After years and years of negligence, today I finally looked down at the concrete forest from the caged balcony of Dharahara. What really happened was, we were on the way to Khichapokhari and like any other day I made the same comment about Dharahara – “jum Dharahara chadau aja”. Also i added another line – “if the ticket price is Fifty rupees, I will pay for you both.”
The big sign board where it was painted – “General ticket price Rs.50 only” made the F word come out of my mouth. There was no way they were going to let me go, and not make me pay for the tickets. So, we walked in the premise and I was surprised to see the beautiful garden (though the area was small); never had my poor mind imagined that within the core of all the hustles, loud ear numbing noises and parade of vehicles, there would be such a beautiful piece of serenity.
We marched inside the not-so-tall coiled steps of Dharahara, “Step number 1…. Stape no 188 …” “kripaya bhitta ma fohor nagaridinu hola” “kripaya paan, khaini yaha naphyalnu hola” these words were painted on the inner walls. It is a real tragedy to think how stupid and disconcerned visitors are that they have to be reminded not to do a simple task that they should feel ashamed on acting.
Pushing these concerns aside for a bit, let me tell you how I felt after I reached the top of the world (NOT)… Ok! how I felt when I reached the top of Dharahara. I knew what I was signing for when I agreed to climb, I was welcoming whole session full of nagging from my friend and my sister about how I am afraid of height. When I stepped on the balcony (I guess that is what it is called), I was literally glued to the walls, I didn’t let air pass through the gaps of my back and walls of Dharahara. It reminded me of a scene from “Mr.Bean”, where he struggles to jump down from the board at the top in swimming pool.
I looked through the barred cage, the city looked beautiful (even the clusters of buildings simply looked beautiful). Then my friend goes “kathmandu sahara… herda lagcha rahara” (a dialogue from movie LOOT). If you know me well, you must know how I am obsessive of taking pictures of everything and every moment. Well, I had to take pictures but I was scared I would drop the phone. Lucky me, there were my two photographers, who happen to be my walking ATM as well( sorry guys :P).
I almost forgot to mention there is Shiva mandir at the top of Dharahara, about which I have no more information. Hopefully, I will find out more about that pretty soon. Actually, I have no real information on Dharahara itself as well except that it was built by Bhimsen Thapa and there were two Dharaharas standing side by side in Sundhara. I hope I got the info right.
Well, to sum it all up, I had quite a experience climbing Dharahara but I wish I hadn’t climbed it yet cause it didn’t meet my expectation. When I used to look at the giant white cylinder, I always wondered how it would feel to reach at the top and how different would city look from above. And now that I have been there, I don’t feel so hyped.
