Himalayan Xpressions

A visit to KATHMANDU an ancient city considered as city of Temples of Nepal.

After a long long time I have finally made myself into the center of Kantipur, a city known as Kathmandu of today. Kathmandu name came out of a temple made out of one single tree named as Kasthamandup. As time unfolded, Kasthamadup became Kathmandu. Time stopped for a brief moment, like I never left the city. Like my time in the States was a dream. A long dream and I hear these bells and smell the city. I wake up from this state of mind that made me think; what if everything happens to us is just a dream. Indeed, it is a dream in fact; our whole life is a dream, ready to wake up somewhere else. Have you ever felt this way? I bet you have and you would if you have spent somewhere for a quite a sometime and you would go back to the same place after no matter however long time. It’s the connection between a place and you. It’s the bond between you and the city where you have lived and grew up.

I could almost feel the air going through my hair and skin. I walked down the road, which leads to the center of the ancient city of Kantipur. I left Nepal almost a good five year and I returned to this same spot where I was before, nothing has changed. Like time never moved. Still the same market, still the same people selling same stuffs. Like I have mentioned earlier, time never moved. Seriously, it gave me goose bumps for a second. How could this be possible? I left Nepal five years ago, I graduated, I met my wife and got married and this particular spot, which is the center of the city, sat & stood still, just to give me an illusion or make me go crazy? I couldn’t believe it but hey! may be time should not go that fast like it does, in our life. May be time should always go slow and may be we are the one who is making time go fast rather than time is making us go fast. Think! I am beginning to think about it. I walk and walk around this hub. I taste every smell of this place. If you can picture, picture this, one corner of this spot, has spice sellers and you can only smell spice but variety of spices. Like air smells spice and if you close your eyes, you will be in the oceans of spice. The other corner has oil sellers. Not oil like packed oil but fresh just came from the mill. Vegetable oil, mustard oil, soybean oil, you name it, you will find in this place. How do I know? Well two of my uncles have a little shop in my village, where I grew up and they used to come to get supplies in this very spot so once or twice I have managed to get to this place. Even then it still looked the same as now, its just freaking me out. However, except the permanent shops, the environment changes according to the time of the day. You will see all kinds of vendors. In the very morning, you will see flower sellers as there are temples to offer. You will also see vegetable sellers to fruit sellers. As time unfolds and sun begin to rise, you will see whole different set of people come to sell their stuffs. Like small vendors, who sell women cosmetics, you will find hair bands, hair braiding colorful stuffs, clips, forehead glitter (tika) to bangles and all little things, which would beautify women and girls. As afternoon approaches, you will begin to see all this cheap Chinese products brought by these vendors, such as shortwave radios, DVDs, cell phones, all the technological stuffs but way cheaper than you can possibly imagine. After all, what technology is for? Technology is for the people, by the people. I end up buying King Kong just to see how good it is. It is as good as you would buy in the States for good $19 and I paid not even a buck. Now, we have to seriously think why the way it is. Why we pay here in the States for that price, which isn’t even out yet and there in Nepal, which is so back ward in so many ways, I find this DVD, which is not even out in the video stores in the US and I paid 100 times less. Don’t these stuffs come out at the same time? If it is pirated, why it is not being controlled? Who controls piracy? Who is benefiting from all these rules and laws? Question just lingers in my head and I go on with it. But I feel sometime I am cheated in the US because if I could find that cheap, why do I have to pay so much. Again rules and liability issues govern my head so I just shut up. So, the problem is we just take it as we go, without any hesitation. Neither we ask question nor do we have time to ask question? Do you ever go to a gas station and pump gas for $3 a gallon and say this is not fare? No! because who would you go to? What would you say? But rather you just pump the gas and leave thinking you are so mad but cannot do nothing.

