© Chiaki Kawajiri
IN BHAKTIPUR, NEPAL – A woman inside a hut (in the background), cooking sag and smoking a bidi-her name is Hari Maya Alemagar. How old is she? 40, 50, 60, she replies. She has no sons, one daughter, now living in Delhi, working as a babysitter for a rich family and sending back money for the family on occasion. She last saw her daughter a year ago and expects a visit in three months. She lost a second daughter at the age of 1 year of diarrhea and vomiting. There was no doctor in the village, she says. So they took her to a dhami-jankhri, who sacrificed a chicken. Nut it didnt help. She stirs the sag and says, She was sick for six days, and then she died. I’m sad when I think about it. She lives here with her husband and two of her three grandchildren. Her kitchen is open on one wall, but the underside of the thatch roof is black with smoke. The air is thick with smoke.