Heaven! They say it’s a beautiful place above the clouds. There is no one and will be no one who will describe the mythical place to the world but the hearsays sometimes gives us an opportunity to feel like we are in the heaven. No wonder, Syed Farhan Ali exclaimed ‘I’m in heaven’ when I was with a group of South Asian journalists at Nagarkot, the place where the above photo was taken, and all other agreed by heart. Nagarkot, a place just an hour from Kathmandu, was so beautiful for a few minutes that we were all dumbfounded.
If I haven’t been with Sanat Chakraborty at the time, I would have certainly thought the photo was taken from an airplane. But I was there at the top of the Peaceful Cottage and Café Du-Mont and even clicked a photo of Sanat.
“If you are lucky enough, you will get a never-before view but if not there will be nothing to see,” I told the journalists who became friends during an Online Journalism workshop as I walked up in the hired van from Kaushaltar. I wanted to give them a taste of Nepal on the last day of their Nepal tour and thought Nagarkot plus Bhaktapur would be the best option.
We were seven – Sanat of Grassroot Options from India, Shafraz Farook of Lanka Business Online, Shahazada Irfan Ahmed of The News on Sunday from Pakistan, Sisira Kannnangara of Center for Policy Alternatives from Sri Lanka, Syed Farhan Ali of Pakistan Press Foundation, Jagjit S Takhellambam of Imphal Free Press from India and me as the guide.
They were already amazed since we crossed the city area and were swirling through green paddy fields. Shafraz was feeling headache and I didn’t know for which I was poking him now and then for sleeping. Jagjit was all busy reading a novel he had bought a day earlier in Thamel and all others were busy looking around.
Once we reached Nagarkot, a famous destination for viewing the sunrise, I was a bit worried caused it was all cloudy. But once we reached the café for the breakfast, the sky started opening and all we climbed to the roof and started clicking. Despite living very near to Nagarkot and having visited it quite a few times, I had never experienced such sight earlier.
After 15 minutes or so, it was all over. We came down for the breakfast and the everything became misty again. We drove to tower, built to view the sunrise, through the mist and Farhan was exclaiming as if he was swirling through the clouds. “We are in clouds,” he was saying. Shafraz probably got energy from the view and was feeling a bit better.
Everyone was happy with the 15-minute view and I too was amazed – more for not having experienced such sight earlier. It was a nice experience of Nagarkot that would remain with us for a long time.
