Kharchod Mu खरचोड़ म्यू
Lahauli, as spoken in Sissu
Rain and snow coming down together.
Not quite rain, not quite snow — Kharchod Mu is both at once, the wet in-between weather of a valley that has a name for every kind of sky.
The Lexicon: words of the mountains
One word per record: the local vocabularies of the Himalayas, written down with who said them and where. The smallest unit of the archive, and perhaps the most easily lost.
6 words in the record
Lakar Mu लकड़ म्यू
Lahauli, as spoken in Sissu
The big snowfall — heavy blobs of snow falling thick and fast.
The big snowfall, big blobs falling down. The outgoing-winter snows are heavier with water and harder to clear from roofs and roads — the valley measures its snow in labour as much as in beauty.
Latang Mu लटंग म्यू
Lahauli, as spoken in Sissu
The windy snow — snow that arrives driven on the wind.
And of course there is the windy snow — Latang Mu — when the snow does not fall so much as arrive sideways, carried across the valley by the wind.
Lemzee Mu लेमज़ी म्यू
Lahauli, as spoken in Sissu
The glittering snow that falls when a snowfall is about to end — tiny sparks that shine back at the light.
When the snowfall is about to stop, Lemzee Mu comes — snow like tiny glitters, shining back with the light. The valley reads it as a closing line: the sky is finishing what it had to say.
Mu म्यू
Lahauli, as spoken in Sissu
Snow — the root word, of which the valley knows many kinds.
In Sissu, snow is not just snow. It is Mu — and depending on how it falls, what it promises, and what it costs to clear, it takes a different name. The valleys around have their own words again; each keeps its own weather in its own language.
Nyirtschi Mu न्यिर्त्ची म्यू
Lahauli, as spoken in Sissu
The smallest snowfall — flakes like tiny pearls, mostly with the incoming winter; a sign that heavier snow is on its way.
When it is small-small snowfalling, like the smallest pearls, it is Nyirtschi Mu. It usually comes with the incoming winter — and it means more Mu is coming. Walking the road the next day and seeing the first tiny flakes, you know not to plan on leaving.
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