Chobhar Gorge

The pictures from the other day, by the way, are of Chobhar Gorge, which we visited a couple of months ago.

Strands of prayer flags strung across Chobhar Gorge

Chobhar Gorge is in the southern part of the Kathmandu Valley.  It is where the holy Bagmati River flows out of the valley.

The Bagmati River as it flows through Chobhar Gorge, prayer flags fluttering above

Legend says–and geology agrees–that the entire Kathmandu Valley used to be a giant lake.
Legend also says that Chohar Gorge marks the place where a holy saint rent the rocks at the edge of the lake with a giant sword to drain the waters.
(Geology waffles a bit on the latter.)

Hmm, wonder where they got the idea that the rock was sliced with a sword?

For a very long time, it was a difficult area to cross.
Then, in 1903, a bridge was constructed in Scotland, shipped partway around the world,
then carried piece by painstaking piece over rugged paths into Nepal.  And reassembled to span the gorge.

A view of Bagmati Bridge spanning Chobhar Gorge

The inscription on a pillar of Bagmati Bridge, reading "Chundra Bridge" June 1903; another inscription on the other side says Aberdeen, Scotland

Another view of the bridge, from the opposite direction

Of course, there’s now a larger, more modern bridge for cars, too.  But, from either one, Chobhar Gorge is breathtaking.

Nepali of the Day:

nadi:  river

paani:  water

saphaa:  clean

phohar:  dirty

sarakchyan:  conservation

upuhteka:  valley

mandir:  temple

purano:  old

naya:  new

phul:  bridge

tol:  lake

Not So Indefinite Bandh

After six days, the bandh is finally over.

So I’m inspired to add some more of my random Kathmandu pictures.

Because it feels like, over the past few days…

It feels like Nepal came to a crossing

And the two sides looked at each other, uncertain

And then finally decided to go across, together

Even though it was a narrow passing

Above a very dangerous abyss

Nepali of the Day:

malaai pir laagyo:  I’m worried

malaai pir lageko chaina:  I’m not worried

aja:  today

ahile:  now

yesma:  this

siddiyo:  is over, finished, done

tarkari:  vegetables

paaincha:  is available

bhiD:  crowd

pasalmaa:  in the store

sabhai:  all

Aja bandh siddiyo!

Ahile Kathmandumaa tarkari paaincha!

Sabhai pasalmaa bhiD chha.

Indefinite Bandh Day 5

My latest round-up of articles about the bandh in Nepal; see below for my own pictures of the day.

Maoist General Strike Enters Day 5; Normal Life Badly Hit; Clashes in Birgunj
“Marketplaces, educational institutions and industries have also remained closed for almost a week now. Daily wage workers are badly hit due to the strike as they have not been able to work for many days.”

Capital Tense as Maoists, Locals Clash in Several Places
“Tension escalated in several places of the capital after the local youth leaders of the ruling parties took to demonstrations against the Maoists on Thursday”

DISTRICT ROUND-UP: Clashes in Several Places; Curfew in Humla, Birgunj, Dhankuta

“As the general strike called by the UCPN (Maoists) continues to cripple the normal life across the nation, voices against the banda seems to have gone louder with the increasing reports of confrontations between the locals and the Maoists…”

Clashes in Nepal as Frustration Grows at Shutdown
“Two doctors are working 24 hours and a few nurses are working double shifts,” Philip Shyam Ranjit, a doctor at B&B Hospital’s emergency department, told AFP. “A lot of people have no access to medical attention.”

Waiting at the Top of the World
“Tempers are flaring. It would not take much for people’s discontent with the strike to tip into civil unrest.  Even before the strike, the country had entered an advanced state of entropy…”

Maoists Officially Decide to Fight Back Retaliation
“The UCPN (Maoist) on Thursday decided to retaliate against those who attempt to assault its cadres, concluding that premeditated attacks are being launched with the government backing against the Maoist during the course of banda.”

YCL Claims ‘Vigilante’ Groups Instigating Clashes During Maoist Protests
“YCL [Young Communist League] Nepal will counter any move by vigilantes to defy the peaceful demonstration by the protestors,” the statement said.

