Revisiting Nepal: with Manjushree and Trishna
It's the undeniable umbilical cord!
Nepal; a country that stirs up emotions that I did not even know existed! Perhaps it is the heady breeze of the mountains or the rustic smell of the rugged pines and the cones. Perhaps it is the sad history of the land; the simple people or just my roots...deep down!
I picked up Manjushree in my recent visit to accompany me. I was looking out for her to take me through the tumultuous events that had shaken, stirred and overhauled the country. It was almost a decade ago that I met her, through her book,"Forget Kathmandu; an Elegy for Democracy", and this time as I walked along the forsaken corridors of NarayanHitti Palace, I could relive the vivid narratives of Manjushree's book. I was happy to pick the book again in a bookshop in Pokhara and present it to my daughter. For myself, I bought the more recent "The lives we lost", a collection of essays by Manjushree on events of the last decade or so in Nepal. Vivid, moving and a treasury of historical mementos; she gives an insider's perspective of all that had transpired to shake and shape the Nepal of today.
While Manjushree's narratives were the fodder to my thoughts, it was Trishna who stirred my deep feelings. Melody rustic, earthly and right out of the mountain streams of the Himalayan country. Lyrics that transported me to the rural homes and hearts of the Nepalese people, music that touched some raw hidden cord; tugging me enough to shed a tear or two. A tug, that made me pray, that one day, perhaps, I will be a blessing to this land of the mountains.
Nepal; a country that stirs up emotions that I did not even know existed! Perhaps it is the heady breeze of the mountains or the rustic smell of the rugged pines and the cones. Perhaps it is the sad history of the land; the simple people or just my roots...deep down!
I picked up Manjushree in my recent visit to accompany me. I was looking out for her to take me through the tumultuous events that had shaken, stirred and overhauled the country. It was almost a decade ago that I met her, through her book,"Forget Kathmandu; an Elegy for Democracy", and this time as I walked along the forsaken corridors of NarayanHitti Palace, I could relive the vivid narratives of Manjushree's book. I was happy to pick the book again in a bookshop in Pokhara and present it to my daughter. For myself, I bought the more recent "The lives we lost", a collection of essays by Manjushree on events of the last decade or so in Nepal. Vivid, moving and a treasury of historical mementos; she gives an insider's perspective of all that had transpired to shake and shape the Nepal of today.
While Manjushree's narratives were the fodder to my thoughts, it was Trishna who stirred my deep feelings. Melody rustic, earthly and right out of the mountain streams of the Himalayan country. Lyrics that transported me to the rural homes and hearts of the Nepalese people, music that touched some raw hidden cord; tugging me enough to shed a tear or two. A tug, that made me pray, that one day, perhaps, I will be a blessing to this land of the mountains.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7Yk9IDEOxA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1aONU7aQ4o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQW6iPOTwAY
Comments