Urban sprawl is making
its presence felt in parts of Kathmandu, with houses now spotted on
the hills of the valley which were once pristine. The urban sprawl is
a tactic by the city's more powerful authorities to counter the
oncoming “nomadic order” where nomads attempt to counter
the sedentary lifestyle they are enclosed in and seek paths out of
Kathmandu. With urban sprawl, the “closeted nomad” finds little
in the way of pristine nature to suggest that there is an alternative
to sedentary life, he/she thinks the world has houses everywhere and
that there is no place uninhabited to which he/she could travel to.
The suburban trend of
“running away from home” may be budding in the youth of
Kathmandu's housing developments, for such a trend may come
hand-in-hand with suburbia itself. This would have been especially
problematic had the hills in close proximity to Kathmandu's suburbs been left pristine and full of possibilities for travel and
escape. However the authorities have stepped in to encourage
building houses on the hillsides, so that youth from Kathmandu's
suburbs do not act on their nomadic impulse to travel to the hills
and beyond.
If a nomad bent on
leaving the center of Kathmandu does indeed travel to the hills to go
beyond it, he/she will find that the houses are especially welcoming,
especially warm, especially designed to make the sedentary lifestyle
seem appealing as a last effort to counter the nomadic impulse and
order. This welcoming attitude is called “tourism,” and the hills
looking into and beyond Kathmandu are well suited to become
tourist-spots even as their hidden motive is the prevention of a
nomadic order. Tourism is another name for the placing of sedentary populations in places that could have been uninhabited and welcoming to nomads. Today the “tourism industry” is a vital
arm of the sedentary order to house nomadic travelers within a
sedentary lifestyle once again.
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