Full Circle Panauti

This is an oldie goldie written on Monday, 23 February 2009.

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Full Circle Panauti

 

I did a trip to Panauti this weekend, and the entire trip has been a magical experience. The sheer pleasure of biking, the exotic views, eating in teashops along the way, chatting with local people in the teashops, feeling of a nomad and metaphors that occurred as reflections, as though making a big Full Circle. They are like quirky feelings, yet as profound as still water that runs deep.

I made my way through Patan – Gwarko – Lubu – Lamatar – Lakuri Bhanjyang – Panauti – a one-day photography workshop with Mani Lama in Panauti – Banepa – Bhaktapur – Baneshwor to visit dad – Reliance School to visit my dear teachers – and back home.

The reflection of this trip is a ride into the past – life when I was small and how it used to be back then. I felt it in Panauti while making photographs of traditional brick houses, alleys, fields, simple life of a village town, constructing home using mud, children playing marbles and making toy out of clay and the smell of earth. Panauti is a close-knit town. So did I feel inside – a close-knit circle of friends and situations trying to inspire each other in making the best possible shots.

On my way back to Kathmandu I felt like visiting my dad. He wasn’t home, so I left him a note saying I had passed by and shared about the splendid time I had this weekend in Panauti. From my dad’s home the very first school I went to is close by. I felt like a magnet pull to visit the school and age-old dear teachers there.
What a nice surprise! I ran into Anita Ma’am and Sanjeev Sir. Excited enough we updated each other about our lives. It was really like visiting my home from the past where we were nurtured with love. This is why I feel so strongly about my five years in Reliance School.

On my way back home I was thinking of this pilgrimage to sacred sites of mine making a Full Circle. Not only this circle of metaphor is so much wider than my imagination but also how euphoric I feel to be able to sense this. Sanjeev Sir has been taking his students outdoors – on treks and overnight camps around Kathmandu. He wants to share the joy of learning that extends beyond the classroom. It was this love for outdoor and experiential learning I poured out all about my trip to Panauti and the workshop experiences.

To me all these eventualities since Friday felt more like a ride down rabbit-hole of the Full Circle. The more I think the more I see the ever expanding Full Circle metaphor, and I simply exclaim to myself ‘life is beautiful’.

Before I bid farewell to my teachers I knew I would be coming back to this wonderful connection from the past in this school. Probably join the students on trip around valley or even introduce weekend biking. And how I feel of sharing my life and love in doing so.

I can’t thank enough! Words don’t mean as much as I feel in my heart. I faced my weakness – the flip trap we all possess called the ‘mind’. I am so proud that this time I could sense my flippy mind riding over my true being, I was able to differentiate my impulse from my true emotions stemming from heart. These impulses and urges being mere tides of an ocean, when the tides go down one can see the life and earth left behind. Yet the excitement is no less, the life and earth signifying the true and un-judged aspect of ourselves. I am simply so very happy, and thank the existence – the individuals, the situations, the moments, the emotions, the Panauti, not least my dad and mom without whom these experiences wouldn’t have been possible.

There is no other big thing I am expecting for or awaiting to happen in my life – I can very much feel it right here… right now!
I ask myself is this the ultimate? Yes, I know to myself… the ultimate is NOW. 

 

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