with deviji

with ujwal and rehna in town we'd gone to visit deviji yesterday. she was in the alert mode that she's been in lately. she's 'looking' into the camera like she's not done for a long time.. and also beginning to be 'walked' around (which she'd stopped doing for quite some time)


rehna offers deviji her favourite candy...

... while dada explores the present that ujwal and rehna brought for him... the 'dixit' game, daji looks at the ispeshul shampoo

... deviji looks on...

then it's time for deviji to be 'walked ' to towards the dining room for her food... here with rehna and her caretaker sumitra

... soon janaki (in her widow garb) joins in...

... they all coax deviji to take baby steps towards the dining room...

past deviji's favourite mirror spot...

.. and negotiating to go there through her most favourite room in the house...

...the kitchen...

she is seated next to the table...

.. and seems to have a conversation with rehna...

... with words gone, it is deviji's eyes that do the talking...

baikuntha, sumitra's son, and dada's right hand boy, comes to help lift deviji a bit...while she looks straight into the camera...

dada arrives to see what deviji's up to...

it's a relief for dada to see some signs of improvement in deviji's condition, and almost a hint of hope creeping in that things will continue to improve even more...

...dada and deviji...

the next couple of shots of ama chhori taken by rehna

.. and finally dinner time for deviji...

budhasubba ma

on friday i'd gone to visit the budhasubba temple in dharan. the temple lies in bijayapur hill, and is an intriguing place. first of all.. the temple, instead of housing idols, has mounds that is supposed to be tomb of the last limbu king of morang, killed by men from prithibi narayan shah's advancing army.

then those who want their wishes to be fulfilled or have their manokamana purna, come to the temple to offer sacrifice... but unlike the bloodshed one sees in the kali temples.. here the person who wrings off the chicken's head inside the temple, throws the headless chicken out into the courtyard, where the birds flutter and jump upto a metre high for at least half a minute.. just like 'headless chicken' would, before the bodies slowly stiffen and then turn limp. fascinating as well as disturbing to watch, but the children present in the premises seemed to be quite entertained.

the temple is also known for its famous bamboo grove. where people used scratch their names on the bamboos and tie holy thread on them. now the grove has been cordoned off to protect these blunt-topped bamboo. so instead, people tie the threads unto anything they find in the temple premises... mainly the fence surrounding the bamboo grove...
(these images are larger than the reduced ones i usually post.. so click on them for slightly enlarged views)


a wall of 'wish me luck' cords on the fence surrounding the bamboo grove...

...on the bell... and no, this goat is not being sacrificed...

...another thread-lined bell

... threads on the katahar tree just in front of the temple...

...on the temple windows...

... and even inside the main shrine, where devotees have tied the threads wherever they can...

the temple itself is so different from others.. lip pot gareko matoka thupra haru... we were allowed to take pictures from outside only...

... another achamma ritual...the innards (liver) of a sacrificed chicken being smoked/burnt on an incense holder

this chicken seems to try to catch its owner's eyes (with his beauty lies inteh eyes of the beholder t-shirt)at the door of the temple.. 'you sure you want me to go through this?'

... a headless chiken is flung through the door, just as a child crosses the courtyard...

.. it continues to thrash about...

some more chicken flap around headlessly...

... chicken finally still.. the premises of the budhasubba temple with the bamboo groves in the front...

... at the back of the temple.. there are experts ready to feather and skin the chicken...

.. as well as an expert, who 'reads' the birds' innards and tells the fortunes for the poeple...

.. and just before you get of the compound a red reminder and a question from the upside-down-question-mark 'prembaad' folks...

barachhetra tira

these are images taken on thursday last week while in sunsari. we utilised a morning visiting the barahachhetra shrine on the banks of the koshi, after driving along the chatara canal and then heading up the gorge from where the koshi finds freedom to meander across the terai plains!

no morning can start without jeri puri of course.. this was in duhabi...


mmmmmmm..... tattato jeri...

early morning one way 'work' traffic headed eastwards along the purba paschim lokmarga

driving northwards along the chatara canal

water for the chatara canal diverted from the koshi...

.. it was thursday.. koshi paari people coming for the haat bajar in chatara...

a bit further up the gorge.. fishermen on bamboo raft were laying down fishing nets.


this steep khaharey seems to create a lot of dangdang dunddung in the monsoon.. just look at the boulders..

...and this is the rickety bridge across it...

...that is being replaced soon by a sturdier bridge...

the generator that helps the construction work...

... parts of the bridge lie at the roadhead, 15 mintutes' walk away from the temple. landrovers, vestige of dharan's british connection, seem to be the main means of transportation in the area...

rudrakshyas and other attractions near the temple...

colourful prasad items

temple with the koshi in the backdrop. the temple is said to be many centuries old, honouring lord vishnu's varaha avatar
choya ko phool and phalamey chhad
well worshipped and worn idols at the temple doorsteps. no photography beyond this point...

the place is visited by many during maghey sakranti.. but even on thursday there were people engaged in other religious rituals...

a lady told us that the current domed structure of the temple was built in 2007 bikram sambat. the temple is said to have the idol of vishnu's 'varaha' avatar, which is kept under cover and not displayed to devotees these days

this sadhu motionless in deep meditation in the pati in front of the temple

koshi rapids near barahachhetra

and a "jet boat" weaves its way upstream on the koshi... on its journey from chatara to simle, beyond tribeni

riding the rapids...


...past the bend where koka river comes to meet the koshi...

.. and on to deeper and still waters north of barahachhetra

hint of the past and present...

organic fare...

... riding dangerously atop a land rover of the 60s...

connected to the satellite by the koshi ridge

and back again to chatara...