Aaja bhanda 5 barsa ra ek din aghi, December 29, 2000 arthat 2057 saal ko Poush 14 gatay. Tyahi din ko samjhana ma yaha kehi kordai chu I had started this thread about 3 years ago but never got to complete it. Yespaali chahi tukra tukra gari bistarai paskine sur gardai chu. I was scheduled to leave for Pokhara along with my Japanese and Malaysian friends (from here on, known as J and M) who were visiting me in Kathmandu at that time. We had planned a short trek in the Annapurnas. Well, it happened to be during the time of the Hritik Roshan kanda. The previous day was the “Upatyaka Banda” called by the CPN ML. There were rumors that the same party was calling the following two days as “Nepal Banda.” Of course as usual, there was no word regarding this issue from the state controlled media. However, there were also rumors that other parties, including the CPN UML, had been negotiating with the CPN ML not to call a strike on the King’s birthday (ironically the last one for King Birendra). Without knowing for sure whether the strike was called off or not, the three of us left home around 5:45 am. As we walked through the Gusingaal ko galli, there were a couple of chiya pasals open but that was far from confirming that the strike was called off since shops away from the main streets are usually open anyway. As we reached Hanumanthan, we saw a taxi that appeared to be waiting for passengers. That sight gave a little boost to our worried spirits. As we crossed the Bagmati bridge and headed west towards Tripureswore, we saw a few more vehicles. By now, we were thoroughly convinced that the strike was called off. Tespachi pabitra Tukucha paar gari Rangasaala ko chewai bata Uttar haniyo, walking along the sidewalk raised high above the street. Tudikhel ko cheu cheu hindai we arrived Sahid Gate around 6:20 am, where we were supposed to catch our “tourist bus” at 6:30. All the tourist buses were supposed to leave Thamel and come that way. There was one European looking dude smoking a cigarette. He asked us in his barely comprehensible English if we were headed to Pokhara, I replied on the positive. It was a cold and foggy morning, and time seemed to pass very slowly. Many local minibuses, microbuses, and tempos stopped and passed by. However, no tourist bus was to be seen. While the three of us were talking and shivering struggling to keep ourselves warm, the grumpy looking European dude, who was apparently the only other person waiting for a Pokhara-bound bus, kept smoking one after another cigarette. It was almost 7 am when one tourist bus finally arrived but that was not ours. Showing our ticket (with the bus # endorsed as 101), I asked the conductor “Ek saya ek number ko bus audai cha ki chaina?” “Audai cha” was his reply. Other tourist buses, some bound to Tandi and some to Pokhara arrived after that and I asked the same question to the conductors of each of them just to receive the same reply. Eventually the chain smoker got into his bus. I now started having doubts. I was thinking that may be the operators of that bus did not know that the strike was not called off and therefore decided not to operate that day. The two started teasing me, “You screwed us up. That bus #101 does not even exist. See, even that chain smoker is already on his way.” At the same time, I was thinking of a contingency plan of taking a minibus run by the Prithvi Highway Syndicate should our bus not arrive within the next hour or so. After repeating the same question to a couple of other bus conductors, finally one of them said “la yesai ma aunus.” So finally around 7:15 or so, we were on our way to Pokhara. Bus pheri khataray paraycha. It belonged to Monica Travels. Unlike other tourist buses we saw, it did not have tinted windows. The two got the relatively better seats but I got the only other of the two remaining 2*2 seats. The aisle seat beside me was out of order; the backrest was tilting all the way back making it almost a flat seat. I used it to place my backpack. The window was missing a knob and was not stable. Banda garyo, ekai chin ma khyatrang khyatrang gardai khulihalne ani cheeso sireto le attack dinthyo. Tesmathi tyo knob hunu parne thau ko pwal bata aune chiso hawa ta chadai cha. After exiting the valley at Nagdhunga, we got a brief glimpse of the Ganesh Himal. After numerous twists and turns, and greeting numerous night buses and trucks headed towards Kathmandu, we reached Naubise. Dr. Harka Gurung, in his renowned book “Vignettes of Nepal” states that the road between Thankot and Naubise turns 52 times. However, I have always been forgetting to make the count myself to verify his statement. Kramasha