Cat-man-do!

The flight to Ktm was uneventful. It was fun sitting with my brother making fun of how people in Nepal/Sikkim were more "American" then people in US ;-) Weather in Ktm was pleasant and as soon as we landed, I had this nice and warm feeling of being home. We hired a taxi - looking at which made me think, does this even have an engine? How does a box of tin more around by itself? We were soon "cruising" through the gallis terrifyingly close to other vehicles and pedestrians. Thankfully we made it safely to my mama's house. We received a warm welcome from my nani, mama, mami and cousins and other relatives. I'd met them after about 5yrs and it felt great.

How the week in Ktm went by, is still like a dream. As always, whenever we arrive in Ktm, we were overwhelmed by the no. of visitors and invites for dinners and lunches. Sometimes our schedule is so tight, we have to accommodate and accept invitations for even breakfasts and evening snacks! I had a great time visiting relatives and eating yummy nepali/newari cuisine. Initially, I was apprehensive about the relatives being nosy and asking about when I would get married and all that. Luckily for me, my poor brother was the brunt of all the questions and I was safe behind his misery :)

On the 2nd day of our arrival, we went to a nearby town of Patan. Patan is the oldest and probably the most beautiful cities of Nepal with roads laid with bricks and the town dotted with numerous temples and statues. One of my aunts had an exhibition going on in the famous Patan Museum to showcase her methods/adaptations of the traditional custom of Newari baby massage to the modern European life style. She is a resident of Switzerland and has opened classes there to teach pregnant parents the wonders of baby massage to keep them fit and healthy. Though we all knew about her works and how her methods have become famous there, the exhibition made us realize how our own custom is gradually disappearing in Nepali homes.


Durbar Square in Patan

While we were not visiting relatives, me and my parents were out shopping. My nani is mostly bedridden

and complained a lot of us not staying home. So this time we avoided dinner invitations and made a point to spend atleast evenings at home. I always thought Kathmandu is a heaven for shopping clothes and shoes as most of the stuffs are from Hong Kong. We get similar stuffs in Gangtok too but the choices are limited and prices are high. However, this time I was in for a big disappointment. For one, Ktm has become overtly populated. There were too many people and cars. The choices in clothes too seem to have degraded. I must have scourged so many shops and mall, even went to the brand new Kathmandu Mall during the opening, but had difficulty finding stuffs of my liking. I ended up buying more traditional stuffs like Pashmina shawls and semi-precious stone jewelries/curios. However, I loved shopping in Thamel. Thamel has stuffs which appeal more to "foreign" tourists, but I loved some of the stuffs they had. I went to one shop called "Wild Fibre". They made clothes out of sishnu or nettle. I am not sure if you are aware of Nettle. It is a wild grass found in the Himalayan region. It has its own defense mechanism and is covered with prickly thorns. If you accidentally happen to touch it, it stings like a bee sting. In old times, teachers used to whack naughty kids with sishnu to straighten them up. Some people also cook and eat sishnu like any other saag. So anyway, I was amazed to see clothes made out of it and happily bought a shirt.

While I was there, we got to celebrate Maghe Sankranti. This was the first time I was in Ktm during this festival. Normally on this day we cook (mostly boil) different types of tarul (roots - 9 or more varieties) and eat them. Due to the death of a relative, my mama and family were not celebrating it. So, we were invited to an aunts house to eat tarul. Another custom we follow is the lady of the house puts oil on the head of the other family members - just a drop of mustard oil as aashirwad. I was unaware of this custom as we don't follow it in Sikkim.

Another interesting thing we got to see this time was a procession of a different kind. It seems, on this day, the jyapu people get together and forms procession and goes around visiting temples in Kathmandu. Early in the morning at around 3am, I heard people from our tol or locality playing dholak/maadal waking and calling people. Soon groups of men and women, all wearing their traditional clothes gathered around. When everyone had gathered, they started moving on to the nearest temple which is right there at the chowk. They then move on to the next tol to visit the temple there and so on. They do this the entire day covering more than 300 temples in Kathmandu. And that's not all, they have to visit each temple 3 times.

