The Journey of Joy: Pokhara with NDI

To Begin With

Passage of time makes memories dim. If I don't write it now, I can't write as brightly as I remember now.

Dozens of days are already passed since I returned from Pokhara. It is already late to write about it. I have to write it because of two main reasons. Firstly I have unexpressed voluntary promise that I will record important experiences of my life. Secondly, I have expressed my wish to write about this journey with some of my friends.

Intro

Three months back, an informal club of participants of debate trainings named Nepal Debate Initiative (NDI) was formed by Alliance for Social Dialogue (ASD). ASD is the organization which had provided debate training for us. On 15 and 16 November (28 and 29 Kartik), NDI had organized an alumni meeting among available participants of debate workshops and trainings, organized in different points of time. We were in Pokhara from 14 to 17 November for that reason.

Many of the elements have made this journey joyful and memorable. You can't get it enough unless you will follow every details of the journey!

Worry, Faded Away

Though many people were going to Pokhara for the same program on the same day, they were not going together. In NDI, six of us – me, Injina, Niru, Anita, Samiksha and Smarika – represent the "third generation" of debaters. I had asked Niru to coordinate among 6 and manage for journey to Pokhara. As Samiksha couldn't leave her classes for attendance requirements, we five were going together.  Because of being near from Pokhara, Anita coordinated ticket booking and all.

On 14^th November, at 7:15am (15 minutes later than the scheduled time) we departed for Pokhara from Jamal. Numbers of tourist buses depart at once for Pokhara from Jamal at 7am.

I was slightly worried regarding the bus journey. You know why, I was the only boy in the team. Besides, the girls were not too known and close to me. On the other hand, since Samiksha left and we were only 5 (odd!), I was almost sure that I would be alone in bus, whereas the 4 girls would share 2 seats together.

But my worries faded away as son some minutes passed after the departure. I got company of Anita. In initial minutes, we both were talking, but just for formality. But as the time passed on, I found her similar to my nature – who want to talk more and more about self, other people and diverse issues. During this seven hour journey, we shared our childhood, school and college experiences in detail. It was so detailed that I came to know not only her, but some of her school friends as well. It made us so intimate.

We stopped twice for breakfast and lunch respectively at Ghatbensi, Dhading and Ghasinkuwa, Tanahun. At 2:30 pm, we reached Tourist Bust Park. We caught a taxi and headed to our destination hotel.

Unfulfilled Appetite

I love travelling too much. I love visiting new places and find each of them good, no matter that has no any special "touristic" element.  Moreover, this was "Pokhara" and it is synonymous to Nepali tourism. My appetite to enjoy this city was not over from my last visit with classmates. So I wanted to visit the places within Pokhara as much as possible.

The first evening, we decided to walk around, but the unpredicted rain blocked our way.  Our schedule for the second day was packed for formal programs, for which we were there. On the third day we got time, but we couldn’t enjoy it as much as we should, thanks to delay in decision making. However, we spent the beautiful evening walking on Fewa shore and Basundhara Park and observing natural beauty there.  Later, we observed city life of Lakeside. During this time, Rupesh from Janakpur was with us – me, Anita, Injina, Niru and Smarika.

On the fourth day, I walked on another side of Fewa shore, accompanied with Anita, Ujjwal, Sunita and Anil.

In overall, I couldn't fulfill my appetite to visit Pokhara even this time.

Boating Fun

However, I experienced different and interesting moments this time. On 15^th November, in morning, we could manage an hour for boating. We 10 people decided to boat without hiring professional boatman. We got divided into two teams, as only 5 persons can sit in a boat. Un/luckily (!) no one of our boat had any idea on how to move paddles.  Following the guidance by boatmen, we anyhow began moving the boat. But we couldn't move it further than 50 miters from the shore. In contrast, another boat of our friends reached to Talbarahi Temple.

Turn by turn, we all 5 led the paddles. Among us too, Chet Narayan (who was also my roommate) and Rajiv were leading us for most of the times.

Personally I was not worried about our inability. But I had found handling paddles challenging, thus interesting. (Sunita might remember how I was feeling that time. I had compared handling paddles with cooking Dhindo for the force it requires!)

Though we couldn't reach any further like our friends, it was really fun to make roundabout in the same circle, and learn how to do boating. 

With Previous and Next Generations of Debaters

How can I complete this travelogue without talking about the major purpose behind this visit?

On 15^th November, we were scheduled to observe semifinals and final of debate among the "next" generations of debaters. This next generation included participants of Debate and New Media Workshop ongoing there that week and they were majorly from various districts of West and Mid West.

Before the final, a team had asked me if I could support them to form the arguments. I was almost sure that they were more hard working than me. Nevertheless, I supplied some evidences for them and they used some of them in the competition. I was happy that the team later won the final.

Later, we attended the closing ceremony of the workshop that comprised of recitation of best write-ups, demonstrations of best videos, and certificates and prizes distribution on various genres.

The very night, a special party was organized at Salt & Peppers, Lakeside in order to bring previous and next generations of debaters closer.  It was so entertaining and fun that almost everyone danced. We 7 together returned to hotel at 10:30 pm in a single taxi, because rain made it impossible to walk. Seven people in a single taxi – it would surely be pain in general case, but it was interesting and thus remembering for all of us there.

The next morning the new generations of debaters left Pokhara. However, we had a very busy schedule for that day as well. The major purpose of the visit – Alumni Meeting – was scheduled for the day. It included sharing experiences on their debate journeys by each of the participants, summary of whatever NDI did so far and discussion n future initiatives.

