Click to play videoKathmandu: Thamel in Nepal is only a slightly hipper version of Delhi's Paharganj. After a prolonged shutdown, locals and tourists are now beginning to have some fun at a western style bar. But the memories of the past three weeks are hard to forget.
"When we go out, we don't know when we'll return home. Bombs go off all around us, guns firing. We feel like we're trapped in a balloon," says a homemaker.
The Nepalese are a proud people and in a particular bar in Thamel, they showcase their past through traditional music and dance.
Some Nepalese aren't sure of what the future holds for them. Others are proud of what they've achieved in the past 19 days. But all are proud of their culture.
A singer at the bar comes from the hill district of Gurkha, also home to Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai. He sings the song of loktantra, urging everyone to celebrate the return of democracy. But not everyone is as hopeful as he is.
"I hope it'll get better, but I don't know what the SPA will do," says a waitress at the bar.
For the bar's patron too, there is not much hope: "I don't think it'll get better in the next 15 years." And for others democracy means living and letting live.
It seems that for the people of Nepal, democracy has more to do with individual freedoms than a bloody revolution.
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