Can you see the light?

Have you ever experienced a time when you had no electricity for an hour? You'd feel irritated or restless-now let's say you have to get through the day with 16 hours of no power!!! That's exactly what is happening here in Nepal. Load-shedding as it's most commonly called is nothing new around these parts-as one of the biggest resources in hydro power, one would imagine that the country could sustain itself! But in reality, up to now, nothing is being done to eliviate this problem. I am lucky to be living at the hotel, I am not directly affected but to hear my friends and colleagues raise the issue time and again, makes me as frustrated as they are!

Imagine if you may; shops, restaurants, cybercafes, all shut down because they have no power and what's worse is that they have no other means to obtain power either! Electric tempos that ply the busy streets of Kathmandu have no option but to go on strike in order to get the "authorities" to provide electricity to recharge! Generators, inverters cost a bomb! Diesel is scarce and at times like this, it is even more expensive to buy! What is going on here? Who is responsible for this? The blame game has already begun. It's affecting the lives of thousands of people here-I never would have imagined I would bear witness to such a situation but here I am-in the thick of it all!!!

Now it's a matter of watch and wait again-hoping against hope that solutions are found to this ever increasing frustration!