AS the meeting concluded before 3pm, we had time to walk around. (You can read about it on previous sub-head – Unfulfilled Appetite.)

Visit to Sarubhakta

On our way to Pokhara, Injina was asking Anita where Sarubhakta lives. I had come to know that both Injina and Niru were literature lovers. Injina was a crazy fan of Sarubhakta, a well known Nepali novelist, especially for his 'Pagal Basti'. As I too had recently read 'Pagal Basti', their talk attracted me as well. With help of many persons, Injina and Niru got contact number of Sarubhakta by the first evening (14 November). They called him and fixed a time for next afternoon. Sadly, we all got engaged in closing ceremony of workshop and the meeting couldn't happen. (Still I remember how Injina was feeling that time!)

Injina and Niru again worked hard to fix another time. Finally, they succeeded to make it for next morning early.

The next morning, Niru was there to knock my door to wake me up. We got ready so fast and left the hotel at 6am and moved. We were 5 in total: Injina, Niru, Anita, Rupesh and me. At 7am, we were at Sarubhakta's home "Om Niwas" and woke him up. After introduction we talked mainly some of his works read by us. Again, the centre of discussion was 'Pagal Basti'. (The discussion was more interesting as Anita was from the very setting of Pagal Basti – Naudanda, and she was named "Pagal Basti ki Anita" by Sarubhakta.)

Later he offered a book by him for each of us with his autograph. (I have written another blog on our discussion with him separately, you can read it on my Nepali blog!)

Rodhi Nights

Though some opined 'Hotel Taaj' should be named 'Hotel Laaj' for its poor services, it was the one which Smarika wanted to bring with her if she was offered so! (Injina, Anita, Niru and Smarika must have remembered it!)  And, probably a reason behind that is it had its own Rodhi Ghar, where their singers and dances used to perform every night. Generally, they used to sing old but evergreen Nepali folk and modern songs and present cultural dances. Their performances used to be concluded with a comedy dance!

Besides their performances, they provided the audience opportunity to sing and dance. Almost all members from our NDI team grabbed this opportunity. From that I came to know that our fierce debaters were awesome singers and dancers as well. This was more strongly justified on our way back to Kathmandu.

Unforgettable Bus Ride: SUNTALA PAANI

As our coming to Pokhara, when we were returning to Kathmandu, I was again worried about bus journey.  Anita, who had worked against previous worries, was not coming to Kathmandu with us and Niru, Injina and Smarika had already told me that they would be either asleep or silent during bus journey. Thus I feared that I shall be alone.

Just after about 15 minutes of the bus ride, I changed my seat and moved to back. Even back bench was also passive that time. Thus for some minutes I spent my time lazily talking with Nabin.

But suddenly after a couple of hours, the back bench rose itself.  Coincidently it was birthday of Tilak Pathak Sir (Debate trainer and a Nagarik Journalist). For that Prem Sir, Nabin, Kiran, BP and others had planned a spicy event. Pretending to disclose hidden secrets of each of the members, they announced, "Happy Birthday to you Tilak Sir, but we don't know how old you are!"  Then everyone wished for him. In response, he treated us with chocolates.

The real fun began then…!

After some minutes, Tilak Sir was asleep. Prem Sir's mind was struck with a unique idea.  He asked Kiran and Nabin to open orange covers and put a small piece of orange into his mouth. Then they photographed it. The whole bus burst into laughter. Until we reached Kurintar, Tilak Sir was asking Nabin to delete that photo.

Now the next turn was of parody. And, Prem Sir began it. "Nindraa laagyo, sutidiyen, maile k birayen", "Funny laagyo, photo khichyau, haamile k birayau", and all… Again for some minutes, it was silent.  Then again, Prem Sir and SriRam Sir activated us to sing. We began with some old songs like, "Yo naani ko sir ko phool", "Yo naani ko sirai ma indrakamal phool phulyo", "Yo daaju ko mirmire aankha…Narou mayalu!" Then we tried to become quite creative so that our songs would be more realistic and contextual. So within the tone of "Narou Mayalu" we created songs that were largely funny and satirical to members of this very team. Whenever we were unable to create the lines constantly, there was always "Suntala Paani… Nakhau bhane dubai ko jyan jaani" to fill in the vacuum. This Suntala Paani Series continued for 2-3 hours until some members of our team wished to play Antakshari.

Then we engaged in Antakshari. However, Antakshari was not as entertaining as Suntala Paani at least for me. Suntala Paani was the thing that made the journey unforgettable for me.

But at the time we were about to reach Kathmandu, everyone was passive. (But the back bench was still cracking some jokes!) Probably they were recollecting pleasures and pains of Pokhara visit and enjoying the recollection into their own world.

WE had departed from Hoetl Taaj at 9:30 am, stopped at Riverside Spring Resort, Kurintar at 1:15 pm for "Chinese" lunch and arrived at ASD, Battisputali, at 6:30 pm. I reached home at 7 pm.

To conclude

I was with new friends during this journey. And, I am sure many of us (at least 5 of our "third generation") were with new friends. This four day journey provided us golden opportunity to know each other closely. Of course, the journey was successful to get its formal objectives. In addition, it provided fun to almost every one of us (I guess), and it will be remembered in future as a journey of joy.

Thanks to NDI. Thanks to ASD. Thanks to everyone for this journey.