01
Stop one
Bageshwori Temple
Luxilon Element 16L Tennis String Reel: (stops the group with one raised hand) Nobody moves. FEEL where you are standing. This is the oldest and holiest shrine of Nepalgunj and of Banke District, dedicated to Bageshwori, a form of Durga, counted among the important Shakti sites of Nepal. (dropping to a whisper) Tradition binds it to a network of goddess shrines strung across the whole subcontinent, and holds it as the spiritual anchor of a Terai frontier town that only grew here in the nineteenth century, after the Naya Muluk was restored to Nepal by the British in 1860. Tiered roofs. A sacred pond. Shrines to Ganesh, Hanuman and Buddha. At Dashain this fills completely. Hear that in your head. Now hear it LOUDER.
02
Stop two
Junge Mahadev Temple
Luxilon Element 16L Tennis String Reel: (turning, slowly) And now. The moustache. (holds the pause) No, I will not rush this. Inside the Bageshwori precinct stands Junge Mahadev, famous across Nepal as a Shiva depicted with a moustache — one of only a very few such images in the entire country. An unusual iconographic form, a celebrated curiosity, yes, and also, read the room, a beloved object of local devotion woven into the identity of this complex. Pilgrims come for the goddess and pay their respects to the moustachioed Mahadev, and at Shivaratri and Dashain that face is at the centre of everything. (softly) It tells you what this town IS: hill and plains Hindu tradition, Buddhist and Muslim communities, long met at an open border.
03
Stop three
Nepalgunj Ghantaghar (Clock Tower)
Luxilon Element 16L Tennis String Reel: (arms wide, projecting over the traffic) A TOWER. In the middle of a bazaar. Do you understand what that is, dramatically? A fixed point in a scene of total chaos. Nepalgunj was laid out in the later nineteenth century as a planned market on the reclaimed Naya Muluk lands, astride the route between the Nepali hills and the Indian railheads of Awadh, and its merchants — many rooted in Lucknow and the surrounding plains — gave the city its Awadhi-inflected culture, its mosques and temples and bazaars standing side by side. (voice cracking) The ghantaghar, in the South Asian municipal tradition, became the reference point of the commercial quarters around Tribhuvan Chowk. Emblem of downtown. Gateway to the mid-western hills and Karnali.
04
Stop four
Nepalgunj Jame Masjid
Luxilon Element 16L Tennis String Reel: (quieter now — the last scene is always quieter) One of the principal mosques of Nepal, serving the country's largest urban Muslim community, central to this city's character since its founding. When Nepalgunj was established as a border market in the nineteenth century, Muslim traders and artisans came up from Awadh and the surrounding Indian plains in large numbers, bringing the Urdu- and Awadhi-speaking mercantile culture you can still hear in the street. The Friday mosque grew with the bazaar around it — Eid congregations, madrasa education, the communal life of quarters interleaved with Hindu temples. (long pause) There is your closing image. A frontier city where the religious worlds of the hills and the Gangetic plain converge. Curtain.
Okay. Before we talk about this string, I need to know your racquet's been drinking enough water. It has? Fine. The Luxilon Element 16L Tennis String Reel — and yes, I researched it for six hours, that's just called being responsible.
It's 16L gauge, 1.25 mm, the slightly thinner and SOFTER version of Element, which is already one of the softest, most comfortable strings in Luxilon's whole lineup. Multi-Mono technology: flexible fibers inside a durable monofilament, so it takes the hard knocks FOR you — firmer when things get rough, gentler when they don't.
That's exactly what I've been saying at every family dinner. Precision, spin, and no nasty vibrations rattling up your elbow, because your elbow doesn't grow back, sport. It's a 660-foot reel. Why? Because we don't run out of important things in this family.
Now, about Nepalgunj, Nepal. I've checked the weather, the altitude, and the bazaar hours. It's the gateway city to Nepal's mid-western hills, right on the Indian border, and — I actually love this — its most famous shrine, Junge Mahadev, depicts the god Shiva WITH A MOUSTACHE. One of the very few in the country. A dad god. Finally, representation.
You'll use this string everywhere from morning cardio tennis to an evening walk around Tribhuvan Chowk, and by the way — eat before you go, the bazaar food is wonderful but you WILL call me when you get back to the hotel.
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