May

I wrote this last May....a lot has changed since then.....but this was my first experience in Nepal...so here goes...

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They do not know how to live beautifully, said Chen, the only other person who was staying at the international hostel of Tribhuvan University of Nepal last February when I first came to Nepal. She was referring to the Nepali's. Of course I thought that she was being a bit harsh what with her being from China, a country more developed than Nepal in several aspects. I was determined to keep an open mind. Daft really, seeing as we had this conversation almost four days after my arrival at the rat infested hostel.

Welcome to Nepal

After waiting for four hours at the Tribhuvan International Airport, during which time I made several calls so as to clarify why the people who were supposed to receive me were absent, I was told to meet the Head of Department of Rural Development (RD) at the Everest Hotel. Well I can’t say I was exactly thrilled to go in search of HoDs, having just stepped in to the country after travelling for almost a day. Needless to say I went on this little uneventful venture, not alone mind you, I met this very kind person who helped me contact the university, which was fortunate as everyone who answered the phone had some difficulties in the English department and seeing as the only word I knew in Nepali was Ramroo (good) I wasn’t getting anywhere by myself. Hence my first impression of the Nepali people was that they were really kind people….I was so relived that the taxi drivers pestering to take me anywhere I wanted for only $20 and 30 (USD1=NRS 80, it will not take any more than NRS 500 or 700 to reach the university, less than that if you get a decent taxi driver who has not tempered with his meter….which is very rare) slipped my mind for the time being.

At the International Hostel (aka rat lair (acc. to me))

So anyways, it was around 5 pm when I reached the hostel with the HoD. Since it was after hours we were unable to make any official arrangements, but it was decided that I will stay at the hostel. The hostel in charge, Mr. Janak was of course missing (no need to look for the warden, the hostel was honoured with her presence once in a while……the blue moon theory might be applicable here I suppose). Apparently the guy was having typhoid and was at the hospital (a week later when I got sick after showering at night, I was, to put it simply, totally freaked out). So I was shown to the room that was vacated by the Bangladeshi student who came on the same scholarship as me. They told me that they have not had time to clean the room since he left a week or so back and also they haven’t prepared a room for me as they did not know about my arrival (strange, I remember being reassured that the university was informed I was coming, everything was ready, someone will pick me up……imagine that….none of that actually happened and I get the feeling that the person who assured me is the guilty party here). Anyways, I could see that they haven’t had time to clean the room, besides the mess made by the former occupant; rats seemed to have been using it as their public loo. There wasn’t a single square feet in the room where I could plant my new fake converse on.....forget the floor, the condition of the bed was even worse. I most certainly did not want to keep my bags in the room, let alone entertain any thoughts about sleeping there for the night. My feelings must have been obvious on my face as the hostel helpers assured me that this was only temporary and that I will be given a new room when Mr. Janak came back at 7 pm. By this time the sun has set and there was of course no electricity, so it was pretty dark by the time Mr. Janak came and led me the room. Thus when they opened the door...I was comforted to see that the room was neater than the previous one....that is until the emergency light was turned on....wow... one more loo for the rats. Mr. Janak apologized profusely...he didn’t know I was coming, they will clean the room tomorrow when electricity was back, and for tonight they will prepare the bed for me and give me a fresh bed sheet, pillows and blankets. I asked Mr. Janak the obvious; you have rats living in the hostel? His answer, Oh don’t worry they don’t bite. They don’t bite my eye, I wasn’t expecting to reside with rodents when I came here! Needless to say I was half expecting a rat to pounce on me any minute all night. Neither did it help that the bed kept creaking every time I turned. I lost my appetite so had an apple for dinner...the only food I had besides breakfast on the plane.

Over the next week, the concept of cleaning at the hostel became obvious. It was something of a facade...they touched the bases...and that was the end of cleaning. Its not that they were lacking in manpower, there are around eight helping hands employed at the hostel, according to Chen who has been staying there for eight months by then. During my short stay there, the place was cleaned only once. The workers came in everyday, and their day is usually spent idling on the grass. Their excuse for not working? There is no electricity so they can’t use the vacuum cleaner....Gee I wonder how they managed before vacuum cleaners were introduced here (by the way the year is 2066 here).....and I wonder whether they vacuumed the dust on the ceilings as well.....in which case their excuse will definitely explain the giant spiders that were dwelling in several corners.

This was why I moved out of the hostel as soon as I can with the help of a few friends to whom I am always grateful. It was during this hunt for an adobe for me that Chen made the comment I mentioned previously. Thing was I was having difficult finding a place, most houses had common bathrooms.....all the people in the building are to use one bathroom.... Chen says that here they are superstitious about having attached bathrooms or bathrooms close to the bedroom, it was considered bad luck. So bathrooms and toilets were kept as far away from the bedroom as possible and since the whole building is using a common bathroom, it is rarely cleaned.

