Notes from the Field

म सधै झैँ आमासँग गफ सुरु गर्न एकै प्रश्न तेर्स्याउँछु, “के गरिछ्यौ बुढी मान्छे!”  यो प्रश्नले मलाई आमाको संसारको दैलो खोलि दिन्छ।आमा मेरो प्रश्नको जवाफ नदिँ उल्टै मलाई प्रश्न गर्छिन्, “ त आको त थानै पाईन, झरीले चिसो भर चाडै ओछ्यान सामाते हिजो। भात राख्देका थे कि नाई? तेरोमरो भनेर त आउनु पर्छ नि!”

I had an assumption initially, coming to my research on Safe Spaces for queer people, that queer space and community is an essential part of exploring one’s identity. And that assumption was slowly beginning to be questioned as I delved deeper into my field research, talking to many queer

I climbed the stairs and entered the shop as a person was crouching and inspecting coffee beans. When he realized I had entered, he stood up and welcomed me, asking how he could help. I had come here based on a conversation between my father and uncle. My father had

This piece won first place in the Open Institute's 2026 New Ethnographic Writing prize Abstract In this study I explore the everyday life-worlds of out-of-school children (OOSC) living and working in the Bagmati slum area of Kathmandu. The purpose of this research is to study how children who

This piece won second place in the Open Institute's 2026 New Ethnographic Writing prize It had only been a month since the news of the death last reached Phoolmaya’s house. Today, her neighbor whom she still called didi, though they were the two oldest grandmothers in the

This piece won second place in the Open Institute's 2026 New Ethnographic Writing prize To be a nurse is to live inside empathy’s fracture- to stand between what is human and what is professionally tolerated. Drawing on the 62 weeks of clinical posting of sustained participant observation

Wangmo’s father loves playing sho (dice). People say he has luck in his hands. His opponents sometimes complain that his constant winning feels unreal. But Wangmo’s father makes the funniest, most shameless jokes when he plays. “Sho para menny gyap manyung, tsenla bhomo menna nya manyung” (I have