Places and People

Places are just like people. 

With some, it’s the love at first sight. You fall in love with some places as soon as you reach there (or at times even before ever being there). You get mesmerised by the place easily and feel at home at once.  

Some places are like the first love, it may not be the best of the place that you have been to and you may have gone to many other better places. But no matter what; you will always have a soft spot for that special place. It seems like the feeling that place gave you can never be replaced by any other. The thought of that place brings a smile on your face. 

And some places are like your childhood best friends, no matter how many times you go there and how much time you spend; you will never get bored of it. You always come back longing to go there again and again. You somehow end up constantly going back to that same place instead of exploring new places – and yet you love it more each and every time. 

Yet again, some places are like those passing crushes.  You like it in the beginning – you just assume that there must be so much to that place. But more time you spend there more you feel like leaving and if possible never coming back again. 

While some places are like those unattainable love. You are so attracted to it. You know almost everything about it. You day dream about it – fantasise it. But you have never actually been there – it is out of your reach (currently) and there are slim chances that you would be able to go there in this lifetime. 

And some places; like some people take time to make a space in your heart. You will not be impressed at first or it may not stand up to your expectation. But after visiting a number of times and spending some time there, you will slowly see the real beauty of it. You start knowing its weakness and strengths. You start accepting it flaws and start discovering its hidden beauty. And fall in love gradually and slowly. 

And of course, there are some places which are like the lost love which makes you nostalgic and makes your heart ache. The place just brings back long forgotten memories and makes you want to write poetry. You think that you should avoid that place, but deep down you want to go there again and again.

Meanwhile, there are some places which are like the love of your life - your soul mate. You love the place no matter what. You know its each nook and corner, the best views and the dirtiest lanes – and yet you love it with all your heart – unconditionally. You look past its flaws and shortcomings – and celebrate its beauty. You miss it no matter how ever amazing place you go and always feel happy being back there. 

If you think about it, places aren’t that different from people at all. They inspire us, provide us with opportunities and give us memories. I can think of the places which are like a best friend, or a love at first site, or a soul mate to me. Do you too relate to places in the same way?

Ten books that no one should miss

There is this ‘challenge’ going on in social media to list out the ten books that has influenced one the most. One of my friend ‘challenged’ me for it. And it did feel like a real challenge. I found it extremely difficult to list 10 of the most inspiring books. A few were obvious favourites but just ten seemed difficult to narrow down. Nonetheless, I made my list after much thought and revision. Hope the books that I threw out of the list won’t hold a grudge against me. 

My love affair with books dates back to childhood. I have my parents who are both avid readers as well as my school to thank for it. My parents always encouraged me to read and not just the course books. I didn’t have to go far to look for books as our home itself has probably more books than many of the libraries (in Nepal). Early on, I remember reading fairy tales but one book that I vividly remember and which brought me into the world of novels was “The adventures of Tom Sawyer”. That was in grade five; I borrowed the book from the school library and loved it so much that I made a photocopy of it which I still treasure. I was a voracious reader- I would bring 3 to 4 books from the library each week and read them all. By the time I was out of high school, I had read almost all of the Mark Twain, Enid Blyton, and Charles Dickens. 

My reading habit has declined in the recent time (thanks to internet) but of course nothing else is comparable to the love of books.  Coming up with TEN books among the all I have read was an extremely difficult job. There was a time when I used to maintain a diary where I would write about the books I have read with a brief review and a few quotes (but that was a long time ago). I did went through that diary to complete this list. These ten books may not be the 10 best ones that I have read but they are the ones which are close to my heart, which have captivated and influenced me- many even shaping my way of thinking. So, here's my list: 

1) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (of course) by Mark Twain

This may not be the best thing that I have read, but it was the first best thing that I read. This interesting book lead me to reading many more by Mark Twain like “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, “The Prince and the Pauper” and many more. They are simple, fascinating and full of wit. Till date, I have not found any other writer with better sense of humour and wit than Mark Twain; he remains my favourite forever - just like Tom and Huck!

  

2) The Motorcycle Diaries by Che Guevara

This is the story of Che Guevara before he became Che. One of the books that I can go over and over again. It ignited the love of travelling in me- it is about adventures, about taking risks, about being uncertain and just doing what you really want to do. (PS: If you want to read the Nepali version, I translated it into Nepali- probably you still can find the book in market.)

3) Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

At some point of time this book was my Bible. It does take a bit of a patience to finish up the whole book (it’s a long story and some parts get dragged). It is a story of a man from the West who lives in the slums of India and it’s based on a true story. The best thing about “Shantaram” is it’s quotes – any situation you get into this book has a best ever quote about it. 

