Unplanned and uncertain- the story of Priyanka, the maker of The Girl with the Goddess

PIONEER EDGE NEWS SERVICE

In August 2022, when Priyanka began filming the Girl with the Goddess documentary series, it started on a whim. She woke to a pull, a calling to go explore Kathmandu. No fixed plan, no clear outcome. “Let us just capture the wonder of wandering into the unknown,” was her thought.

Kathmandu received her as a city composed of layers rather than landmarks. Hindu and Buddhist traditions flowed through daily life as connected ways of relating to existence. Temples, gestures, sounds, and rhythms carried quiet ritualistic currents woven into ordinary moments. The city asked for presence and patience.

Pashupatinath temple became the centre point; every day would lead Priyanka back there. Each return revealed something new. The temple’s closeness to the shamshaan, the cremation ground by the river, shaped the core of the experience. Death stood visible, ritualised and shared. Fire, smoke and prayer occupied the same space as daily movement. The sacred and the mortal drew into a single field of attention, asking for an intimacy with impermanence that rarely finds room in contemporary life.

During her stay, Priyanka spent time at a Buddhist school. Having always worked closely with children through Alma Kids, her educational platform dedicated to nurturing curiosity and emotional awareness in children, it only felt natural to see young lives in spiritual settings. Learning came through observation and participation. Seeing children as monks, disciplined, playful and attentive, revealed how devotion and innocence can coexist. Another inspiring moment was her encounter with the Kumari of Patan. A living goddess embodied in a child reflected a way of holding the sacred as present and incarnate. For someone long engaged with childhood as a space of wonder and awareness, witnessing divinity recognised in a young girl carried quiet depth. Myth and daily life moved together. Divinity appeared within ordinary time and space. Many moments unfolded slowly. Repeated visits to Pashupatinath, ongoing contact with ritual and death, and the gentle meeting of Hindu and Buddhist ways needed time. The documentary stays close to these moments. Silence, time and observation carry the meaning, showing how this first encounter shaped the rhythm and direction of what followed.