Kingal and her mother
Quartet of friends
Raseena and Dikshita
Shopkeeper and friends
By Kumaristhan temple
Sarita, Prativa and Binita
Nirusha, Rita, and "Na-na-nee" bahini
group photo
Dipashana, Samraghyee and Rubiyani
Anu, Rogina, and Santi
Sisters Rupa and Gita
Susan, Susmita and Mina
Crossing a field in Phutung
Quartet behind Manamaiju temple
Roshni
Teej in the time of Corona
Kathmandu, August 21st, 2020
Trio in COVID masks and saris
On the occasion of the Shree Krishna Janmashtami festival
(celebrating the birth of Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu)
Patan Durbar Square, Lalitpur, Kathmandu, August 11th, 2020
Aunt and her niece, cooking a meal
Janakpur, Nepal, October 21st, 2015
Urmila (in orange) and her niece Ram Kala work to prepare a meal.
Urmila is one of my friend’s maternal aunts, and Ram Kala is a cousin.
With the punitive months-long Indian blockade of fuel and supplies, cooking gas is almost impossible to come by and so meals are cooked over wood fires. Because of the smoke inherent with wood fires, families try to cook outside if possible. Cooking times are lengthened, and with only one stove “burner”, each part of the meal (lentils, rice, tea, et cetera) must wait it’s turn to be cooked.
Though the small rectangular stool in the lower-left is only a couple of inches tall, it can make all the difference comfort-wise when one is squatting by the fire for an hour or more.
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Relatives catch up during the Dashain festival
Janakpur, Nepal, October 22nd, 2015
Chandar (in red) is the maternal aunt of my friend.
Dukhni is the daughter of my friend’s paternal uncle.
(so, Dukhni is my friend’s cousin).
This was during the Dashain festival, when people go home to visit their relatives.
The neighborhood was flooded with Nepali and Bollywood music, which was being belted skyward by loudspeakers mounted on roofs; the goal being to play nice music to please the gods.
In Janakpur (which is only a few kilometers from the Indian border) you seem to see far more saris than in Kathmandu proper. Though a dry and dusty area, the myriad fabrics the women wear make it a colorful place—I wish I could have stayed longer.
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If you would like to donate to UNICEF’s Nepal Earthquake fund please click here.
Shoba dancing
Betrawati, September 16th, 2015 – Teej
Shoba has a shop next to the bridge,
where her one-year-old son is adored by all comers,
with smiling neighbors vying for a turn to hold him.
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If you would like to donate to UNICEF’s Nepal Earthquake fund please click here.
A short video clip of Shoba dancing.
Apsara and a friend
Kathmandu, 2011
In one of the two school-rooms of a school that my friend Mana started for rural children—about a 6km walk west of Manamaiju Marg—Apsara (in the turquoise sari), a teacher there, shares a laugh with a friend.
If you would like to donate to Mercy Corps’ Nepal Earthquake fund please click here.
If you would like to donate to UNICEF’s Nepal Earthquake fund please click here.
Bonus: a 16-second video from 2011 of Leena, one of Mana’s students (who you can see in the background of the above photo), doing a chicken impression.