 

4) Things fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

This is one of the most amazing books of all times. It is different from all the western books that we usually read - this is the one that got me into reading serious stuffs. Achebe tells the story of Africa from the African perspective. This book made such an impact on me and lead me to read many other African and non-western literature.

5) The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Definitely the best ‘page-turner’ book ever (apart from Dan Brown’s other books). This book got me hooked and made me ache to go to the places described in the book. Loved it for its captivating story, the setting and the vast knowledge. It is a kind of a book that makes you want to learn so much more.

6) Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi

This book is not really that popular - not at least as much as it deserves to be. It shows exactly how great books are - how literature can make an impact in our lives and empower us even in the most adverse of the conditions.

7) A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

You cannot remain the same person after reading this book. It gives you such an amazing insight into the life in Afghanistan (and countries alike). It made me thankful about the freedom that we have - something that we take for granted. Definitely one of the best reads ever!

8) Radha by Krishna Dharabasi

I haven’t read much of Nepali literature. I loved all the novels by Parijat but couldn’t become a big fan of popular ones like “Soch” or “Palpasa Café”. But “Radha” is a world class literature. It is so knowledgeable, entrancing and “well-researched” (a quality that most Nepali writing lacks). The ideas it presents are fresh and revolutionary – this should be translated and shared with the rest of the world.

 

9) Leaving Microsoft to Change the World by John Wood

This book touched me to the core- brought tears to my eyes a few of times- may not create a same effect for everyone but I found it truly inspirational probably because it is a true story which takes place in Nepal. John Wood leaves his job at Microsoft (yes, THE Microsoft) to start-up libraries in Nepal- just how cool is that!

10) Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder

No other book can teach you more about the world than this one. It starts from the ancient Greek period and ends at a contemporary time. Everything that you should know about the world’s philosophical history is there and presented in an interesting way. I can read it over and over again (certain parts at a time- definitely a recommendation).

I think I would not have been the same if I had missed out on any one of these ten books. This is my list - go make yours !

The most exciting 10 seconds

I wanted to do bungee, ever since I first heard of it. It was back when I was in school - I still remember having learnt about it the very first time. A high bridge above Bhotekoshi and you jump off it with a rope tied to your ankles – I knew it was something I HAD to do !

That was a long way back, life has changed a lot since then but bungee was still always on my wish list. I could see that there were a lot of people doing it. And thanks to the social networking sites you can let the whole wide world know how courageous you have been right after you have done it. I am sure people would take bungee selfies if that was allowed or possible. Probably, a lot of people did it only for the sake of putting the pictures in Facebook. And though I always wanted to do it, I never initiate a plan to actually go there and do it. I think it was Fear that took better hold of my desire. I am not very fond of heights, or of freefalls. So, I told myself that I will try on all the other adventurous things (like rafting, paragliding, zip-fly, cannoning and others) and try bungee at last. 

But things always doesn’t go as we plan- does it ?

So, as it happened, a bunch of my friends from work were planning to go somewhere for a weekend. We were exploring a few places, somewhere, where we could hike, or just relax and have fun. There were lots of discussions, opinions, disagreements and then we finally decided to go to the last resort. The last resort, about 4 hours ride away from Kathmandu  is at Sindhupalchowk district, near the Khasha (Chinese) border offers a wide range of adventure activities including bungee of course. I realised, it was time.  

The place is a relaxing gateway with a tropical feel and adventurous environment with improvised tents to stay at night. There were 14 of us on the trip and five of us had planned to jump. We stayed there for a night and the jump was due for the next day. As we relaxed during the evening, there was so much of contemplation about the bungee…every pros and cons of the jump was evaluated. Every worst case scenario was analysed- I had to constantly shout at my friends to NOT talk about it so much. What if the rope breaks, what if it gets entangled, what if we get so scared during the jump that we faint…what if we hit the cliff on the sides- oh too many what-ifs were analysed and over-analysed. Even those who had planned to jump were now in doubt. I was scared too- but never for a moment, I considered not jumping. I had visualised the jump many times in my head and I knew it was scary, but it was something I was meant to do. 

Finally the day for the jump arrived. I couldn’t just sleep properly- got up early in the morning- went out for an amazing hike around the last resort- had butterflies in my stomach throughout.

As we were having breakfast, we were informed that it was Time. I couldn’t finish my breakfast properly. There was an orientation session before the jump. A friendly guy briefed us about the safety measures. There were about 15 people to bungee in that group – foreigners were in majority. 

