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. […]

Indigenous Pasts, Sustainable Futures is a research project initiated by Nepal Picture Library in 2019, as part of NPL’s ongoing endeavor to document, archive and present Nepal’s marginalized histories. As with our other projects, we are looking for innovative ways to engage with our pasts. Through research, archive building and storytelling, the project seeks to […]

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 […]

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: Samaira Shrestha, 21, is a student of social work. She joined the Satyagraha in Basantapur, Kathmandu demanding a better COVID-19 response from the Nepali government. For nine days, Samaira went without food and water but had to give up the Satyagraha fight when her health started failing. She says she will continue […]

LIVES SWEPT AWAY: Dulari Kapar, 30, was widowed when her husband Birendra was swept away by the Raato Nadi flood. Birendra had cycled 25 KM from home in Sangrampur to Janakpur to look for work when the nation-wide lockdown was lifted on 21 July. He did not make it home that day, and his body […]

SLIDING LAND: It had been raining non-stop for two days, and Shankar Deula, 43, was worried about his house. Built on a cliff in Pashupati Tole, Dhapakhel, Lalitpur, everyone in the neighbourhood thought his house was vulnerable to landslides. As the rain continued, he quickly moved his family and their belongings elsewhere. At 2 PM […]

MASK UP: Along the narrow alleyways of Tahachal is a two-story house. On the ground floor of that house is a small mask factory where Kusum Lama, 28 spends her days with six others making reusable cloth masks. When Nepal went into lockdown on 24 March to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lama decided to […]

NEW BORDER REGIME: It is mid-day and the India-Nepal border via the Mechi Bridge is busy. There are a handful of cars making their way, but most travellers returning to Nepal are walking the half kilometre on foot. About seven Armed Police Force personnel keep a watchful eye as returnees make their way. I arrive […]

STUCK ABROAD: Bhim Bahadur Khatri, 32, left for Kuwait two years ago. He worked as a cargo porter at an airport and earned about Rs 30,000. Earlier this year he started having issues with stomach ulcers and was hoping to make his way back to Nepal to be with his family. When the pandemic started, […]

STUCK IN NEPAL: Raj (name changed), 27, works as a welder in Saudi Arabia. He had been gone for four years when he decided it was time to visit his family five months ago. As he was preparing to leave, Nepal went into a nationwide lockdown, and Raj has been stuck in Nepal. He earns […]