Kids of Patan

A moment lived in Nepal by Pierre, a traveller from Belgium

It was an evening in October 2013, in the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. I was sitting next to exceptional temples of Durbar Square in Patan (Lalitpur, the “city of beauty”) and was watching the motley crowd , merchants, tourists, vendors of peanuts … in an unreal atmosphere by its sounds, lights, smells … I was enjoying watching the games of kids running between the temples which were to constitute for them their usual field of games.
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Yet a moment my mind was completely elsewhere when I thought of my recently deceased parents…I was no more in Nepal at that moment. There was no more crowd around me, no more temples. When I came back to the reality, two of the kids previously playing were just close by. They were soon joined by several other children.  Without revealing the back of my mind, one of the child asked me directly about my parents. He then asked me the name of my Mother…. Her name was Eveline. He then pronounced her name and the other children repeated it several times.  Pronounced by all their little voices, the name of my mom sounded like cristal bells, fleeting as beautiful like sparks from fireworks in the night of Patan… Then the kid asked my Father’s name. His name was Jacques. Again, the children pronounced several times the name of my father which resonated as a cristal. My parents were very present then…The kids of Patan were with me but also my Parents…

The crowd amongst the temples was large but despite their games, these children had noticed that I was looking at their games but also that at one point I was with other invisible persons, far, very far from this world… They had understood who was in my mind. They came and brought back my parents very present in this place that they would have very much enjoyed to visit. Very simply, they had comforted me … After, I asked them a few questions before thanking them and letting them returning to their games. The moment was magical.

An advice: if you pass by Patan, think strongly to those that you loved and maybe also the kids of Patan will come to confort you and make you feel very close to those that you think of.  I wish this to you….

Namaste!

PS: Since then, the earthquake of April 25th 2015 claimed many lives and destroyed many temples, also in Patan … I hope these children were able to escape from it …