I grew up in Shillong–the British called it’ The Scotland of the east’, a hill station as multiple hills formed the town (now called the City).City centre i.e. the Traffic point is above the GPO, while Imperial Bank of India (now the State bank of India) near the exit gate of the prestigious Shillong club (where my father and later myself was a member) proudly displayed the altitude as 5100 ft. Further south, a few miles away was the Laban peak and further south was the majestic Shillong peak. Climbing the peak was a ritual, which we friends practiced during the holidays if only to stare down at the city below which looked magnificent from a height of 6449ft plus, especially when the lights were on or the moon light shone.

    Come 1960 December  and  1961 January I found myself in London, England, attending the 25 weeks course for the Primary FRCS in Royal College of Surgeons, of England, found a job as Senior House Officer in the Royal Infirmary of Bolton near Manchester. I befriended a few Lawyers and Engineers who were members of the Round Table Club, Bolton branch, a prestigious International Club. I was taken in as a Round Tabler very soon. A few of the Round Tablers were trained mountaineers and were always in animated discussion about climbing. I liked and joined them. On being asked what mountains” did they usually climb”?  reply  would be” it were the Penine range, Lake District ranges and Northern Wales. And altitudes none above 3500 ft. The highest was Scafell Pike of the lakes at 3200 ft.Our Shillong peak was much higher , over 6449 ft. I felt confident and bragged –so our hill station became a mountain city and we were climbers.Can I come with you please? Surely!Penine was easy, so was Northern Wales and last was the mountain peaks of the District of Lakes. 

THE DISTRICT OF LAKES and WINDERMEYER 

We were at the lakes in the early summer,the lake district was  then part of West Moorland, and our own Lancashire,  now it is  wholly Cumbria county. My solicitor friend Ted (Edward and his most pleasant wife Jean) owned a cottage at Windermeyer. 

The name Wordsworth brought the memory of our English literature teacher in our St.Edmunds college,Shillong, Father Leonard

He used to literally dance while reciting William Wordsworth‘s poem,   

- The Daffodils

 I wandered lonely as a cloud

 That floats on high o‘er vales and hills

 When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host of golden daffodils

Beside the lake,beneath the trees

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.!!

We then drove to the lake,  from a crest of a hill we saw what William Wordsworth saw 200 yrs back:

Standing alone as from a ramparts edge

I overlooked the bed of windermere, Like a vast river stretching in the sun , With exultation,at my feet I saw the lake. 

The lake was big and the most beautiful . Next morning we drove to Pattersdale,at the base of Helvellyn,the third highest. mountain 3117 ft high—the Striding edge leads to the peak-the famous and renowned ridge that flanks the passage to the Helvellyn Pike was the most difficult ridge that I ever climbed- all the 200 m of it.My strong Shillong legs took me along.I passed the gruelling test before my inclusion in the British mountaineering group that would assault the Swiss Alps later sometime in the summer .I was quite pleased to be a member of the expeditionary team,which was planning an expedition to the Mount Matterhorn, of the Swiss Alps. 

Late summers of 1964 we set off for Zermatt,the Swiss mountain Town at the base of the magnificent  Matterhorn  peak of swiss Alps.

Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps near the Swiss-Italian border, is said to be the most magnificent of all mountain peaks in the world, not the highest,but the most gorgeous, pyramid of rock& Ice and snow -something I had never seen before. Unlike the Everest where expeditions progress by establishing camps at higher altitudes, in Matterhorn there is no place to camp and progress—the climb and descent has to be completed within two days at the most, better  in one day.Only snag!! The peak was conquered for the first time on july 16th   1865  ,by the British team led by Edward Whymper, seven members climbed   up,but ,only three returned to tell the story of the disaster, four perished on way back. Since that day in the mountain,during the next 100   years,  500 climbers died in the Matterhorn.The graveyard in Zermatt hold the graves of nearly all the dead climbers.,since 1865.    In a cold wet August night in 1964 we left Manchester at midnight, took the Motorway1(M1) to London [200 miles away],reached London by early morning and then drove to Dover.After a couple of hours‘ rest and breakfast we boarded the Ferry to Calais in France.From Calais we drove to Brussels(Belgium). This detour was planned, although Belgium is not the most frequented by tourists - the reputation of Belgian food, chocolate and Sply the red Flemish beer attracted us.We checked in at thebest hotel in the City centre. I spent my time watching the typical old European city centre.In the eveningwe were in a restaurant, which was recommended by the concierge of our hotel, where the Red Flemish beer and the unusual Belgian dinner ended with the famed Chocolate drink which only the Belgians can provide. 

