Not to forget, Durbar Marg also had some fine culinary delights. And as I remember, the whole restaurant affair was mostly cluttered around the Thamel-Durbar Marg area. [break]
So, be it birthdays or anniversaries, Bhai Tika or pre-Dashain celebrations, the options for celebrating any occasion was pretty much limited to this certain twin side of the town.
Particularly for those of us living across the Bagmati Bridge in Patan, wanting good food meant that we had to get to the other side of town, in Kathmandu.
And quite frankly, I did not mind. It seemed to me, personally, that things were more organized that way: If you wanted food, you would go to a certain part of Kathmandu; if you wanted to be home, you would be amidst a quiet seclusion in your world, in a different part of the city.
That was then. Today stands in stark contrast to the Thamel-Durbar Marg days. Without undermining what used to be, I feel a new wave of restaurants has emerged.
In fact, food business has picked up to such heights of late that most people believe that investing in restaurants can never go wrong. And as such, the Jhamsikhel lane in particular seems to have attracted a compelling pool of investors.
Upside to this, you can get any kind of food to satisfy your palate; but the downside – chaos!
But it was not always like this here – no! This I can say with certainty because I grew up here.
I remember being stricken, even as a kid, by how smooth the roads were in this part of the town than any other. Also, needless to mention, the Jhamsikhel lane was renowned as one of the most sought-after residential areas in the Kathmandu Valley.
Peace, quiet and calm captured the essence of living in this part of Patan.
Going to certain get-togethers in clamorous Thamel, conversations would be exchanged of the contrasts in lifestyle between where we lived and here. “I can’t fall asleep until the restaurants around here start their blaring music,” Thamel residents would joke. And we would laugh along.
I don’t know if they still have to put up with the music, but I know we Jhamsikhel residents do, for sure. And it is not that the music is distressing in any way, but more so is the number of people who get assembled in this side of the town.
So, not unexpectedly, the roads that had made an impression on me do not remain the same anymore.
Believe it or not, too, I usually have to be in traffic jams right along my lane to get inside my house.
Once, there were a few policemen controlling the traffic on this lane who simply would not allow me to drive to get to my own house. How long can patience really hold for, tell me? And that is when things start making an impression on you for the worse.
With all the restaurants opening up here, the traffic was some kind of a given, if I may say so. But I was not aware that most these restaurants would house live bands, with even DJs since of late, and celebrate every single day as some kind of a festive occasion and charge an insurmountable sum just as entrance fees.
By now, I know all the songs by heart that these restaurants play. I don’t mind singing along to it, particularly because I know I can drain out the sound by turning the television on. However, I think of all those children preparing for their SLC or any exam and wonder how they put up with it.
I can sympathize with them because while I had to appear for my own SLC exams, a certain restaurant existed in the neighborhood. Now, let us not go calling names, but just know that after around 10pm, this restaurant would convert itself into a cheap kind of nightclub attracting all the wrong sort of crowd.
With the night winds carrying the sounds around, it was not hard to make out the scenario there. The crowd would sit there, drink up, cuss like crazy and laugh. You can only imagine what it was like then. But thank God, its days were limited.
Coming back to today, things are not as bad as they used to be. On the contrary, the restaurants around here today are quite aware and respectful of the surrounding neighbors. Moreover, the dining experiences here are quite pricey and so have still remained off-reach for many.
But the sheer audacity of so many people who come here to yell and scream –all underage and under the spell of the holy spirit, I presume – and disrupt our sleep is beyond belief.
In no way is Jhamsikhel the only affected area. With any random place that gets a license to set up a restaurant, and anywhere for that matter, things have become preposterous!
Since I don’t have to endure what happens in other localities, I am just going to stick to Jhamsikhel. It is very much appreciated that most restaurants comply with the laws here, although a lot of police had to be involved initially.
Today, by 10pm, most restaurants avoid any sort of disturbance; of course, there are a few exceptions, though.
Also, not all people come here looking for trouble. However, to have to wrack your brains to get to your own house, and then have to hear all the useless conversation of the customers in these numerous noisy eateries is something I would prefer to live without.
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