When in Nepal....

So, my day just got cancelled!

If you've read any of the previous blogs, you will know I'm currently battling Nepali Government Bureaucracy to get the end of year tax returns and audit filed before I leave next Wednesday. Today, was to be one of those days - 10am was to be a meeting at the tax office, following by a trip to the bank to wait in an hour long queue to get copy statements (oh how I love my Internet banking in England), then a stop off at the lawyers office before going to the Department of Industry to apply for the change of registered address of the production centre. This afternoon I just had one meeting planned with a ethical clothing production centre on behalf of someone else. So not exactly an exciting day, but a necessary one.

Well, I left my flat this morning at 8.30 to walk to a central area where I could get a taxi, the back roads where choc-a-block with traffic which is most unusual. Mostly my walk into town consists of dodging bicycles, avoiding packs of stray dogs, passing sacred cows munching on rubbish and plastic bags and lots of "hello, how are you, I am fine" exchanges with the local children on their way to school.

When I got to the main road, there was obviously something going on; for a start there was no sign of the usual congestion, black smoke belching lorries, honking taxis and hoards of motorbikes squeezing into any spare space to ensure the pedestrians can't get through; just a very large police presence with their batons and riot shields. "Oh, well" I thought, another Friday in Kathmandu!

Nepalis have perfected the art of bunking off on Fridays - they just call a strike (Bandh) on the roads, so nothing can travel. There is often an exchange between the Production Centre Manager and I about who has the best deal on holidays; our girls get 44 days holiday a year and when Ritu is telling me they need a day off because they have been working hard, I throw back at her the generous holidays they get, to which she normally replies, "yes, but you get Sundays off". I can't argue with that, Nepal has a six day working week, which actually means we get an extra 52 days off on top of our annual and bank holidays. However, I must say that it is rare that six days a week working is actually achieved. The week before last there was a three day 'women's' festival of Tij, last week was normal, but this week a strike has been called for Friday and in two weeks time the main festivals of Dashain and Tihar start which means a month long holiday for most. The cynical side of me does tend to think there's a bit of extra holiday manipulation going on!

Strikes are the normal way of protesting about something someone doesn't like and they can be called by political parties, students or any group with a grievance really - or so it seems. This one is protesting against police brutality. In Nepal, no one takes much notice of 'the rules', not like us English who diligently follow new laws and guidelines and are indignant at those who don't. However, the new Government is trying to take action and recently sanctioned new powers to the police to crack down on law breakers. Well, last night apparently, the police stopped one guy on a motorbike who had an expired licence (it's more unusual to have a licence at all), so they beat him up and killed him! A bit extreme I think, a fine would have been sufficient! So, understandably, the people were a bit upset about this and they've called a strike.

They have a saying here in answer to anything you can't do anything about - ke garne (what to do?) The result is, everyone has a day off.

I must say, I'm not too upset my round of Government office visits today has been cancelled and it does give me something to look forward to on Sunday.

(PS. I'm not trying to make a light issue of the poor guy who got killed or the suffering of his family - it is very tragic and wrong. I'm writing after second hand, gossipy information and I don't know the whole story)