Bhat Bhateni Chitwan: A review

This is a part of 'project 110, going back and re-filling', writing is happening 8ish months after the date.

Chitwan, despite being the second city of Nepal, always felt like a faraway place, disconnected from the hustle and bustle of the Capital. Yeah there are many shops and stalls and 'malls' as such in Bharatpur, but never did one feel connected to the same cosmopolitan vibe as one does in  Kathmandu.

So when I went to the Department store during my stay in Chitwan in April, I felt at home, a bit. It's got the same floors, mostly the same wares, and much of the same vibe as stores in Kathmandu. I am connected to civilization, I thought, and even though I might not like the store back home, here it's my link to the rest of the world, this isn't a small town or city anymore, it's a metropolis.

Well that's it. It's a goddamn department store people, what more do you want, they've got all the various things, mostly imported from India and China and marked up hugely without the proper quality control as they have in Kathmandu. They're probably too pricey for Chitwan but surely everyone feels that it's the price one pays for civilization. The clientele of the people visiting here is different from Kathmandu, but I sensed a lot of aspirational cosmopolitanism particularly among the young crowd (here and in CG mall, posted about on the same day). We may not be in Kathmandu, they say, but so what we have CG mall and BBDS, and this is all we need, what is there in the whole wide world that we can't buy here?

And they're right, for the most part.

I don't know, after spending a couple of hours in here because I didn't want to watch the movie my parents had gone to see, I didn't feel at home anymore, I wanted to go to the cowshed basically that was my room. These people were different, their dreams and aspirations were different from mine, and maybe I could see some part of me, from way back in their eyes, but I was never into this, you know? These things are never just functional, they're also political, and I got unsure on where I lie politically on the particular situation of Bhat Bhateni department store.

Because I have this as a review, I'll give it a very unsettling, confused, and desiring-for-more 8. Not the store's fault, it's just the vibe I got.