Time is Running Out for Attempts to Settle the Country’s Confrontation
“NEPAL’S Maoists can put on an impressive display. For the past week they have endured torrential rain and outbreaks of diarrhoea to bring the capital, Kathmandu, and the rest of the country, to a halt…”

Maoists Returning Homes on Daily Basis
“Those men and women on the way back said they decided to return home as they faced food and shelter problems in the capital and they started suffering from different diseases. “

Vacate Schools, Colleges: Student Unions
“The examinations of twelfth grade have been disrupted due to the general strike. Schools and colleges have been converted into Maoist camps. This has violated students´ right to education. We condemn such acts,” said a joint statement issued by the student unions.

Kalimati Veg Market Runs Out of Stock
“He admitted that consumers are paying exorbitant prices for even decaying vegetables due to the absence of proper mechanism to regulate market during strikes.”

Markets to Open from 6-10 pm
“Maoists on Thursday decided not to disrupt vehicles carrying vegetables. The party also decided to let the markets open from 6 pm to 10 pm. “

Tourists Caught up in Nepal Maoist Strike
“Hotel and restaurant owners say that Maoist supporters have threatened them, telling them to remain shut.”

Maoists Thrash 4 Journalists in Nepal
“Nepal’s Maoists have thrashed and beaten up four journalists while enforcing their strike in the national capital despite their commitment to respect press freedom.”

Trouble in Paradise

It’s a beautiful day.  Not too hot, not too cold… pleasant breeze.

This morning

Who wouldn’t want to enjoy it, maybe go outside, get some work done?

The morning's normal rural-urban life in Kathmandu

Well, these people, I suppose:

Part of a wave of Maoists that started heading up the street mid-morning

Many of the Maoists carried sharpened sticks

There were a lot of them

For us, the bandh has been very quiet.  We’ve stayed at home, reading the news or watching the television, doing housework.  But this morning we kept looking out windows to find the source of the shouting, then dashing up to the roof to take pictures of the people marching down the street.  Several hundred must have passed, in at least three different waves.  They disappeared to the north, toward Budhanilkantha.

A section of one of the crowds

Soon after, the media outlets lit up with the news from Budhanilkantha, with video on the TV and articles online.

Capital Tense as Maoists, Locals Clash in Several Places
“Tension escalated in several places of the capital after the local youth leaders of the ruling parties took to demonstrations against the Maoists on Thursday”

General Strike Turns Violent; Clashes in Various Places
“Situation is tense in Budhanilkantha, too. There were clashes between locals and Maoist cadres this morning. At least three persons including a minor were injured in the incident. Police fired six rounds of tear gas shells to take the situation in control. “

Meanwhile I was watching the sky.  The breeze had kicked up; it whipped my clothes around me and made it harder to hold the camera.  I watched the lowering clouds descending from the barrier of hills at the edge of Shivapuri National Park.  They rolled over Budhanilkantha first.

It started to get darker

Clouds engulfed the hills just north of Budhanilkantha, then rolled south

I think the gods are crying

Nepali of the Day:

baadal lagyo:  it’s cloudy

paani paryo:  it’s raining

malaii dukha lagyo:  I’m sad

Indefinite Bandh Continued

Latest cull of the news stories on the bandh, as we’ve finished day 4 and are gloomily looking forward to day 5.

Maoist Strike Imperils Nepal Peace
“Protesters shouted antigovernment slogans and called for the ouster of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal.”

Ministers Attend Office Before Dawn
“They had to go to the offices before the dawn as per the directive of the prime minister after Maoists declared to bar the ministers from entering the government´s principal secretariat.”

Situation Turning Grave as Maoist Strike Enters Day Four
“Farmers dumped their vegetables on the streets in Kalaiya of Bara district while in Kavre farmers poured the milk on the road after the agitators prevented them from carrying the milk to the market.”

Scarcity of Daily Commodities Looming Large
“Many shopkeepers say they will soon completely run out of stocks of daily consumables like rice, pulse, beaten rice, oil and other essentials if strike continues.”

Armed Guards Escort Supplies into Strike-Hit Nepal
“I haven’t been working for three days.  My children depend on me. We are eating one meal a day now. If this strike continues, even that will not be possible.”

