Yatra Karnali (Chapter Two)

Yatra Karnali (Chapter Two)

Soon as I came out of the airport I noticed I was in such a terrain which I'd not even seen in a dream. The headquarters of Jumla, Jumla Bazzar was surrounded by gigantic hills all around it. I kept on looking round and round time and again. And suddenly I happened to see my father as I looked around. He waved at me and called me to him. I greeted my father and with him I went to the staff quarters of his office. My father had been staying there in the staff quarters since he arrived to Jumla. The staff quarters was based in a single floored building made up of stone blocks. Almost each and every house there were made up of stone blocks, for I didn't noticed even a single structure made up of bricks.

There is an interesting thing I'd like to share, some of you might think it's rather disgusting than interesting; in Jumla it felt as if the mosquitoes which I had been so habituated with here in Kathmandu was replaced by flies. Yes, like mosquitoes here swarm around you, in Jumla flies used to swarm all around you. I knew not why there was so many flies there because the environment seemed quite clean and unlike I'd heard about Karnali region cleanliness was quite maintained amongst the people. It must have been the warm summer season that turned out to be heaven for flies. There were outrageous number of flies not only in Jumla but all round the Karnali region, or should I say places I went in the Karnali region. Even the thick forest and hills at high altitude (lekh) weren't fly less. It felt as if every inch of Karnali's land was the empire of flies and this isn't an exaggeration.

The same day I reached Jumla, me and my father went for a walk in the market place of Khalanga Bazzar. There I was amazed to see the rich stock of goods that comes in use in daily basis. Shops were well stocked with variety of goods ranging from sweets, cold drinks, chips, noodles and even electronic commodities like mobile phones and computers which I hadn't imagined to find in such a place like Jumla. I was completely amazed to see the Khalanga Bazzar's operation. You could compare it with the crowded streets of Ason in Kathmandu. There were also quite a few banks and hotels in Khalanga Bazzar. The life style of people there seemed quite similar to people here who dwell in so called the most urban place of Nepal, Kathmandu. Looking at this place of Jumla it was not possible to call than this place a remote place.

The only lack of facility that I found in Jumla was that there used to be frequent power cuts there. Although the place housed a small scale hydro power plant, there still was power cuts and the interesting reason for the power cut was that, the water meant for generating electricity was irrigated in the field's, as it was paddy plantation season. My father told me that at other times there is very less power cuts. There was plenty of water available for all purposes in Jumla. There wasn't any scarcity of drinking water unlike here in Kathmandu, where you wouldn't want to waste even a drop of water. And other important thing Jumla became the first district to provide 3G service in the Karnali region only some days before my arrival at Jumla. So, it was quite fun surfing the internet from a place believed to be so remote. Many of my relatives and friends got surprised to see me online for they had been assuming that internet was not available in Jumla. I was also among them until I surfed the net myself there at Jumla.

Market place at Khalanga Bazzar, Jumla

A street of Khalanga Bbazzar