Another holiday today; yesterday had been Krishna’s birthday, but today were the celebrations – dancing in the temples, processions through the streets. But we have little time left before going to India, and we needed to rehearse.
As everyone acknowledges, punctuality – or the lack of it – is an issue in Nepal; Nepalis themselves acknowledge it in a jocular way. And in many ways, it does reflect both the culture and the demeanour of the country: laid-back, casual, relaxed. And this can be both charming and attractive. And I am not here to denigrate their culture, or, heaven forbid, attempt to change it. Nor their accent, for that matter, provided their words are clear.
On the other hand (and didn’t you see that coming), SPA is largely concerned with training young people in business and related subjects, and one of the necessary traits in business is a concern for time, especially when dealing with the wider world (for the moment, represented by me.) Deadlines are important; making arrangements for meetings, and keeping to them, is important.
Which is all a rather long-winded introduction to saying that, inevitably, they drifted in to the rehearsal. As usual. But only one complete absentee today: Depak, who plays the hero of the story, Arjunal. Which rather destroyed any chance of doing a run-through of the play. So we concentrated on the song. I am rather proud of it (and them), for I think it does the trick, in fulfilling the needs of the competition. And with Dhir’s help, we also have a pretty solid tune, as well as a backing track. Lest I be accused of complacency, I still think it will be a long way short of the standard that will be achieved (the competition criteria mentions four-part harmonies!) But I think it’s funny, so let’s hope it tickles the audience too.
Aparna, Eva, Val and I then took a tuk tuk to a big shopping mall out towards the airport; all of us had shopping needs. My approach was stereotypically male, in that I found two shirts straight away, bought them, and was done; naturally enough, the others took a different approach. And there were flour floors, all focussing on a different commodity, so a lot to explore. But the escalators were clearly a challenge for some of the newer customers; Val and I both witnessed separate, potentially life-threatening incidents. In the one I saw, a grandmother made a tentative step onto the first step of an ascending one, her arm firmly held by her daughter. Unfortunately, the daughter neither stepped on herself nor let go, with the result that her mother was dragged almost horizontal as the step kept rising. Luckily, the only injury was a misplaced sandal.
Eventually, I decided I had to leave, in order to get back to a 4 o’clock rehearsal; I could scarcely complain about punctuality if I didn’t exhibit it myself. Aparna arranged for a worker there to escort me to the tuk-tuks and speak to the driver for me, and we set off. A hundred yards down the road, he stopped again, and four young people climbed kin with me. They ignored me entirely, but I was amused rather than offended.
It was a pity that my efforts were of no effect, for only five of them turned up. There was little productive that we could do, but we passed the time pleasantly. We chatted – for some reason we got on to casinos, and the folly of gambling in general. And then we played some sitting-down games (it was still bakingly hot): Who killed King John; King Rabbit; even fizz/buzz. Maybe being relaxed at this stage is showing complacency, but we didn’t have any choice, and it was most pleasant. And afterwards they walked with me to the procession on the main street, with Krishna about to arrive.
A very noisy affair it was too, with music blaring from a huge sound system on a flatbed lorry, with Krishna and (I think) Shiva dancing on the back. And then a line of smaller lorries, decorated with yellow and pink banners.
I returned, in my usual state of exhaustion, to the room. Val arrived at 7, tapping gently on the door, and shushing me I let her in; she was in the middle of an important call, begun during her tuk tuk trip home.
