8 hours of electricity- be thankful for what you have

I wrote this on Sunday. It took time to post becasue when there was electricity, I’d always forget to post it, and when there’s load shedding, there’s no internet.

When a senior from school went to college, people apparently asked him two questions when he told them he was Nepali. “Have you climbed Mount Everest?” and “Do you have electricity. It was funny, and there is a rumor that it was him who opened a facebook group called “I live in Nepal. No, I have not climbed Mount Everest and yes, we do have electricity. As I sit at home today, typing this article on my unplugged laptop, I can not quite laugh at the irony.

Starting today, we have only eight hours of electricity in Kathmandu and a large part of Nepal. The saddest part is that most of the remaining part has no electricity whatsoever. Eight hours of electricity in the capital. They say the demand increase, and production is low. But I can’t understand how the demand might have doubled or supply might have halved. It must be a difficult mix of both. I mean people in the villages just use lights and the TV. My grandparents pay the minimum fee of Rs. 80 to NEA. Demand can’t have doubled by the NEA’s “electrification of the country. It’s hrd to believe that industries increased the demand, because the media reports that industries are moving OUT of Nepal.

The Year That Was

It’s a little late to be writing this, but better late than never.

Well 2008, UNlike 2007, will be rememberred for a few special things that happened:

• REJECTION- 10 colleges, 1 not followed up on, 1 accepted with not-enough aid, and the other 8- rejected. Increasing depression with every letter of rejection. Embarrassment, and feeling not-good-enough. Crying (a lot) and people trying to be nice (“you have so many options…”, “they’re missing out on a lot”, “there’s always next year”, “whatever happened, happened for the best”, etc) MARCH-APRIL
• MOVING- (not that I’ll remember it when I think of 2008 but it was a big thing) we moved out of the house we’d been living (in rent) for the past 10 years. APRIL
• FINALS- End of high school. End of my days at RBS. Days of procrastination, organising, studying… trying to fit two years of material into 36 days, and then 35, and then 30 and then 20 and then (panic panic!) 10!!!
  Not revising well. Revising stuff (for the first time after the mocks) the night before the exam. And sleepovers-bless the bandhs. MAY-JUNE
• WORK- Well-paid work in a big organisation with awesome boss. Translation was never that fun. I wish I could enjoy it half as much now. JUNE-AUGUST
• GOODBYES- to friends who went to college AUGUST
• CLS- Civic Leadership School- a lot of fun, lessons learnt in very un-traditional ways, and so much networking. SEPTEMBER 5-9
• LOSING A SISTER- my Mom’s cousin passed away at age 24 because of a cancer they discovered at its last stage. She was my aunt, but like a sister becasue we were nearly the same age. :’( SEPTEMBER 5
• MUKTINATH- to teach nuns English (haven’t written about it in the blog but that’s why I wasn’t blogging for about a month in September. Amazing fun with so much respect and so much learning. SEPTEMBER- OCTOBER
• HARD TIMES- A friend was punished for being in a relationship with someone of the lower caste, and we’re still not allowed to meet. I was scared and lived through 12 days of hell (As did JJ and Ajju) Things ended fine, and she goes to college, but we still miss her, and loads. We miss meeting legally, shopping together, and the sleepovers. But the love is still there, and grows, even. OCTOBER 4
• RE-EXAMS- No, I did not fail the first time. I just decided I could do better. The results aren’t out yet, but I’m hopeful. (I won’t remember the year for that, but still) OCTOBER-NOVEMBER
• MORE TRANSLATION WORK- All I can say is that I hope no one has to do translation to feed their family. Unless it’s a really good piece(s) they’re translating. It’s still very hard work you know, and some people you work for just can’t understand that. NOVEMBER- DECEMBER
• TRAVELLING- Bodhgaya NOVEMBER. (I guess “MUKTINATH’ was also amongst my travels.)
• MORE REJECTION- My ED college rejected me. This time there were no tears. Just sighs. And hopelessness. Even considered going to the jotishi (fortuneteller) until Baba refused to take me. DECEMBER 14
• COLLEGE APPS- again, and to 14 colleges- DECEMBER
• And hoping and being thankful (for everything, including not-getting-into-college last year)- THE WHOLE YEAR THROUGH. Like Manesh sir used to say, hope is what we live on for. Imagine what your life would be if you had no hope for better, for achievement, for happiness. And being thankful, well, I just am.
• And, TWO BOYS- crushes, stories that ended very differently from those of the past, though nothing positive and nothing permanent. Glad things ended the way they did, these two times, and every other time.

I am thankful for my family, my brother (whom I miss becasue he’s in Chitwan), my friends and life.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Load-shedding

You know what annoys me (I DO seem to be getting annoyed a lot these days)? Well, the list is long, of course, but one of the things that annoy me is how people love complaining, without understanding the issue. One example:

Although I am not, in any case, and to any extent, a supporter of the Maoists (in fact I am a ghor birodhi- anything BUT a supporter) the increase in load-shedding hours has nothing to do with them. Even if the Gordon Brown government (a successful government in its place) comes to Nepal, it will not be able to search up and build alternative sources of energy in 4 months. The serious lack of electricity that we now face is actually because of the corruption that officials in NEA have taken, and the fact that the low demands of the past gave NEA no reason to increase supply, and that suddenly this year, the demand has risen. It is due to inefficiency on the part of the NEA and otherv things, but it is NOT related to who’s in Government.

There was a rumor that a few days ago, one of the Ambani brothers was in Kathmandu to talk about investing in a new hydropower plant. But the Nepalis asked for Rs 5 crore under the table, so he went back. Not sure it’s true, but it IS a possibility, especially the corruption (money under the table= corruption). Well well…