FESTIVE KATHMANDU

CITY OF FESTIVALS

Kathmandu, also famous for festivals. People here celebrate at-least one festival every month. City of diversity, city of culture, city of festival any theme can be appropriate for Kathmandu. 

Best Festivals with Their Month.

1. February/March

My favourite festival named "HOLI" is celebrated in February or March depends upon the Nepali calendar. Holi is well known as the festival of colours. Everyone enjoy this event by spreading colours of joy. Basantapur area is the most popular area for celebrating Holi in Kathmandu. Thousands of people gather there and enjoy this event with their beloved one. Great Britain Prince, Harry had also celebrated Holi in Nepal.

2. September

Living Goddess "KUMARI"

In the month of September, people here celebrate event known as "INDRA JATRA". The event in which we praise Lord Indra, lord of rain and a living goddess. Living Goddess is a girl chosen from Kathmandu valley who lives in Kumari Bahal. The girl is chosen after several processes or tests. And she is not allowed to have children for life if she is declared kumari. This festival lasts for eight days.

3. October

A kid getting blessings from his grandmother.

The month of holidays for Nepali people as the longest celebrated festival falls in this month. "DASHAIN", the main festival of Nepali/Hindu people, which is celebrated for 15 days.  In this festival, we praise the goddess, Durga. She has 9 avatars and each avatar is praised each day for 9 days and on the 10th day, we celebrate Dashain by having family reunion and elder put tika to younger people and give blessings. This festival is also celebrated to respect elders.

4. October/November

House Decorated For Tihar

The festival of lights, the festival for brother and sister, "TIHAR" is celebrated in this month. Also known as Diwali or Deepawali. This festival lasts for 5 days. The festival is celebrated by worshipping animals and bird like the crow, cow, dog etc. And later we worship the goddess Laxmi, goddess of earnings/wealth. On the last day, there is an event for brother and sister named as "Bhai Tika", in this day brother and sister put tika on each other's forehead, exchange gifts, eat delicious food. This day is known as the symbol of love between siblings.

LIVING IN KATHMANDU AS A FOREIGNER

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE TO BE IN

 KATHMANDU?

There are many people living in Kathmandu, many are nationalist while as some from other nation live here too. Living as a foreigner is very difficult in Kathmandu. Many people think that Kathmandu is a very beautiful place to live, lots of temples, and much imaginary goodness. I admit that Kathmandu is a beautiful place to live if you are a fund of travelling to temples and if you are religious. But that doesn't help to survive. It will not get you to eat. Some of the things you should consider if you're planning to migrate to Kathmandu are described in this blog and it applies for both foreigners as well as citizens of Nepal from other districts.

Mistakes most of the people make while migrating to Kathmandu.

People specially migrate to Kathmandu thinking they will get a better job opportunity, better education, better facilities, etc. These are the basic needs for survival nowadays. Most of the people make this mistake while migrating to Kathmandu, lack of research. Before even thinking about migrating to Kathmandu, you better search for a job. Else your life will be miserable here and I see lots of people regretting because of it. And finding a job in Kathmandu is not that easy. So you better find a job.

Things Foreigners should consider.

1. Misconception of cost

It cost more than you think

Living in Nepal as a foreigner is strenuous. Travelling to Kathmandu is fun but living here may be hard. Foreigners think that Kathmandu or Nepal is the cheapest place to live but they are completely wrong the price or cost of everything is increasing rapidly and more for the foreigners.

2. Can you find a Nepali Partner?

You should know that you will always be treated as a foreigner no matter how much Nepali language you know or how much knowledge you have about Nepal and its people. Unconsidering this factor will lead you to a difficult life. If you are a single person then you should know a strange fact about Nepal that you can get a partner if you are a lady but not if you are a man. I don't know why but it's true.

3. Buying land.

As a foreigner, you might as well think that you can buy land and get into the law of Nepal but the law of Nepal is against that. If you are a foreigner you can't own land here. You can gift money to someone to buy land but it will never be in your name. 

4. Will you be able to deal with racism?

You should also be aware of the caste division and racism in Nepal. Every foreigner is treated differently here according to the Nation you belong to. Americans or White peoples are treated more superiorly than any other nationality. And Indians are given kinda low priority. People are specially treated according to the value of their currency basically.

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If you are aware of the above things you are good to pack your bags and get a ticket for Kathmandu. Things might be different than you think but its a great place to live as a CITY OF TEMPLES.

POLLITICAL AFFAIRS

ELECTION OF PRESIDENT

Main political parties of Nepal are Congress, CPN UML, and Maoist. There are many other political parties too. Due to which there is less co-operation among politicians of political parties. Politics of Nepal has changed miserable after the end of the Monarchy system, the rule of The King. All the power of parliament is under the control of Prime Minister. The present prime minister of Nepal is Khadga Prasad Oli (K.P. Oli). And the head of the parliament is the president, Bidhya Devi Bhandari.