Anyway, as I begin to stroll around the city more I seriously question why time so different? Why things are so different? People are so down to earth and smiling without any string attached to it. If I were to stare at someone in the US, I would be asked to leave or I would be accused of making someone uncomfortable. There, I can sing and walk around without people saying anything. I can go to a vendor and bargain like crazy and still we have good feeling about buying it because it becomes personal. You want it; they want to sell it so the feeling is mutual. Where as I find here in the States that, you buy or not, I am not going to bargain. So, the difference is less contact with human beings. Less communication with each individual means more isolation within ourselves. So, when you own what you have just bought, it becomes just merchandise. Please do not get offended because I live here too and I have become part of the system. There were times when I was in Nepal, I would say if a western eye would see this, would consider it is so weird and I would say, wow I wouldn’t see in the States.

As I go taking micro bus around the valley. I find fare collector hanging on the bus screaming and inviting people to get on the bus. He says, “Come on Come on, you might miss the bus. We are going to Boudha, Chabahil, Baneshor, Maitidevi, Putali Sadak, Bag Bazar and ultimately the heart of the city”. He can say all these names of the places within 5 seconds, like reciting a poem. Now, if you were to stand on the bus stand, where there is not even a stand, you would want to get on the bus because it’s so cool to be part of it. He will shove you in like you are a bag pack, where everybody is sitting so cramped. I for second, felt what if one of my American friends would come? I don’t think they would fit into this small bus. I am sure it will not happen so that is why, people to everything is small here. Even monkeys are small vs. King Kong. Ha ha. I did not feel my personal space is being invaded. I do not even feel I was cramped. I was just enjoying the scene and paying attention to every detail of activities. As different stops come, I was pushed more and deeper, from where if were to get off, it would probably take five minutes to just get out of the bus. So, bizarre and fun yet it was part of life of the people of Nepal. Talking about bizarre and fun, can you think of a bus where sitting limit is15 and at least there are more than 25 people are sitting? If a hamburger friend would go there, most probably, that friend might take at least 4 peoples space. Also, here we are so paranoid with insurance that every little thing should be insured. Let’s say, my watch should be insured, my camera, my belongings, my house, my health. By the time you are done insuring and feeling safe, you fall into so much debt that you want to suicide. Over there, insurance doesn’t even exist. If it were to exist, it would only serve the people who are rich. So, does it mean America rich? I doubt it because I have seen poverty myself. I am a dirt poor guy here and over there I was a rich guy but only because I live in the US. They have no idea, how much I have to spend on all these insurance and every little thing. So, my goals is becoming clearer and clearer, work like a dog here and live like a King Kong there. Doesn’t it feel good? Of course it does. I am sure you can do that too. Its not we are cheating on the system, we are in fact balancing the economy and equally distributing it so that poor people don’t have to live always poor. We should serve others here, where they can afford and we want to go to some place else to be served. Now, you might wonder what happens to those who serve us. As they serve us, we will serve them with American $$$. Now, who would not want to get $$$ and serve in Nepal. I would.

As my visit was ending, I was beginning to feel like I was lost. I have so much to see, so much to do yet, I don’t know where to start and how to end. I want to do this to I want to eat that. Feelings were so overwhelming that I was forgetting what I was doing. Yet time had to unfold as it does & did.

My last major work was to visit this (Anathalaya) Orphan house, where deprived children and orphan children were being kept and given education. I felt like, I have done nothing so far to this world. I went to talk to these children. They all made me drawings. I see so much hope and future of Nepal in these kids. I was so happy to see them. There were about 21 children in that house and numbers are growing. My sister Purnima is an active member in that organization so she brought me to become a member. Purnima doesn’t donate money but she donates food items, such as vegetables, rice, lentil grains. Things, which matters the most and give them another day. So, I said to myself, may be I could collect some donation for them. May be the land of opportunity can give them some opportunity so I took some pictures and distributed some candies for those children, thinking that one day I will return to see these children grown up. My heart lightened up as I left the building.

I have so much to write, each incident can be an article. Each day can be a small book to write but this is a start towards that feeling. Now, here I am writing this article after 36 hours of flight, feeling like I was in a dream. It might have been a dream because when I left Wisconsin there were snows in the ground and even when I came back from Kathmandu there were still snows. So, that means I never left but woke up from a long and vivid dream. SCARY!!! It’s freaking me out!!!!