It's January...

…. so load shedding hours are cranking up. Last week they went up from the 4 hours per week (2 hours x 2 days) it has been since the summer to 15 hours per week. We were struggling to work out the schedule (difficult because we also had a series of technical power cuts) until yesterday when a timetable was published. It only lasted for one day! We went up to 36 hours per week (2 x 3 hours for 6 days) today. Last year the Nepal Electricity Authority talked about 12 hours per day in March but it never happened, the maximum was 6 hrs/day. I'm not sure we will escape so lightly this year unless we get some heavy rain which is unlikely. As we are meant to be having an election in mid-April (no date announced yet) things could get interesting with politicians not wanting power cuts to upset the voters (who are already pissed off with gas and petrol shortages) and doing a King Canute by telling the NEA not to increase load shedding hours. Of course the other possibility is that some will exploit the situation by blaming the Indians - always popular even when it has little justification – and whipping up a hate campaign that targets pro-Indian politicians.

All good fun but I won't care after Saturday because we are leaving then for 2 weeks holiday in Kerala (south India, where my Dad was born). Nice warm climate, sea, beaches (sorry to rub it in for all of you with a couple of months of winter still to go) and seafood. For some crazy reason we decided to have 2 days in Delhi en-route so we'll also get a chance to see how recognisable it is after 10 years of frantic development (I lived there 1995-97). Sheila is really excited to see the Metro; if I know Delhiites, it will not be as shiny as the pictures she's seen.

Cheers

Roshan