“Disregard for the nearest god” – goes this familiar Nepalese saying. Nevertheless, there had always been the urge to prove it wrong. You had always heard about the spectacular beauty of this place that lies just about 30 kilometers from the capital. For some reason or the other, you had never had the chance to set your foot there. It was a now or never thing and one fine, sunny, October morning, you packed your bags and kicked off on your boots.
Tourists filled the bus, or better, more backpacks and bags than people thronged the old automobile. You heard different languages being spoken. Every now and then, those seated looked around them restlessly but none smiled. Someone had a small player on. The singer seemed to be lost in his ecstatic melodies. Behind you, an oriental was dozing with earphones on her ears. In front of you, you heard a man caught between peals of laughter, obviously for no reason. The girl beside him seemed very embarrassed. It was very hot below the sun but the windows could not be opened. Fortunately, no one smoked.
After a long delay, the bus finally hit the road. It ran in the middle of narrow streets of the valley and among other vehicles, big and small. The hammering sound of the horn was pain to your ears but in return, others let you pass first. You squeezed in the middle of the Saturday morning markets, among people crossing the streets lazily, and then in between rows of houses, mostly half-constructed and then left there. You passed one town after another. Everywhere there were people busy in various activities of their free day. Slowly and slowly, the houses disappeared one by one. You started to feel a different air in your lungs. You saw the green rice-fields and huge groves of bamboo scattered here and there. You found yourself in between high mountains while the road grew tortuous and then became steeper. As you climbed higher, you left the cities and the towns in a distance and the mountains grew nearer. The earth took a reddish color, the trees changed their leaves and you could feel the space grow inside you.
A city offers you a decent place in life, but it robs you of the space inside you. It cultivates your outward culture, but it suppresses your inner freedom. It gives you a hundred of things to choose from, while it makes you a slave of those hundred things. With money, you can buy almost everything you can want there, but it fails hopelessly to provide for what you, as a being, need the most – fresh air in your lungs, human warmth in the heart and peace in the mind.
pc Atoallinks
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