Passion for fashion

With one lady dressed in a bright gold coat, another in a crop top and sharp blazer, and another one sporting golden chandelier earrings, they are easily the most fashionable group at the table. Perfectly turned out in the most happening accessories—one of them wears a braid hanging out of a topknot that ends in a laccha, another wears colored mascara, and another wears patterned lenses— they are the fashion bloggers of Nepal.

Though it’s still nascent, the fashion blogging scene, which consists of women posting about outfits, styles, accessories, and makeup, is quite happening in Nepal. 

“I just had so many clothes lying around in my closet,” says Shreya Rai, one of the bloggers, “that I just decided one day to put them to good use, and started blogging.”

Most bloggers started out like that, because they had a lot of clothes at their disposal, loved fashion and loved taking photos of themselves.

For Sanna Gurung, blogging and posting doesn’t even feel like work, because dressing up and taking photos is something she loves to do anytime.

Though it may seem like fashion blogging is an expensive proposition, bloggers point out that if you love fashion, you’re always shipping anyway, so they aren’t going out of the way. 

However, the bloggers do agree that fashion blogging is a lot of hard work. You have to dress up, you have to have a location, and then you have to take the photographs, and all that before you actually publish the post on your blog.

Having the photographs taken is the hardest part, the bloggers agree. “Sometimes my friends are like, why are we taking so many photos of you? Let’s not do it today,” says Pravina Adhikari who is lucky to have a supportive sister, Sabina, take her photographs.

“If one friends refuses me, I ask another, and then another,” says Sunu Rai. “If not, I’ll ask my sister. If not, my mother, and if not, father. And if not even that works, I get a tripod and take the photo myself,” she finished.

And then they have to contend with the things that everyone says about their seemingly narcissistic passion. “Show off” is the word heard most often, while people also come up with “nakkali” and its synonyms.

The comments that men face are even more discouraging, which is the reason men’s fashion blogging never really took off in Nepal, though a few have tried.

The women’s strategy to deal with such comments is to hear it from one ear and blow it out the other.

“It’s about looking beautiful, and looking good increases your confidence,” says Shweta Gurung. For Sunu, it’s about showcasing her originality, and without her fashion statement she doesn’t have a unique identity. And Sanna believes fashion cannot be dismissed lightly, because it’s a talent. “It is a talent to know what goes with what, to figure out what works best for every person. And us fashion bloggers are able to spot trends before they become trends in the mainstream,” she explains. 

For some of them, fashion is more than just passion. Sanna doesn’t blog any more but has an online store called modishlyrad.com where she sells clothes and accessories. Shweta Gurung used to be a VJ at Channel Nepal where her show was related to fashion. Dolkar Lhamo worked as a stylist for Navyata magazine.

And Khusbu Gauchan has made a career out of fashion, where she gets sent outfits by fashion labels. Once her blog became popular, she was approached by fashion labels themselves. All Khusbu needs to do is wear the outfits they send, and post it on her blog. She is paid US$15 for every post and extra for the clicks and sign-ins on her site. And if she isn’t able to post the outfit within a week of receiving it, she can still keep the outfit.

Many people learn about new trends from bloggers, and imitate these trends. Celebrities are also trendsetters in that way, but celebrity fashion is often high-end and not affordable for the general public.

“Bloggers are like a bridge between celebrities and normal people,” says Nitika Thapa, a designer and aspiring blogger. “Celebrities wear clothes, but bloggers explain them, which makes it easy for normal people to relate to and wear.”

And today, in the day of Instagram, bloggers have as much reach among fashion-conscious youngsters as celebrities. That makes them  as powerful and influential in the world of fashion as celebrities.

No wonder celebrity bloggers are courted by big names in other countries. 

“There are many opportunities for popular fashion bloggers abroad,” says Sanna. “Their outfits are free, and they get many other things, like trip to cities.” She shares that ‘meet and greet’ programs are organized for popular bloggers, where admirers come to mingle with bloggers, take pictures, and share advice.

But in Nepal, there’s a peculiar lack of enthusiasm among readers to interact with popular fashion bloggers.

