It was in July, 2007 when my flight took off for Kathmandu on a sunny afternoon from Delhi. It was my first visit to any foreign land and I was nervous. I was equally excited to visit a foreign land and that too Nepal.

I landed in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, through a maze of clouds and I searched for Mt. Everest in vain! I got to know later that the landing was quite tricky and an experienced pilot was always deployed to do this difficult job. 

I could feel the warmth when I met people during my first visit. I was welcome everywhere, always. People were cordial, inclusive and moreover the culture and straightforwardness made me very comfortable. Kathmandu was colorful. I started falling in love with this city and silently Kathmandu also started growing inside me.

Then there were innumerable trips to Nepal between 2007 till 2016, almost through a decade! And I happened to be in Kathmandu off and on. I met the summer, the winter and the monsoon and every season was unique. I could feel the city while traveling across and of course to places like Bhaktapur and nearby areas without which Kathmandu is incomplete. Then there was a devastating earthquake in 2015 which almost tried to ruin the civilization but could not because of the undaunted spirit of the Nepalese. The soul of this civilization is Godly and though the ruins are still getting renovated, I could see people are back in rhythm with all the vibrancy and color.

Kathmandu resonates everywhere- be it the fish market or a lazy afternoon where children play under a scorching sun and elders engaged in a busy conversation or you could see the mother helping the daughter tying the hair with a small child in her lap! That’s the life I was consciously searching for! I also did not look for any extraordinary expression or a life moment! I tried to find out whether Kathmandu could retain its life against all odds in the last 10 years or not. I wanted to find out the rhythm of Kathmandu where moments depict an unparalleled life resonating for years. 

Can life be simple, minimal but so beautiful? The faces, the moments and the expressions just confirmed that. In this series the moments, expressions and the colors depict a journey to the soul of Kathmandu, the untold story. 

About Abhijit Bose

Abhijit is an artist, photographer and an educator. His major interest is in Fine Arts, landscape and travel photography. He firmly believes that camera is a medium for expression and he loves to experiment different forms of art with it.

In the last three decades he extensively travelled in Europe, Asia and Africa. It helped him to understand the places, the flora and fauna, the people and their culture more closely.

He holds the Excellence FIAP Honors (Federation de l’Art Photographique, France), and Crown 2 Honors (Global Photographic Union, Greece). His works got widely awarded and exhibited in more than fifty countries in international salons. He is four times finalist in HIPA, UAE, and also a Silver Medal winner in Moscow International Foto Awards (2017). His works were also awarded in most prestigious professional competitions like IPA 2017 and Paris Photo Prize (PX3) (2017 & 2018) to name a few. Dodho magazine of Barcelona carried more than a dozen photo stories so far. His works also got published in Nat Geo and The Statesman Tabloid (London) and many other publications. Many of his works are with private collectors across the globe.