Fictional Shortstory: TWO WORLDS (Satis Shroff) I look at the Himalayas and feel peace and joy sweeping over me. I don’t see the valleys, spurs, tarns we learn about at school. I see the eternal snows as the home of Gods and Goddesses: Shiva, Parvati, Meru, Kailash, Annapurna and Sagarmatha. At home I lived in a Hindu world in a house that is actually a two-storied bungalow. At school I inhabited a western-oriented, Catholic world. My Mom said that the Ganges river, also known as Ganga, was brought from Heaven by the sage Bhagirath. Ganga was received by Shiva on his head, and from her mouth flows the water to the earth, down the Ganges delta. But my Irish teacher said the Ganges has its origin in a Himalayan glacier. One was mythology, I was told, and the other was Geography and I had to learn to keep the two apart. Growing up was learning to live in two worlds, two cultures, two languages, norms and values, and sometimes I was muddled up in my thoughts. Why was I scared when I s...