Maoist Strike Causes Food Shortage In Nepal
“Farmers in Chitwan are protesting the strike and say vegetables worth millions are rotting in the fields because they can’t be transported.”

Nepal Strike Empties Kathmandu’s Streets
“The [Maoist] supporters who attempted to leave Kathmandu after last weekend’s demonstrations were shocked to find that the free bus ride was only a one-way ticket. Stranded in the capital, many chose to make multi-day treks home with no food or funds instead of remaining in the city.”

Nepal’s Maoist Leader Warns That Protests Could Turn Violent
“The leader of Nepal’s Maoists… says the street action, so far, has been peaceful and the party does not want to resort to violence or rioting.  But if the governing coalition does not agree to the Maoists’ demands then, he said, the demonstrations might take a turn for the worse, deteriorating each day from Wednesday.”

Sporadic Violence Marks Fourth Day of Maoist Strike in Nepal
“Unidentified persons fired two shots during a confrontation between supporters of UCPN (Maoist) and Youth Force, the youth wing of ruling CPN (UML), at Bhaktapur near the capital. No one was injured.  Fifteen policemen sustained injuries while controlling a clash between Youth Force and UCPN (M) cadres…”

Maoist Cadres Clash with Police in Butwal; Over Dozen Injured
“The clash started after the police tried to evacuate the Maoist cadres from the Butwal Municipality building which they had ‘captured’ and placed their party flags. Police baton-charged on the protesting crowd and used several rounds of teargas shells.”

Children in Demos Worries UN Bodies
“There are alarming and confirmed reports of large numbers of children present in demonstrations and in some cases actively participating in the enforcement of the bandh,” UNICEF and OHCHR said in a joint press statement.”

Youth Spend Banda Days Creatively
“The debate was organized by Nepali Youth Debaters Club (NYDC), a club of young debaters… The club aims to organize similar events every time there is a banda. When everyone is spending time at home getting bored, these youthd hope to have fun and do something innovative.”

Ban Notes Lack of Progress in Peace Process
“Since the last report of the Secretary-General to the Council in January 2010, no substantive progress has been made on the main outstanding tasks of the peace process,” the statement said.

Professional Groups Want Ongoing Strike to be Withdrawn; Will Organize Peace Rally on May 7
“The programme which is scheduled to start at 9 am is being organized with the view to resolve all problems through dialogue while giving central priority to the peace process and constitution drafting…”

Nepal Police Evacuate Hundreds of Tourists Stranded by Strike
“Police escorted hundreds of tourists to border towns and the international airport as a nationwide general strike entered its fourth day Wednesday.”

Nepal News Photo Gallery, Day 4
Images of the day’s protests on nepalnews.com

Nepali of the Day:

raastriya:  country

shahar:  city

prahari:  police

ketaketi:  children

tarkari:  vegetables

bhaat:  rice

liiaunu:  to carry, take to

linu:  to take

dinu:  to give

ke bhayo?:  what’s happening?

diin:   day

chaar:  four

paanch:  five

Indefinite Bandh

There have been very few posts in a very long time because I have been very busy.  However…

Now that I’m basically under involuntary house arrest, afflicted with a Maoist-imposed vacation, I have finally gotten caught up on everything and have time to post again.

Too, I’m frustrated at the difficulty of finding online articles about the bandh.  I’m checking nepalnews.com, googlenews, and random articles suggested by friends, and compiling them for myself in a scrapbook so I can always remember:  “Ah, those were the days…”

In the meantime, I’ll aggregate some of my favorite articles here:

Maoist Strike Shuts Down Nepal; Gov’t Urges Talks
“Maoist opposition supporters armed with bamboo sticks enforced a general strike that closed transportation, schools and markets across Nepal on Sunday to demand the prime minister’s resignation.”

Maoist Strike Closes Down Businesses, Govt Offices
“With shops, businesses, factories, educational institutions in the capital and major towns across the country closed due to Unified CPN (Maoist) called general strike, the protestors are not even allowing government and private offices to run discreetly in various parts of the country on Monday.”

