The Naked Palm Reader of Pashupati

by MD Thauhidul Islam (Bangladesh)

I didn't expect to find Nepal

With the support of my semi-sugar daddy, I finally managed to get an internship in the heart of Nepal, Kathmandu. Semi, because this was one-sided love as he didn't want emotional attachment and reciprocated my love with gifts. During my last week of Internship, my supervisor popped in my 50x60 desk out of nowhere Supervisor: Pssst. Finish your lunch quickly, we need to the Pashupati Temple. It's a last-minute thing. You got 3 minutes. Me: wait, wha...whe ... Do I need my laptop? Supervisor: Meh. Don't be a nerd all the time. Speaking of being a nerd, here are some nerdy facts for the readers. Pashupati Temple is said to be established in the early 8th century. It has 492 temples, big and small and it is also the cremation site for the royal families in Kathmandu. It has seen so may cremation in its entirety that the water of the river underneath the temple runs black. The best part; there is monkey-shit all over the place as there are nearly 2000+ monkeys in the area. So, yeah, I wasn't particularly thrilled with this conquest. I held up my pee throughout the car journey which took forever. On top of that, we had to climb up a small hill to enter the place which is crazy! Me: Jane, do you know whether there's a loo nearby? Jane: There isn't one. This is a temple. You see that small trail there between those trees? Me: ya. Hurry up! Jane: Follow that trail and when the strong smell of pee hits your face, that's when you know that you can unleash your fury here. I did a small pee run to the bushes and in I go. After 1 more minute or so, the smell of pee hit my face. I was never so relieved to smell pee in my entire life. And I let go As soon as I was done, I noticed there was a baby monkey hanging right next to me in the oak branches. It was so freaking adorable and without even thinking for a nanosecond I reached for it. The WORST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE took place. The monkey let out a grueling scream and out of nowhere, 30 something monkey appeared. I started calculating whether I can kick them out of the way, NO, they were huge. So, I went with the second option, I ran as fast as I could. I was low-key hoping that the monkeys wouldn't chase after me, but boy was I wrong! I almost ran into a naked man but he stopped me and shooed away the monkeys. The monkeys left with a disappointing grunt and I'm left wondering, what's worst, being chased by monkeys or being trapped with a naked man in the middle of the jungle... The naked man examined me for some time and then extended his right arm to me and said "de". This got me extremely perplexed. "De" in the Bengali language means "give me" but how did the naked guy know that I'm from "Bangladesh". Although, in the Nepali language, they say "dow". So, I convinced myself that I might have misheard. I took out some money from my wallet and gave it to him but he threw it away. He again extended his hands and said "de". I looked into his eyes, totally perplexed, and somewhat voluntarily gave him my hands. He opened my palm and read something between the lines. Few moments must have passed... I looked to my right and saw Jane coming in with my two other colleagues. The naked gave me back my hand and hurried inside the jungle. Apparently, Jane had heard me screaming and rushed to the place. I assured them that I was safe and they helped me back to my home. That very night, my semi-sugar daddy put out a ring asked me to marry him before I leave Kathmandu. I'd go into more details but the word count is only 700. Let me end by some additional nerdy facts about the temple, In Shiva Purana, the Pashupati Temple is mentioned as the bestower of all wishes.