Perspectives from the Himalaya

Ethereal and Earthbound

At the turn of the new year, I walk out of the door every morning with a heavy heart. When I look up, I see the barrenness of our sacred mountain, the Machhapuchhre, unveiled from her white crown. It pierces the heart like a sharp knife slicing through the fragility of life and our ecosystems. Yet, somehow, the new winds seem to bring forth a…

The Quiet Pull of the Sky

https://youtube.com/embed/21k4xq02mSU?si=5NjWRWclxejDMCRe The mist rose from the Mardi River the way breath curls in the chill of dawn. The river gave a long exhale summoned by sunbeams, its breath ethereal and sinuous. And for a moment it seemed that all things were caught on the rising vapour, all of it, drawn into the immensity, then vanishing into the blue vault. The river gives it up slowly,…

Our dearest Guests, we pen this love letter, an ode to your presence:

In the realm of our abode, a host's concern awakes,Where consumerism's grip upon nature takes,With hearts burdened by Earth's fragile plight,We beckon guests to tread with conscious light. Here, the forest creatures are our esteemed peers,So let's cherish their presence, no need for fears.This planet we share, both humans and critters,Let's be good stewards, not litterbugs and quitters. Water, oh precious elixir, let us honour…

Rain Stories

Clouds gather in the sky. Their shades of grey multiply, their shapes transmogrify. The wind sweeps through, a gentle messenger bringing the scent of rain. A hush fell over the land where its earth had been toiled, dislodged and resettled. The air when once, filled with dust and debris, din and drill, now swells as rain begins to form. And when the first raindrop lodges…

CloudScript

An incurable wanderlust, just watching the world go by: Looking up, from humble little Earth,Gaze returned, with poetry from the Sky.Watching Clouds, old as Earth itself,A calligraphy of water against the azure.And upon zenith, tear on sun-kissed land. Breeze whispers in one ear and out the other.Flurrying dusty feet, of hairy honeyed beesSock in floral sprinkles and more in pollen baskets.Arms of gust encircle eagles…

Life’s Gift of Uncertainty through a Kafkaesque Lens

Licked up in the dust and hullabaloo of Kathmandu and a far cry from the soothing lullaby of Astam village, I write with an ironic sense - of fullness. Words come humped and bumped from a place of uncertainty, frustration and disheartenment; words of transient and fleetingness; words reading disruption of rhythm; words carved out from a journey that we have chosen to put ourselves…

Tremors Beneath our Feet

The moonbeam was a shard of stillness on a black night eclipsed by the clouds. Even when no moon is seen, its absence was felt. The distant stars burned into the void casting a haunting spree for a pair of beady eyes. The gaze was sharp and eerie. The silence was piercing, occasionally interrupted by a hoot. The plates of Mother Earth were stirred. Restlessness…

A Fleeting Pink

"The sky is pink!" Little A exclaims upon his first glimpse of daylight from the bedroom window."Mama, can you bring the sky to me?" he enquired, befuddled as he was. He rubs his eyes and fumbled for his slippers, treading to the outside world framed from the balcony. Sunbeams penetrated the thick pavlovian clouds casting a shimmering hue of rainbow glitter across the valley. A…

Sipping Chai on the Roof of The World

We set foot in the valley of Kashmir in 1988. Just barely before the Insurgency broke out in 1989. A young tween then, I was oblivious to what we were to encounter. We had somehow captured a slice of ‘Heaven on Earth’ before the tragic events of Kashmir would come into play. The shikhara was traversing a pristine mirrored lake reflecting white snow-filled mountains and…

The Storm

In the dark night, wide awake to the howling and angst of the ruthless wind, The thunder roared and rumbled repeatedly in waves of drum rolls. Lashings of rain pelting the metal roofs incessantly drowning all voices, Accompanied by swirling vortices of air and racing wind speeds. She sent all creatures scurrying for shelter, huddled in terror and cold, Tamed by her emotional deadly strikes…

Formation of the Himalaya from a Continental Collision

The formation of the Himalaya is the most dramatic and visible creation of modern plate tectonic forces. The range is formed by the movement of the Indo-Australian Plate and the Eurasian Plate, converged along their borders deep underneath the surface of the Earth about 50 million years ago. This resulted in the upheaval of the Earth’s surface creating the rise of the monstrous mountain range seen today.…