They Called The Wind 'Narayan'

This was the end of February, and we were in Kathmandu, or as I have dubbed it 'the Kat' Liza and I went to Shona's camping and trekking supply store on the day before our journey to Namsaling, which I'll explain in a minute. We needed some basics, two sleeping bags, a foam pad for underneath them, some trekking poles, extra socks...since we had not really known, or had a chance to think about let alone carry this stuff through our Vietnamese days. As I wrote last time, we were to join Dr Barry Bialek, husband to Liza's best friend Linda (and indeed a very great friend of mine too I might, and do, add)along with a crew of mostly Toronto based people who were going to the village of Namsaling in Eastern Nepal to work via the Non Government Organization (or 'NGO') called Helping Hands. Dr Barry had just been 'promoted' to Managing Director of Helping Hands who were assisting the NCDC, or Namsaling Community Development Commitee (a Nepalese and self-run local NGO that is helping the rural community upgrade many of it's health standards. This runs anywhere from clean drinking water pumps, better toilet facilities, and most obviously safer medical clinics. Of course I knew none of this as we set off for the airport to fly to Biratnagar with Dr Barry and the crew of ex-pats: Paul Mahler, Athene Pattison (a Kiwi via T.O.) and Photographer Tony Makepeace. And at the airport, we met up with a Nepalese man, who lives in America, and who would captivate our imagination in the days to come. He actually lives in Boulder Colorado as does Dr B and our Linda, and he is a very successful man in his community. His name is Narayan, and he exudes that kind of energy that only certain people have. The kind of people who make everyone feel involved and yet seem to have many agendas,all of them I'm sure are noble. He is the kind of person who brings people together and gets things done, the kind of person that the author of The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell, refers to as 'Connectors'. Narayan is a connector, and a charmer. Liza was the first to oint out that he seemed to have valets following him, a better SUV instead of a Jeep etc, and that everyone seemed eager to please him in the villages. She dubbed him, affectionately, 'The Little Prince'. Narayan and our T.O. crew were to fly to Biratnagar, stay overnight, and then drive by rattly jeep to the hill town of Ilam for a couple of nights before trekking it out overland to the village of Namsaling itself. We flew on the Cosmic plane. No seriously, we flew on Cosmic Airlines, and I wanted them to use my slogan idea 'Go Cosmic , and Fly on the Astral Plane!' but no one spoke English well enough for me to get to their marketing director. Oh well. During this flight, we got our first glimpse of the glacial peaks of the Himalayas. From 30000 odd feet, and through intermittent bales of cotton clouds, the sharp rocky ridges of the worlds most enduring symbol of man versus the elements seemed even more fairytaled, and as we craned to let our eyes soak in the iconic splendour of it all, I felt that mountains were like the girl in your high school who knows that all the boys are staring at her, she's hot she knows it. The Himalayas are a tease. No wonder so many people put their lives on the line for just a dance at the summit. Soon they were gone from sight and we were landing, having snarfed down our complimentary bags of peanuts, 'packed expressly for Cosmic Air' and drinking boxes of Mango Frooti drink. Biratnagar,or 'the 'Rat' as I dubbed it, was described by Dr Barry as 'The Armpit Of The World' and let me go on record as saying that he is right, and let me add that the aformentioned armpit does not seem to use Right Guard. The Rat is located in a low flatland, in the south of Nepal. It is a humid, polluted and mosquito bitten mal-area of a place to be. While the Rat may be less than congenial it is also the home of the Hotel Xenial, which was our oasis for the night. Not as groovy as the Blue Diamond back in the Kat, it was a welcome apparition in the sweltering mozzie field of the Rat. And they had BBC World so yours truly was was happy indeed. The Rat is very close to Nepal's border with India, (much the same kind of town as Chau Doc was in Vietnam which was 3 clicks from the Vietnam /Cambodian border FYI) With India so close, it was also where we dined on a very fine Butter Chicken with a side of Butterd Nan bread.Then it was back to the room for some quality time with the Cathode Ray Forgetting Machine (television).

Just as luck would have it, the Indian edition of BBC World was broadcasting the Indian edition of the quiz game Mastermind. This is kind of like a Canadian show I grew up with that was called Reach For The Top (although that one featured teams of high school students competing against each other and was hosted in the sixties and seventies by Alex Trebek before he flew to the States to take over Jeopardy from the outgoing quizmaster Artt Fleming. But I digress. I should also point out that compared to the US hit, 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire', 'Mastermind India' is more like Court TV. The show, in English by the way, is hosted by a very stern and forthright gentleman with one of those Osford English with an Indian Accent kind of broadcast voices. (you know what I mean? No? Well lets go on anyway) There are four contestants, apparently from all walks of Indian life. In the first round, each contestant is asked 18 to 20 questions in their own 'Area Of Specialty'. Intersting then, for me, that the first guy up, a student from Calcutta, had chosen a subject near and dear to my heart.

HOST: Sanji Nagavar, student, what have you chosen as your specialty category? SANJI:(As if answering under a lie detector) I HAVE CHOSEN 'THE MUSIC OF THE BEATLES FROM 1962-1970' I got all of them right, oh and so did Sanji. That's my kind of game. The next guy up listed his job as Superintendent of Police, and his area of specialty was 'History Of Buddhism', after that, the other two guests specialties were, and I'm not making this up, 'Cricket Stars Of All India Test Finals' and 'Indian Literature Dealing With The History Of The Caste System' I didnt do so well there by the way.