THE GLOBAL AND THE LOCAL

SKETCHES IN VISUAL ANTHROPOLOGY AND AESTHETICS ECS Magazine, July 2008 I was walking by Thamel in one of those anti-social moods last Friday evening—I had braved my life on a motorbike ride through upstream traffic to get to the Sundhara Bakery Café, only to find out that the art opening I thought was being held wasn’t there. A magician was on stage instead, doing tricks for a birthday party. Thoroughly confused, I walked back through the crowded microbus stop, stopped to buy books off the footpath, including a 1941 find titled “Everest The Challenge” by Sir Francis Younghusband. Later I learnt the art opening was in the corresponding venue in Pulchowk, not in Sundhara. By the way, can people please stop naming their restaurants “Bakery Café” because it is starting to get very, very confusing for those of us trying to shift through the proliferations of Bakery Cafes… … when I saw Bidhur waving from the glass window of Vajra Books. Soon we were in an animated conversation, and before lo