Of course, if you’re Nepali or in Nepal – Dashain is on your mind. But if you belong to one of the few families that does not actively celebrate Nepal’s biggest festival, there are still other things to look forward to besides new clothes and over eating on kashi.
1) Vacation – With Nepal’s six-day work week, getting enough time for a holiday is quite something to look forward to. Regardless of whether you get a month off like teachers and students or four days off – a break is a break and I’ll happily take more than my one day weekend.
Although four/five days may not be enough for your dream vacation in Thailand or Maui, it’s enough time to get things done around the house, read a few book that are turning to dust , sleep, veg, and maybe even catch up with friends who don’t have forheads heavy with tika.
2) Peace - Everyone on is gone, and the streets are quiet! For a city that has more than doubled its population in five years, a noise free Kathmandu is something of a novelty. I live a little on the outskirts of ring road and so my ears don’t have to suffer as much, but when I have had to make the trip to the hustle and bustle of Kathmandu, it’s been refreshingly quite.
Not as many horns blaring with the vengeance of Kali, no more sidewalk shoppers spilling onto the streets, no cranky children being dragged around by last minute shopper parents. All is still.
3) A clean city! – After the mass shopping spree, everyone packs up their Dashain sale items and heads home, which to a majority of the people means outside the Valley. This means there are fewer households trying to run the city above it’s capacity, and it means people aren’t here to create a mess.
It’s amazing to see a Kathmandu that is clean! There aren’t huge clouds of smoke escaping from museum-worthy vehicles. There are no massive piles of garbage festering on the side of the road. There are no litterbugs decorating the streets with wrappers. If only we could keep the city clean all the time.
4) Dashain bonus! – More mooooooney! Dashain is expensive for those who celebrate it, gifts, meat, money for the youngsters – but for those who don’t celebrate, we still get to cash it on the bonus and put it into our savings that our low salaries doesn’t make possible.
5) Sale! Sale! Sale! – With the extra bit of money and the 10-40% off of almost every store, it’s definitely the time to make those buys you’ve been pushing off. All nice stores have sales so I can get the goods I want without having to front half my paycheck.
Doesn’t matter if you’re looking for gadgets, clothes, shoes, or furniture there is some sort of sale happening and you’re more likely to get a better price now than at any other time of the year.
So, there’s obviously some Dashain fun for everyone.
Saani has no real goals and aspirations but she sees opportunity in everything and goes with the flow. This is probably because she loves exploring and discovering. She writes for fun but for the same reason she also cooks, reads, and spends a lot of time on random websites that offer a chance to learn all sorts of tid-bits on life