I recently came back to Kathmandu after traveling to a few other towns in Nepal which included Butwal, Bhairawaha, Narayanghat, Tandi, Palpa, Syangja and Pokhara. As we entered Thankot, I had this feeling that I was entering a dusty over-sized shanty town or even a ghetto at a few instants. From my bus window, the sight looked like an incomplete slum-city gone hay-wire. It did not look anything like the Kathmandu Valley which just 5 centuries ago was hailed by travelers as one the most beautiful cities in the world they had seen!
Chaos has replaced Order here. A well-built temple city has turned into a partly built maze. An open orderly city of green neighborhoods transformed into ash colored concrete jungle. A lean town morphed into an obese city. A wonder to behold slipped into becoming to a wonder to avoid.
Its been a slow realization for me, that this city is simply a manifestation of its citizen’s attitude, behaviors and their way of life. Today’s Kathmandu is an accurate reflection of our attitude to our lives, our focus, our mental state and our beliefs. And sad to say that it’s current state reveals that we seem to have become mindless,numbing sheep focused on our self-destructive selfishness. Simply, Kathmandu visualizes you and me in a grand mirror. As citizens of Kathmandu, it is in our blood to blame others for the problems that we face here today. Many times we blame the government, the city authority, the donors, the insecurity or the gulf between the rich and the poor. Yet it is our own lack of civic sense and irresponsibility to our society and environment . Kathmandu has become a city that blames, that avoids responsibility, and a city that doesn’t seem to love itself. (i.e a reflection of our behaviors).
As Kathmandu citizens we have failed so miserably that this has become a place, where citizens actually bribe officials so they can build unsafe houses to put their own families in (i.e put their families in mortal danger!) So how do we turn back this clock? Kathmandu can still be turned around. Here are a few ways our generation can turn back the clock on our Kathmandu turning it back into one of the most beautiful, responsible cities of the world.
Kathmandu, a heritage valley?
Maybe one reason we have failed is because we have forgotten our Continue reading →