Happy New Year(s) and resolutions

A work-related email never having got answered, probably because it never got read, I tried to make a phone call to a government office today. No answer. After an eye opening and a mind blowing visit to a government office last week it did not really come as a surprise. 

A draft from every possible and impossible corner blowing the smell of urine from the toilets accross the massive arching halls, once occupied by the royal family, to battle the stink of leaking gas from heaters some priviliged senior civil servants are lucky enough to posess, leaving the less lucky ones opening the stained windows in a hope the weak rays of the winter sun will ease the cold dampness in their bare offices,  decorated with an insect chewn maps of Nepal, worn off furniture that with a bit of imagination could be recognised as sofas, and a few tacky glass paper weights obviously once received as business gifts, perhaps reminding their owners of a long ago made work visit to a glorious government office in Delhi or Bangkok.

Having had always considered paper weights the most useless, silly items there can possible be I now changed my perception. If there were no paper-weights the piles of mainly hand-scribbled papers and notes would soon be in a chaotic mess all over creating more unnecessary chaos on the already existing chaoticness, with the wind freely blowing through the endless corridors, majestic hall ways and doorways covered by nothing but stripped pieces of cloth serving the purposes of doors. What would happen on action plans and guidance notes of development initiatives if there were no paper weights? Picking up and re-organising documents gloves on cannot be easy nor motivating with a 20.000 rupee monthly wage.

An effective civil service is the key to development, I recently read someone having stated. I saw none of it. Bureaucrats were obviously making any excuse or business to stay away, judging by the saddening emptiness.

Somewhere in the building today a telephone was ringing echoing on the walls peeling off paint, revealing the rotting decay of something once long ago shining and glorious. Only later I realised the phone, this time, kept ringing unanswered due to the occassion of New Year, declared a public holiday. One of the many in Nepal.

The first day of the New Year for the Gurung community was spent today, hangoverish maybe from the last nights celebrations, leaving just enough time to recover for the celebrations for the New Year according to the Gregorian calendar. A couple of months later there will yet be one more chance to escape the grimmness of office life to celebrate the Tibetan New Year, then the Nepali New Year, then the Newari people's New Year and the Kiranti people's New Year. If I have missed any, I shall report as they pop up.

So many chances to make resolutions, which I never do, but the twisted idea of "exciting things to do" of the authoress of this blog concretised into something like one in the midst of today's events which included seeking guidance to lead out of the slowly growing doubt over the meaning and purpose of professional self, followed by an abstract 45-minute lecture over the importance of service provision. There was however one piece of concrete advice to lead further: "When you feel like emailing, pick up the phone, and when you feel like phoning, walk".

This is where an incredible mission of visits to government buildings starts: Walking boots on and here I come, the wonderous world of paper-weights!

The sad thing, for you my dear readers, (dear indeed even if you are incredibly inefficient leaving your marks in the comment boxes, although I strongly suspect you have nothing wrong with your bloody internet connections) is that there is a signed document somewhere restricting the sharing of work issues externally, stopping further smelly reports from the halls of where the New Nepal is being constructed. When the festivals, temperature and what ever allow, that is.

Happy new years anyway folks!

Happily escaping the pleasant green pastures