Manali, Jan 15 For a month and a half, only nature is speaking in nine villages located on the outskirts of Himachal Pradesh's picturesque resort Manali, currently wrapped in a blanket of snow, with no ear for music or any sort of noise.
The locals, who grow prized apples, pears and plums with traditional agriculture practices, besides raising livestock, are religiously observing pin-drop silence for decades with no tiling of land or any other agricultural work that makes noise.
Even the ringtone of cellphones of villagers are in silent mode, no loud conversations and viewing of television programmes or even the tune of musical notes is barred.
The reason: the deities are meditating; their noise will disturb them, incurring wrath.
"These days we are maintaining total silence. We are not doing any work in the fields and our television sets are switched off for 38 days," Sham Chand, a resident of Goshal village, told on Sunday.
The silence begins every year on Makar Sankranti
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