Mohit Rauniyar, 20, is a student at Thames International College. The College is located at the Old Baneshwar-Sinamangal road that has been under construction for more than two years. Due to the monsoon, the road currently is totally deplorable, and travelling to and fro college for Mohit is a terrible experience. "I reach college hopping from one point to another. I'm often late for my classes, but I can do nothing about it. But on the bright side, at least I end up exercising. If I owned a bike, perhaps it wouldn't be as bothersome," he shares.
"I often see construction workers in the area. Sometimes there are even bulldozers but I have no idea what they actually have been doing all these years," he adds.
Swati Tamrakar, 18, who is soon joining college abroad, shares a similar experience. "The road near to my house is under construction, and riding my scooter is always an irksome experience. More often than not, the foul smell from the sewers adds to my sorrow," she says.
Roofs of upper Mustang houses leaking due to heavy rain
But the trouble is not the monsoon, but the road and traffic, she opines. "Only if the roads were constructed well on time, the chances of accidents would reduce significantly. Also, if the vehicles were not so obstinate on taking over, riding would have been much safer," she observes.
Rain doesn't always come with a warning. Such unexpected downpour often leads to unexpected situations. Miss Teen 2011 Archana Panthi, who is currently the Director of Public Affairs at Open Space Nepal, shares one of her experiences: "During one of the grooming sessions at Miss Teen 2011, I was at a venue in Putalisadak at 2 PM and it was a fine sunny day. At around 5 though, when I had to get back home in Baneshwar, it started raining heavily and I hadn't carried an umbrella. What's worse was I was on heels and had two bags with me. I ended up walking barefoot carrying my bags and heels all the way to my home trying to find a cab. It was depressing, to say the least."
Twenty-year-old Archana, who is also a college student, says she isn't always in the mood to carry an umbrella around. This often results in her either reaching her destination entirely soaked or getting stuck in between waiting for the rain to stop. "The rain combined with the muddy road makes me less productive. When it's raining, I don't feel like getting out of the house except for very important tasks. Hence, I end up ignoring stuffs which might have actually been a really good opportunity," she says.
Yasaswi Dhungel, 23, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer at Muslim Aid, shares his learning experience at a Nepal-Japan Exchange program: "We learned that the pitched roads and the pavements there were made of solid waste. They burter be used for other purposes."
But rain in Kathmandu has never stopped bothering Yasaswi. He opines that the problem could be largely solved if people abided by the traffic rules at all times. This he also learned during his trip to Japan. "The people in Japan always followed traffic rules, regardless of the situation they were in, and that helped to clear out much of the chaos," he adds.
