With mid-winter chill hiding in the sun, the warmth is a bit of reminder for the people, the sun is pleasantly warm but can be little chilly at times. Nepalese have maintained their globally famous warm hearts and warm smiles outside, but their wallets are not that warm, and hearts are filled with anxiety and fear of uncertainty about the future.
Streets are buzzing, full of hustle and bustle. The hard ways of the new mayor of Kathmandu has surely made a huge difference in clearing up the streets of the vendors occupying the sideways and clogging the city. He has also managed to uproot a lot of illegal shanty town structures in the city, specially along the banks of the main river – Bagmati. A lot of ancient structures destroyed in the last major earthquake have been repaired and restored. All credits to the young fire brand mayor – Balen Shah. The city looks definitely cleaner, more organized and developed than my last visit here four years ago.
However the national mood is a different one. After talking to people I meet on the short visit, it seems there is a widespread frustration but hope too. As the politicians continue to bicker among themselves only to grab power and drag country backwards in all ways, people are putting in efforts to keep it running. In terms of commercial activity, small businesses seem to be everywhere with overwhelming number of shops, retail outlets, hotels, restaurants, grocery stores doing a reasonable business. A lot of tourists – mainly Indian and Chinese, seem to be flocking the streets and hot spots around town, most of which have been commercialized with little cafes, hotels, eateries, merchandise shops and so forth. However, I did notice the number of people actually buying stuffs is not all great in large numbers. The only way to get rich here for regular people is through real estate. There is a widespread accusation of politicians being corrupt and helping themselves to country’s coffers for themselves in billions. Political landscape is changing with new young faces entering the arena challenging the long ruling big parties. People seem to have pinned their hopes in these young guns while the existing old block is trying to squash them.
Just last week there was an incident where a couple of young kids were shot dead by cops in a riot related to exams to go to work overseas in South Korea. The desperation, especially among the young, is palpable on streets and in the country’s only international airport where a horde of youth leaving to work overseas can be seen. If you talk to any young person on the street – the cabbies, shop workers, nurses, even the doctors, government employees, private company workers, the chances are he or she is only waiting around till they find an opportunity to leave the country, it seems everyone wants to get out. This is what the country has come down to, young people just cannot see the future here. Many say the desperation is so serious, people might come down to looting for essentials in the not so far away future.
The only working-class people that seem to be relatively happy seem to be the young middle class earning enough to maintain an easy-going lifestyle, able to afford good living and have some extra for mild luxuries, transport – a bike or a car, internal travels and occasional visits to eateries, restaurants with friends and families. Roads are clogged with Indian motor bikes and Chinese, Korean cars, however there seems to be no place to park any of those, although the new firebrand mayor Balen Shah is working to resolve it by building proper space for the purpose. He has taken major steps to clean up the streets from street vendors and local shops spilling their stuffs on those. As a result, the streets look cleaner, wider and way more organized than before, kudos to him.
Hidden among the mess are few young entrepreneurs trying their best to survive and make something here rather than opting go leave the country. I met some software developers offering services to overseas clients, some hotel investors, exporters, NGOs who seem to defy the trend and placing their bets in the future of this place, hats off to those few. However as seen from the chaotic traffic where no one gives way to no one, where even an ambulance does not seem to be given a free passage, people seem to try to squeeze others whenever they can, so just blaming the politicians for all the mess won’t make any sense until they chance their own ways and become honest and ethical to each other.
At least the power outages are not that frequent, although still happening, the roads are improved a lot, the availability of flights to parts of country are much better. However the people still have to rely on buying water from the water suppliers as there is no running water in taps, or very rarely flowing.
Overall from outset the city seems to be running with relative peace and development. However under the surface people are on edge. Its really sad to see this beautiful and naturally rich country still unable to find its feet in the world.
Ravi Tandukar 