Relatives catch up during the Dashain festival

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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Four friends

Four friends
Manamaiju, Kathmandu, October 28th, 2015

Siblings Sachem and Subashna (in the blue and yellow) with their friends. In the sideyard entryway of their apartment building.

One of the first times I met Sachem and Subashna, they motioned me to bend down like they wanted to tell me a secret. I leaned down and canted my head to hear better, and they kissed my cheeks.

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Friends in the doorway of a beauty shop

Friends in the doorway of a beauty shop
Manamaiju, Kathmandu, October 28th, 2015

Perhaps one-hundred-and-fifty meters past Manamajiju Temple, the main street thins as it enters an area of older buildings built closer together.

On your right, as the road thins, there is a small two-doorway’ed beauty shop where I met these friends enjoying each others company.

Pantee (in purple),
Sujina (in the background) and
Kashari (in the red head scarf).

I believe it is Kashari’s shop.

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Parvati

Parvati
Manamaiju, Kathmandu, October 2015

I first met Parvati, along with her sisters Indramaya, Susmita and Ashmita, back in 2002. They were returning from farming and we were both taking the same trail up the side of a green hill to Manamaiju. I think they may have invited me for tea then, or perhaps it was later, when I brought them a photo of our first meeting. Like all in her family, Parvati has a wonderful smile, an easy laugh, and a heart of gold.

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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 and his mother back in 2002.

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Bipin flying a kite
Wednesday, October 28th, 2015

Mother and child

Mother and child
Dadagaun, Kathmandu, October 12th, 2015

Indira with her mother, near their house in Dadagaun.

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Jenisha and Samprada share a swing

Jenisha and Samprada share a swing
Dadagaun, Kathmandu, Friday, October 16th, 2015 – Dashain

During the festival of Dashain, it is a time to visit one’s family and eat good foods together (I liken it to Thanksgiving in the U.S.).

Buses are packed with people traveling home to their villages to visit.
Children fill the sky with small kites on incredibly long strings.
And when there is a free piece of land, neighborhoods build a ping [swing].

Fashioned from four strong pieces of bamboo, they are then tied to a crossbar at the top. From this, a thick loop of rope hangs down allowing a child (or two) to swing long and high. All day long you can see a varying line of children eagerly awaiting their turn for a ride on the ping.

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Salman

Salman
Manamaiju, Kathmandu, October 8th, 2015

I was walking though Manamaiju when Salman came up to me and asked if I would take his photo. He had seen the photo with his niece Sushma and wanted a photo of himself.

Behind Salman, some paper was being burned on the ground, leading to the smoky background that the sun’s shining through. Two boys in the background stand in front of Manamaiju Secondary School.

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Rabina

Rabina
Manamaiju, Kathmandu, Monday, October 12th, 2015

With a twelve-year-old photo (seen below) in hand, I went looking to see if I could find Sabina or Debika.

From the details of the old photo, I knew that the building they sat in front of in 2003 was now gone. We asked at a small shop, showing the photo, and were told to go down to the furniture shop.

Down the way a bit, under a blue tarp, a man worked with a chisel on lengths of wood, creating tenon joints. We showed him the photo and he motioned to a small room-sized building a stone’s throw away made from corrugated metal. Someone under the tarp called "Oh, Rabina bahini" and a moment later, Sabina’s younger sister Rabina came out and greeted us.

She loved seeing the photo of her older sister—younger in the photo than Rabina is now. She let us know that Sabina was fine, but that she lived in a different part of Kathmandu now. I was struck with how much Rabina looked like her didi [older sister].

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Rabina and her mother Sanu.

Anisha, Surej and Sushma

Anisha, Surej and Sushma
Beside Manamaiju temple, Manamaiju, Kathmandu, Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

When I walk past Manamaiju temple, I often see Sushma playing on the tiled area that surrounds it. On this day, her brother Surej was with her, as well as her friend Anisha.

As I take the photo, almost directly behind me is a stepped pit area with a spigot in the bottom. I believe it was used in the past for washing laundry, although right now the spigot doesn't seem to be providing any water.

Next to the stepped pit is Manamaiju Secondary School where (every day but Saturday) you can hear the sound of children rolling out over the metal gate. When school lets out at 4pm, the main street of Manamaiju is filled with students in uniform, walking in twos and threes and fours, carrying their backpacks, and talking and joking with each other.

The yellow wall seen on the left is the exterior of Manamaiju temple. The railing that surrounds it has scores of tiny shallow bowls that can be used as lamps during festivals. All they require is a bit of ghee [clarified butter made from the milk of a buffalo] or oil, and a small piece of wick.

Just to the right of the temple, you can see a home that was partialy broken apart in the earthquake and is now being disassembled for it's parts. The last couple of times that I have passed, a lone man standing atop the corrugated metal roof has been throwing down bricks for re-use. 

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The house as it's being disassembled. You can see how the walls are made of brick, with the floors and roof being supported by lengths of bamboo.