Next Morning,we set off early,took the South bound highway to the French-Luxembourg border ,our aimwas to hit the Mosel river and then proceed along the north-east-bound highway along the Mozel river.Mozel which originates in France, passes through Luxembourg and Germany(then the West Germany) before flowing into the Rhine in Koblenz. We were happy to leave the Belgian Roads which were the worst in Europe and the Belgian drivers, who were the most rude in Europe.

Mozel [or Mosel or Mozelle] is one of the most beautiful of all rivers that one ever saw.On both sides of it were big  castles and vineyards, ,which serves  good food and their own wine specially the Reisling  at the  organized wineries.We had our breakfast with wine which was the best that I ever tasted .Ted promptly bought a dozen bottles and handed me the car key ,so I drove all way to  Basel  enjoying the drive in the beautiful German roads [called the Autobahn].By then  we had crossed  over mosel at Koblenz and was driving south along the mighty Rhine.Large castles,vinyards were plenty along with large&small factories—it is said, Rhine carries more than one fifth of all medicines/chemicalsof the world. Drive though was quick as minimum permissible speed then was 100 kmph.I was delighted  to drive the Jaguar  ,one of the fastest car in the world.
We stopped for lunch at a Vineyard (and winery) on our way.The place was underground (about 2 storieddepth] where we were attended by waiter-waitresses who wore 16th century uniforms and we were conquering emperors. My two friends were so pleased that the staff were double –tipped. By the evening we crossed the Rhine again and  entered Basel.[or Basle]  city of Switzerland.

I had heard a lot about Basle [ see the river front ] from my uncle  Dr.P.C.Datta and our aunt Chabi.Uncle was a visiting professor at the  department of Chemistry and Chhabikakima was research scholar in the city .Our group of 12 men travelled by the Swiss train upto Visp,  a delightful little town in the Southern side of the country.

In Visp the main Swiss railway system meets the Glaciar express line which runs from St.Moritz to Zermatt, an exciting express train ,said to be the slowest Express train in the world,  we boarded the Glaciar express and travelled via Tasch  from where the carfree zone starts. No internal combustion driven transport is allowed in Zermatt area ,base village of Matterhorn. .It was a 7 miles trek to the  village of Zermatt by train. 

At Zermatt as we came out of the train ,Ted shouted look Rathin ,look at the Matterhorn!  I  looked up ! and froze! My heart sank! A massive pyramid of rock ,snow and  ice , unimaginably big and monstrous , stared down at me like a monster. Realisation came fast and quick-this is no Shillong peak,my so called strong Shillong legs could not climb that monster of a Rock .I sank to the Rly. Station bench-I would  go back to back England and to my studies. Already over 450 lives have been lost and I did not want to be the 451th .I was depressed—had trained very hard in the Rock climbing Institute in Lancashire to master the art of Rock climbing, practiced the art of hand holds, foot holds ,rope climbing against the  advice of my seniors in the Surgical dept,who had been saying don‘t !! as the resultant strong  fingers would destroy my delicate plastic surgery fingers ,back in the surgical dept they have been saying ―don‘ts, don‘t destroy your skilled surgical fingers by practicing Rock climbing.

I should have listened. It was neither here neither there. 

Zermatt is called a village-[see below ] but has nearly 400 hotels,/guest houses and other places to stay. The British expeditionary team of Round-tablers had booked The Bristol Hotel ,popular with the British ,so there was a comfortable accommodation for us , we enjoyed the   excellent Swiss hospitality- Swiss are wonderful hoteliers. Swiss food was good, even better was  the wine that was served.and Swiss Chocholate ,famous world over,

Drink  at the beginning was equally enjoyable.. 

