My mom's side of the family is quite dark. My dad's side on the other hand mostly are quite long-headed, with light skin and narrow nose that seems to protrude out of the forehead. It's the same type of nose found in Kashmir, Iran and Afghanistan. My dad could easily pass as an Italian or a Greek if he wanted to, as he has mediterranean phenotype. My mom on the other hand would never be classified as mediterranean, not a snowball's chance in hell. But she has one long slender nose, in fact more pointed than my dad's. I am not a Kumai bahun though, I am upadhyay. Historically speaking, Western Nepal has always been populated by caucasians. BTW, even Kashmir was not a part of mainstream Indian culture either. I would say the culture was basically the same in Western Nepal and Kashmir. People look similar too. Let's keep in mind that Western Nepal and Uttaranchal are right next to each other, so population movements from one place to another must have been quite prevalent. Sorry if this rubs you the wrong way, but I feel that we Upadhyays are indigenous to Western Nepal, while Kumaonis came from even farther west. Nevertheless, Paharis are paharis and as far as I can tell bahuns these days don't separate themselves this way that much. Phenotypically speaking, most upadhyays and kumais cannot really be differentiated. So lots of marriages between these two bahun subgroups.