Gai Jatra

It was Gai (pronounced "Guy") Jatra, literally Cow Festival, on Thursday. Historically Gai Jatra was initiated by King Pratap Malla to help overcome his wife's grief over their dead son. On this day families around Nepal masquerade in costumes in the hope that they can let go their deep sadness at the loss of loved ones in the last year. They take comfort that a cow will fly the soul up to the gates of the afterlife - and why not, its no less credible than many religious beliefs. Traditionally it has also been the day when people could speak out about authority and oppression, a sort of Free Speech Day. The significance of Gai Jatra for us was two-fold - firstly for some people (I'll give you a clue - which profession has the longest holidays in every country I know) it meant they had yet another day off work. For us at Blue Diamond Society, it was the annual gay pride rally, Nepal's own Mardi Gras. The drag queens were the stars of course, in full make up and dressed in their finest, there were a few more extravagant costumes but I discovered later that these were limited by the fact that some were locked in a cupboard and the person with the key was away - shame. My contribution on the glamourous costume front was to wear my Kylidh (pronounced Kylie) crew shirt in homage to the gay icon (for the benefit of the overly masculine members of the Kylidh crew, I concede that one does not have to be gay to lust after Kylie). Not surprisingly not even my British friends who'd come along got the significance.

I have to admit to being late for the start of the rally, my excuses being that I was at a meeting that took longer than expected and nothing ever starts on time in Nepal - there had to be an exception! As a result we did not catch up with them until they had danced their way through the tourist area of Thamel and stopped at Durbar Square to light candles for those who had died of AIDS in the last year. I thought we could stretch this and I lit an extra one for someone special who I'm sure would have enjoyed the thought of her soul flying off with a cow.

I hope the press clipping is legible, apparently if you double click it it might enlarge. I'm afraid it was difficult to take pictures due to the crowds so the photo of my beautiful friend in red is rather spoilt by the bloke in front giving me the evil eye.