From the archive record
A female medical team of nurses and doctors on standby at the Devidhura Bagwal festival in Champawat, when two sets of villagers hit each other with apples and pears, and ultimately with stones and rocks! Kumaoni villagers of the western Himalaya smile and wave to our camera from the air, as our drone hovers over the massive crowds waiting to see the stone slugging fest. Through the shifting monsoon mists one comes across an otherwise enchanting Himalayan village with a strange story to tell each season during the time of the rakhi festival. Rakhi itself represents the bond of consideration, love and protection between a brother and a sister, but the festival of Baghwal at Devidhura is something else altogether. It involves two villages' villagers throwing stones at each other, in an age-o