A tryst with destiny (Angkor, Cambodia)
The school reopened in July and I would be sad. There was one thing I used to like about the new term - new textbooks. Within a day, I will finish all the stories in my English and Hindi book. The Geography book was my favorite as every year it would introduce new countries.
I do not remember what year it was but this one afternoon, a few days
before the school started, I sat below a Gulmohar (Mayflower) tree reading
my new Geography book. There were these line drawings of a place called
Angkor in Cambodia - ruins of massive temples built several centuries ago.
I fell asleep in the shade dreaming of Angkor . Once the school opened,
I would spend hours in the library gazing at the pictures of Angkor in
an encyclopedia. The Angkor temples built by the Khmer kings from the 9th
to the 13th century are the largest temple complex in the world. After
the decline of the empire the forest ate up the ruins. I read about Henri
Mahout, a French explorer, the first westerner to stumble upon the ruins.
I made a tryst with destiny. One day I will be in Angkor .
In December 2001, I boarded a plane of modest proportions from the city of
Saigon . We flew over the Mekong River , across the Tonle Sap (the largest
lake in south East Asia ) to the city of Seam Reap . I spent the next two days
redeeming the tryst.
In the days of old, the kings, out of devotion or to mark some occasion, built such magnificent monuments. All this scam designer can do is to build a humble web page.
Cambodian "Ramayana"