More on Jan Salter

Jan has two passions: her painting and social work. She has been well-associated with Faces of Nepal, a portrait series of ethnic faces which a number of us are fortunate to own some prints. Since 1975 this English artist from Southampton has been painting Nepali people and has held a number of exhibitions. Girl trafficking, homeless women and mentally disturbed people are some of society’s issues she has been grappling with. In 2004 she founded KAT, the Kathmandu Animal Treatment Centre. (See photo above, with KAT staff).

It focuses on the thousands of stray and sick dogs that abound in the Valley: their diseases ranged from injuries, mange, rabies and others. Jan’s model was one located in Jaipur, India called ’Help in Suffering’, an organization which manages a dog problem. KAT was registered as non-profit, charitable animal welfare organization in June 2003 and formally opened on 9th May 2004. It main mission is to create a dog friendly, rabies-free, non-breeding street dog population.

The tourist Jan arrived in Kathmandu in 1968, secured a job as a hairdresser in Boris Lissanevitch’s Royal Hotel, traveled some more, and returned in 1975. Her first portrait was of a boy who lived near Basantapur, Prem Lal. She later became her guardian: he now runs a motorbike shop. Then she found and supports two children from the Bote tribe, whose father commited suicide.

In 1997 she was decorated with the Gorkha Dakshin Bahu by King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev.

Jan lives in Lazimpat (If I'm not mistaken, near Balaram Motors?) with five rescued dogs and four cats in a small upstairs flat. In only five years she and her team had dramatically reduced the dog population through an organized spay and neutering program as well as treating other serious animal health issues. The following is a story of Mango, KAT’s mascot:

http://www.katcentre.org.np/links/downloads/kat-mango.pdf

Le MoMo Part 2, with Chadda Co-starring

But here is the best MoMo story ever: He was away for a couple of days, and one late evening we found him miawwing frantically at the front door: he was badly hurt, a flap of skin by his side exposed, about the size of a cell phone. It was too late to take him to Dr. Shrestha, so through my tears I put the electric bar heater in the spare bathroom, placed towels on the cold floor, sterilized and bandaged the wound as best as I could, and cut up some leftover steak and water.

David was watching all these with amusement. Later on just before retiring I checked up on him: well well well, there was a vase with a single rose, the portable radio, an alarm clock, a new tennis ball, and extra towels. Placed there by Guess Who.

We had only two cats in Ktm. After MoMo's longtime disappearance and the mysterious appearance of three very tiny Siamese-like kittens (who died one day after they were discovered in the back of the flat, the three of them could fit into David's shoe), we had Chadda, who was specially flown in from Dhaka by Mel and Tony Drexler: they were scouting for a high school for Maya and thought of Lincoln School at that time (Maya ended up in Singapore while the Drexlers went to Pakistan). Chadda was All White, with one grayish ear, and slept probably 98 percent of the time. Pema would call out "Tadda, Tadda Teeping!!" to wake her up from her stupor. It was also the time we had to pack and leave Kathmandu for a posting in Bangkok.

Our Tibetan carpet man Phuntchok of Thamel, took Chadda in: when we checked with him a couple of days later, he said, "She is always sleeping!". Tamad. Probably Marlon Brando's white cat was also Tamad. Or Saddot in Iloko.

Le MoMo

MoMo was Fiona's son. He was a fine above-average Siamese, with an above-average face about the size of a platito, and had buff meat from Kathmandu Cold Storage, and rice for his nutrition. 3 or 4 x a day. Was he spoiled, ever. He is the first cat we know, who was dog friendly, and slept with our Lhasa Apsos in their own "Doggie Hotel", a sort of tool shed renovated into a designer canine residence: brick floors, jute carpeting, khasto canopy and fluffy cushions from the Dilli Bazaar cotton man, and the tri-colour Brit flag on the door. The adoption papers came, along with Dr. Shrestha's certificates of vaccination, changing his name from MoMo VanderVeen, to MoMo Domingo-Barker.
Since he was a male cat, he spent a lot of time outdoors: sometimes on his nocturnal visits away, he brought a lot of sorrow to Maheshwori and Gyano who would canvass the neighborhood looking for him. And was sighted once atop a tall pine tree in front of our residence and could not climb down, for two days. We could not call on the Fire Department, they probably would not have a ladder high enough.
David was converted from a non-cat, into a cat person. MoMo's favorite perch was on David's lap, or on top of his briefcase as he came home from a hard ICIMOD day. When we had the fireplace going, he would join us and curl up as comfortably as he can. Or walk along the fireplace front, causing once to burn the tip of his tail was he was wagging it in a relaxed way but caught on one of the log's licking flames. Or when David was snug under the double duvet and reading Rising Nepal, MoMo would push his way in between the paper and David's face, and plant himself firmly there, staring at David's eyes, daring him to move him away from his warm spot. And during the night, when he was allowed to sleep with us, he would push and push David off his space, to define his territory.
(to be continued in part 2)

Rajput - Rana Wedding

One of the major authors of the book, Kathmandu Valley Style is Gautam Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana. He was also known as GeeTwo or something that sounds close. Their residence (almost next to Singha Durbar) was always buzzing with handicraft and art activities, our connection was through my work with Products of Nepal, a World Bank project. GeeTwo's cousin is married to Nitti, daughter of Preeti Singh.

Anyway, his special interest in traditional jewellery and costumes, has brought him the job of overseeing his son Virat's traditional wedding suit made by a rising Nepali designer. (Could be similar to the wedding outfit of Bollywood heart throb Hritik Roshan - with Aishwarya Rai, above, in a Mumbay filmi called Jodha Akbar which GeeTwo claims is in the Nepalese style). The wedding held in August 2008 was between 27-year-old Virat Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, great-great-grandson of Chandra Shumsher Jung Bahadur Rana, who was the longest ruling Rana prime minister of Nepal; and 26-year-old bride Himani Katoch, who works for the Deutsche Bank in New Delhi, is the daughter of Col. M. Katoch, who heads India's seniormost Rajput clan.

One of the most spectacular society weddings in the subcontinent, the groom's bridal procession included an elephant, four horses and four camels.The groom's breathtaking jama (Note this, Jama!) - long kurta - embroidered with gold thread, the embroidery alone costing Nepali Rs.200,000. US$5,000. A lot of rupiah, that.