Piece #1: July 16, 2021
Updated: 5 days ago
Hi, it’s that introspective voice you’d encounter under my byline in the Pendulum, the Kathmandu Post or the classic social media rant..the one that belonged to an aspiring writer?*
Sorry for ghosting. I've been really really busy ‘establishing myself as an early career professional’ and completely missing life's larger context. Somewhere in my transition from 'student' to 'staff' — a process that has encouraged unforgiving bouts of capacity-questioning and doubt — my writing confidence stooped to a record low. And as a result, I stopped allowing this voice to manifest...especially during times when it mattered to speak up.
But hey, it's here today, and it's asking for a second chance. Thought I'd kick off with some geographical context.
I’m writing from the third floor of an Indian-owned residential building in Bukoto, a pocket of paved roads in Kampala, one of East Africa's fastest growing cities.
My daily reminder of certainty is unfolding outside the kitchen window right now: yesterday’s shades of pink and orange are gathering again around the same swollen sun ready to tuck in for another night. There’s a distinct scent of burnt plastic in the air this evening and in my search for its source, I catch sight of a Bobi Wine poster plastered onto a utility pole across the street. But more on this another day.
Uganda, the country I moved to in February 2021, is in the midst of its deadliest COVID-19 surge yet. The government has imposed a ‘strict lockdown’ featuring heavy traffic, heightened corruption, a hardening grip over free speech and minor inconveniences to the financially privileged...you know, classic 'strict' lockdown stuff.
We've remained indoors to avoid any role in the spread... so, if we’re being honest here, I’m really writing from the kitchen of an airbnb listing we’ve been calling home for the past few months.
The place is a work of art (decor includes a ‘Chairman Meow’ poster) but we're four weeks into lockdown and the walls have really started to make themselves known.
***
As a long term expat (over two decades), aggressive walls are nothing new to me. Walls have been prominent structures everywhere I've lived, keeping me within the compounds of heavily guarded diplomatic zones — a small fraction of the cities I've claimed to call home.
As a kid caught within a rosy circuit between residence and international school, I was a full contributor to the survival of my own heavily-walled bubble; every bubble's molecular interest is to remain small and I made no sustained attempt to widen mine. So even though
I could arrive at clear conclusions like "the more expensive the school, the higher its walls," I never really followed up on these observations with the obvious: "the higher the walls, the more effort required to climb them."
***
But back to the walls that currently encase me. Instead of remaining tethered to a virtual cubicle (my current approach to life), I've started this blog(?) as an intervention. Over the coming weekends, I intend to spend more time learning (and writing) about the country I'm eagerly waiting to properly meet.
***
My current address serves as a unique setting for this.
Somehow, we’ve ended up in a pretty desi corner of town; Our closest eatery specializes in 'spicy thalis,' I’ve heard tere ishq mein nachengeeee blare through the hallways, and seen Saraswati Mata plastered on every other door.
This bubble has had a frustratingly familiar disorienting effect, but living here offers a unique vantage point to learn more about Asian migrants in Uganda, a country where, nearly 50 years ago, about 50,000 Asians were forced to leave on the orders of military ruler, Idi Amin.
At the time, Asians owned 90% of businesses in Uganda and accounted for 90% of the country’s tax revenue. Today, the scales have tipped back to past disproportions: despite accounting for only 1% of the population, Asian Ugandans account for 65% of the country's revenue.
But where does my current residential building sit in all this history? Follow along as I attempt to find out.
Check back in for notes.
Summary:
Past addresses:
* 1995 - 1997 — Kathmandu, NPL
* 1997 — Phnom Penh, KH (with months spent in Bangkok, TH after evacuating from a military coup)
* 1998 - 1999 - Kathmandu, NPL
* 1999 - 2003 - Phnom Penh, KH
* 2003 - 2007 — Vientiane, LA
* 2007 - 2013 — Dhaka, BD
* 2013 - 2017 — Elon, NC, US (with months spent in Jakarta, IDSA)
* 2017 - 2018 — Cambridge, UK
* 2018- 2020 — Kathmandu, NPL
* 2020 - 2021 — Kathmandu, NPL / Gurgaon, IN / Cleveland, US
* 2021 - 2024 — Kampala, UG.
Current address:
* 2024 - 2026 — Kathmandu, Nepal.
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