back into the loving arms of kathmandu

Ah Kathmandu, five years I lived away from you and five years later you look exactly the same and yet you feel different, like a lover I left in pursuit of another.

You're still dusty, may be more. You're still crowded, may be more. You're still chaos. Still scary. Still lovely. You fill me with memories and yet you make me want to escape again.

For the first few weeks, I never left the company of my family. I never went anywhere unaccompanied. I grew up in Kathmandu and yet I had to be reintroduced to many places and habits. The second I stepped out of the comfort of my home, I had to remember to put on a mask, both for the pollution and for coping with this sudden change in lifestyle. I had to mask my disgust at the condition of the roads, I had to mask my surprise at my sister's warning about being careless about my phone and my zip-less bag, I had to mask my fright at the leering men at every corner, I had to mask my discomfort at the ease with which people seemed to disregard your private space. 

Walking the muddy streets of Kathmandu, you can see that people just aren't in a hurry to be or go anywhere. Coming from a very fast paced city, I couldn't help but notice how people do not have any respect for other people's time. And also how they expect you to understand when they bump into you rather hardly that they mean no hard feelings and that they would bestow you with the same understanding in such a case that you bump into them someday. If crossing the road was scary then it's a nightmare now. But as you get used to the fact that it's actually like a dance that can only be fulfilled with the matching rhythms of both the dancers then it isn't as frightening, really. 

Another startling change I had to come face to face was spending money in Kathmandu after five years. It's true I am used to spending foreign currency which is typically more expensive than the local currency but I can only manage to remember how "cheap" this and that used to be. "You bought this chatpate for how much?" I know if I convert it into Australian Dollars, it's not much. In fact, I would happily have paid much more back in Australia for what I have to pay here now. Still, I am yet to get used to walking into a restaurant, opening the menu and finding I have to pay at least thrice the price I used to pay for something as ordinary as mo:mo. 

It's only been a few weeks in and I have lot more to go. And I'm sure Kathmandu will take me back into its arms and make me feel home in no time. For, I am a Kathmandubaasi through and through and if there's one thing common between me and this city, it's that we are survivors and we can survive anything, even the dust, even the pushy people and even the अस्तव्यस्तता.