Returning to Shiv’s Birthplace After 45 Years
In 2019, as Shiv reached his 45th year, Harvinder and I decided to revisit Kathmandu and Lalitpur—the place where he was born and where some of the most precious memories of our young family began.
Shiv was born at Shanta Bhawan Hospital, Sanepa, Lalitpur, on the night of March 10, 1975, when Mahashivratri was being celebrated. The hospital had been established in 1954 by the United Mission to Nepal, with pioneering missionary doctors such as Dr. Bethel Fleming. It operated from a rented old Rana palace called Shanta Bhawan, named after its owner, Shanta Shumsher JB Rana, son of former Prime Minister Juddha Shumsher JB Rana.
In those days, Shanta Bhawan was one of the highly regarded hospitals in the Kathmandu Valley, with an international team of doctors and patients that included members of the royal family, diplomats and senior officials. Harvinder had a particularly difficult pregnancy and was under the care of Dr. Eldridge, a gynecologist who had been transferred there from Christian Medical College, Ludhiana.
I was then working on the Trishuli hydroelectric project, about 70 miles from Kathmandu. Because of the difficult pregnancy and Shiv’s birth, I took 59 days of leave to remain with Harvinder, while her parents also came and stayed in Kathmandu to support us.
Nine days after Shiv was born, I went to Patan and persuaded a professional photographer to come to Shanta Bhawan Hospital. He photographed Harvinder holding our newborn Shiv, with me beside her. That photograph became a treasured historical record of the beginning of our little family.
When Shiv was about a month old, we returned for his pediatric check-up. It was mid-April and becoming warm. We then went to a well-known photography studio on New Road for another professional family portrait. Afterwards, we stopped at a small restaurant nearby and ordered a Coca-Cola. Little Shiv tasted Coke for the first time through a straw. He became so excited, kicking his tiny legs and wanting more, that we finally gave him almost a spoonful. It was a tiny incident, yet somehow it remained fresh in my memory for the next 45 years.
When Harvinder and I returned in 2019, I suddenly spotted that old photography shop on New Road.
“This is the shop where we brought Shiv for his photograph,” I told her.
She was not quite sure, so we went inside. The young man there confirmed that the establishment was indeed around 70 years old. Naturally, the people running it had changed, but the old photography business had survived. I was thrilled to find this little landmark of our family history still standing and photographed it for our records.
Shanta Bhawan itself had changed completely. In 1982, the hospital merged with Lalitpur District Hospital and moved to a much larger facility at Lagankhel, becoming Patan Hospital. The original Rana palace that housed Shanta Bhawan no longer exists.
Over the decades, the old site has passed through different uses, and today the surrounding area contains modern medical, commercial and event facilities. Yet the neighborhood is still widely remembered by the old name Shanta Bhawan.
Our return after 45 years was therefore much more than sightseeing. We had come back as grandparents to the places where, in 1975, we had walked as young parents carrying our newborn son. The palace hospital had disappeared, the city had transformed, but remarkably the little photography shop was still there—and our old photographs continued to preserve those precious days.
Places change, buildings disappear and generations move forward, but photographs and memories have a wonderful way of defeating time.
Dad and me
Harvinder and me on the morning of May 7, 2026, before departing for Badbar for Demarcation mission of our farm lands and prayed for the success.