It wasn’t just the rat running across the floor that was fun last night. The rat was in one of the restaurants called “the Bakery Café” that are staffed by people who hearing and vocally impaired. The rat is a pet, and upstairs on the balcony level and cyber café, they let the white rat run loose… the rat is of special significance as Vanesh is always accompanied by a rat. But how I got to a restaurant with a rat with two colleagues is much more interesting than the rat itself. Or at least I think so, and since this is my blog, you will just have to humor me.

So let me start at the beginning. This morning I was free until 11:30, so I got up, had a leisurely breakfast and took a taxi to Boudha. Boudha for those non-Nepalis reading this is the place I like to go to more often than not to walk and soak in the energy, as it is one of the more sacred of al Buddhist places on earth, and is one of the largest stupas in the world, and the largest in Nepal. I did my nine circumambulations in a clockwise direction as are everyone else, and then took my place in the “Saturday Café” which I think affords a splendid view of the whole area… if you are lucky the Himalayas peek out. But alas I was there late, it was already hot, and the clouds had begun their daily buildup. Shashi called to tell me he was in the Guest House, so I was back by 11:30, we went to the restaurant where as you saw in my last post, folks fêted me with a few gifts.

After lunch we all went back to the university, where I asked someone to call Nepal Airlines to confirm my return. After a few dozen phone calls it was determined that I needed to go to the office (downtown – on New Road about 15 km distance) before 5pm. It was 3:30 and as I have been here six weeks and know little to nothing, I do know that 1.5 hours can and then can not always be enough time… so the trusty drive r was called, whisked me thru traffic and I was done in 30 minutes - with a dreadfully small stamp for the effort, I might add – on my ticket. Just as I entered Nepali Airlines HQ, Shasi called and told me to come back to campus ASAP as the “rath” was moving to its last position. “Rath”? Worth a look… so back we sped…

Non-Nepalis are all asking “now what the heck is a rath, and why would those crazy Nepalis think they had to move one?” Now for the relatively uninitiated, as I can safely say I was earlier this morning, a rath is a very large cart. The wheels of which are taller than this writer, and because no iron can be used to construct this object, it has no infernal combustion apparatus in which to move it, and so is completely dependent upon the good graces of the entire male population to tug it through the streets.

Did I say there was a large 15m tall redwood or Christmas like tree on top of the rath?

It is not really a Christmas tree, as there is no Christmas here as this is not a Christian country, but being a country, they have devised thousands of holidays that are just a wacky – I mean what can a culture that believes that a very fat man an drives a sleigh through the air driven by tiny reindeer to deliver presents to good children that are delivered by the fat man through the chimney and whose entire economy depends on Santa buying the presents - have to say to a culture that drags a tree through the streets for fun and spiritual purposes? Obviously we have nothing to say, as this culture has been doing this same insanely wild act for a couple of thousand of years, and we invented Santa only 150 years ago. Bishou, one of my hosts who along with Mukunda and Rosemary accompanied me on chasing the rath through the streets of Patan wrote the following for me when I asked in the “rat restaurant” what just happened, he wrote in my notebook:

The Machendra Nath = Jatra (Carnival of Machendra Nath) is the festival of the farmers of the valley. They celebrate this to get enough rain so that they can harvest the rice in the paddies in sufficient amounts.

This makes perfect sense… But I digress, which is my right as this is my blog of course… Did I say that the giant tree on the rath festival is ancient, so has been celebrated long before any city anywhere had electrical power and telephone lines (either legally or illegally installed)?

Hmmm… 2m tall wheels, another 1.5m tall little house that has a 10m (plus or minus) giant tree thingy perched on top. What of the power and telephone and what not cables across the street? What to do be done you ask? Well… As the party progresses down the street, the only sensible thing to do is the cut them, and so they do... in fact a man shimmied up the pole and cut a line with a pair of pliers which meant one side of the street was dark and the other was not. Sorry Mom that I didn’t call, the rath went down our street and we had had no telephone service… Brilliant!

So after it was all over, one knows it is over as members of the original Gurkha regiment fire their muskets when the rath is pulled over the sunstone… Rosemary went her way, and the three gents went their way to the Bakery “Rat” Café across the roundabout and retired for drinks and momo’s and serious conversation about life, politics, religion and the true meaning of dragging giant trees through streets and the sheer joy that a population gets by doing so can unleash while the owners who hired hearing impaired waiters let the pet rat roam about the premises…

Dhanyabad!


Comments

SKPangeni said…
It is good to visit this website for the students of mathematics. when I visited this site I got our native mathematics. In Nepal we are reach of our own mathematics. Due to lack of research and trainnings we are late to identity it. Pro.Orey is great to show us mathematica even in "Madal" which we had no imagination. When he has shown this way of mathematics we really have seen every where mathematics.
Thanks.
Shesha Kanta Pangeni
sheshakanta@gmail.com
Yes, Pangeni Ji, Everywhere is mathematics and we have to vision to identify it purposefully and powerfully for us and our future generation. If you view gold, in every traces of sand, you will find gold but how much is it viable we have to be careful. Ofcourse we can see mathematics everywhere but we have to see meaningfully so that it will really help in our profession. Dr. Orey has opened the possibility. Thanks