Hearts on our sleeves

Jyotsna Dhakal

The Beginning is a story of a girl who has left a troubled home country for a foreign land in hopes of a happier life. Happiness, hope and peace, she finds, lie less with the places we live in.

Krisha Tamrakar

that’s why i am here is a rumination on the purpose artistic pursuit gives us, and the meaning-making and hope-finding that can happen in dealing with the interruptions and confusions of the process.

Shraddha Verma

Skies and Sanity is a story of finding comfort, hope and a more meaningful sense of self in the skies above.

Alfa M. Shakya

Ru is a worrywart who fears being left alone. He also tries to hide his feelings, much to the annoyance of his wild, independent cat. He could learn a few things about jumping back on his feet from his kitty.

Prerana Pakhrin Misrahi

Heart on a Platter is a homesick Nepali’s journey of renegotiating her relationship with food in a foreign land.

Neeti Shrestha

Upside Down is a story of a meticulous girl who has her life suddenly turn upside down. Will she find order in the chaos?

The stories in Hearts on Our Sleeves by 6 young Nepali women illustrators are abundant with love, courage, vulnerability and hope. Their coming into their selves - both real and fictional - juxtapose movement between seeming opposites - foreign places and homes, community and independence, peace and purpose, the ordinary and the out-of-ordinary. These stories of adaptations, negotiations, reconciliations and balancing acts are time-capsules for a time when the readers and the authors find themselves lost and in doubt.