Pokhara love

By Young writer ,Bhuvan Thapaliy

          

One misty, rain-soaked morning, I left for Pokhara in a tourist bus. This was the beginning of a home-coming journey for me. From my past visits, I knew there is nothing like the lush beauty of spring in Pokhara. Separate raindrops lie along the twigs of the roadside trees—round, luminous globules—trembling without falling.

Furthermore, Lake Fewa has always fascinated me. Often, I had wondered along her shores reciting my poems in her honour. And often walking by Lakeside, I had felt myself a part of Lake Fewa. The boats floating on the heart of Fewa, my philosophies. Mt. Macchapuchre that lurks its forehead from the womb of chastity, my colossal sky clock. The “Jaal Kumbhi”, entangling the Lake, shackles of my recurring nightmares. The hovering water ducks, my friends of misery, and the temple, “Vrindabasni,” an asylum of my insanity.

I spilled the remnants of my earlier Pokhara memories from my childhood before me, one by one in the bus. I reached Pokhara in the afternoon and the very thought of being in the city I love most in the world after Kathmandu made me quiver with joy. I took a cab to Lakeside and after putting my belongings in the hotel, I walked straight to salute Lake Fewa. I sat and talked with the lake for a while. I waved her goodbye after promising to spend a whole day with her upon the completion of my chamare cave (bat cave) visit.

The very next day I left for the U-shaped 150 metre long, 25 foot high bat cave located a little farther than the Mahendra Cave, in the northern end of Pokhara. I have been told by the locals that the bat cave shelters more than 15,000 bats of different species. Carrying a flashlight, I picked my way across a narrow entrance and upon reaching inside I stood in the damp soil for a while and was immediately stunned by the image of elephant tusks, gods and goddess that have been craved on the inner walls of the cave.

This cave is famous for the bats that can be seen hanging by the cave’s walls, I was told by the locals. I was dying to meet my nocturnal friends. As my torch light painted the roof of the cave, I perched on the side of a small rock. A few feet above me I could see thousands of wrinkled

bats staring at me. Water dripped hypnotically from the ceiling and I heard the cave saying, “I welcome you into my belly,” and the bats asking, “Why on earth are you here to disturb us?”

It was an awesome feeling. “Let’s go a little deeper,” said my heart and urged me to extend energy to edge deeper into to the womb of the earth. I had never been inside the cave and here I was inside the bat cave. I found myself peering up at the cave, muttering, “Yes, yes, you are amazing.”




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