Atop Historic Dharahara

   Panoramic hills enlivened by recent downpour, crystal-clear and haze free atmosphere, blue sky shimmering in mild sunbeam, birds stretching their wings in dustless air, dwarfed multi-storey business buildings, people striding along the pavements like puppets, age-old temples and squares steadily waiting to be renovated, motor- vehicles rushing like toys in the thoroughfare and, to everyone’s chagrin, a dense concrete jungle spread all over the fertile land of Kathmandu valley--its a glimpse of a bird-eye view from atop historic Dharahara that I chanced to have in July last year.

   The scenario could have been depicted more beautifully had there been a poet instead of a simpleton like me.The ones craving to swallow the ecstatic landscape through naked eyes must get there in person. The proof of the pudding is indisputably in the eating.

It so happened that I was ambling down the downtown street along with Narayan, an effervescent student of mine who expressed the idea of climbing Dharahara up. I checked my pocket out and readily went along with him and was set for ticketing forthwith.

I wished I had a pair of binoculars but the guards apprised us of the ban on cameras, eatables and bags into the premises. Entering, for the first time ever, we stared Dharahara till we bowed back to catch it full-length. The newly embellished Dharahara looked so majestic that our eyes got enraptured.

   Feeling ourselves fortunate and honoured we stepped in to find a sturdy pillar ,a staircase spiralled upwards and outer wall erected attaching to the staircase to the top. The complete Dharahara at all.

Since the stairs were not wide enough to make a two -way passage there I saw definite chances of fondling. The ascending ones had to wait to let the descending visitors pass safely or vice versa.

   Though heighty, I managed to ascend it anyhow but ended up puffing and panting. We felt giddy to ascend the 213 stair spiral staircase, a fortiori, got really non compos mentis for a while as we reached the balcony. Frankly, I'd never been to such a giddy height before. It was really a novel experience for me.

   As we peeped through the balcony we were completely overwhelmed by a kind of euphoria. When gazed thoroughly there were not only breathtaking sights to delight you as Bhimsen Thapa might have had but one had to witness the pitiable bitter truth of Bhanubhakta's Alakapuri as well .Kathmandu had already undergone so many winters and falls that the then beautiful sketch, I saw , had now been immensely eroded. You could spot tall chimneys of the brick kilns throughout the suburbs, sacred Bagmati river absolutely turned into sewer, haphazardly mushroomed concrete houses engulfing archaeological temples and stupas, dried up and completely ignored Sundhara [the golden spout from which the place derives it’s name ] and so on and so forth.

It was the duty of Kathmandu metropolis to preserve and renovate such monuments of historical importance timely and keep the city clean green and healthy as it had made a slogan like this nearly a decade ago, but the reality was and is otherwise. Despite these bitter facts I felt myself privileged to feel, step in, tread on and carve the historic monument in my subconscious.