Barbara's Nepal
Author: Barbara Adams
Category: Nepal   
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About  .

The Book

Barbara Adams arrived in Nepal in 1961. She has somehow been both a total participator in, and a detached observer of, the Nepali cultural, political and developmental scene. Those who missed her early columns in the “Independent”, have long been urging her to publish her works in a lasting format: hence this book. Barbara’s growing disillusion with Nepal’s infant “democracy” is reflected in the section on “Politics. "Her anguish over the ecological, architectural, and cultural deterioration of Kathmandu Valley has provoked some of her most passionate writings to date: several appear in this book under “Environment.” The series on the contentious Arun III project is especially pertinent today, when small hydro-electric projects are finally coming into their own, and India’s river linking” proposal is inspiring widespread comment on river-related issues. These essays are fascinating to read because of their early coverage of problems, which are dominating discussion in Nepal today: poverty, ethnicity, disillusioned youth, rancid rivers and careless politicians, among others. When Barbara started writing her weekly column “Barbara’s Beat” she was given carte blanche to write on any subject which interested her. This book contains a wide-ranging compilation of Barbara’s multi-faceted interests in, or related to, Nepal. Barbara was one of the first to express the people’s frustration at the lack of change after the Jana Andolan and to criticize HMG’s failure to address inequality, injustice, human rights abuses, corruption and the basic needs of the poor and disenfranchised. These essays provide insights into the socio-political realities of Nepal and help us understand the historical context of the present crisis.

Born in New York, Barbara Adams grew up in Washington DC. Where her father, an economist, held a series of jobs with FDR’s New Deal. Both shy and rebellious as a child she eschewed conventional education in Washington’s public schools and spent her days riding and grooming horses and her evenings voraciously reading. She studied French and Russian at the Georgetown School of Linguistics and obtained a BA in International Relations from George Washington University. Anguished by the gap between haves and have nots which she experienced during a mid- term trip to Haiti, she left America immediately after graduation on an odyssey through Europe, the Middle East and India, selling feature articles to finance her travels, which included walking with Vinobha Brave in the Punjab. In 1961 Barbara settled in Nepal, and with Prince Basundara and Gen. Sharada Sumshere J.B. Rana, opened Third Eye Tours, Nepal’s first Travel Agency. She traveled much of the world promoting tourism to still unknown Nepal, worked with Nepali craft promotion and design and became an expert on Bhutanese textiles about which she wrote a book. For obvious reasons Barbara avoided writing about politics. That changed with the advent of democracy: She started her column, Barbara’s Beat, in the independent in 1991, then moved it to the Kathmandu Post, the Everest Herald, and lastly the People’s Review. Other columns were published in Nepali in Jana Awaz and currently Jana Aastha. Barbara became an environmental, economic, political, and human rights activist and was twice “exiled” from her adopted country for expressing her views.