“I’m sure a lot of people know my style and admire it,” says Sanna who gets 100-200 hits a day on her page. “But people are just not willing to acknowledge it in public.” Khusbu also agrees that though she gets a lot of traffic from Nepal on her blog, she gets very little interaction from Nepali users as compared to foreign ones, which means that though Nepalis are looking at her site, they aren’t commenting.

Dolkar attributes this phenomenon to the general lack of celebrity culture in Nepal. Besides, the Nepali fashion market itself is so small that getting sponsored by Nepali fashion labels is a distant dream for now.

Still, Dolkar believes the fashion blogging scene in Nepal is improving. “When we started out three years ago, there were less than fifteen fashion bloggers on the scene,” she remembers. But now they have a good sized community where they share ideas and communicate about fashion. Shreya, who took a break from blogging for a while, came back because people kept telling her they missed her posts. “It is encouraging to know that your work is actually helping someone. That’s what keeps me going and makes me believe there’s scope for fashion blogging in Nepal,” she shares her experience.

Sanna also has plans for her online store while Khusbu hasn’t thought of an alternative career other than the one she has now. Sunu, meanwhile, is studying art and fashion in the UK, and plans to design for a career. All of them believe in doing something they love for their career, and cannot think of doing something that doesn’t revolve around fashion. It makes one believe that if one has the passion and dedication, making a career in fashion is definitely possible, and perhaps the day isn’t far when Nepali fashion bloggers also can be sustained by the Nepali market itself.

Inheritance of duty

 

Yogesh KC was taking a team of sanitation workers to Baglung. He ordered tea for everyone at a hotel, not realizing that the hotel would make them wash their own glasses. They came from the traditional caste of cleaners, considered very low on the caste hierarchy, and it was common for them to be denied access to taps, temples, and public places like hotels.

“That was twenty years ago,” says Yogesh. “Things have improved for them as regards social stigma. But many other things like their health and education are still problematic.”

In Kathmandu, most people who sweep streets and pick up liter from public places are from the Chyame caste, and such problems are common occurrences for them.

Arun Chyame, 40, is one of them. The unlettered man has been working at the municipality for more than twenty years. His duty consists of sweeping, shoveling garbage on to trucks, and cleaning drains when they get stuck.

Arun cleans the drains by hand, and does not use the protective gear that the government provides.

“If I wear a mask, I can’t breathe,” he laughs. He washes his hands before eating, but sometimes he forgets. “Of course my family yells at me,” says Arun. “But I’ve been doing this work for so long that I’ve gotten used to it.”

Arun believes that through practice, he has acquired the power to fight the negative influence of the filth that he works with.

Like Arun, most sanitation workers have taken their work as a fact of life.

“Most people would feel disgusted by this kind of work, but I don’t feel that anymore,” says Laxmi Chyame, 50. Instead, what she and Arun worry about is that their children won’t get to continue their profession.

“This has been our profession for generations,” says Lakshmi, “and our children should get the same opportunities. But the government hasn’t been taking any new entrants for a long time.” Her six children, ranging in age from 30 to 20 are jobless, and only work when they find temporary employment.

Yogesh KC, President of Sanitation Workers’ Union, informs that twenty years ago, there were 1,600 sanitation workers in Kathmandu Municipality. Now the number has dwindled to 800. One reason is that some of the workers are getting out of the difficult profession. The other is that the government is slowly handing sanitation work over to private companies to reduce costs. But private companies don’t pay as much as the government does, and the job is not secure, either.

“For those traditional cleaners who remain, their main concern is that their future generations should also have secure employment,” he informed.

The younger generation, on their part, is not so sure that they want to continue on the same path.

Kamala Deula, 28, works in sanitation at the local community hospital but hopes her children will be able to get out of the cycle and do something else.

“Our work is good in a way because we help to keep the environment clean,” says Kamala who has studied up to grade seven. “But we are also exposed to germs all the time, and I dislike that part of my work.”

The other part that the younger generation is worried about is the shame that their caste brings with it. In the past, when people walked past them on the streets, they used to gather their clothes around them and walk as far as possible so as not to touch them. Society has changed a lot, and they are not as discriminated against as before, especially in public places like shops and temples. But following the deeply rooted living patterns of Kathmandu, they still live in the same communities where everyone knows them. And many older and traditional minded people continue these discriminations.

