Ever since my holidays started, 24-hour seem too less for me. The ‘deafening silence’ I mentioned here was short-lived. Overall, taking stock of the first quarter 2006, it has gone by in a blur of frenzied activities leaving behind small islands of quietitude.
Well, coming back to my trip – it was, to summarize it in two words: sheer fun! I have developed a new-found crush for Delhi. So I roamed its wide roads like a smitten lover marveling at its infrastructural advancements and beauties. One reason is that since I didn’t have to go to office, I naturally avoided rush-hour traffic, which is the city’s biggest bane.
My parents had to go to Punjab for a cousin’s wedding. So, for most parts I was again alone there. But there was a difference – living alone in spartan bachelor’s accommodation in Kathmandu is a far cry from staying in a full-fledged furnished house!
Meeting friends was the key highlight. From the bloggers met Anz. Ashish was leaving the day I reached there, hence couldn’t meet him, but had a word with him over telephone. Other than this, there was some personal work to be done, which took up considerable amount of time. I have set a few things rolling – do await a major announcement here soon.
On return to Kathmandu, I was caught up with the visit of our marketing guy, G. For the regular readers G is not an unknown name – remember the guy whom I took to Belly Dance Bar? This time round I told him I will take him to a better one – X-bar at Sundhara. From what I have heard, there are ‘topless’ performances there. He was so psyched and scared that every evening he would have headache/body-ache or some such excuse ready with him.
Anyways, we hardly had any time because we had a trip planned to Bhairawaha and Butwal – two neighboring towns in west Nepal plains – hence, we pushed X-bar trip to Friday evening which we had kept relatively free.
There was nothing great about Bhairawaha-Butwal, and the visit was wholly official, so will skip the details. But all through there also, kept joking and dropping hints about X-Bar! From Friday morning onwards, G kept his ‘not well’ raga on, and it kept increasing as the day progressed (LOL). By the time evening came, he was not ready to be seen with me even!
From all my colleagues, G is the most chilled out one and I couldn’t have taken this sort of liberty with any one else; we share a great rapport, and for that I will give him the maximum credit.
Nagarkot Sunrise
In any case, we didn’t end up at X-bar (or Fusion Bar, the other name that had cropped up with similar reputation). But we decided to view the sunrise from Nagarkot on Saturday early morning. This meant leaving
Kathmandu as early as 4 am, which in turn translated to getting up at 3 am.
Nagarkot sunrise is one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. I had seen the sunset earlier (It also finds mention in Naman Geeta), but the sunrise beats it any day! The weather there was cool, and we managed to find a strategic viewpoint to watch it. We were early. And had to wait some while to see nature’s magic show! But it was worth the wait, especially since the sun’s vanguard –the light itself- spread out with mesmerizing effect, especially as it reflected off the pristine white snow of Lamangthan peak!
How do I even describe the sight that is so enchanting? First, the rays shoot out. And then the sun peeps out from behind the mountains. When the first time it’s seen, it looks as if God has placed molten gold atop the hill. And then He pulls out the disc, which is bright red and looks moist and soft. (More pics can be seen here).
Bhaktapur Durbar SquareOn our way back, we stopped at Bhaktapur. The Durbar Square is more open and much cleaner than the ones in Patan(Lalitpur) or Kathmandu. The pic below is taken there. I had been here once ealier, but this time it was the early morning and the effect was very pure and very devotional (since the square has maximum temples and the pujas were on at that time).
Contest
Anks is running a contest based on my stories. I had put up the announcement on the side-bar also. It has now reached the fourth story. The best part is that she has joined the long stories into one continuous post making reading easy for everyone.
Plus, she has taken soundbytes from me, Kaush, Priyangini and whoever else has helped me during these stories – behind the scenes story for each tale.
Till now, the following stories have been featured: Naman-Geeta, Indraprakash, The Morning After and The Independence Day. All are available here.
Please do participate and vote. I would really want everyone’s footprints there.