Travellers Warned of Disruption as Maoist-led Strike Shuts Down Nepal
“The international airport remains open although most people had to walk there carrying their luggage. The government has provided foreign tourists with free shuttle buses from the airport to their hotels.”

Tourists Hit by Maoist Shutdown in Nepal
“Buses carrying stranded tourists were allowed through Maoist roadblocks to the airport, witnesses said, adding that protesters checked that all passengers were foreigners.”

Hoteliers Urge to Ensure Free Movement to Tourists During Bandh
“Tourists who have come to Pokhara are not only stranded, but also unable to move around and eat.”

Maoist General Strike Strangling Business Community
“In fact, the business community has also lamented that the Maoists have repeatedly overlooked their plea to stay away from the activities that can ultimately lead the economy to collapse.”

Food Shortages Hit Nepal as Maoist Strike Enters Third Day
“Businesses were unable to bring fresh supplies to the capital Kathmandu and other cities across the Himalayan nation.”

Strike Deal, Call Off Strike: Civil Society

“Civil society leaders on Tuesday urged the government and agitating UCPN (Maoist) to instantly forge consensus and take back indefinite general strike to save the country from possible catastrophe.”

Maoists Form Human Chain Around the Capital
“Maoist cadres, mostly clad in red, brought from various districts and those in the capital lined up holding each other’s hand on both sides of the street along the 27-kilometre ring road… Thousands of Kathmandu locals, otherwise irritated with the Maoist bandh, stood beside the ring road and watched the human-chain made by the Maoists.”

Maoist Strike Brings Traffic to Halt
“Dang [district in western Nepal] — UCPN (Maoist) cadres have been using many vehicles to ferry people from villages to the district headquarters for their protests even as they have strictly brought public transportation to a complete halt during the general strike since Sunday.”

Maoists Attack Nepali Congress Leader’s House
“The Maoist cadres attacked the house of a senior Nepali Congress leader as the former rebels laid siege to the capital today in a political standoff with the government.”

Turn Likely, for Better or Worse
“The arrest of Maoist cadres with homemade weapons on the eve of the strike had raised fears of things taking a nasty turn. However, except for stray incidents, the protest has not erupted in any clash between the demonstrators and the police.”

Bandh Pictures
Various photo galleries on nepalnews.com with images from the May Day rally in the center of Kathmandu and the bandh since then.

Nepali of the Day:

thulo samasya:  big problem

sarkari:  government

maubodi:  Maoists

baaTo:  road

gaaDi:  car

manche[haru]:  people

videshee:  foreigner

paryatak:  tourist

pasal:  store

chha:  is

chhaina:  is not

bandh:  general strike

banda garnu:  to close

Holi-Day

I know, I’ve been gone for an unconscionably long time.  But…  I’m back with pictures?

Pictures I took on the same holiday LAST year, but…  Well, any taken today would have been very similar, and since I never got these up, I’m doing them now.

Today, spring began.  That is, Nepal celebrated its annual holiday that has marked similarities to spring celebrations around the world, since it features playing with colors and with water.  (Easter eggs, anyone?)

Pigments for sale at Pashupatinath a few weeks ago, on Shiva Ratri, with the prospect of Holi in mind.

Here, for Holi, the kids paint themselves with brightly colored pigments and then spill into the streets, tossing plastic bags filled with water at one another.  Or else they get very clever, like my neighbors’ kids, and go up on their roof with buckets, and fill those up and pour them instead.

Look out below! My neighbors' kids having a blast, surprising pedestrians with buckets of water.

But the kids only seem to rule the morning of Holi, and, a bit, the days before.  By mid-morning today, like last year, I kept hearing the roaring cheers as gangs of young men poured by, some on foot, some in motorcycle convoys, some in vehicle convoys.  I never caught any pictures of the latter, but I do have the former:

Gangs of colorful marauding youth take to the streets for Holi, attacking other gangs... with colors and water.

Another group of colorful Holi youth.

