Xanadu

A testimonial

“In Kathmandu did Jeff Greenwald a literary pleasure dome decree … ”

I am standing in front of an audience of fellow writers, with whom I have just shared the most profound, liberating 10 days in Nepal. We have been tasked with presenting a precis of this, the first Himalayan Writers Workshop, and I have chosen to parody Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I am quaking like a bodhi leaf about to witness a radical enlightenment, because public speaking is not my thing, despite being secretary of the debating society at school. I also feel like I have literally been part of an esoteric initiation with tour guides Jeff Greenwald, a Californian author of two off-the-wall adventures in Nepal (Shopping for Buddhas and Snake Lake), where he lived for many years, and his two erudite sidekicks, Laurie Marks Wagner and James Hopkins.

A writer and practitioner of Wild Writing, a method of teaching authentic from-the-gut writing, LA-born Laurie took us through daily stream-of-consciousness exercises everywhere we traversed - ranging from the Varanasi-esque ghats on the Bagmati River to the steep steps of the Hindu Swayambhunath temple to Boudhanath, where pilgrims walked round the Buddhist stupa spinning prayer wheels.

Virginia-born James, who up and left his Wall Street job for a Kathmandu sortie, discovered Buddhism and never returned home. Besides writing poetry, guiding meditation classes and actually studying Buddhism, he also founded the Quilts for Kids project, which employs local women to make quilts which are then sold mainly to foreigners to cover the costs of school for female children, who are often sidelined.

After a visit to the quilting studio, we were transported to Pushapathi and devastating remnants of the 2015 earthquake. Reeling at what seemed like a biblical apocalypse, I remember being brought back to earth by Jeff’s voice: “This is not Middle Earth, you know.” And while it most certainly is not, mythology and war are interwoven into the fibre of Nepal’s history, and the wacky trio seemed to act as spirit guides through it.

Beginning with a random draw of the fool tarot card (I was writing for Jeff’s Ethical Traveller from India, where I was living, and he, who also founded the world’s first travel blog, was advertising the workshop), the entire journey felt like a magical realism novel - as real and compassionate as my companions (some of whom I still keep in touch with) were. In addition to the mystical air lent us by the Himalayas, which we witnessed closely from Nagarkot guest house, situated on the route to Everest, there was something else I couldn’t put my finger on. Synchronicity seemed to follow us across the valley as Jeff introduced us to old friends acquired over the years – ranging from a professor who lectured on mundane manifestations of Nepalese goddesses to an artist who fashioned showpieces out of metal.

We were introduced to a government minister and taken on a tour of ancient buildings, with a rundown of value, both tangible and intangible. We visited a traditional artist’s studio where we were shown the basics of Newa and thangka art, passed down the generations. We were let loose in Thamel, a chaotic marketplace, we visited craft markets and museums, we chatted to strangers, and we wrote, wrote, wrote – slices of life, seen from both a mundane and foreign perspective.

One of the wildest adventures of my life (and I have travelled a lot)! So much so that I took my partner to Nepal with me for my 59^th birthday, seven years later, soon after I heard that Jeff had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. A malady which he writes about movingly in his weekly substack, but which he has not allowed to get the better of him. In November this year, he will be hosting yet another Himalayan Writers Workshop with Laurie and James.

Click below if you’re tempted. I can’t imagine why you wouldn’t be.

Confessions of a Lab Rat - by Jeff Greenwald