After the primary excitement and depression,I found there are 3 more like me with ‗cold feet ‗ for whom the rest of the team, who were reluctant to leave the 4 of us  amateurs behind, ,had thought out a plan ‘B‘ ie we would take the mountain lift and join the rest,who would climb from  the base, midway and with our fresh pair of legs we four  would accompany them to the peak.from the 10000thft where there is a hut where we could collect and rest before the final thrust to the top i.e. 14690 ft. The hut where we halted midway was called Hornli‘s hut,a comfortable stone-hut at near the 10,000 ft .It was freezing cold in the hut ,though it was month of august[see below]. 

Every thing went as planned. We ,not so brave four‖,took the sky-lift and reached Hornli‘s  hut ,the rest joined us mid-way.Final climb was together and strenuous ,as expected  We all together reached the summit around the afternoon[ 2PM],enjoyed and celebrated the climb at the summit ridge,had our lunch which we had carried along , photographs were taken and started the descent at around 3 PM. Near the base,some tired legs gave way above me,he fell with his full weight on my back and the two of us crashed on the back on the climber below us,badly injuring him ,we all fell in a heap about 20 feet or more below.Luckily the rope did not break,which I kept holding on .The injury to my back and right leg was fairly severe.. The very well equipped Hospital at Zermett diagnosed fracture of the 5th lumber vertebra and bad tear of the Sacrospinalis   muscle.  I was put on paracitamol then the wonder drug,in the market and back supporting splint.Had a painful journey back to England ,TED did all the driving. 

N.B.  That I had a tear of the InterVertebral disc and prolapsed of the disc between 5th lumber and 1st sacral vertebrae which remained undetected as in 1964 CT Scan and MRI Scan was not in vogue,they were the source of my persistent sore back all my life & till today after a fall from the step ladder in july   last year ie 2013 I   was virtually bed ridden for couple of months unable even to sit before the computer and type my stories.After returning to my place of work

I was unable to start my normal duties as the Registrar of Surgery in the Royal Infirmary, because of the persistent painful back caused by of the fracture of the spine [which had associated prolapsed of the L-IV disc in spite of the best effort of Medeline ,the very efficient physiotherapist. So went and joined the 25 weeks course for the Final FRCS of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh which ran from September to December.I could return to my job before Christmus (took the exams for the FRCS degree ie FRCS Glasgow in Feb.1965,FRCS Edinburgh in March in 1965 and FRCS England in May 1965 and returned back to India in June 1965. 

( Incidentally in January 1965 I tried to start playing in the Hockey league,but in a practice match my right knee was injured ( right knee cartilage was torn).That signaled the end of my sporting & mountaineering career for ever ) 

About my two friends with whom I travelled A.James-[ more popularly Jim‘] He was a tall jovial English man ,owner of a large Engineering firm who built Dr.Bidhan Roy‘s Durgapur city. 

B. Ted [Edward], who had inherited the prominent solicitors firm,Goulding and sons himself a solicitor-lawyer ,hated the German & American cars and drove his expensive English car Jaguar, always with pride.He was the best friend that I had- who taught this once shy Indian boy to meet a stranger  whiteman ,look eye to eye and say...hi, I am Rathin,the Surgeon from India ,may I know whom I am talking to ???  I always had the key to his big house and a first story bed room , had only to leave a card in the entrance hall to say that I was in.He was a great traveller, a good mountaineer ,a great connoisseur of good Wine and introduced me to the very best of  European society. His daughter Alison  was my favourite girl and a mountaineer of repute, climbed our Mt Everest.We did communicate ,till Jean  and Ted passed away.

Edited By: Amit Dutta

Dr. Rathin Datta, FRCS (England, Edinburgh & Glasgow).FFIMS (Athens) 

Surgeon & Sports Medicine Specialist

Padmashree Awardee, winner of the Bangladesh Liberation war honour 

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