Why Nepali Citizens Hate Politician.

Every citizen of Nepal wants to see the country developed but it's not going that way because of this government formed by the politicians. There are so many reasons for hating Nepali politicians, some of them are described below.

1. Power and Fame, no development

Politicians of Nepal are more concerned about their fame, power, and money. All of them work for money rather than the development of the country. They fight for the chair rather than the development of the country. As a result, people are not satisfied with the work of politicians.

Politicians Fighting Inside Parliament

2. Easy Money A.K.A Corruption

Corruption is the main reason for slower development in every country. In the case of Nepal, the corruption is increasing day by day as every person of parliament is infected by it. Every person in the parliament work for money and nothing is easier than earning money from corruption. Nepal is listed as 124th least corrupted country among 175 countries of the world. It is the main reason people develop hatred towards politicians.

Cartoon Illustration of Politicians of Nepal

3. Under Control of Neighbours

Every politician delivers a speech about independence but they are doing the opposite of it. As we all know that they are forced by neighbours country China/India or we can say that politicians are sold to neighbours country. As our country is a landlocked country, we are dependent on neighbors country for everything but that doesn't mean that they can control our parliament. In 2015, India blocked the import of fuel in Nepal and wanted to interfere in the political matters of Nepal.

4. No Transparency

Politicians of Nepal are not honest in their work. They deliver a speech in a nice way but they work exactly differently which results in no transparency. Citizens cannot trust politicians no more. For example, we heard the recent news that the government signed an agreement with Ck. Raut, a person who was declared as a traitor by the whole nation, after he got out of jail. Which is beyond logical.

VALLEY OF TEMPLES

CITY OF TEMPLES

Kathmandu is also known as the city of temples. The valley consists of more than 250 temples with a majority of Hindu and Buddhist build in pagoda style. Among them, seven are listed in the world heritage sites by UNESCO. The Kathmandu valley is well recognized throughout the world by its iconic and remarkable view of temples. Every temple has its own importance and made to worship for a specific god or goddess.

My Visit to Temples.

I had visited all the seven world heritage sites and many other temples in the Kathmandu valley. In this blog, I am going to some world heritage sites I have visited.

1. Pashupatinath Temple

The Pashupatinath is well known as the temple of God Shiva. It is located on the bank of the Bagmati river. River Bagmati is considered as a holy river so many people visit there to bath in that river and there is a belief that after taking bath in the river all the bad deeds of people will get washed out.

I visited Pashupatinath Temple on the occasion of  Shivaratri. Shivaratri is a day when we worship God Shiva. It was a nice visit to the temple. I came to know about different things about Lord Shiva.

There were 100s of Shiva Lingam and people were worshiping it by pouring Milk. In my opinion, it was a waste of milk but its a culture of ours.

2.Patan Durbar Square

Patan Durbar Square is not located really in the Kathmandu city but its located in heart of Lalitpur and its inside Kathmandu valley. It is well known as the durbar of late Malla Kings. It is surrounded by many other temples. It holds importance for Newaris as well as Buddhist people. The whole durbar is made in the square format. It is the good engineering of late Malla kings. The main attractions of this durbar square are:

~Patan Museum 

~Golden Temple

~Mahabouddha Temple

~Krishna Temple

3. Bhaktapur Durbar Square

Bhaktapur Durbar Square is situated in Bhaktapur, the eastern part of Kathmandu Valley. This historical temple signifies the traditional Nepali arts and culture. It is well known as 55 windows Palace (Pachpanna Jhyaley Durbar, in Nepali). By its name, we get to know that it consists of 55 windows. The main attractions of this durbar square are:

~55 windows palace

~Golden gate

~Nyaptol Temple

4. Swoyambhunath Temple

It is the sacred temple or stupa of Buddhist. It is located inside the ring road of Kathmandu city. It's among the most important Buddhist stupa. It is one of the most popular stupas among Nepalese and Tibetan. It is crowded mainly on the occasion of Buddha Jayanti, the birthday of Lord Buddha. It is a sign of peace.

Lord Buddha, Light of Asia✌️

STRUGGLE TOWN

Struggle in Ktm

Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal is the city of the struggle for everyone. Searching for better facilities and better education, many people migrate to Kathmandu. But the reality is that nothing can be achieved without a struggle in this city. Struggle for everything and for everyone. Students, as well as officers, face lots of problem living here. 

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE  

 I am a student living in Kathmandu. As a student, I have faced plenty of problems after migrating here. At first, the main problem of mine was finding a flat or room for rent. I was roaming here and there in the street of Kathmandu, the flat I found were either too expensive or very far from my college. It made me feel why did I chose Ktm for my higher studies but after some days I got a nice 2 room flat in samakhushi. But the problem didn't end here, another main problem was to reach to my college. Even though my college is like 6.2km far from my flat, I had to take two public vehicles (microbus) to get there. Two vehicles were fine for me but it was a huge struggle to get a seat in that vehicle and that's what I hated the most. I usually had to stand in such a low height vehicle.

