Anna Ossam’s Adventure: A Himalayan Road Trip in the Shadow of the Devi

D'you speak Hindi? he asked as WhatsApp texts flew back and forth from continent to island. Not a known language in Somerset, she replied, with smileys. I will take you to ossam coffee before we begin , he wrote back. Ossam. Ossam? She took the word for a walk all the way to the next village and almost back again before: Awesome! Awesome coffee! Where else would her taxi driver take her but to a cafe with awesome coffee before setting off on the Road Trip of a lifetime.This slightly rearranged version is a stand-alone story from my memoir The Tiger and the Taxi Driver - Book Two. It is a gift to the real taxi driver who looked after me so well during our Himalayan road trip in October 2018, a pilgrimage I had dreamt of for forty years. At the age of seventy-two the Advent of WhatsApp wove my Lavender Codicil.