Voices in the Streets

Holy men, beggars, school children, business men and street food sellers fill Kathmandu’s streets every day. Unlike the rest of Nepal, Kathmandu’s street life is speedy with microbuses zipping around and people walking fast paced everywhere. Walking up to an overpass, we hear traditional Nepali songs coming from a group of eight woman sitting in a circle on the sidewalk. Together they play instruments and hold each others hands. One of them reminds me of Thuk Je with the feeling she puts into her singing. I sit down in their circle and in no time at all passerbyers stop and listen to their music. Sitting in the middle of a city, one that illustrates the epitome of political corruption, peace is brought by the ones that cannot see the chaos in the way we see it. More and more Nepalis crowd around. Smiles are everywhere bringing more Nepalis into the presence of singing against the backdrop of heavy traffic turbulence . There is one foreigner standing behind me, an older man. He’s the only foreigner I had seen that day. With leaving I see he drops 500 Nepali rupees into the jar placed in the center of the circle. I think to myself, how happy they will be when they feel their way into the hat and feel that one bill. I wonder what they will think. I wonder if they know what their voices are creating.