A Piano to Zanskar

Some stories begin without you’ve even noticed.
They meander through the streets and the swarming alleys of people who, unaware, begin to become characters in such extraordinary stories that do not even seem real.
Desmond O’Keeffe already sounds as a fictional character, he is also known as “Mr. Gentle”, maybe because of his calm tone of voice and that sensitive and somewhat sad look with which he looks at the world.
Desmond is a piano tuner and runs a shop in Camden Town, London, where hundreds of people pass by every day.
There are those who enter to book a tuning, those who sneak in with a light step to see how a shop where pianos are tuned looks like and there are also people that, just looking around, decide to become his apprentices and stop there a few years.
That’s what happened to Anna, another gentle soul like Desmond, who wandered a lot but then felt the need to stop and share a part of her life with the “old gentleman”.
A relationship of mutual care that will be fundamental to undertake this surreal adventure.

But you know, every small or big adventures always start with a “call”. It is something that makes us move, that triggers feelings that can turn our lives upside down to push us into action, towards something that will change our everyday lives.
Towards something that can be remembered and relived.
Even only by ourselves.
“Some of the most extraordinary things happened in my life, simply started with someone coming into my shop” says Desmond.
Because yes, sometimes are the adventures that find us and offer us extraordinary and unrepeatable opportunities.
And indeed, on a day like many others, in Desmond’s shop, entered a regular customer, bringing with her the story of a school in the Zanskar region – in the remote Indian Himalayas – where a piano would be needed in order to make the local children study music.
But the real challenge is that Lingshed, that’s name of that little village, is located more than 4000m above sea level and accessible only by very difficult routes. Undoubtedly one of the most remote inhabited place in the world that precisely for this reason has been able – at least for now – to keep intact its own culture and lifestyles endangered by the development, albeit very slowly, of the new roads bringing with them the spread of Western customs and traditions.
And listening to the words “it is impossible to bring a piano to Zanskar” the old Desmond hears his call and he’s ready to undertake that challenge.
Yes, perhaps because when you have dedicated all your life to pianos, to repairing them, to their tuning, what you want the most is to spread a melody that knows how to go beyond the simple music. Something that can reach people inside by going beyond the simple object-tool. A melody that can stick to their souls and continue to live together with someone you may not even know but who, keeping it alive, somehow keeps you alive too.
That’s why Desmond decides to give up his imminent retired future “sitting on deck chairs eating lemon cake” and accepts what is probably the biggest challenge of his life, not only as a piano tuner but also as a man.
Why?
Maybe to leave a mark of his existence or also because he feels that it is the right thing to do.
Or more simply because, as George Mallory said talking about Everest “because it’s there”.

A more than 80 kg Broadwood and Sons upright piano, however, cannot be transported in one piece from London to the Indian Himalayas. So Desmond’s first challenge is to completely dismantle the piano, pack every single component, and get ready to carry everything with the help of a group of local sherpas, ponies and Yaks.
A challenge that none of the members of this expedition would have expected to be so difficult and demanding. But if you have shared love and willingness your whole life, they will come back  at you and here comes another apprentice, Harald, a young Viking who years before, due to a love delusion, decided to leave northern Europe and travel the world, ending up in Desmond’s shop and deciding to stop there for a while.
But how far can you go to achieve your goals, especially when they seem insane?
And up to where is it right to endanger your own and your friends’ lives to be able to play one of the “highest” melodies in the world?
The universal power of music is precisely to inspire strength and bring joy but you must also be willing to listen to it and follow its impetus.
“I’ve been moving piano for fifty years, I’ve seen a few things but this is a bit… insane…” that’s what commented Desmond during one of the most critical moments of this journey characterized by steep slopes, impervious routes, overhanging views and panoramas of absolute beauty.
And in the end, seeing those who listen to their “call” you may wonder if, after all, there is all this difference between pianos and mountains.