My first Bandh

I got my first taste of a 'Bandh' (or general strike) in Kathmandu this morning.

It was all sparked off by an incident yesterday when a lone Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) soldier entered a nearby mountian village called Chihandanda (in Nagarkot, where I got my first glimpse of the Himalayas) and shot randomly at a group of villagers killing 12. Supposedly there had been some kind of argument between him and the villagers earlier in the day and he then returned in the evening with a gun. This incidindent was then used by the seven opposition political parties (who have formed the 7-party alliance) as the spark it has (supposedly) been looking for to start a campaign of strikes and public protest against the government, the army and the king.

So last night a strike (Bandh) was announced in Kathmandu, which means all the shops are meant to stay closed, no buses, no taxis and no traffic is supposed to be on the roads - and the people are meant to come out onto the streets in protest. I walked into work with my colleague, it took us about an hour and we did not pass one open shop on the way, although there were a few brave taxis and people on motorcylces - I bumped into my new friend (who I met in yoga and is lovely) and she said that she saw a group of people attacking and throwing stones at a taxi (becasue it was trying to work). All around on the streets there were rocks and broken glass, from clahses between the students (who are the most politically active) and the army. On the main road near my work building there is a student campus and as we approached I could hear them all shouting anti king and anti government slogans. The air smellt of burning tyres, trucks of army soldiers were driving slowly passed and the road was littered with glass and rocks. As we approached, you could feel the tension in the street and u could see that something big was about to kick off. But at the same time it felt more strange than firghtening. If you looked across the street there were soldiers standing outside the gates of a campus and from behind the gates you could make out students yelling. If you looked up the street, in the distance there was a huge group of army men running in the opposite direction with riot gear and big batons and guns. But on our side of the street, people were just trying to get to work and chatting with friends and almost carrying on as normal. Occasionally, we would stop and nirmal (my colleague) would look around and we would scuttle up a side street and wait to make sure the protests were not coming our way, but other than that it was almost like watching it on television. I guess this is the part that you don't see on the news, the other side of the street where people are just getting on with their day and not throwing rocks and not yelling or protesting. Supposedly, Bandhs were a regular part of life before February 1st (when the King took control and shut down the news and the mobile phones and the internet and declared a national emergency) but there have not been any for a while. Now that the 7 party alliance is trying to bring down the present government, I think it may be a winter of discontent. I am just glad that I am friends with lots of Nepalis, as it means I will always know what is going on. The few tourists on the streets today, just looked so confused.