Being associated with Nepali media, perhaps one of the world’s poorest media industries, means overworking, which in turn means you almost never have the luxury of holidays. Of course you might be entitled to a day off per week, in principle, in official papers. However, more often than not, your employer/immediate bosses will have all sorts of reasons to hijack the luxury.

Against this working condition are my colleagues from developed countries who are appalled at the amount of pressure Nepali journalists are put to. What is more, they are appalled at the fact that we get only one day off per week. On the other hand, the strong sense of holidaying that they have stuns me and my colleagues. It even never occurred to me that we should get two days holidays instead of one and that even that one day should not be violated by phone calls from offices. Balaram Baniya, one of Nepal’s top journalists, once told me he does not remember when he took his day off last time. Of course his case is an exception: he cannot stay off the newsroom for more than 12 hours. Addiction!

Any ways, providence has a way of compensating for our sacrifice though. Thanks to Nepal Bandhs! Sounds unfamiliar a phrase? Let me explain. Following the April Revolution in 2006, all have realized how powerful people-power is. Consequently people categorized themselves into groups based on caste, creed, ethnicity and all sorts of artificial boundaries and started calling for their own respective rights and privileges. One good way of doing it, taught by April Revolution, was to call Nepal Bandhs, a general strike brining all economic activities and traffic to a grinding halt.

You will be surprised how easy it is to call a successful strike like this. All you need to do is to send out a press release one day in advance and start burning tyres the next morning. When police come your way, start throwing stones at them from a pile you have kept ready since the evening before.

For instance, last Wednesday was one of the hundreds of Nepal Bandhs we have had lately. As a result I stayed the entire day off, drinking beer with friends and watching movies. Nepal Bandhs guarantees a problem-free unauthorized day off your office. No boss, how strict he or she is, dares to take action against you. Thanks to hundreds of urchins, bored with their lives and looking for some fun, who pour out into Nepalese streets the moment selfish leaders declare strikes.