the gravity-defiant bus
croaks its way
round mountainous bends
on its roof,
boisterous boys soak
in the rain's chills with
an unified Hindi song
it spurs the toddlers to
sprint like penguins
to the hissing bus
their school ties are
caressed by the wind,
a wistful paint of words
they will learn later
questions come knocking on
a foreigner's mind,
to be squashed by silent chuckles
as he dances in the adrenaline
of seeing yet not knowing
In the silence of the humblest neighborhoods of Nepal, the sound of the joy and sadness of its people always escapes, well that's what I felt the time I visited.