Post-Monsoon?

 Indra lingers in the Valley, refuses to ride his white elephant home. The sky is something dramatic, the light and air made me climb to the roof once more :)

 Drama over Shivapuri:

Do you see Swyambhu? 

There's a tiny plane coming to land at TIA here :)

Dharahara, open to public now, after Oli inaugurated it for the second time in about four years.

And -- flowers!

Last days of monsoon...

...are also the first days of autumn. Varsha gives way to Sharad. Clouds tower to catch the sun, evenings are best spent on the roof, or Lahana in Kirtipur. To look outward, away, to gather the world in your eyes. The next few weeks are by far the best light and air in Kathmandu. Pity the children have been herded back to their schools and only have the weekends for play. 

After a long monsoon the green slick that rings an aangan in the mountains begins to shrivel and crack before being returned to the dust. In the city there is only concrete.

I went up to the roof just now; here are a few photos.

Drama :)

This flower was not in the sun.

Big clouds.

Breeze.

A poet lives here.

The parijat outside my window.

This bird is from another grey day.

From the Writer's Desk

The past few months have been spent at the desk. Finished translating a book, working on translating two children's books, and finished the first draft of a novel -- not entirely to satisfaction, but a start nevertheless.

View of the road from the balcony.

Monsoon skies.

Crate in a corner.

Wall?

More monsoon skies. 

And a self-potrait, as reflected on the window.  Selfie done the original way :) 
 

Bhairahawa, Lumbini

 Made a little trip to Bhairahawa for work, then a sidestep to Lumbini. Some photos: 

Lotus.

Hotel Tiger Palace Resort.

Ugly but interesting

Dog! Not ugly, definitely not interested in me.

The light had gone by the time I stepped out, so I searched for high-contrast subjects. Naturally, they were up against the sky. Although the Tika School area is green, trees aren't proximal enough to casually photograph. So - electricity poles. These are the rusty iron kind, old ones, very likely older than me.  

Here, I had to shoot into the western sky instead the east, and that provided the proper contrast needed.

This pole is the more typical example of the Kathmandu mess. It sits at the junction of five different roads, and therefore bears the total legacy of all the cable TV and internet services that must have operated here since the mid-90s. A paleontology of this pole would probably reveal the parallel stories of locals getting richer (by selling land to much richer newcomers) and the TV/Internet economy booming, first as an illegal, unregulated network, and later as a syndicate between a handful of large companies. 

The one below is another pole at a crossroads into a cul-de-sac. As I was taking this photo, a kid of about six years jumped into a shop, called to his mom to wait for him, and uttered this wonderful phrase - 'Mommy, kehi kindinus!' Mom, buy me something. 

He seemed delirious to be at the shop, worried that his mother had already walked away, and unable to decide exactly what he wanted, chose instead to shout - buy me something! 

I enjoyed that moment very much. The stuff was of no significance, all that mattered was the fact of purchasing. That is also participating, calling oneself into presence. 

This is peekaboo through the camphor tree above the temple on the eponymous Deval Marg.

Color. 

 

Spring walk

The Tika Vidyashram alley is redolent with the scent of jasmine. And plum blossoms everywhere, honeysuckle bright, avocado trees flowering. It is quite pretty in the evenings.

And cats, and dogs.