This is Kathmandu

Prakash Mani Dahal 

Poet Prakash Mani Dahal

O my tourist friend,

This is Kathmandu

that means a wooden building

a building,

built from the wood of a single tree.

Just so, imagine please--

How large might it have been

and just deduce again

how dense the forest might have been?

where trees are to be planted now

with the aid of foreign donation!

O my foreign friend,

This is Kathmandu

a valley in the beginning

was a huge lake,

the abode of innumerable serpents.

Now, of biped mammals

clad in suit and daura-sural

hissing and chanting their aspirations

of nationality and humanity

and who are as adorable as the nagas

with more fatal of their fangs!

O my friend from a far-off land,

this is Kathmandu

where every dawn would break

and dusk would make

with the playing of conches

and with the tinkling of bells

along with chants of 'twamewa mata …'.

Though rare now

You can enjoy pops, rocks, jazz, bass booster, remix…

or simply the news and commentary

from all over the world

whether long lasting or just momentary.

Don't hesitate my friend come so long way,

enjoy any dope or booze of any kind

 to your fill.

The eyes of Buddha have ceased to notice

that at His feet

poor and wretched girls are stripped

and often strangulated,

peoples are robbed and frequently slain

be it baba or babu

everything can get away with

if only it begets money

or it belongs to higher company!

No wonder if you wonder as

where

the orators, revolutionists and the gold medalists

have gone       

as to what the Bahadurs

have been subjected.

The ordinary of them have been busy

building roads and other infrastructures

for their friends in Arabia and other countries

despite their own shaky and leaky;

keeping peace for the nations of the world

despite their own frightful anarchy;

while the captains and the pilots are busy with

making equations today for lifting the nation

and making the same tomorrow;

reaching consensus today and withdrawing tomorrow

and above all

extolling as much revenue as the coffer can offer

and every day observing musical chair race

the best of all sports!

Ya, this is Kathmandu, my dear

that welcomes you with dust when dry

with mud when wet

swarms of mosquitoes when night,

swarms of street children when day.

Visit and enjoy this land of sangria-la

that looks healing from outside

but ever purulent from inside!

(Prakash Mani Dahal is a poet and essayist. He writes both in Nepali and English.)