Electricity and other glitches

Last winter the country had power for 8 hours out of 24 hours....four hours during the day and four hours during the night. I was told that it has not rained in six months and hence the electricity and water problems were escalating through out the country. Plus, the nation is still reeling from the aftermath of the transition of governments and is also in the process of drafting their new constitution, thus, protests and demonstrations are a part of life in Nepal. The few friends I had in Nepal conveniently forgot to let me in on all this when they (all of three of them by the way) said welcome to Nepal, it is a beautiful country, you will love it here! (Of course that was when I was preparing to come here...so...). It also appeared to me that student politics was as important (or maybe more so) as government politics: classes were postponed by two months, until the student union election was over.

But they were right about their country being beautiful. Nepal is indeed beautiful. The Kathmandu Valley is surrounded by gigantic hills. I thought they were mountains....well I would....seeing as they were big and I am not the only one to share this view, my Costa Rican classmates were also of the same view. But we were corrected and told that these were actually hills...the mountains are covered with snow at top and we will see them during the winter. Now that it has started raining these mountains are becoming somewhat visible (which is why I have misgivings about the mountains Dhatha showed me in Sri Lanka...they look suspiciously like giant hills now). Anyways, the University is outside the Valley and well the area is lovely. The walk to the university from where I live is enjoyable (when it is not hot of course) as I do appreciate all the natural beauty that is around me (that is minus the river I cross everyday which is so polluted!). However I have to be most cautious when admiring the beauty around me. It is not always wise to look at the humongous hills that are so green after raining with the clouds coming down on them (it definitely looks like that I can touch the clouds if I go up the hills) as the risk of stepping on cow/dog/human shit is extremely high. Yes that’s right, human poo too. Here people do not mind peeing and pooing on the streets....actually mostly peeing...but well poverty is extreme...and the beggars choose the streets for both. I have come across people peeing several times on my way home from Uni. What I can’t understand is their need to pee in open when there are so many trees around the place which will give them enough privacy. I came across three people standing in a line and peeing....their bikes were parked right next to them. The path I take to the Uni isn’t frequented by people as such but it is a route for the buses and micros and they pass the trail every 5 minutes. Only today I saw an old man trying to pee and talking....I have no idea what he was saying (don’t want to either) but it was obvious that he was talking so as to get himself to pee...and he chose a spot across the bridge....and no this bridge is by no means deserted!

Anyways going back to confusing hills and mountains, we didn’t feel all that bad about the mistake we made. Here they confuse forests for jungles. One day I was told that recently a leopard came out of the jungle and attacked a woman. Now, I was a bit confused as to how one of her neighbours would get attacked by a leopard that came out of the jungle as she lives in the city. So naturally I wanted to see this jungle, it turned out to be a cluster of trees like the ones we have back home in Addu...what is it called by the way?...and don’t even get me started on how leopard is pronounced around here.

And while we are on the subject of animals, cows are sacred here as it is the reincarnation of Goddess Laximi. So naturally they are respected...I think....I came to the conclusion after seeing on two occasions’ cows resting on the middle of one of the main roads on very busy days, during a traffic jam.....traffic of course part sideways around the cow and go on their merry little ways leaving the cows to regurgitate lazily, blinking their cute big eyes slowly while they are at it. I wonder why she chose a cow........tigress or lioness are supposed to be leaders in the jungle race...but cows?....Oh I saw a pregnant cow too...God it was huge and I strongly suspect the baby cow was moving inside because the cow’s belly was moving!

Kali

It is common for people to call me Kali meaning black. Bus conductors feel the need to shout Kali (I can’t understand the rest of it) when they pass....funny thing is some of them have skin as dark as me or darker. What’s sad is that they confuse me for a Nepali-hence it looks to me like people are still big on the racism factor.....but then again they follow caste system ....there are touchable and untouchables. Since my eyes are...well big (compared to the general size here) they are fascinated by that. Once they realize I am not from Nepal, many are big on compliments and then they end up calling me black beauty....last I checked, that was a horse. And I am not the only one to be in such a situation, the other Maldivians also came across similar comments. There are advantages and disadvantages to being confused for a Nepali...when they figure I am a foreigner, things get slightly expansive at shops (only last week a bus conductor tried to charge me more......I put him straight in his place and the little bugger had the nerve to smile like an idiot). Recently a shop keeper tried to give me Indian 100 Rupees...here some people have Indian Rupees but it is not accepted in most of the shops. So I guess she was trying to get rid of that and I am sure had figured out that she was smart...but as far as I know Mahatma Gandhi was Indian. She also smiled like the idiot she was. But when people assume that I am from here they also assume that I am either a Newari or from the Tarai region, which isn’t all that fortunate. Newari people are not always liked by everyone and the Tarai region is currently at war....!

On a more positive note

As I mentioned before, the uni I attend is outside the Valley and it is in a rural area...so the problems I have mentioned are expected. But in the more central places the story is completely different....but hey where is the fun in that huh? After all it isn’t everyday that you get to see traffic parting to make way for a cow right?