveling… of never saying die… and trying to contribute beyond their passion.
His life story means a lot to me… his life itself was a journey… a journey that inspires me… and tells me to never say die.
1 comment:
The way you get inspired by Peter Freuchen, I get inspired from your readings my friend..
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