…and I know this is short, but it’s a start.  Maybe I’ll return to adding posts more regularly…

Nepali of the Day:

rang:  color

rangi-changi:  multi-colored

paani:  water

ramailo:  fun

raamro:  good

keta:  boy

keti:  girl

ketaketi:  kids

kelchu:  to play

I’m Thankful for… Kathmandu

First of all, I wish everyone a very happy Thanksgiving from Kathmandu.

Now that’s not something I get to say every day.

This time next year, even, I surely won’t be able to say it.  My days in Kathmandu are numbered.

And I’ve been already feeling that, in silly overly sympathetic ways, like, “Today will be the last day I ever have a Thanksgiving meal with Nepali tea…”

You know.

But I’ve also had two great opportunities within the last week–I’ve visited two different schools here in Kathmandu.  Last week, I was talking about education and globalization in general; today, on the eve, I was talking about the American celebration called “Thanksgiving.”  I’ve explained the holiday to many other ESL students over the past few weeks and years, too.

If you ask me to rank my favorite holidays, I have to put Christmas at the top of the list.  Then Halloween.  And then Thanksgiving, at a respectable third.

But if you ask me my favorite holiday to teach about, I have to lean toward Thanksgiving.

It ties into everything I do in ESL so well.  A couple of years ago, I managed to tell the whole story of Thanksgiving–from “Pilgrims and Native Americans” to the modern feast, to a group of absolute beginner ESL students classified as “pre-literate.”  In a slow, careful lesson, I managed to build on what the students already knew:

“I am from America; You are from Burundi; She is from Burma… They [pointing to the picture of the Pilgrims in the book] are from England…”

And then I dragged my finger over the globe, just as I did for each of them on their first day in class, reviewing “You came from Burundi to America… She came from Burma to America… They came from England to America…”

“I live in America.  I was born in America, I was a baby in America… They [pointing to the picture of the Native Americans in the book] are from America…”

It just seemed to fit the entire theme.  I was teaching refugees who had just arrived in the United States a few weeks or months earlier, and suddenly a holiday arrived that commemorates a meal shared by people fleeing persecution 400 years ago who came to America and were welcomed by a group of Native Americans.  My students nodded soberly when I explained how the Pilgrims were cold, and didn’t have good food or houses, and many were sick.  They smiled and nodded when they saw the Native Americans teaching how to catch fish and plant corn.  They smiled wider when they saw the tall plants and slain ducks and deer, and the table laid out for the feast, and the pale-skinned and dark-skinned people sharing the food.  They were a bit puzzled by the new and difficult-to-say English word “prayer,” but when I folded my hands and solemnly bent my face toward the ground, and then paused before spreading my arms and lifting my fingers and upturned face to the heavens, abruptly lightbulbs went off in the eyes of every student, and the smiles spread again.  And I emphasized the simple English words they already knew, putting them into the context:  “Thanksgiving.  Give [miming how we practiced giving a pen, a paper].  Thanks [looking to different students in turn, with a grateful smile, as we'd practiced polite phrases].  Thank you.  I thank you.  Thank you very much!  Thanksgiving.”

It can be broken down that simply.  And people around the world can understand it.

Here, today, I wasn’t welcoming newcomers to America.  But I could still tell the story, with a new twist of a Nepali man interpreting after every few sentences.  But these students listened for every word even of my so-hard-to-understand English, and their hungry eyes absorbed every picture, whether printed or in a book or torn from a magazine.  Their fingers traced the path of the strange boat from England to America.  They blinked some when I explained my ancestors came from England, too, as well as from France and Germany, and they blinked even more when I pointed to the “Red Indians” in the book and explained I was also descended from them, from a group called the Cherokee.

The students packed the room, filling every bench.  They lined the walls, too, standing, to fill every free space.  They’d rarely seen Americans, and yet here one was, talking to them for an hour about a strange story they’d never heard.  And I’d been told by the Nepalis beforehand–the school was a government school, not rich, and the students came from everyday, working families.  For many of them, affording daily needs could be a struggle; my interpreter explained to me, with sad eyes, that some of the students might be unable to finish all the years of schooling, because their families might need to pull them out to send them to work, and their new boss might not let them continue going to school.

I looked at all those bright-eyed students, hanging on my every word, and as I explained that when Americans told each other what they were thankful for, they’d say “food” and “family” and “friends” and “good health”… and, for students:  “education.”

