Saani

Saani hails a taxi, " Dai Thamel Jane ho?" The driver nods, Saani gets in. It's friday evening, the traffic in kathmandu is heavy. The taxi stops every other five minutes and every time the taxi stopped, the driver stared at Sanni through front mirror. Saani pretends not to notice and looks away from window. The guy on a moterbike next to their taxi, winks at her and pouts his lips to fly a kiss. She then looks away on the other side of the road, where a cow is trying to make it's way through the traffic. The taxi driver turns the FM and the song " chalecha batas sustari manai sarara... baros chaina jindai ko bachau hasera" is on. Saani smiles to the song. Kathmandu is getting ready to rest, the shopkeepers are closing down the stores, childrens are going back inside their homes, mothers are preparing dinner, fathers are coming back from work, girls saani's age are in their room reading, doing their homework or else watching tv.

Saani asks the driver to pull the car over at Thamel gate. She walks through the shining lights of Thamel .There are bunch of tourists looking excited and and some lost , a group of young college boys smoking infront of a pub, some rebellious teenagers in a circle laughing in front of a building with a big sign board that read " Thamel Dance Bar". Saani enters the building. She has been working here for the past six months. Her cousin Kanchan helped her find this job. Saani came to kathmandu after her father died in an ambush between Maoist and the Nepal Police. Her mother had died during her brother kancha's birth. Since they had nothing left in the village, they decided to move to Kathmandu. It was also because she didn't want her brother to join the Maoist and die like her father. She couldn't afford to lose the only family she had now.

Saani went to the dressing room, there were posters of bollywood actors and actress on the wall, there was a small mirror hung on the wall. Few beer bottles on the floor. Saani changed into a jeans short and a pink tube top that she and kanchan had bought at the HongKong Bazaar the other day. She wore her red lipstick, let her wavy hair down, put on her black block heels, Saani is ready to be served.

Bishnu saau pops his head through the door, yells at Saani to come out and get to work. Saani hurries to the stage that is at the corner of the room. There is a pole in the middle of the stage that Bishu sau had installed a week ago. He said it is going to be the new trend soon, Saani still does not know what that pole actually is for. Next to that pole, Bisnu sau had build a small bath tub that was installed inside the stage and above on the ceiling was the water sprinkler. Bisnu sau was proud of it. He called it shower dance. For the last two days, Bisnu sau encouraged the girls to wear see through sari and dance in that shower. Saani hated it but the customer seemed to enjoy it. They enjoyed as the water fell on Saani's sari and sticked it her body, give them the opportunity to imagine how she'd looked without it. Half of kathmandu struggle to get water whereas Thamel Dance Bar never runs out of it.

As saani walks on the stage, blue, green, purle, red lights flash from the side and above. The DJ plays a bollywood song. Saani does not understand Hindi but she knows her job is to move her body to the music. She smiles and looks through the room. In the front table next to the stage there is a group of five men, old enough to be Saani's dad. One of them stands up, throws money at Saani .. the others whistle and sends flying kisses. The music stops. It's time for other dancers to perform.

A group of young men walks in, Bishnu sau signals saani to escort them. Saani walks them to the middle table. The guys speak English. They must have come from abroad. One of them took cigratte out, Saani helped light it. As saani leaned forward to serve them with their order of drink, one of them came closer to her touched her belly, the other took out a cell phone and recorded video. Rest laughed and said "Youtube hai youtube." Saani doesnt know what they are talking about... but she knows that tomorrow is Kancha's tuition fee day and she has to make her customer's happy.

As nights pass, more customers come and go. It's almost dawn, saani is cleaning the dance floor. She changes back to her kurta, and walks out of the building. The cleaning ladies from the municipal office are sweeping the streets of Thamel (The dirts from yesterday). The milk vans are rushing to deliver. A man on a bicycle with bags of breads on both the handles and behind his seat crosses her way. Somewhere in the distance, the temple bells are ringing. Kathmandu is waking up. Saani's day just ended. She is tired, she hails a taxi, " Dai Tinchuli jane ho?" The driver nods, Saani gets in.