They took our weight as the serial of jump is arranged on the basis of one’s weight - and to my dismay, I was the last one to jump. No, not at all that I am thin. The other jumpers in the group were mostly foreigners and males- so I was actually the last one to jump, which meant I had to stay at the bridge- waiting for my turn to come and watching everyone else jump. When, I was at the bridge initially, I avoided looking down. I just kept looking around and above- at the surrounding hills but not below at all. But as I sat there, waiting for my turn to come…I just became accustomed to the height, and in no time I was watching below at the river- watching others jump- and enjoying it. 

And finally after quite sometime of waiting- my turn came. Everyone else was down- two of my friends were waiting for me down the bridge, as they had already jumped. I had this wide smile on my face- I don’t know why but I was smiling like anything. I realised that I smile when nervous (I knew I laugh when drunk). One thing that I realised while sitting at the bridge was that, it was not actually as scary as I had anticipated. I had always thought that sitting there at the bridge and waiting for one’s turn will be the worst thing of all. But actually, as I think of it now- it was actually a good thing - I am glad that I was the last in the group. 

So, I was all geared up. The jump master told me to move to the edge and suggested me not to hesitate at the edge and jump off as soon as he does the countdown. So, I moved to the edge slowly- - I waved at my friends (the ones not jumping, and who were there at the side watching me), looked down - WOW – that was the moment of pure adrenaline  rush – I didn’t take a lot of time and just jumped. The instant freefall that you feel right after the jump is LIKE mind blowing – a moment that your head gets clear of everything. You start enjoying as you descend below gradually getting accustomed to falling. 

The bungee rope is a rubber rope elastic in nature- you bounce back upwards at least three times after the jump. I enjoyed each bounce - and the bouncing stops after the third one. And unlike, a few people who told me that you don’t really comprehend anything and remain at the state of blankness during the whole experience, I was very alert and conscious. I was consciously feeling everything that was happening. It is a matter of a few seconds, and it gets over before you know it. Once the bounce stops, the rope is lowered down slowly- and for a few seconds you just sit there hanging up side down, with Bhotekoshi raging wildly just a few meters below. It was this part which I wanted to get over soon. The person at the ground passes on a bamboo stick- I could see the stick below me- it was just a few seconds but I could not wait to hold the stick. Finally I got hold of it, they pulled me down. And when I looked above from there; it was another worthy moment - OH WOW- the bridge that I had jumped off seemed so far above. 

The jump was over. I had done it ! And it was definitely the most exciting 10 seconds of my life. It felt like an accomplishment; one of the huge thing from my bucket list was ticked off. Oh yes, I conquered my fear- I feel stronger and accomplished. (Oh life, bring it on- come what may- I am ready to face it head on.)

You Remain...

I thought,

you would go away

like an occasional pain…

not leaving

even a feeling of loss

or of gain,

but beyond my expectations

you remain.

You remain; and

intensely you remain.

I thought,

you would fly away

like an unseasonal cloud

or an unexpected heavy rain

but

you remain,

stronger than ever; you remain.

With each passing day

I assume,

may be, the next day

you would move out

but like a life carrying vein,

deep inside my heart

you remain.

Contrary to my thoughts

with each passing day

more strongly you reign

Time changes; seasons change

but yet you remain.

Days pass and nights are spent

flowers blossom and whither,

and with each escaping moment

you put me into a stronger chain;

unbreakable like your love,

And like a heartbeat,

safely in my heart…

You remain!!

Remembering the old school days …

It seems only like yesterday, that we twelve girls sat beside those water taps and talked about almost everything under the sun. We wanted to grow up, go places, learn about so many things, do so much, and become so much. Sometimes, I can still hear those laughters which has not disappeared in the echoes of memory. So much has changed now. It has been nine years now that I have been out of school, out of AVM (Higher Secondary School). I spent 10 my years there and somehow I have always felt proud about getting my schooling from that institution. It is the place that has given me values as well as friends - for life.

I remember my first day at AVM at class one. I remember how the principal then, Mr. Satya Narayan Bahadur Shrestha (SNB sir*) came to our class and told us about the school and its values. It was right then that I had fallen in love with that great person.

I also remember my last day at AVM, when we had gone crazy, made so much noise and disturbed all the other on going classes. We had to be literally thrown out of the school compound. Everyone was busy taking pictures (we had the good old cameras back then, no digital ones), filling auto books, signing shirts and diaries. It was a very emotional time, we were not sure that if we will ever meet many of the faces present at that time. And I actually haven't met many of them in all these years.

