Note: This post was originally written to be posted on June 3rd 2014.
Hello You!
I have been home for almost three weeks now and, it feels like a dream. Chyama S still has the same routine. She wakes up in the morning to approve of her husband’s color coded suits and makes a list of calls for three hours straight with a cup of black tea. After few follow ups, business closings and gossips, she goes back to sleep if she does not have social functions to attend. All the siblings are still as indifferent about studies as they were when I left them, the only change in all of them is the continuous frowns and swingy moods all thanks to puberty. Bhai is suddenly the tallest in the family eh! Aamaji still meditates all morning and while she is on her vacation, the endless meditation is followed by a light brunch and continuous candy crush saga with updates on her tv soaps on YouTube. Aamaji has become very tech-savvy. A normal scene each day is aamaji multitasking with her phone in one ear, tv soap in the the old non-LCD television (still works), tv soap prediction review on the tablet (it exists Yes!) and landline on the waiting. It is surreal that I am breathing in Kathmandu. I woke up with nightmares of New York just yesterday.
Kathmandu smells the same; although roads in a few places are wider, they are still dusty and people drive on both sides; the air is still laid back. The people are still warm if you are and, you always have a home to go back to (sometimes, two or more). The gallis sleep peacefully into the morning basking under the sun and the ones as fortunate as me living in the suburbs wake up to roosters singing their wake up song. As always, I am in love with Kathmandu. Every passing day reminds me of my responsibility of going back, the nostalgia surrounding the idea is clearly a negative, but well, I am living by the day. The most I have done in these three weeks has been breathing in Kathmandu. I have been laughing, a lot. Also, I have been trying to catch up with my grandfather’s drowning stories. Baajeji is 83 now, a retired British army. He has seen the country change through the Rana regime, Second World War, monarchy where the king was Lord Vishnu, followed by various movements, royal massacre, and every phase that you and I know of. Some days in New York, I used to wake up to realize how I had taken my baajeji for granted never paying attention to the stories he told me. I have been trying to catch up with him now. He has been trying to catch up with his smartphone.
I could write an entire book about my feelings and Kathmandu. But who is interested in that? What I am looking forward to in June though is this project I am doing in the hills, about which this blog is going to tell you. In this blog, you can follow my journey into the hills with a group of talented children to learn performing arts and other life skills in the doing. Professionally titled “Performing Arts at Maya Universe Academy”, the idea is actually to teach a few to the children while learning more out of it.
The details will be posted continuously throughout my stay (hoping the best for electricity and the internet). I will do my best also, to take all good photographs to capture the feel of the moments. After two complete weeks of pestering the dealers, I am finally going to check and confirm the instruments/equipment the children will use for the classes at Maya today. Where did the money come from? I will have another post to thank my wonderful private sponsors — for believing in this project and performing arts. Also, I will have a list of a few my musician friends and indie artists who are going with me. I have a list of things to do, a Long list. Until then, I am going to try to attach a photograph here and ask you to follow my blog to follow my journey. I am doing it this time, I want you to be the next one to do it.
Until later, I am going to bug Aamaji and baajeji to tell me some forgotten bedtime stories so that I can share those with the children.
Happiness always,
Bartika
Photo Credit: http://www.mayauniverseacademy.org
