Nature reflects our nature k | ltlaDa
The Bag ( h ) mati * River
terribly sickens , with its fetid , black water . Dead bodies being cremated … a little above , man is all smoke and nothing . Flies hover above the oily water in it . Half burnt bones peep from below the slimy sewage . Plastic and empty bottles float to show their dented look . Just below the Lord ’ s abode , garbage slide slowly into the river that goes — just like the slow traffic — stinking all across the Valley … Oh ! This sacred river ! Like a boa , it scares the elite people away but not the scavengers digging … the decaying garbage deep … for a day ’ s meal . ** On the way
back home , I heard people talk about how many reports , by many people , were made about it , and how sadly nothing concrete came out of them !
Now this gap is what I ’ m thinking about . What will happen when webs and webs of gaps determine the course of our life … and posterity ? ______________
* A word play on the Bagmati river ( which runs through the Kathmandu Valley ); bagh ( tiger ) and mati ( ways or behavior of the tiger ) speak of the terror created through the river
Haris Adhikari Lecturer of English at Kathmandu University
Editor at Misty Mountain Review MA in English and American Literature
Nature and Social Concern Society 23