The girl had a soft, childish face and a singsong voice. "What do you think they will do?" she asked the driver of our pickup truck. "The army will recognise us at once if we go by ourselves. There is a ceasefire, and both sides have said they will not do anything to each other, but what does that mean?"
She wanted a lift past the army check post into Dailekh bazaar.
The driver hesitated. The girl leaned against his window, playing coyly with the side mirror. Glancing at the back, she noted an empty seat. "Both sides have said they will not do anything to each other, but what does that mean?" she said again, in an entreating voice. "You know they will take one look at our shoes and recognise us". Women of the CPN (M) wore closed shoes so that they may walk easily, and when need be, run. Local women wore sandals.
The girl stood out as a Maoist cadre in other ways as well. She and another younger girl in her company were wearing plain kurta-surals and no jewellery. The other girl's hair was cut in a rough modern style, and she had covered her face with a bandana. Both were carrying backpacks. This was an area where women and girls dressed in traditional clothes and finery, and would more likely be carrying loads of grass or firewood on their backs.