‘No Horn Please': Self-Governance and Sociality in a Kathmandu Housing Colony

Upon entering through the gates of Pleasant Housing Phase II, one sees the sign ‘No Horn Please’. ¹ In a city where honking is the primary mode of communication on the street, the sign is essentially stating: ‘You are no longer in Kathmandu; different rules apply here’. In spite of the sign, drivers of motorbikes and cars continue to honk when approaching turns or leaving the colony (to inform the guards to open the gate). In this example lies the anxiety of living within Pleasant Housing. While the colony’s wall and the security guards symbolise physical separation from the crime, unreliable services and social disorder of the ‘outside’, they cannot guarantee the stability of such a separation. Against the threat of becoming just like other neighbourhoods in Kathmandu, it is the residents of Pleasant Housing who must maintain the higher quality of infrastructure, governance and sociality within the colony.