KATHMANDU, NEPAL – Tourist vehicles marked by green registration plates stop at Basantapur, one of the major tourist attractions in central Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, and deposit hordes of tourists from various countries. As the tourists stroll around the area, their guides inform them about the century-old palace that once used to be the seat of the ancient monarchy.
As tourists are busy taking photographs in the scorching midday sun, they listen to the history of Basantapur from Indira Joshi, one of the first women tour guides in Nepal.
“I tell them everything I know about this place,” says Joshi, dressed in a blue blouse and wrapped in a blue traditional saree along with matching accessories.
At 57, Joshi says she tries to conceal the wrinkles on her face with makeup, but that her age hasn’t decreased her energy or enthusiasm as she teaches the visitors about her country.
“We, who are in the tourism business, should save the image of our country,” says Joshi, who leads tours in English and Japanese.
Even during the height of the Maoist insurgency from 2001 to 2004, when many people were killed in a day, she says she focused on creating a positive image of Nepal for her tourists.
“But I do try and tell them about things like pickpocket[ing],” she says.
Joshi’s day starts when her mobile phone rings. As she performs her routine household chores, she gets requests from hotels and travels agencies to give tours. She then sets out with her group to acquaint the tourists of different nationalities with Nepal’s history, geography, culture and traditions.
Satisfying the tourists is one of the biggest challenges, says Joshi, who has been a tour guide for 34 years now. But she says she has accepted the challenge, having served more than 1,000 tourists, including some foreign dignitaries, in Kathmandu and even in places outside the capital, such as Pokhara, Chitwan and Lumbini, the birthplace of Buddha. She says she has also made a strong living out of it.
“I’ve raised my kids and even married them off,” she says. “I’ve also built a house, thanks to this profession. I’ll continue in this field until I can.”
Joshi says she initially started working to support her family. Born and raised in Kathmandu in a Newar family, an indigenous group of the Kathmandu Valley, she was married as a teenager. Since her husband was a government employee, his salary wasn’t enough to raise a family and send the kids to school. Moreover, Joshi says she always thought that if she could work, she wouldn’t have to depend on him.
Though she had a bachelor’s degree, she says it was difficult in Nepali society for a woman to work outside the family a few decades ago. But when she found out that the Nepal Tourism Board was offering a tour guide training program, she defied the norm, obtained her license from the program and secured a job with Yeti Travels.
“I became the first woman guide in Nepal,” she says with pride.
Joshi is one of the first women tour guides in Nepal, according to the Tourist Guide Association of Nepal, a tourist guide representative body. And today, many other women have joined her in this profession.
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