An urban horror story

Nepal’s cities are a disaster waiting to happen. What can we do about it?

Many years ago, my grandmother and I took a walk down the Bagmati river across from Tripureshwor, today part of the Bagmati corridor that leads to Balkhu. We came across a decrepit paati -like structure on the side of the road with a slab of stone about four feet tall, with Hindu deities carved on top. It was a brahmanaal , the stone slab on which the dead are laid to dip their toes in the holy waters. But here it was, on the side of a dusty road, far away from the river, an obscure object that evoked curiosity ever since the Bagmati receded to its current channel.