Page 10 - Digital Cornice Grade 9

DESCRIBING A PLACE

Palpa

By: Shreebisha Sthapit

A place where the lush vast plains meet the lofty hills. First, there are the gradual slopes covered in fir and oak. They
stand toweringly, wearing a crown of clouds on their crest and reaching for the sky. The highlands huddle together;
then gently roll down to a valley; a limitless flatland. Cushioned at the foot of the hill, is the sleepy settlement of Palpa.

Really, Palpa is a dreary place with nothing particularly special about it. Despite the prolific greenery surrounding it,
life here is colorless. Modernisation seems to be a distant dream. There are no paved roads nor any industrial buildings
at sight, except for the single modern shop built at the heart of town. The store looks like a harbinger from the future
compared to the poorly built stick houses which surround it. Cold weather, dirt tracks and overgrown meadows is all
that Palpa offers its residents. The people here lead a monotonous life; people wake up early; toil away at the field for
the entire day just to return to a cold, tattered home and sparse food. The people here mainly practice animal husbandry

to earn a living. Hence, livestock is always grazing in the pastoral lands with children resting under a tree’s shade
keeping a weary eye on them.

One might imagine the inhabitants of Palpa to be unhappy but they would be taken aback to know that in spite of their
hard living conditions, the people there are incredibly happy and positive. If you ask anyone who lives in their little
town, they'll say that it was a lovely place with lovely people. They labour through the day with their unfalterable
smile. It's a small town, and because everyone knows each other well like a huge family, privacy is rare. The grapevines
of rumors are almost as long as the ivy that grows on the houses. Palpa’s inhabitants are good natured and never turn
away a guest regardless of the fact they hardly have enough food for themselves.

If you travel the muddy roads of Palpa and venture a little further till the hills; you will find a drastically different life
there. Along the ridge of the hills, the rich merchants live in seclusion, away from the impoverished. They live in an
idyllic gated community amidst nature. Life here is worlds apart from Palpa. Contrary to the sole shop in the heart of
the town, shops and stores are found at every other block. The people here reside in mansions, in contrast to stick made
houses in Palpa. The mansions here scream the word ‘opulent’. Each mansion is surrounded by a steel fence and
possesses its own swimming pools, well mowed lawns, long driveways as well as enormous garages at least triple the
size of the houses in Palpa.

In Palpa, the center of the city has families who are relatively stable financially; but at the edge of town, people live in

abject destitution. They barely earn enough to make ends meet , still they keep their spirits high. The houses are slums.
They are weatherbeaten, faultily thatched up and seem like they might collapse at any given moment. These decrepit
structures do little to keep the cold at bay but somehow they manage to live through the winter. Life is tranquil but idle.
Yet it is home.