“Even when people swear, they name us,” says Arun. “I’ve heard higher-caste people say many times that they aren’t like Chyame, and that’s disheartening.”

Hence, many younger people, including Arun’s children, don’t like to be identified as Chyame anymore, instead choosing to call themselves “Newar” or “Nepali.”

Kamala also dislikes that this profession has been handed down through generations.

“I’m not ashamed of where I come from,” says she. “After all, my parents raised me by working hard in this profession.”

Besides, Kamala knows that history is not something you can run away from, especially in a place where everyone knows your history.

Instead, what young people want is options for themselves.

“Sanitation is something that the entire community should take part in,” says Kamala. “If that happens, there can be a way out of this hazardous profession for anyone who wishes to leave.”

The problem, says Yogesh, is that so few of them are educated that they don’t see any other viable option. Even though the Sanitation Workers’ Union encourages education by facilitating every youngster who completes SLC, only as few as 10% of the youngsters manage to graduate from school.

“We can’t educate our children much, only a little,” says Laxmi. “And when even educated people have a hard time finding jobs, what chance do we have?”

Having accepted their situation, they want to find ways to make the best of it through secure employment.

And the other thing that sanitation workers strive for is respect. They want the stigma attached to their caste to be replaced by a fair evaluation of their work. They want the discriminations to end, and to be treated as equal members of the society by the so-called ‘higher castes.’

BOX

Yogesh KC, President of Sanitation Workers’ Union, has worked in sanitation for more than twenty years, and knows the workers’ issues intimately.

What are the biggest challenges for sanitation workers?

Health is their biggest challenge. Street-level workers often fall ill with cough and develop asthma over time. Hepatitis B and C are also very common among them since they have to handle metals and glass everyday which cut them.

What can be done to better protect their health?

The government provides them a set of protective gears which includes a mask, a pair of gloves and boots. But only one set is provided every year, which wears out very soon. They need more. And when they fall ill, they get no subsidies from the government, which is not fair, considering what a great risk their job is to their health. The Sanitation Workers’ Union has been asking the government to allocate one or more government hospitals where they can get facilities and medicines at discounted prices.

What other demands does the Sanitation Workers’ Union have?

The streets have to be clean before everyone else is up and about, so sanitation workers begin working at 5 AM. We want these hours to be counted as overtime and given 50 % extra compensation.

Words: 1146 /1,134 Sewa / November 13 / For The Week Edited by Peter

False expectations

Salina Pradhan (name changed), 29, was over the moon. Married for just two months, she had missed a period and was eagerly looking forward to sharing the news about her pregnancy with her family. But she wanted to wait until she confirmed it with her doctor.

Unfortunately, that day never came. After missing her periods twice in a row, her doctor told her that she was not pregnant.

This condition, when the body falsely believes itself to be pregnant, is called pseudocyesis. Though it is rare, it happens to women who are either infertile and wish to conceive, or women who do not want to conceive at all.

Dr. Heera Tuladhar, Head of Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at KIST Medical College Teaching Hospital, relates that she has seen many such cases during her 20-year career. “This happens more to unmarried women who are terrified of conceiving,” she says.

All the apparent symptoms of pregnancy are displayed in these cases. Periods stop, breasts swell and become tender, there is nausea, weight is gained, and constipation occurs, and even the abdomen bloats. The woman concerned is completely assured of her pregnancy. Sometimes the symptoms may be so severe that the doctors themselves are confused, and have to take further tests to confirm that there is no pregnancy. While this becomes a matter of relief to those who do not want a child, there are also some women who find out they are infertile.

Dr. Tuladhar explains that this symptom has its roots in psychology. Since the mind is stronger than the body, subconscious desires or fears are manifested on the body in this way. There are many other ways in which the body deceives the mind, leading a woman to believe she is pregnant.

The symptoms of pregnancy, like nausea, swelling of breasts and weight gain, are caused by the rise in a hormone called progesterone, and most cases of false pregnancy occur because of over-secretion of the progesterone.

