He is clearly a stay-back from the Hippie era. Tall, skinny, graying hair in a loose braid, grayish beard that seems to have given up the effort to grow any longer, Hans Peter- Hampy – to the locals lives amidst a rolling  farm atop a hill in Manali, Himachal Pradesh.  While a small portion of the farm is meticulously cultivated, the rest appear to be left to tend (you read right, tend it is!) for itself. A massive three-storied, but incomplete, stone building is where Hampy, his 45 cows (at present count), several dogs, numerous cats and cackling geese live together in harmonious companionship. Harmonious if you shut your ears off to the most unmusical concert put up by the geese endlessly. It was tempting to stand on a podium and wave a baton – just to shush them up. Hampy says the geese are guards and his dogs by now know how to read their cacophonic notes. If there is a little change in the cackling, which no human ear can ever make out, the dogs realize that there is an intruder around and get cracking!

It all started with a local cheese at a Manali café. It was fresh and delicious, literally melting in the mouth. Then someone said, have you tried Hampy’s Swiss cheese, that’s yummier.  Phone numbers were hunted (that’s the beauty of a small town, someone always knows someone, who knows someone, who knows someone who knows Hampy!) Incidentally his Christian name-  Hans Peter- was quite a revelation to many of the locals.  Although he claims to have been living in the same farmhouse for over 40 years, asking for Peter Hans drew a complete blank. Asking for ‘Hampy’ was the key! To get to Hampy, climb up the Hadimba Temple route but don’t enter the temple complex, instead take a left turn and after walking for about 15 minutes or so, first through narrow but motorable road flanked by hotels and homes, the road tapers off to a narrow broken down pedestrian path where the number of houses reduce and cultivated areas increase. 

Just when it appears to be a wild goose chase, as we hit the last tiny wooden shed after which it is agricultural lands, apple orchards and the forests beyond, an old lady clad in the local Pattu comes to our help.  Hans Peter? Nah, there’s nobody by that name. Woh Angrez hai, Gora hai aur, cheese banata hai. Voila! You talking about Hampy, she says. Hampy loves to talk, not just in English but quite impressive Hindi too. His story is long, very long; marriage to a local woman that soured, court cases, fights over properties and what have you, so let’s leave it at that. What he has done with the naturally rambling farm is amazing. There are two chestnut trees – I don’t know how the locals believe that chestnuts don’t grow here he sighs-  a quaint African cucumber tree that produces like fruits that look like mutant cucumbers from the nether world with spikes and all, but delicious!  The expected apple, pears etc abound and vegetable plot is laden with greens, chives, leeks and the works.

But what Hampy impresses one is with the Swiss cheese he turns out in a one room rather basic cheese factory. His cows he says are all Himalayan cows and not the Jersey cow that Indians seem to love. This is the Himalayas, this is where they belong he says and naturally their milk is the best. It is indeed- soft and scrumptious.  The whey left behind after churning the milk goes into making bread that is naturally creamy, in taste and in look too with a delicate shade of cream. A slice of his bread, laden with his Swiss cheese, the lazy dogs, the cackling geese, the sleepy cats and kittens and the mooing calves and its Swiss paradise in Manali. Peter says he earlier turned out kilos of his cheese that travelled as far as to Mumbai besides Delhi, Chandigarh and of course Manali and surrounding areas, but the court cases and personal hassles led him to cut down production. He is jubilant over winning one case (of several) and is all geared up to increase his production. How he delivers his exquisite cheese is another story. If you are a Delhi resident, you call him up and place the order. When it is ready, he packs them and sends them by bus to Delhi, where it is dropped at a petrol pump in West Delhi (The pump owner is a Manali hotelier too!) and you go and pick it up from there. And then of course have a feast! Cheers. Call Hans Peter Hampy at +919816296321. And if you are lucky he might be able to spare some redolent, luscious ghee. And if you are lucky enough to be invited to his farm, you will get a touching see-off from one of his dogs, called Vajpayee for reasons best known to him!