Word: kathmandu
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...That encounter, to Sandhya's relief, never came to pass. In 1996, as a 14-year-old student from a town north of the capital Kathmandu, she joined Nepal's Maoist cadres at the moment when their armed insurgency had just begun to take hold of this rugged Himalayan nation, long a magnet for foreign backpackers and adventurers. Her father's military income meant Sandhya did not grow up among the country's many poor, but she chafed under the rigid caste laws and gender norms that blunted her parents' ambitions and stripped her of the same opportunities...
...tended to compete with members of my own expedition. I don't think I was unpleasantly aggressive, but I think I rather enjoyed grinding my companions into the ground on a big hill. I remember when [Everest expedition leader] John Hunt and I were walking in from Kathmandu to Everest, we crossed over a river and had to climb up a very long, steep hill. We were going to camp at the top of the hill. I always used to enjoy going fast up these hills, and at one stage I caught up to John, who was at least...
...then there was all that confusion about Tenzing getting on top first. When we got back to Kathmandu Valley, we were met by Communists - there was quite a strong Communist movement on the mountain and in the villages. Now, I'm not anti-communist by any manner or means, but there was no question they felt that it was most important that they should stress that Tenzing had got to the summit first. Whereas to the ordinary mountaineer, of course, it's a matter of complete indifference. So they got Tenzing aside, and they really batted away...
...most recent poll date was scrapped when the Maoist leadership, now cozily ensconced in Kathmandu, grandstanded on a set of divisive demands - including the outright abolition of Nepal's 240-year-old monarchy - that they had previously agreed would be resolved only after elections. Many in Kathmandu see that move as reason to doubt the Maoists' commitment to democracy, although the other parties have now sought to accommodate that demand by agreeing that the monarchy will be abolished once a Constituent Assembly is elected. For their part, the Maoists, who proclaim themselves the true champions of democracy in Nepal, plead...
...social and political ills plaguing Nepal. One describes the rigid caste prejudice that forever stunted his family's ambitions; a woman fighter rails against traditional patriarchies. Another soldier who comes from one of Nepal's indigenous ethnicities explains how the country still remains the fief of "hill people" around Kathmandu. The military brass of their erstwhile enemy, the Royal Nepal Army, hail from a few prominent families that have remained close to the monarchy for centuries...