Makar Sankranti processions

One day before I left for Ktm, me and my parents went to visit Pashupatinath temple. Now, we always make it a point to visit the temple within a few days of our visit, if not the very first day. But this time we just managed to make it on the last day. I love visiting the temple and this time I was pleasantly surprised by the changes in it. The area outside the temple was minus those thali vendors and biggest of all minus the beggars. The place looked so much spacious and clean and even the monkeys seemed much tamed! And we were not allowed to wear slippers! Until the last time I visited, people normally kept their shoes with the thali vendors and they instead gave you plastic slippers which you could wear and go inside the temple compound. This was no longer allowed which, in my opinion was just fine! One funny incident happened there. After the darshan, we approached the man distributing the holi water and when we moved away from him, he asked my dad in hindi bhaisaab kuch di jiye or something of that sort. Now, in many people's opinion, both my parents don't have the typical Nepali look and many think my dad looks like a North Indian. So my dad turned to this guy and asked in newari "and how much do you want?" You should have seen the man's face. Me and my mom were laughing so much. Poor guy was shocked to hear a madisey talk in newari leave alone nepali!

All these days, I had been trying to escape from my parents for a while and go visit Silky Moon. As you all know by now I had gone to visit her. Well, she had given me her phone no. long time ago and it was in my email. I had planned to pen it down from home in Sikkim before I left for Ktm. Unfortunately, my internet was not working and I was unable to visit any internet cafe. Same thing happened in Ktm too. Luckily I knew her workplace and my brother often does business with them so he knew where the place was. So I was hoping that someday I will just be able to get away with my brother and have him drop me there. Twice we managed to "escape" but unluckily were called back home for some or the other reason. My parents knew I wanted to visit this friend of mine, so having no option left, that day on the way back from the temple, I went to visit SM, taking along my parents. Yeah yeah Ricky, I can hear you snickering, but it wasn't so bad :P

I approached her workplace and asked the guard if I can meet Ms...... He asked me who I was, I was tempted to give my name as Colors, but then he looked serious kinds, so I told him I am .... from Sikkim. He called up SM ma'am and asked us to wait in the lounge. As we were browsing around the place, I was excited as ever....will she be surprised to see me, how will we react to each other, will she scold me for not contacting her earlier...all these thoughts were running in my mind, when I suddenly felt someone rush up to me and give me a huge hug. I was taken aback with surprise at such a warm welcome! How the next hour or so went by, is kinda hazy. I was so excited to meet her...this being my first time meeting a blog friend. It was also awkward coz we could only speak generally due to my parents presence. I had so much to ask and tell. I was feeling bad that it had to be like this but at the same time excited abt the whole aspect of meeting her. She remembered my love for momos and fed me with yummy paneer momos. I could feel that she wanted to offer me with her hospitality, had planned loads of stuff to do when we met, but due to my lack of time, I had to disappoint her. So many times she called me badmaash for not having met her earlier or atleast called her :P She truly is as genuine as reflected by her blog and posts. Warm and caring, that's the first thing you will notice about her. Even though we met for a very short time, I could feel very comfortable with her...as if this was not our first meeting, that we have known each other for a long time. Soon it was time for us to leave. She rushed off to somewhere and came back with a gift for me - a book, Journey to the Self by a Nepali author Luna Shrestha Thakur. I was touched by this gesture and we parted with a huge hug once again. As I left the place, I had a smile on my face and a warmth in my heart. Thats the way SM makes you feel by her sincerity and affection.

During the last days of my stay in Ktm, the Maoists had lifted the cease fire and a curfew was declared in the city on my last day from 11pm onwards. That evening, we went to the famous Nanglo restaurant for dinner. As we were walking in front of the restaurant, I saw a well dressed stylish young man and felt he looked familiar. Suddenly it struck me, it was Nima Rumba, Nepal's famous pop sensation! He was walking along with his friend and some young kids were calling his name and teasing him. Funny thing was that I hardly recognize any of the Nepali celebs. The only reason I recognized him was that one of my friend in Gangtok had shown me her picture with him when he had come to Gangtok recently. Due to the curfew, we were carrying just our wallets and had left our camera and cell phones at home. I wonder even if we did have a camera, would we have done anything, since we just looked at him and walked pass him without giving him any bhav. My brush with Nepali celebrity.

The next day we reached the airport well ahead of time. Like many flights that day, our flight to Bhadrapur (nearest Nepali airport from Sikkim) was delayed, but luckily it wasn't cancelled like many other domestic flights. Had that happened, we would have been left in the lurch with the all day curfew starting next day onwards. The aircraft was so tiny, it wasn't even funny. One seat on either side of the aisle and just a flimsy curtain separating the cockpit. The flight was not that scary or maybe I was so engrossed in the view outside that I didn't notice. The view was amazing as you can see Mt Everest and surrounding mountains.

From Bhadrapur, we took a taxi till Kakarbhitta which is the bordering town between Nepal and India. There our driver was waiting for us with the car. After some grocery shopping in Siliguri, we moved on and reached Gangtok in the evening.

Book read during this period...The Reading Group by Elizabeth Noble

Next...my last week in India