The world out of school, was a new and a cruel place. But it also was an exciting place. I remember Jamuna Madam ( Who taught us Nepali) telling the class, "Till now we have kept you safe in our warm embrace like a mother hen keeps her chicks, the outside world is going to be different". I couldn't agree more with her. World now was beyond the home to school and school to home route, it was beyond the school compound. I was excited as well as scared. It felt like I was on my own, there were many big and important decisions to be made. And those decisions would now dictate how my future life would turn out.

I got lost a few times, made some small and a few big mistakes, learnt to deal with different kinds of people, learnt to make friends with people(who did not grow up with me), accepted that those good old school days when you were taken care of is never going to come back. Now, life was a real deal, with all its challenges, opportunities, beauty and cruelty. But the things that I had learned at AVM have stayed with me throughout, which has made me able to face life as it came. The math formulas, the grammar rules, the geography lessons, science chapters may have been long forgotten, but the lessons that we learn about life stays forever.

Back at school, I did not know what I wanted to be in future. I was not sure about what I wanted to do with my life. It took me a few hard lessons to realise that it is important to follow your heart and do what is good for yourself. I don't know if a passage at AVM still has that frame with a quote from SNB sir or not, but I still remember the gist from that quote. It was something what SNB sir always used to tell us, 'the most important thing in life is to find happiness, and true happiness can only be found when we give happiness to others'.

As I look back there is a lot of difference between the girl that I was at AVM and the person I am today. But yet, there is so much that has never changed. There were twelve of us in our 'group', we are all dispersed now at different places of the world. Even those who live in the same cities find it hard to find time to catch up with each other. We don't get to see and talk to each other that often, yet, no one knows me better than my friends from school. The bond that was created in those school days is too strong to be withered by time. I now look at my friends and classmates from school, and I stand proud. Some have become doctors, many engineers, bankers, entrepreneurs, artists, media persons, social workers, even yoga gurus : everyone is successful in their own right and more importantly, most of them are also good human beings.

In my regards, I am happy with what I have been able to do till now. Life has not been perfect but it certainly has been worthwhile. I am happy to do what I am doing right now and not unsatisfied about the person I am becoming. My teachers back from school are still the greatest source of inspiration for me and the moral values that I have learned stays with me till date.

Being good and doing good is a very simple yet the most difficult as well as significant thing that you can do. I have tried to follow the "Be good, Do good" (AVM) motto and realised that when you try to do so, life does give back 'good' to you. Yes, life has changed a lot in all these years, but I still feel like I want to grow more, go places, learn about so many things, do so much, and become much more.

(*SNB sir, Late Satya Narayan Bahadur Shrestha was one of the pioneer in establishing English medium schools in Nepal. His contribution in the upliftment of education system in Nepal is very significant. He is remembered for establishing three major schools that helped in changing the school education scenario in Nepal, Tribhuvan Adarsha Higher Secondary School, Pharping, Kathmandu; Mahendra Adarsha Vidhyashram, Sadobato, Lalitpur; and Adarsha Vidhya Mandir(AVM) higher secondary school, Manbhavan, Lalitpur.)

First Snow

It’s a place like I had never seen before. I had never been so excited to reach a place. I do travel a lot as its a part of my work. But this place was completely different from anything that I had seen before. Humla, a remote district located at a remote Karnali region of Nepal, certainly is one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to.

Getting there is not easy. The place is not connected to any road way by which you can travel. To get there either you will have to walk all the way(from the nearest road link, which is days away) or get a flight to the place. And flights there, again are a different story. You don’t get a fix official price for the tickets, nor will you get a date or time of the flight. You just buy the tickets, in whatever price you get and wait for the flight from early morning and just keep your fingers crossed and pray that the flight will take-off. Chances are high that you wont be able to fly in the first attempt. I was flying to Humla for conducting activities to promote Adoloscent Friendly Health Services in the region, along with three friends(co-workers). We had been lucky that we flew the very morning that we were supposed to, in a small plane that contained more goods(form food supply, clothes to furniture) than people. The entire 30 minute flight from Surkhet to Humla was amazing (in a scary way). We were able to see mountains all the way through the flight, sometimes they’re so close that it looked extremely terrifying. The landing was the most scary part, when the plane’s about to land, you will feel like its about to hit a huge hill, runway appears no where and it feels like the aircraft is heading straight to crash on a hill.

