Dashain Blues

It’s Dashain time once again. And Dashain is the biggest festival in our Hindu Kingdom. It’s an occasion of excitement for all, particularly the young ones. And the grown ups too have a reason to be happy as the festival serves as an occasion to unite all the family members. Tens of thousands of people go away from Kathmandu to their homes to celebrate the annual festival. But everybody won’t have a comfortable passage home. There is excessive pressure on the means of transport and you are lucky if you get a bus ticket without hassles. Many people are unable to get one even after saluting the ticket-books repeatedly. To get a ticket you should either know the books or pay extra bucks because bus operators tend to sell the tickets on the black market to earn profits. And to get a plane ticket to fly to the remote destinations of the country is even more difficult. Every other person you come across says that you cannot get a plane ticket unless you have a ‘source’ at the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation. Isn’t it unfair? Or is Dashain only the festival of people with ‘source’ at the RNAC?

Manoj Ghimire
Manthali, Ramechhap