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A Yatra brought us to an ancient town. It took us to a modern paradigm. It offered us values and sights that are nothing less than life-affirming. The Yatra is key among the bases for the Nepali way of life. Does Khokana remember us today, the yatris? The pastorale is the stuff epics are made of - eulogized, elegized, romanticized and forever recorded in the imagination as a lost but worthy metaphysical conceit. A large, sweeping expanse of tilled earth met us with sudden grace. Early mornings are of particular importance in the rural hinterlands of Nepal. A photograph of Chibha Danda in Khokana will articulate beautifully this rural norm and retell an ancient story with equal post-modern exactitude.
A single picture of a smiling Khokana basi can depict, with sheer simplicity, the true nature of this area. Alternatively, a picture can also reveal, with absolute finality, the struggle that is our world today. The Khokana yatris have gained a perspective. We have also unlearned. Surrounded by mist-painted hills on a lone hillock, we have understood that the individual can be profoundly informed by the collective. A preternatural sense of being far removed from our everyday spatial nearness has allowed us, it would seem, a sense of openness and possibility. We are what we see.
The Yatra began, uncharacteristically, at a school. Breakfast was sumptuous and the day looked promising. For those of us unaccustomed to the fields in the towns surrounding Kathmandu, surprises were plentiful. The sunrise gave us a rare play of light and shade; the 3-dimensional panorama was elevated and elevating. A 360 degrees view of Khokana found its way into our spatial awareness with calm ease. The spectacular natural settings of Nepal, ably propped by the Himalayan mountain ranges, have won many hearts and minds. A picture spells and sparks a thousand words.
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