Solidarity in the City

Have you heard about the Bandhs in Kathmandu? What is a Bandh (pronounced ban) you ask? The city stands still, sort of. Let’s go back a bit.

Here’s the Third Grade version of local politics. There are basically three political parties in this country: the CPN-UL-Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist Leninist), the Nepali Congress (NC) and the Unified CPN-Maoist. In the last elections the Maoists won. However, the two losing parties decided if they put their followers (and votes) together and created a working coalition THEY could be the winners. Interesting notion. So they did, and they kicked the Maoists out of the Oval Office (so to speak).

Now, the Maoists want what’s rightfully theirs; they did win fair and square. So they make noise a lot. And on top of that, most of the people of this country want peace and stability. So, every so often the Maoists and a variety of other smaller groups, announce a citywide strike as an effort to have their voice heard by the ruling “party.” On Bandh days there are no cars allowed on the streets (bikes, scooters and motorcycles seem to be ok) and most shops and businesses close for the day. During some Bandhs riders are made to get off their motorbikes and walk (there are lookouts on the streets). Sunday—the first day of the workweek here in Nepal—was a Bandh day, thus, our driver could not fetch us for any shopping or sightseeing we might want to do. Boo. I am only here for a short time and Bandh’s can seriously cramp my style.

So, what do a couple of short-timers do on a Bandh day? Well, we hit the streets on foot. After a quick walk to my satellite office, The Summit Hotel, for a nice hot breakfast, we hoofed it to Pulchowk, a major thoroughfare, for a walk on the wild side. Well, it wasn’t so wild…but the streets were filled with people, rather than motor vehicles, and almost every corner had a contingent of riot police, complete with body shields and machine guns. The highest concentration of riot police happened to be outside my husband’s place of employment. When I voiced my surprise at the large number there, he mentioned that was pretty normal. Not sure if I feel good about or concerned for his safety. If you did see a car or truck whizzing by, it had a “Press” or “Police” sign plastered to the windows (aka “Please Don’t Shoot!”). We saw one motorbike with a sign on his scooter that said “Going to the Hospital”; I hope he made it. And while I would say that the majority of Bandhs are peaceful, on Sunday a bus of local hotel workers, on the way to work, was overturned on the road by protestors. They mean business…no business today!

But, street vendors were out selling socks and slippers, t-shirts and hats, crunchy soybeans and juicy papaya. We were hoping that some of the local shops would be open for business, but alas the only shopping refuge we found was the Pilgrim Book House, an absolutely amazing bookstore and a place we could spend HOURS. We had the shop to ourselves and after browsing for an hour or so, we picked up a Nepali cookbook, a DVD on Buddhism for Dummies and “1001 Pearls of Buddhist Wisdom” (I am frantically searching for the Zen inside me).

We made our way around our area of town, marveling at the massive number of people out-and-about with seemingly not much to do other than enjoy the warmish sun. When we finally got back to our refrigerator—oh I meant to say house—we hightailed it to the roof deck seeking the warmth of the sun (the power was off anyway so there wasn’t much else to do). While we were up there, a large motorcade of motorbikes carrying red-wearing, flag-waving protesters paraded down our street showing their solidarity for today’s mission. Their point was made loud and clear (evidently), but I don’t know what the point was exactly. Power to the People?!?

Later in the afternoon, we took our juice glass of red wine back upstairs and were greeted with an almost crystal-clear view of the snow-capped Himalayas. A haze of smog usually somewhat mutes the view of the mountains from our house, but this Bandh day lessened the exhaust in the air and gave us a jaw-dropping sight of Mother Earth’s majesty. We greedily grabbed our cameras and clicked away, but I fear what we get from the camera will not even come close to what we got with our eyes.

It’s interesting the things I have found in the “dark” here in Kathmandu. I was sort of dreading Bandh days. I thought they would be terribly boring and quite restrictive on discoveries during my short time here. While I have spent some cash on local crafts to bring back with me (like jewelry and woodcrafts) this day I got my most-treasured souvenir…I got the amazing Himalayas...the rooftop of the world…priceless!

Namaste