Sometimes their periods resume in a few months, but in extreme cases, the symptoms may carry on into the ninth month. Women have been known to experience labor pains, but of course, do not give birth. This can happen in cases where the woman has no way of confirming pregnancy, like blood test or ultrasound, until the final month.

Delayed periods

Progesterone is naturally secreted by the body in the second half of the menstruation cycle, which is just before menstruation. Hence symptoms like nausea, swelling of breasts and abdomen, etc are mildly manifested in all menstruating women at this time. For any reason, if there is a hormonal fluctuation and your menstruation is delayed, then these symptoms become aggravated.

Hormone intake

Pills that can delay periods are also available these days. Since these pills are based on hormones, they increase the secretion of progesterone which aggravates the symptoms of pregnancy. Dr. Tuladhar advises that these hormones should not be taken because they disturb the natural menstrual cycle. Sometimes, a woman may be taking hormone pills for other diseases, which has the same effect.

Depo-Provera

Many contraceptives available today are based on hormones. Depo-Provera, a contraceptive that is injected into the body every three months, is based on progesterone. At first, it stops a woman’s periods and all the symptoms of pregnancy are manifested. Dr. Tuladhar informs that many patients become concerned and come to her, believing they are pregnant. So it is important to be educated about the effects that each contraceptive is going to have on your body.

Pre-menopause

When a woman has crossed her forty years of age, symptoms of pre-menopause are manifested. Periods may be delayed for one or two months or even more and the woman may believe herself to be pregnant. Such irregular periods may continue for many years.

Tumor/Thyroid disease

Certain kinds of tumors also secrete hormones that delay your periods and manifest the symptoms of pregnancy. Endocrine disorders caused by thyroid diseases are also known to tamper with the menstrual cycle.

Chemical pregnancy

In some cases, fertilization occurs but the embryo fails to implant itself in the uterus. In this case, called chemical pregnancy, the embryo falls down and the woman’s normal menstruation cycle resumes. But if a pregnancy test is conducted before the embryo falls down, it will be positive. However, since the menstruation cycle is not overdue, there is no reason to test for pregnancy, and most women are not aware that they were pregnant for a short time. Only if a woman is highly sensitive to her body and notices the symptoms, she will she realize that she has had a brief pregnancy.

*****

Pregnancy and childbirth are a sensitive and meaningful time in a woman’s life. But at the same time, they are also highly complicated. Any woman who wants to conceive (or does not), must be very careful about her health, and take any symptom of pregnancy seriously. Most importantly, since each kind of test is fallible, a pregnancy must be confirmed through multiple tests before any further steps are taken or plans are made.

Some tips when testing for pregnancy

• Whether or not you get the correct result often depends on the quality of the pregnancy kit. So make sure to choose your kit with care. Also, a pregnancy test kit only works after five weeks of the last menstruation.
• When taking pregnancy tests with a test kit, always test the first urine midstream, in early morning. This has the highest concentration of hormones.
• A blood test is the most sensitive, and can give accurate results from six days of conception. But if the body is secreting similar hormones for other reasons, like illness or tumor, then blood test may be falsely positive too.
• An ultrasound rarely gives false positive. Trans-vaginal ultrasound can be done from four weeks of conception while abdominal ultrasound can be done after five weeks. However, sometimes, an ultrasound may give a false negative, which means that conception may not be visible for a few months.
• The morning-after pill, which is taken to avoid pregnancy immediately after having sexual contact, is also harmful if taken regularly. Though it is 80-90% effective if taken occasionally, regular use dulls its impact, and there is high chance of pregnancy. Hence, if you have taken this pill, make sure through multiple methods that you did not conceive.

The pursuit of austerity

After the elections to the first CA, most female CA members from the Maoist party turned up in similar outfits: grey suits. Among other things of state importance, their monochrome uniforms were criticized a whole lot too. But few outside their closed circles knew that these uniforms had come out of a deep conviction in simplicity that they had imbibed during their years underground.

“Women wear sindoor to tell the world they are married,” says Smita Dewan, 23, who was a cultural worker during the insurgency. “Do the men wear anything for women? These are just signs of servitude.”

Smita, who was simply dressed in blue jeans, white t-shirt, and no adornments, likened red bangles on the hand to broken handcuffs that continue to chain women.

