The story ‘Kathmandu’ is an extract from Vikram Seth’s book ‘From Heaven Lake’. Here he describes a long journey from China to India, via Tibet and Nepal. This particular extract is a description of two famous temples of Kathmandu. One is the Pashupatinath and the other is the Baudhnath Shrine.
Seth’s travelogue transports the readers to the place. His cosmopolitan way of upbringing is reflected in his way of making himself accepted in the world. It represents a familiar surrounding of Seth’s world of humanism and religious diversity. Here, the flute in the midst of Kathmandu city lends a common musical universe. Seth feels, to hear any flute, is to be drawn into the commonality of all mankind, to be moved by music closest in its phrases and sentences to the human voice. Its motive force too is living breath, where one needs to pause and breathe.