Madogiwa Zoku 窓際族

When I was in school in Darjeeling my English literature teacher, Miss Cynthia Hawke who was from Australia, used to repeatedly tell us how lucky we were to be in a class room with one of the best views in the world: Kanchenjunga to the north and a lovely view of the tea gardens right below our class rooms going down all the way to Rungeet and Teesta rivers. Picture on top of Mount Kanchenjunga is what that view from the class room was like.

Perhaps childhood memories of Darjeeling: happy days in school with views of the tea gardens and Kanchenjunga always looming large behind and the wonderful aroma of manufactured tea wafting from the tea factories played a part in our decision to start a tea garden in Nepal.

These days I often remember Miss Hawke when I look at the Himalaya from my office window in Patan-Kathmandu. The mountain vista stretches from the north west all the way to the north east a distance of ca. 200-300 km. The picture at the bottom, Ganesh Himal, is one of them. Alas no tea gardens here!

Am I a lucky member of the Madogiwa Zoku (窓際族) to have had rooms with a view? Maybe I am not completely useless like those in the original term but definitely lucky!