Condition of people traveling in micro bus

The main fear of mine traveling in vehicle was pick pocketers. And there are plenty of those in the public vehicles of Kathmandu. Even though police are investigating those stuff, there are still existence of such crimes. Everyone should be aware about those crimes if they are traveling in public vehicles here.

Another main struggle for me was to manage time and I know its struggle for everyone. You can never trust road of Kathmandu neither the traffic . I was unable to manage time cuz of the bad traffic management . Sometime it took me 45 minutes to get to the college and sometime it took me 30 minutes but one day it took me more than 1hr because of huge traffic jam and I was late in college.

I love dogs more than humans and it hurts me seeing that even dogs are struggling to survive in Kathmandu. The condition of stray dogs is worst here.  

"The city of Kathmandu, Nepal is home to more than 22,500 street dogs. They are commonly afflicted with injuries from collisions with cars, starvation, open sores with maggot infections, severe skin problems such as mange, and infectious ailments. Puppies especially struggle to survive in hostile environments."

(http://www.katcentre.org.np/situation/)

    

DUSTY KATHMANDU

KATHMANDU OR MASKMANDU

Kathmandu being the capital city of Nepal is the most polluted city. Not only in Nepal but in the whole world its among the most polluted city. Living in Kathmandu is like living in a place full of dust and smokes. A non smoker of Kathmandu might have inhaled more smokes and dust than a daily smoker of a foreign country. It's such a shame for our country as 7 heritage sites lies in Kathmandu. 

Data Posted In The Himalayan Times

Kathmandu, known as the city of Temple, has now transformed itself into the city of pollution. It is a struggle for everyone living in Kathmandu. People cannot travel without wearing mask that's why I have named it as MASKMANDU. We can also hear people calling it "Dhulomandu" where dhulo means dust in Nepali language. Many cleaning campaign are being held in order to make it a suitable place to live but nothing seems to work. 

Personal Review

In my opinion, the pollution is the deep rooted problem of Kathmandu. Its increasing day by day. It has been problem for everyone. Me as a student its hard for me to get to college with a clean dress even if i wore the dress for the first time. Its same for everyone. Everything is polluted, from public vehicles to streets. Mainly it's because of bad road, every road in Nepal is consider as off-road as there are potholes everywhere. In rainy season it is a nightmare for everyone to walk in the street as they get splashed by dirty waters as the vehicles will drive through potholes.

 But if we go deeply into the causes, we can do nothing but blame ourselves as we are the one who live in Kathmandu and we are responsible for this pollution. It cannot be solved in a single day. Neither a single organization can solve it. It will take efforts of every person and mainly with the support of government. We should be aware about it and should start from ourselves. At first we should start at our own locality, should organize cleaning campaign. We all know a famous quote "Rome wasn't build in a single day". It will be applied in this case too as it will take a lot of time to make Kathmandu dust free but we should start from today with no excuses of tomorrow. 

 Cleaning campaign held by Divine Youth Club

NGOs and Governmental organizations also plays a vital role to make people aware about the problem and how to solve it. At first, government should manage wastes properly as well as road should be repaired. Rather than being depend on government we should change ourself. If we cannot find dustbin nearby, we should carry our wastes (like plastic, chocolate wrappers etc) in our bag or pocket and throw when we get home in the dustbin. A single change in our habit will change a lot. 

              GREEN KATHMANDU, CLEAN KATHMANDU...

ABOUT

Kathmandu

The Crowded City

Kathmandu is the capital city of Nepal. It is the largest city of Nepal with more than 1.5 million population. City is at a height of approx 1,400 meters or 4,600 feet above sea level. It is the most crowded city of Nepal.

Kathmandu is the center of Nepali arts, culture, history and economy. It is the most diverse city in terms of caste, culture, religion and language too. It has a multi-ethnic population with Hindus and Buddhist majority. Also known as home town of Newaris.

Hindus

Buddhist

Nepali is the most spoken language of Kathmandu but English is used widely. Still people use their native language like Newari, Gurung etc.

Tourism is one of the important part of economy as it is the gateway to the Nepalese Himalayas and home to seven world heritage sites.
"In 2013, Kathmandu was ranked third among the top ten upcoming travel destinations in the world by TripAdvisor, and ranked first in Asia. "

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathmandu)

The major problem of Kathmandu city are over-population, air pollution and bad management of traffic. It is the most populated as well as polluted city of Nepal. Kathmandu known as a struggle town for students as well as job holders. It is a tough city to survive but employment opportunity as well as quality education is provide so people have to migrate to Kathmandu. 

                                                                                                                      (Facts from wikipedia)