A DAY IN THE LOAF
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| LIFE IS HARD FOR SOME IN KATHMANDU |
Every day begins the same
– a slight chill in the morning followed by a gradual warming of the air. An occasional, lonely cloud floats by as if searching
for its companions. Noises take on a
purpose: the sound of the sweeper in the
garden brushing the detritus from the paths; hacking coughs from the neighbour;
the dogs down the road barking at an beggar; the roar of a passing plane; the
hollow sound of someone chopping wood; tinkling bells in the breeze; the early
morning buzzing of bees around the flowers.
On the walk to the Boudha
Stupa I pass Pigeon Man. Pigeon Man
appears savage and totally crazy. He lives temporarily on a stretch of earth beside a wall. He’s plucking a pigeon and I ask him, Are you going to build a fire?
A
fire…a fire! He
looks guilty and shouts at me. He poses
and I take a couple of photos. Thirty rupees he demands. I offer ten-rupees but he insists on
thirty. I give him the thirty and pass
on thinking the photo of this madman was worth it.
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| PIGEON MAN WITH PLUCKED PIGEON |
At the stupa I climb the
steps for a closer look at the eyes. The prayer flags seem new and were probably
put up for lohsar, the Tibetan new year.
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| THE EYES SEE ALL |
Returning to the house in
Chuchchepati, a little girl stares at me.
She’s trying on a pair of adult croks.
Why do little girls do this and
not little boys? I wonder. Her
curious, wondering eyes present me with her perfect expression of innocence.
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| SWEET GIRL IN CROkS |
Back to Boudha and I enter
a store that sells dvds and cds, all pirated.
The films come in at under £1 but some are as cheap as 25p. Buy a few titles: Amour which
won the Palme D’or at the Festival De
Cannes in 2012; Himalaya, a film by
Eric Valli that I saw years ago and remember mostly for the incredible
accompanying music to the dramatic scenes around the remote region of Dolpo.;
Robin Williams in Man of the Year. The cover has Robin Williams wearing a
ridiculous 17-century wig. One of my
favourite actors, Cristopher Walken, is also in the cast; Kathmandu, well, about a young girl who comes to teach in Kathmandu
in the early 90s. The film is Spanish
and is about her discovering the poverty and the disillusionment of the young
with the educational system.
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| ALL THE DVDS |
Then back to Boudha to
watch the pigeons flying around and eating the grain which is for sale
nearby. These ones, in contrast to the
one I saw in the morning, are very much alive.
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| FLYING PIGEONS |
In Boudha around the
stupa, tourists, fresh from snowy climes, now lobster-skinned and drooping fat
from boobs and moobs and with streams of sweat rivulating over scarlet cheeks,
lurch around, looking into shops and taking photographs of each other in front
of the stupa.
We pass the big bell where
some women are doing their private ceremony inside it. Then on to Ringu Tulku Rinpoche’s house where
we take a couple who have come from Devon and are busy back home publishing and
distributing RTR’s books. We’re shown
round the studio at the back of the house where Salga, RTR’s brother produces
his art work, then it’s on to my brother-in-law’s house for food. I try to learn the card game Marriage, but the rules and convoluted
and I cannot grasp the logic behind the awarding of points at the end. Nepalese seem to be addicted to this game and
wager high stakes.
Finally, we break up and I
finish with a glass of Laphroig and another of Bhutanese whisky which tastes
very good. Must be the purity of the
water they use to make the whisky in Bhutan.
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| ART WORK ON THE GO: A THANGA |