And I told them, honestly, that this year, one thing I was thankful for was the chance to come to Nepal.  I explained that most Americans never can.  And at the end of the talk, one girl asked in innocent curiosity, “Why do few Americans come to Nepal?”

And I was explaining how far away it is, a two-day trip even by plane.  And their eyes were wide again, contemplating the size of the world, and from how very far away their visitor had come.

So…tomorrow there’s the turkey, and the green beans, and the corn, and the stuffing, and the pumpkin pie.  There are friends and the only family I have here, and thoughts of friends and family far away.

But I still have that image in front of my eyes, of the thinking eyes of students, listening deeply to the old familiar story all Americans know, and pondering deeply, as they contemplate two different groups helping each other, and then giving thanks, even four hundred years later.

 

Nepali of the Day:

dhanyabaad:  thank you

dherai-dherai dhanyabaad:  thank you very much

dinu:  to give

dinchu:  I give

dinuhuncha:  you give

khaanaa:  food

pariwar:  family

satthi (haru):  friend (s)

paDnu:  to study

iskul:  school

makai:  corn

hariyo simi:  green beans

Halloween in Kathmandu

Finally–the American festive season has begun.

Dasaain is definitely unique. Tihar is beautiful. Chhat (sp?), a festival that’s mostly celebrated in Southern Nepal, has been extending some interesting influences lately, with fresh marigold garlands for sale at the chowks, and… well, frankly, it looks like some of my neighbors have put up what looks like a Medieval European corn maiden outside their house (I promise a picture, once I get it off the camera.)

But now, finally, it’s time for the American harvest festivals.

How many autumn decorations can YOU fit on one small coffee table?

I’ve been trying very hard, for over a month, to convince myself that it’s fall. I got out the autumn decorations on the equinox; I picked up a book of ghost stories, and two others that reviewed actual medieval accounts of the witch trials in Europe. We decided it was finally time to watch Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel, so we had a bunch of cavorting vampires and demons and witches.

But… the trees stayed stubbornly green, and only in the past week have we noticed anyone wearing jackets–and then just in the morning, or late evening. And we tend to giggle at them, because while we’ve agreed to wear long sleeves a few days ourselves, our Mid-Western raised bodies aren’t convinced that it’s anywhere near chilly enough to bother with a jacket.

All ye Americans out there, consider our plight: We haven’t passed any jack-o-lanterns, or signs for haunted houses, or billboards advertising “Halloween Super Stores.” We don’t open the newspaper for advertisements to fall out featuring sacks of candy and strange decorations, and there have been no commercials on TV featuring Dracula or mummies or witches. We live in a world without little graphics of dancing skeletons or smiling ghosts or black cats with arched backs. We can’t play flip-the-channel and stumble on Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin or Double Trouble or random horror flicks. No Halloween episodes of our favorite shows, no, not for us. No trick-or-treaters ringing our doorbell tonight.

Unsuspecting Nepalis have no idea I look out at them through a veil of strange decorations.

So, frankly, we get a stark understanding of what it means to live in another culture. Have you ever tried to explain the cultural “significance” of a paper snowflake? I did, while putting up decorations last year, and discovered a whole new awareness of the word “culture.”

So it’s an amazing comfort to continue your own traditions with people who share them, when you live in the midst of a bunch of people who don’t. I think it’s even more fun, in a way; it’s definitely more special.

Suddenly, today, when we walked into our friends’ Halloween party, we were all grins, realizing that, for the first time, it was really Halloween. Cobwebs draped over the typical Kathmandu gate, and demons howled from a remote sensor along the wall. Grinning skulls flickered on a wreath; a foam graveyard sprouted on the front lawn, with a ghost arising; a corner of the driveway was cordoned off with “caution” tape and an outline was drawn in chalk and sprinkled with blood and an abandoned gun. Fog machines thickened the air, dark and spooky songs pounded from the speakers… and everybody laughed and greeted each other with, “Wow, your costume is great!”

