Pokhara tales.
One of the small bars I frequent in Pokhara sells a lot of hash. It sits on the first floor of two in an old building that is open on three sides allowing you to light up and watch the main tourist thoroughfare and its goings on below. I’ve got to know the one and only employee quite well at the bar and perhaps twice a week I’ll spend a few hours of the afternoon chatting with him rum in hand as we watch the world go by below, or the hippies coming up the stairs for a tola (ten gram stick of hash) or a smoke.
A few days ago he approaches me as I sit down and I notice a swelling on the side of his face and a partially closed eye. He tells me his girlfriend tried to commit suicide the day before by drinking a cleaning product. He found her in the bedroom frothing at the mouth and then took her to the hospital for treatment. Her family were notified and joined him in the hospital where they proceeded to beat the shit out of him for not looking after their daughter/sister, he told me he was lucky a police officer was called from a floor below otherwise he really would have taken a thrashing.
I asked him as to why his girlfriend would try and take her life to which he said she was unhappy in their relationship. Pressing him further he admitted to not liking her leaving their apartment, he needs to know where she is and believes all women should comply to their man’s wishes unquestioningly and do as they’re told. There entailed a lengthy discussion about equality, partnership, personal rights and the like to which I was told in a round about way to leave my western ideas at the airport.
Every morning I have to walk below the bar on my way to breakfast and so today I decided to pop up to see how he was getting along. The guy has taken another beating from the family as they cleared his partner’s belongings from his apartment.
Not perturbed, he tells me he’ll wait for a couple of weeks for emotions to subside then go and take his girlfriend back. I said, you can’t make this woman go with you against her will to which he replied “she has to do what I say.”
This chap may be in for more of the same or worse.
Behind the namaste's, Nepal is no different to many other destinations on the pancake trail - removing the thin veneer of hospitality reveals a grubbiness all of its own.
Attempted Suicide and the Beatings Continue
Attempted Suicide and the Beatings Continue
"That was probably Londo...He is always shitty." - Marvin
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