But we landed safely, and as soon as I put my steps out of that aircraft, what lay before my eyes was –Paradise !!! I was awestruck ! We got so excited by what we were seeing that we danced on the runway (literally, other people looking curiously at us). The place was so beautiful, snow-capped mountains all around. I felt like I was looking at a beautiful scene from a romantic movie. The place was making me feel like a bollywood actress, I felt like dancing in some typical romantic song(would not have mind wearing a sarees as well ). I may sound like I am exaggrating, but Humla was so beautiful that it brough tears to my eyes.  Everywhere I turned I could see snow capped mountains, words would be to little to describe nature, but to use just one word; it was 'breathetaking'. Well, I could go on writing about the beauty of the place, but here actaully I am intending to write about the little adventure that we had on the very first day of our Humla stay.

View from airport at Simikot, Humla

After sometime of landing in that heaven, we could see that the mountains were so close, it felt like we would strech our hands and we will be able to touch the snow. After having a nice meal, we did not have any particular plan for that day. So we decided to explore around, planned to visit a Gumba, suggested by some locals. Went along asking the way, but after some half an hour walk we saw that a mountain was so close, it would be rather interesting to climb up a little and play snow. I absolutely loved the idea as I had not touched snow till date (sad but true). So the four of us, started climbing up a hill, which then would lead to a mountain on its side. It was absolute fun and adventurous !

So we started climbing up the hill, it was quite steep and most troublesome thing was that, it was filled with some plants with very pricky thrones. After climbling for a while, we didn't find anyway up. We were literally crawling from in between the thrones, making our way out of no where. As much as we climbed up, we were realising that the snow that we saw from below seemed as far, the more we climb the father it seemed. It had been two hours that we started climbling and we were not getting anywhere ! We were exausted and scared but had no strenght to walk back the same way we climbed up. And at some point we literally came to a dead end, big rocks standing right before up…no way to go further ! It was getting late and was about to rain. We had no option but to try to climb the rocks…So we challenged the limits of our own bodies and climbed across the rocks. Then…there…we found snow !! Pure white snow…about a bowl of it ;) I mean it was only handful of it, but we still celebrated and got over joyed to atleast take snow in our hands.

But then, our adventure took no name to ending !! The weather was getting worse and we were not being able to find the way back (by now we had given up hope that we will reach the snow filled place, it seemed wise to climb down the hill as soon as possible). We were completely lost, one was suggesting to go this way, other that way…it was total confusion. Then we found a waterfall's way, there was very little water flowing at that moment. So, as we had heard, follow the water when you get lost, we decided to follow the waterfall way. Then the weather started to get really weird, it stared to rain and wind started blowing.

We tried to walk back as soon as we could, but it certainly was not easy. Everyone was falling down and slipping, every now and then. It was as if we were competing, who falls the maximum number of times ? Our greatest fear was that, what if the waterfall way actaully turns into a FALL ? What will we do then…but we had no other option but to follow the way. It did turn into a fall at few places, we had to jump…and creep and crawl at a few places. But the way down seemed never to come !

All kinds of scary thoughts had started coming in our minds. Nobody knew where we were. Nobody will come looking for us even if we don't go back to the hotel. There is no phone network here. We were starting to think of all the scary things. I had already started calculating the risks inside my head, I have a packet of noodles, a bottle of water, few chocolates, that will keep us going till the morning, IF we have to spent the night in this place. I thought I was thinking of the worst, but then I realised that others were thinking worse. One friend, was saying that only today she realised how much she loved her own life. It was getting real dark and raining heavely, at this point we were actually, scared for our lives !

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The way seemed never to end. Our eyes were constantly looking for the way that would lead us to the village. By now, we were all had stopped talking, joking, pulling each other legs, everyone was quiet, tired, wet from the rain, cold and scared.

After uncountable slips and many scratches, wounds from thrones…we finally saw a way…a man made way that is. Can't express how overjoyed we were.

After walking for hours on the places probably where no human foot had taken step, it felt like luxury to walk in the muddy road. There we actually knew which way to go. After some 4-5 hours of wandering into the hills we were back where other human beings were around. I am going to call home and tell my family that I love them, thats what I thought. It was still raining, it was cold but we were happy just to be back and safe.

And happy that we played snow…a bowl of snow !

Yet another day ...

      Yet another day,
       with a broken heart.
       a vast desert,
       an absent oasis.
       Yet another night,
       without a trace of sleep.
       Is this my life
       or a sinking ship?
       Yet another season,
       passed without joy.
       a dry river,
       a colourless rainbow.
       Yet another unfulfilled dream....
       a thirsty ocean,
       a dark sun,
       ....this is all my life has become
       since you have been gone.
       A lifeless life.
       and each day is just,
       yet another day!