Mother Binda with her son Pratik and baby daughter Pratikshya
Mother Binda with her son Pratik and baby daughter Pratikshya
Tupche, 2000
Closer up on Binda and Pratikshya
Closer up on Pratik
Abina holding her son Swaroop
Abina holding her son Swaroop
Betrawati, 2005
amma (mother) Naradevi, babu (little boy) Arick (26 months), bua (father) Govinda, and bahini Bhumika
The Bhujul family in their shop along Naya Bazaar Marg
The Bhujul family in their shop along Naya Bazaar Marg
Naya Bazaar Marg, Kathmandu, July 15th, 2020
Bipin and his mother
Bipin and his mother
Manamaiju, Kathmandu, October 2015
I first took Bipin’s photo back in 2002, when he was bundled on his mother’s back while she was bringing in laundry. Now it is 13 years later, and Bipin is 14.
(I realize that in all this time, I have misplaced his mothers name in my notes—I plan to remedy that on my next walk-through)
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Bipin flying a kite
Wednesday, October 28th, 2015
Gayatri’s son
Gayatri’s son
Betrawati, 2002
[text below from a postcard I wrote on October 2nd, 2000]
"Gayatri and I were going to her office today; it's about an hour away, far up on one of the hills. She works for women's rights in Nepal. My aama (mother) here joined us for about half the way, then turned off onto a separate path to go see about a bi-see-quo (buffalo). Gayatri and I continued on—even though it was still early, only about 9:45am, it still felt like we were carrying the full weight of the sun on our backs.
The office where Gayatri works is tucked into the side of a hill, surrounded by green fields of millet. Inside it was nice and cool, and there was such a good cross-breeze that I was soon shivering in my sweat-soaked shirt. She and her co-worker Sangita prepared some tea for us which helped rid me of the shivers. They went about their work and I took the time to write. A little while later we ate the lunch that they prepared while Sangita softly sang along to a Nepali song on the radio."
(In the background of the above photo, you can see our neighbor seated in front of her house, stripping dried ears of corn of their kernals.)
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Gayatri, with her brother Ishoor, during a festival in 2000.
The make-up around Gayatri’s son's eyes is called kajal. You can see me holding a small tin of it below.
Mother with baby and son on porch
Mother with baby and son on porch
Tupche 2000
In a house above a small shop, a proud mother feeds her youngest son.
Down below people may be sharing news, buying white plastic bags of cooking oil, large bricks of Puja soap. If not helping in the fields, girls may be skipping rope, boys playing Carrom board, small children trailing empty plastic bags behind them like kites.
Although it lies just across a suspension bridge from Betrawati, I didn't get to Tupche more than a few times. It's a spread of terraced rice fields with a few clumps of houses and shops peppered here and there. To get from here to there you zigzag your way on the raised dike/walls that separate the fields. After the rice has been harvested children can play in the dry stubbly fields.
When I revisited Tupche two years later I walked by the house and the father, who I had not met previously, stopped me to thank me for this photo.
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I had been kneeling down on the porch to take the first photo; when I turned around I took this second photo.
A father sews while his son sleeps
A father sews while his son sleeps
Betrawati 2003
Next to the only road passing through Betrawati, a father works sewing clothes.
His son Swayta, fourteen months old, naps nearby atop an unrolled mat.
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Ganga and Ganesh
Ganga and Ganesh, mother and son
Betrawati 2003
My neighbors from a few doors down, I would walk pass their house several times a day.
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2011: Ganesh and his younger sister, in front of the small shop that his mother now runs in front of their house.
