Yatra ! The Journey

It did suck blood without giving its victim a hint of it and it was everywhere. It reminded me of all those blood suckers in the society who actually sucked life out of innocent citizens by corrupting in one way or the other. Beautiful country like Nepal got devastated in its infrastructure and economy. Kathmandu has millions of Rupees worth Houses with no Roads in front of it or those which are on very miserable condition. In ruler areas of Nepal the condition is even worse. There are no job opportunities, no infrastructure, and no hope. Nepal is way ahead in terms of equal right issues (The phrase I stole from one of my friend Harry, who had taken beautiful pictures while he was in Nepal and he took a picture of the lady, thin outlook and earning life by working day and night breaking stones). Children as small as seven year old carry water on a vessel, twice their weight walking few kilometers every day. I consider myself somehow lucky that I got such opportunities that not everyone from small country like Nepal get. I could write few pages on these issues but at the end of the day, it would make no changes and influences on the situation.

It was pretty warm day after a long night of rain. I and Eva planned to show some of our hiking skills. Our target was to reach a small school at the top of the hill, somewhat above 2000 meters above Sindhuli. The view was breathtaking and marvelous. I did take my umbrella with me because you would never know when the downpour starts. There were two options in front of us, we could either take a long route which was slippery or the short one where you had to cross a river, not big in breadth or that deep(water would reach above your knees anyways) but it had some current to take you away. We decided to take rather a long one. We had to cross wheat fields taking a narrow pathway in-between the field, rather used by farmers to walk through their field without harming their harvest before reaching anywhere near so call a proper street way. There were about billion of frogs and tadpole on the pathway, who would jump away constantly as soon as you made each step which pretty much scared Eva. My shoes where covered in mud and it was hardly walk-able. There was billions of Mimosa Pudica, so called touch-me-not plant on the way which would constantly hide their leaves by joining them with each other with each further step we took. I could see farmers working on their farm, or the ones collecting fodder for their cattle.

Mothers love for her child is probably the most spiritual and purest form of love. From the time of opening of the eyes to the very world, mother is the first person that a child is programmed to connect to more than anyone else. Depending on a situation of have or have-not, she is always there to provide for all the needs of her child and nothing could be a better example other than seeing a mother feeding her two children on the way, who seemed pretty malnourished and had torn pieces of clothes to wrap their bodies but from my opinion it is not her fault, it is the society that separates have from have-nots .

Jackfruit, wild mushrooms, and varieties of plants and insects camouflaged from human described Mother Nature in much wider sense. After walking about an hour we reached to a water source (a water fall) with fresh water right down the Himalayas. We talked with two women on the way asking to help us with the way to the top of the hill. They were pretty surprised on seeing two strangers lost. They enquired about us a bit and were surprise to hear that I was living in Berlin; she even asked where it was. I told her it was in Europe and she asked me where the Europe was. It was pretty hard for me to explain it to her so that’s why I just told her that my aunt lives down the village and my family lives in Kathmandu.

We reached an old Shiva temple at the top of one of the hill (Shiva शिव Siva, meaning "auspicious one") is a major Hindu Deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything which happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a sage and Mount Kailash. In the Shaiva tradition of Hinduism, Shiva is seen as the Supreme God. In the Smarta tradition, he is regarded as one of the five primary forms of god. Followers of Hinduism who focus their worship upon Shiva are called Shaivas (Sanskrit Śaiva) ).

It was an old temple far away from civilization yet beautiful. Just below the temple there was an enormous river with huge stones on its pathway, probably each stone was twice my height and there was a dense forest around the river. I couldn’t help myself from taking tons of pictures; we already walked about 3 hours continuously to reach there. We were pretty tired but excited at the same time in reaching one of the coolest place on earth. If I had to explain heaven, I couldn’t think of anything better. The weather was getting worse, black cloud covered us from the top. There was no option for us than to head back although we were just about a kilometer away from our destination.

We thought of rather taking a plain route this time, following the river which was not easy. We had to take pathways between the rice fields which were pretty wet due to the rain. Soil was moist and had great probability to slip down. I slipped down few times, crashing right to the field which made me pretty much * Muddy Guy*, there were few occasions where we had to walk right through the river but we managed to find the perfect spots where water was not that deep . After walking about three hours straight we managed to come back to the right pathway.

Rainy season is perfect time for the local fishermen to catch fish. I could see beautiful sun setting somewhere below the horizon making the sky look like a fine lady decorated with marvelous pearls and jewels. We asked the fishermen if we could come back later and buy some fish from them. They had no reason to say no.

Eva got bitten again. Thin hay like structure just bit her. It didn’t spare me either. There was blood sucking leaches everywhere. It did suck blood without giving its victim a hint of it and it was everywhere. It reminded me of all those blood suckers……

The pain of the adventure is probably the most beautiful pain in the world as long as you are alive and the scars left behind drifts you back to the point of time, when adrenalin reached to its peak and the world stopped for a while. Its was planned spontaneously. The god's highway was awaiting for us. This was probably one of the most dangerous roads in the world, not bigger than 12 feet in breadth where hardly a bus could pass and furthermore it was steep ,rising vertically above the surface. There were no driving rules, traffic or any sort of security. If you would fall down the hill to the river below, none could find your bones in 100 years to come.
Our destination was Sindhuli, one of the 75 districts in Nepal and about an Area of 2300 square Km. The place has a great historical significance. Sindhuli is the place where British Soldiers were defeated for the first time in Asia in 1767A.D . Surrounded by beautiful lush greeneries and hills perhaps it was impossible for British soldiers to defeat brave Nepali Gurkha's attack , who knew their land very well. Sindhuli is also the place where my mother was born.
Trip to Nepal had never been same after meeting Eva who had recently arrived in Nepal after her years in London and was very much enthusiastic as i was in traveling to Sindhuli seeking adventure and meeting relatives who had been living there all their lives. During the house party at Raju Uncle's House ( one of my mother's five brothers), I came in contact with my cousin Sagar Dhakal who lived in Sidhuli and was happy to take us with him on the next day. We had no reason to say no. There began our trip at around 12 pm from Kathmandu and just then onwards i found myself in solitude after leaving crowdy Kathmandu. I was dissolved into the Mother Nature and Mother Nature was so close to me. I could see simple life, farmers, people with no big desires. The Western World is far too complicated in this matter. I was surrounded just with materials here in the *Wild West*, where people worked 18 hrs a day and took 1 month vacation to prove that they can get away from their lives. But at the end of the day stone remains a stone.
We reached Rata Mata, the place where soil was red coloured and very slippery during the monsoon. Before we reached Rata mata ,we did cross few watery roads (I don't have a perfect word to describe. River flew through the road and we needed to take the rivery way). There were some road blocks on the way due to the landslide on the previous night. It was extremely dangerous to travel on this time of year. There was a bus accident just few weeks ago on the same route we took killing about 70 people on board. I can't describe how hard my heart was pumping . On the way, my mind remembered all those big european cities i have visited and meanwhile i was at the end of nowhere. I began to picturise European cities on the very place. How badly would it have ruined the beauty,turning mother nature into a materie.
We had a very nice Driver. He controlled the speed of the vechile and allowed us to get off at places on the way so that we could take some pictures and strech our legs. It was normally 6hrs drive from Kathmandu but it took us a bit more. It was already dark and we were just about to reach Sindhuli when it started raining very heavily . Mountain road was unvisible due to the fog and of course there was no street lights. The driver showed some skills. My cousin and i started talking about european history, world war and development after the war or other random stuffs , when our vechile was heading towards its destination.