SORROW OF THE RETURNED: Mojmil Miya Hawari, 37, left his hometown Birgunj for Saudi Arabia, with the hope of making a living for his family. He worked as a tea boy in an insurance company, but it closed down when the pandemic hit. He had not been paid for three months, and the company refused […]

APPLE OF HIS EYE: Lokdarshan Shrestha, 63-year, is an apple farmer and he is excited about apple harvest this year. “Other farmers are worried that their apples will rot as they won’t sell, but I am not worried,” says Shrestha, “My apples will sell, I am confident.” Shrestha has a family of nine including seven […]

NO END TO PAIN: It was September 2015 and Jaleshwar was tense. People in town had taken to the streets demanding a more Madhesi inclusive constitution as the lawmakers in Kathmandu were trying to pass it. Rajwati Paswan, 35 was out on the streets with the protestors, “Women wanted a constitution that did not trample […]

TERRACE TUITION: Mahima Bishwakarma, 19, used to teach at a secondary school, but had to stop due to the pandemic. She had other plans for her future. Bishwakarma had been accepted to study culinary arts at a school in Germany and was to leave in August, but those plans also had to be put on […]

DAILY WORRIES: In Martadi, near the town’s bus park stands a rusty tin box where Tulsi Giri, 31, has been selling petrol for the last three years. There are no designated petrol pumps in Bajura, so Giri’s husband started the shop five years ago, and she took over when he got a job as a […]

REBUILDING HOPE: Patan Durbar Square may be deserted during the pandemic, but the reconstruction of the Bhimsen Temple hasn’t stopped. Damaged by the 2015 earthquake, the work is in full swing with 23 labourers, including eight women who work inside the fenced premises. Menuka Maharjan, 42, is assisting some of the masons and carpenters. Originally […]

THE INVISIBLE ENEMY: At the entrance of Masa: Galli, Kathmandu, a security guard stands with a thermal gun in one hand and a bottle of sanitizer spray in another. Ram Basnet*, 29, is from Jajarkot. He moved to Kathmandu seven years ago to take the civil service exam. After a fourth unsuccessful attempt at passing […]

SCULPTING AND SAVING by Sikuma Rai Keshar Tamang, 33, is cooped up in a small corner in his rented room in Lalitpur hammering away. He nails, cleans, files to make foot-high Bajrapan and Bajrakila Buddha copper sculptures. These statues are exported to Tibet but the last few months of the pandemic have been hard for […]

JUMLA UPDATES: In July when Saru Nepali’s husband Lokesh returned to his village in Bohoragaun, Chandannath Municipality, Jumla from India, the couple quarantined themselves. Saru says being in a quarantine facility was hard, “When I was in quarantine, I was alone in a room with no lock or curtains,” she says, “The toilet was far […]

ESSENTIAL SERVICE: Aarti Mestar, 29, works as a cleaner at the Jaleswar Hospital. She has left her 10-year-old daughter at home to take care of three other children, one of them is an infant daughter. She works in eight-hour shifts every day in and around the emergency room. “I work in contract, and I am […]