Superheroes eased past Little Red Riding Hoods, and Madonna schmoozed with a fairy and a zombie waitress. Vampires and mummies and pregnant nuns stalked around, looking for a cup of beer or coke. The representatives of Hispanic, Japanese, and Arab cultures were not there in the capacity of diplomats at an international gathering; they were hanging out and having fun. I was a queen in the grand European tradition in a nation that outlawed its monarchy three days before I set foot in the country.

We decided all the Nepalis must think we were crazy. The neighbors of my friends must have wondered what on earth was going on, with VERY strangely dressed (even more strangely dressed than normal) Westerners wandering around the streets. When we dropped off one of our friends after the party, and I realized I’d forgotten to wish her a parting, “Happy Halloween!”, I hesitated to roll down the window and shout it to her down the street. It was 11:00; all the lights in the houses were out. But my husband said, “Aw, go ahead. Pay back for Tihar.” During which, of course, we had a full band playing next door at 11:00. But we’re the minority here, and I decided the shout wasn’t worth it.

Since I can't find the traditional squash from home, I make do with what I have. Any clues about the green things? They grow in my yard, but I have no idea what they are.

But now I sit here typing and picking out the best pictures of the decorations in our house (actually from last year; I haven’t downloaded from the camera lately.) I was listening to CDs with spooky sound effects. Now I have Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Night Castle” going; on my playlist I’ve had Mannheim Steamroller’s “Harvest Dance” and “Rock and Roll Graveyard” playing right with “Hall of the Mountain King” and “Ride of the Valkyries” and “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor”. I’ve had a vampire belting out “Let me rest in peace” from the Buffy musical episode, and Nine Inch Nails and Rob Zombie and Marilyn Manson all doing their distinctive thing; I’ve let all this background music support writing brutal battles in the war underway in my current novel.

But tomorrow we must lay the ghosts. It’s past midnight; All Saints’ Day has begun, and All Souls’ Day will follow hard on its heels. In fact, I plan to end tonight with my traditional playing of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s “Carol of the Bells” and a rendition of either “O Holy Night” or “Silent Night”; then all the other Christmas music may begin. Within the next few days, the Nutcracker will be playing, and I’ll be singing Latin hymns like “In natali domine” and “Danielis prophetia”.

We different cultures can glance askance at each other as strange. Yet, I think people who have just finished a ritual slaughter in remembrance of a goddess slaying an evil demon, and then have thanked crows and dogs for their essential duties related to death, and then welcomed the peaceful, kind bringer of good fortune and light into their lives for another year… Well, as different as we may be, are we, really?

Nepali of the Day:
sanskriti: culture
bhoj: party
marnu: to die
mriti: death
raat: night
giit: song
mithai: sweets
lugaa: clothes
sharad: autumn

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

No explosions tonight.  The snap and crackle of fireworks is gone.

I did hear a few this morning, but they were sporadic, lonely and sort of sad.

Several of my neighbors have taken down their electric lights.  The few that are still gleaming seem an oddity, in the dark.  And there are no candles.

No singing or dancing, either, other than the headphones in my ears and my fingers on the keyboard.

So Tihar has come and gone.  It makes me nostalgic, to think we probably won’t be here to see it again next year.  It’s such a pretty festival.

But life goes on, here in the Nepal Sambat year of 1130.

The eternal summer of Nepal continues.  While I was talking to people back in Indiana on Sunday, who reported a chilly 40 degrees Fahrenheit, here it remains cheerfully in the 70s.  Note all the green, along the path for our Sunday walk:

The greenery gracing the edge of the trail we hiked at Shivapuri National Park.

But, with some work, I managed to find one tree that was losing its leaves.  Granted, maybe that had nothing to do with the season.  Maybe it was a sick or dying tree, for all I know.  But it did make the path nicely, temporarily, dry leaf-strewn.

Dry leaves scattered along the path in the park.

Speaking of eternal summers, go check out the latest play discovered to have some likely input from Shakespeare.

Nepali of the Day:

kal:  era

yug:  era

sambat:  era

paksha:  fortnight

aunsi:  new moon

purnima:  full moon

barsaat:  rainy season

sharad:  autumn

shuru garnu:  to start

pachi:  after

Barsaat pachi, sharad shuru garcha.