NURSING IN A PANDEMIC: Every evening at dusk Deepa Lama, 32, sets out from her house in Basundhara to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj, Kathmandu for her 12-hour shift. She is a surgical nurse at the hospital who will soon be working at the COVID-19 ward. During the three months of the nation-wide […]

RITES GO ON: Every evening, on the banks of Bagmati river by the Pashupatinath Temple, Navin Regmi, 25, sets up for the ‘Nitya Sandhya Aarati’, the evening Hindu ritual. The sounds of devotional Hindu music and blowing horns fill the surroundings followed by ringing bells. In the twilight evening, by the banks of the river […]

DATELINE JHAPA: “Everyone is panicking after our neighbour’s 15-year-old son got infected with the coronavirus. This is the first case of community transmission in the district. The municipality has been doing mass PCR tests. One person from each household is being tested, so I got tested. I tested negative, so I am relieved. The market […]

DATELINE JHAPA: “I am confined at home and I am eight months pregnant. I am due any day now. When there was a lockdown, I used to sneak out and go for walks, but now neighbourhoods are being sealed because of community transmission. I live in Dhulabari, and there are no hospitals here. My doctor […]

DATELINE JHAPA: “My 15-year-old son does not know how he got infected with the coronavirus. When the infection was confirmed, the municipality sent him to a local quarantine facility. He is asymptomatic and will only be sent to a hospital when he starts showing symptoms. As soon as the news of my son’s infection broke, […]

BAJURA FLOOD: It had been raining continuously for two days in Badimalika, Bajura. On 10 August 1 AM the Budiganga River, which separates the Ghagar and Rapka villages swelled and within 20 minutes, 17 houses, livestock, and large farming fields were swept away. After the flood, the land started slipping and the landslide left further […]

EVICTION NOTICE: Sita Tharu, 23, paid Rs. 5000 to hire a jeep in early August, and made her way back from Bansghari, Bardiya back to Kathmandu where she works as a daily wage earner. When she arrived at her rented house in Dallu, Kathmandu, the landlord refused to let her back. “The landlord and our […]

FROM A TESTING CENTER by Robic Upadhayay At the end of the queue is a medical professional who checks for fever, symptoms, and travel history. This is where they ascertain if a PCR test is necessary. Those who need PCR tests take another ticket and get their swabs done. There are six health professionals taking […]

FROM A TESTING CENTRE by Robic Upadhayay Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Kathmandu has been doing 300 PCR tests every day. The queue outside the hospital starts at 4 AM every day. Those with symptoms, those referred by doctors, including migrant workers who have arrived from outside of Kathmandu are given the first priority. […]

ROAD TO BAJURA: Nepal went into a nation-wide lockdown in March, and the months following that, I felt stuck. A youth protest, demanding better pandemic management, was going on in Kathmandu. And I had questions of my own: if Kathmandu is struggling, how is the rest of Nepal doing? I found a group of Bajura […]