Before rafting. Before kayaks. Before guiding.

For generations along the Trisuli, the river was not a destination — it was the way home.

This is the river Nim grew up beside. Long before river travel became adventure, it was transport, livelihood, and responsibility. Dugout canoes moved people, goods, and stories back and forth across the river, connecting villages that had no roads.

One of Nim’s father’s responsibilities was ferrying villagers across the river in a dugout canoe. His work was simple and serious: reading the water each day as it shifted with the seasons, and carrying people safely from bank to bank. The river was not something to conquer. It was something to understand, respect, and work with.

This was Nim’s first classroom.

Learning happened quietly. By watching how currents were read. By noticing where the river slowed and where it carried force. By understanding that when people stepped into a canoe, their safety became your responsibility.

The dugout was Nim’s first paddle craft. Long before modern equipment and formal training, those early paddle strokes were about balance, patience, and awareness. The river taught lessons long before it ever offered adventure.

Home life reflected the same values. Village living was close to the land and shaped by necessity. Work began early. Animals were tended, crops cared for, and daily routines followed the rhythms of survival rather than choice. Responsibility wasn’t taught — it was lived.

These beginnings matter.

They help explain why Nim’s relationship with rivers has always been rooted in respect rather than thrill-seeking. Why safety, humility, and attentiveness became instinct long before they were reinforced by certifications or standards. And why stepping into the world of professional river guiding later on was not a departure from these roots, but a continuation of them in a new form.

Years later, new boats, new equipment, and new possibilities would arrive on these same rivers — but they would always be layered over something much older.

As Paddle Nepal steps into its 20th year, we continue to reflect on the journeys that shaped us — not just the visible milestones, but the quieter foundations beneath them.

These beginnings still shape how Nim reads the river today.

This reflection is part of Paddle Nepal’s 20-year journey on Nepal’s rivers.