Fargo

The first time I heard about Fargo was in Coen brothers’ 1996 movie “Fargo” it’s one of my favorite movies of all time. Though most of the movie was shot in Bemidji, I think. But I’m writing about Fargo the place and not the movie, about how my expectations were and how it has been living in Fargo so far.

Imagine living half of your life in Nepal, Nepal- Yes, that small mountainous country. The hillocks and hills around Kathmandu or the Mahabharat or even the Chures or the normal foothills of the Himalayas which would be mountains for people from elsewhere. I have plenty of friend from the west who visited Nepal and who thought Kathmandu was surrounded by mountains, well that is a mountain for everyone else. Here, anything that’s about 1000 meters asl is a mountain. So back to imagining living half of your life in Nepal and moving to Fargo.

Sounds strange doesn’t it?

That’s a question most people who know Nepal, ask me when they talk to me for the first time.

“Why Fargo?”  

Be it the students in my class or a super chatty Uber driver, I don’t doubt there curiosity either. Fargo is FLAT, it’s not flat its FLAT. Forget about the cold, they’re not bothered about that, assuming Kathmandu is cold as well because of the mountains, well but the flatness is ever worse than the cold here. The cold doesn’t bother me that much having spend most or considerable amount of the last few years in mountains. The flatness however is bland.

Before I came to Fargo, people were like it’s in the middle of nowhere. It’s cold, it’s small, it’s boring. I didn’t know what to expect. The first impression of a US downtown for me was Minneapolis. And well it’s not Chicago big but Minneapolis downtown is impressive. So when I took a bus to Fargo, I was constantly checking my phone to see how far from Fargo I was, the google map said, it’s super close, I don’t remember how far it was but it said that we’re pretty close. But what I was expecting was that I’d see, at least tall buildings if not skyscrapers but there was nothing, just flat and more flat land all the way along I94. Then a day later I realized that it’s because the downtown is super small.

But, the thing is, I have been to many places since I came here, 26 states, I think, but one of the place that I like the most is Fargo. I know it’s weird but I don’t know why but I feel good about this place. It feels like home. You guys remember the feeling of going out of the Kathmandu valley for a week and when you return back to Kathmandu and see that lighted up city from when you’re about to enter Kalanki? That’s pretty close to how I felt when I came back to Fargo when I was traveling around the States.  

The thing I like the most about Fargo is, it’s small, at the same time it’s big enough to get what you want and small enough to go to places to get what you want. Confusing? Well, it’s not small and it’s not big our crowded enough. You can get anything you want here and you don’t even need to go that far to get it. There’s a bus that goes to almost every single place you need to go to. The streets are beautiful and quiet, not much traffic. The people are nice. The downtown, though small is beautiful and lively. It’s safe. It makes you feel like you’re home. Of course it’s flat and cold but it’s beautiful. And it’s cold! Believe me! It started snowing in later October I think and it’s almost end of March and it was snowing two days ago, I love winter, I don’t mind snow, but this has been way too monotonous with the snow all over the place, but even with that it is a beautiful place. There are plenty of parks around, I didn’t get to see tons of them in the fall but I’m sure going to explain those this summer.