She was told these things as part of the Maoist political education. But even without it, the emphasis on simplicity was an undercurrent that she and other Whole Timers (WT) always felt, whether directly or indirectly. This was attractive to women because it was one way of asserting equality: no one would be favoured on account of physical appearance; the emphasis would be on the work they did, not how they looked.

Smita felt that the time women spent on appearances put them at a disadvantage compared to men who did not have to bother with these things. “If I see women spending too much time on makeup, I invariably think they could be doing something more productive with their time,” says Smita.

So a unisex look was one way of gaining equality.

“We felt that these things just didn’t suit us. We were out to change the society. We felt that we should set an example for the rest of the society. How could we be bogged down by such petty things?” says Sharada, 35, who was a political worker during the insurgency and continues to be one. Even before she became a WT, she had the impression that Maoists were a different breed of people who were not bothered by society’s emphasis on appearances.

Amrita Thapa, 42, a veteran leader, remembers that at one point, she and other women had decided to cut their hair short because it was too much of a bother. Amrita continues to sport short hair and many famous Maoist leaders are identified by their pageboy hairstyle. Even today, most women actively involved in the Maoist party are very simply adorned: short hair, no makeup, and barely any jewellery. Some of them wear a simple bangle or a sindoor, or a pote, but no more.

Within the Maoist party, the austere attitude to beauty also extended to romance and sex, which was very attractive to many women. Sharada is one of them.

“When we lived and worked with men, they looked at us with a kind of respect. We were proud of it,” she remembers. She is glad to remember that even if a man and a woman had to share a room, there were no “negative” feelings from men; instead, there was a regard like between brothers and sisters.

Many other women have echoed the feeling that they felt “safe” with their male colleagues during the insurgency, that they were bound by “class fellow-feeling” which surpassed romantic attractions. Marriages had to be sanctioned by party seniors.

Anoopam, 32, is a veteran of more than 40 encounters. She had once been married, and when her first husband passed away, was persuaded by her party and friends to marry again for the sake of support and good future.

“I wasn’t really willing to marry,” she recounts, “but since everyone encouraged me, I agreed.” She informs that it is not enough that you like a person, nor is it enough for the party seniors to think two people are well matched. But both factors are important for two people to get married.

Probably coming from a society where they had to fend off unwanted romantic attention from every second man, women found this environment to be a relief. They believed that even love should be within boundaries, nothing overboard. In fact, many women remember with fondness that any ‘sanskritik bichalan; which included activities like unsanctioned romances and affairs, were strictly regulated.

Here, one has to remember that the women who became Maoists came from many different castes. While some of them, like Brahmins and Chhetris, are known to emphasize on sexual purity and austerity—especially for women – others are known to be more permissive. Premarital sex, marriage after conception, or multiple marriages are not unknown among Janajatis, giving women more autonomy and control over their life-course.

Seira Tamang, writing for Feminist Review (2009), states that “From Hindu high-caste women (including Madhesi women) sequestered in the private sphere, to the Thakali women renowned for their business acumen and skills, to Limbu women who are free to divorce and remarry as widows, women and men in various communities in Nepal have historically structured their relations very differently.”

And yet, these multiple values, developed organically over thousands of years among different ethnic groups, had been subsumed by the dominant values of austerity, and enforced through “discipline, rules and regulations” within the Maoist party. Youngsters like Smita who had known the party values since a young age have little memory of alternate values regarding marriage and women’s place in their community.

Thus, the values of austerity have shaped a whole generation of women who identify themselves as Maoists. While on the one hand, enforcing the beauty cult and placing high value on the surfacial beauty of women has been known to harm women, and is a detrimental social value that needs to be discouraged. On the other hand, the emphasis on shedding these qualities meant that women had to leave traditional concepts of femininity and identity behind.

The worth of women as persons was being defined by male standards: They were only good enough if they aspired to be like ideal men who did not pay attention to appearances. Instead of women exploring and balancing their femininity and finding their own niche, the values of austerity were mass-marketed. The ostensible purpose is to encourage values like equality and morality, but it remains to be seen what the loss of multiple values will have on society in the long term.