India, Sept. 15 -- Nepal was the first foreign country I ever visited. It may sound trivial today, when low-cost airlines and passport stamps have become commonplace, but in the 1970s and '80s, stepping outside India carried a certain aura.

The journey itself was modest-by car from Patna to Raxaul, a small border town in Bihar in East Champaran district. Yet crossing that invisible line into the Himalayan kingdom gave me a sense of discovery, a feeling that I was entering a different world, though less than a kilometre separated it from the land I knew so well.

Raxaul was unremarkable in appearance, dusty and bustling, but it stood at a crossroads of stories. Traders, pilgrims, and political exiles all passed through it. For me, the pur...