The two temples the author visited in Kathmandu were thePashupatinath temple and the Boudhanath stupa.
2. 'All this' refers to a bar of marzipan, a corn-on-the-cob roasted in a charcoal stove (rubbed with salt, chilli powder and lemon), a couple
of love story comics, and a Reader's Digest.
3. Vikram Seth compares the fifty or sixty bansuris protruding in all directions from the bamboo-made pole to the quills of a porcupine.
4. The five kinds of flutes are the reed neh, the Japaneseshakuhachi, the deep bansuri of Hindustani classical music, the clear or breathy flutes of South America, and the high-pitched Chineseflutes.