Change is fun

It’s amazing how the weather here changed, what it seems, overnight. One day it was gloomy, dark and rainy, and the next morning I was awoken to sun peering in through the curtains and deep blue skies. Rain has given way to the sun. Monsoon has given way to the dry season. Yes, there still is occasional rain, but days have become significantly cooler, sunnier and spring-like. And the best part of all – there is a constant breeze that makes the air cleaner, clearer and cooler. It also drives all the kids up to the rooftops with kites in their hands. Have you ever read that book “The Kite Runner”? I have. It’s a good book. I’m not mentioning it because of all the bad stuff that happens in the book, but rather because of the tradition of kite flying. Apparently that does not happen only in Afghanistan. It seems kids here cannot wait for this time of the year when they climb their rooftops and fly kites all day long. When you look up to the sky, all you see is colorful kites making circles in the wind.

Didn’t snap any photos myself so I used this one from ExploreHimalaya.com

The other day was Nepal bandh here in Kathmandu. Bandh is essentially a strike called by whoever is not satisfied with something (usually political parties) which stops the life in the city completely. No vehicles are allowed on the roads, and all the markets and major businesses close for that day. It’s extremely inconvenient and annoying because it doesn’t really do much in achieving the goals of whoever called the bandh, but it significantly negatively affects the life or normal people who still need to get to work, this time walking all the way to their offices. I think the only ones happy because of the bandh are kids. There is no school and they are free to play all day long. As I said, the other day was bandh, which meant all the kids stayed home from school. When I looked out the window I saw kites whooshing out in the sky and I realized that almost every rooftop had a kid on it, playing and running around. It was an amazing sight. Apparently, Dasain time, which is coming up in December is the time when people get together, eat, play cards, celebrate and fly kites. I am excited to witness it myself. I noticed we have a kite up here in the attic waiting for the right time to be released towards the deep blue sky. I think it’ll be an awesome day when that happens.