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“The stupa is a white dome with a conical stone tower emerging from its center. There are two eyes painted on the tower, the all seeing eyes of Buddha. They're purple, and look a little sinister, like an Old Testament Buddha.”
― Joshua Isard, Conquistador of the Useless

“The Valley was settled, civilised and debauched - a depthless lake levelling out to a cluster of paddy-fringed temple cities that eventually merged into a sprawling dust bowl of a metropolis. Today the Bagmati [river] has shrunk to a snail's trail of gooey sewage. Modern-day Kathmandu festers around it, three million souls crouched across 900 square kilometres, hoarding the fat of the land, awaiting the day of reckoning.”
― Rabi Thapa, Thamel: Dark Star of Kathmandu

“Thamel"

A narrative written by Avijeet Das

The feelings of Paarijat linger as an epiphany
and the smoke and aroma of incense sticks welcome you into a dream land.

Myriad Thanka paintings splash colors in your eyes and the melodious chants of the Buddhist monks add tranquility to your heart.

Cafes and restaurants mushroom here all the year round as does the grass in the valley around Kathmandu.

While drifting in these lanes of Thamel, you feel like Alice in Wonderland, discovering the magic of hand crafted wooden sculptures, pashminas and yak wool shawls.

And meeting foreign tourists from all around the world, smiling and greeting you a "Namaste" will serenade you with the fragrance
of Nepal, intoxicating one and all!”
― Avijeet Das

“Do you perambulate at dawn?
The acacia on your right and the jacaranda on the road down the lane.

Mornings in Kathmandu are symphonies.
Tchaikovsky on a Monday, and Beethoven on a Saturday.

What voices speak to you?
Some days I hear the ghosts of extinct bees, and some days I hear the spirits of butterflies.

Today morning I read fragments from the writings of Kafka. Have you read the writings of Kierkegaard?”
― Avijeet Das

“There is chaos; there is pollution. There is noise; there is suspicion. There is corruption; there is tussle. Even though I don’t understand this city, I don’t underestimate it. This is my city, and it has always invigorated me.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya, Our Nepal, Our Pride