It is 4:45 a.m. and I have been awake for an hour. I tossed and turned for a while, unable to get back to sleep. A few minutes ago the birds began twittering with a vengeance and I finally gave up any attempt at sleep. Though I am normally a sound sleeper, I am sometimes restless under a full moon, and last night’s full moon was magnificent. My little niece, Himrekha, excitedly called me over to the kitchen door at dusk.

“Didi (older sister), the moon is moving SO fast!” she exclaimed. We watched it play tag with gauzy clouds that alternately obscured and revealed the giant yellow orb as it climbed above our neighborhood rooftops. It reminded me how fast the world is moving and, alternately, how slow life moves here in Nepal.

Full moon rises over my neighborhood in Pokhara, Nepal

The euphoria of last week, when everyone believed that Nepal would get its long-awaited constitution, was shattered in the waning hours of the deadline, when opposing political parties failed to reach consensus. At the stroke of midnight on May 27th, the Constituent Assembly (CA) that was charged with drafting the new constitution ceased to exist, as Nepal’s Supreme Court, irritated by four years of bickering and deadline extensions, had declared further extensions illegal. Just minutes prior to its dissolution, the Prime Minister declared elections on November 22nd of this year to create a new Constituent Assembly. Continue reading →