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This is the first of hopefully many postings. Always wanted to write my impressions - a combination of travelogue and the study of local consumers and consumption quirks. Never got the chance to actually write an article and try and get it published. Guess it was too much trouble - till blog spot came along. I guess I am late even in the blogging revolution but then I was never known for being an eager techno type...
My job allows me wide travel ( all of SAARC, SE Asia, US) and my trade has forced me to look at markets and customers from an insiders point of view. So hopefully these pieces will not be infernally boring, but we will only know as we go along. The best reason why this experiment has a chance is that long waits in airports are part of the territory and blogs from my point of view are a real "time pass palli batana"..JPG)
Last week I was in Kathmandu for the first time - and having read a lot about the city from some mountaineering books, I was rather keen on seeing what the city is all about. The mystique of sherpas, gorkhas and of princes bent on patricide ( not to mention the other cides, alongside) did give the city a certain character. Generally, I was not disappointed - the people are generally very straightforward and friendly (Typical mountain folk), Kathmandu has some great places to eat and drink, and there are streets and streets of "tourist" shopping places selling all kinds of ethnic stuff including a well done shop selling only pretty wicked looking Khukris. I guess one can spend days wandering those streets buying Nepali Ganesha heads to Kamasutra Buddha( pretty remarkable invention of the Nepali mind).
On the natural beauty side - I was not able to view a single mountain for the good reason that Kathmandu is in a valley bereft of major mountains - and since it is the monsoons - even the effort of going to a viewing point would have been futile. Need to save something for other business visits, right?
Coming to my impressions on the customers - there are somethings common to all customers from Bangladesh to Birmingham - a yen for cellphones, a fascination for cars (esp SUV's), etc - but what stuck out in my mind was that the Nepalis were pretty well dressed and fashion conscious. Whether it is the impact of the foreign tourist of the adventurous variety, the market has a lot of boots, sunglasses, impressive looking compassed - and the locals seem to have taken to them as well. My overall impression is that while the off takes are nothing to write home about right now - the customers in this market will spend if they have the money. This is where the really good news comes in for Nepal. The single largest export is people and this has grown in its contribution. While it was the army earlier - now the Nepali is willing to work in many parts of the world and send the moolah home. The second positive thing is that the polity may settle down after the upheaval of the past few years, with the Maoists joining the mainstream. All this can mean that Nepal will scale new peaks in the years ahead.
Guess it is well worth investing a few days a year to push things along!
Cheerio
My job allows me wide travel ( all of SAARC, SE Asia, US) and my trade has forced me to look at markets and customers from an insiders point of view. So hopefully these pieces will not be infernally boring, but we will only know as we go along. The best reason why this experiment has a chance is that long waits in airports are part of the territory and blogs from my point of view are a real "time pass palli batana".
.JPG)
Last week I was in Kathmandu for the first time - and having read a lot about the city from some mountaineering books, I was rather keen on seeing what the city is all about. The mystique of sherpas, gorkhas and of princes bent on patricide ( not to mention the other cides, alongside) did give the city a certain character. Generally, I was not disappointed - the people are generally very straightforward and friendly (Typical mountain folk), Kathmandu has some great places to eat and drink, and there are streets and streets of "tourist" shopping places selling all kinds of ethnic stuff including a well done shop selling only pretty wicked looking Khukris. I guess one can spend days wandering those streets buying Nepali Ganesha heads to Kamasutra Buddha( pretty remarkable invention of the Nepali mind).
On the natural beauty side - I was not able to view a single mountain for the good reason that Kathmandu is in a valley bereft of major mountains - and since it is the monsoons - even the effort of going to a viewing point would have been futile. Need to save something for other business visits, right?
Coming to my impressions on the customers - there are somethings common to all customers from Bangladesh to Birmingham - a yen for cellphones, a fascination for cars (esp SUV's), etc - but what stuck out in my mind was that the Nepalis were pretty well dressed and fashion conscious. Whether it is the impact of the foreign tourist of the adventurous variety, the market has a lot of boots, sunglasses, impressive looking compassed - and the locals seem to have taken to them as well. My overall impression is that while the off takes are nothing to write home about right now - the customers in this market will spend if they have the money. This is where the really good news comes in for Nepal. The single largest export is people and this has grown in its contribution. While it was the army earlier - now the Nepali is willing to work in many parts of the world and send the moolah home. The second positive thing is that the polity may settle down after the upheaval of the past few years, with the Maoists joining the mainstream. All this can mean that Nepal will scale new peaks in the years ahead.
Guess it is well worth investing a few days a year to push things along!
Cheerio
3 comments:
Manoj,
Nice article, seems like Pakistan is no different from India but with a little bit of old world Mughlai flavor with a increasing Islamic essence. My question: Why is it that democracy does not work in Pakistan? The have nots have a vote which in India they have been effectively utilizing . With a dictatroship they have no vote. Is this due to the religious way the country was formed or is it something to do with the frontier mentality of Northern India which was always an entry point for invaders?
Cheers,
Ramana
Ramana
My guess is that this may be due to the way Pakistan was formed and the influence of the migrants after they came it.
The army has always been solidly Punjabi or Pathan( even though Musharraf is from Delhi). Guess they could not tolerate too much of democracy that put power into Mohajirs hands. They also reacted similarly when the Bengalis won the election and were in a majority. Every so often, democracy comes back but the ground reality is that the landed, established classes cannot give up their privileges.
Religion also probably has an impact as Sultan's and Shiekhs are still accepted in the Islamic world.
regards
Manoj
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