Our team finally arrived at Mai Beni after a five hours hike. The last stretch included a stiff climb on a steep hill with a scary knife’s edge trail hardly a foot wide with Sun Koshi on one side and Arun to the other. In all honesty, with no head for heights, I literally crawled on all fours at places not daring to look down either left or right!
River god
Mai Beni is named after ‘Mai’, the goddess of the river, and ‘Beni’ translates to a confluence of two rivers. Normally, quiet and isolated throughout the year, villagers from near and far throng the riverside hill on the day of Magh Purne (the Full moon day of January) to offer puja (worship) to Mai Beni, which happens to be a small cluster of rocks. Other times, small groups congregate on the river banks to cremate their dead ones.
At Mai Beni, we were to stay at Dan Bahadur Rai’s (Beni Kanchha, to fellow villagers) place. Our bedroom was a shaky loft in his cattle shed. At the dead of night, we could clearly hear the deep rumble of the Sun Koshi which was only a spitting distance away. After a hearty meal, prepared by Beni Kancha’s wife, we retired early so that we could start our fishing with the first light of dawn. Gripped by nervous excitement, I had a fitful sleep, tossing and turning all night.
Angling begins
The next morning, we head to the Sunkoshi. Quiet with no soul around, the atmosphere was almost spooky. The forested hills across seemed to stand sentinel over the turquoise waters of the river. The water felt cool and appeared almost gin clear as I could see the gravel and stones three feet below the water surface.
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