The goings on in Nepal reminds me of a time a couple of years ago. It was a time of strikes - by the Maoists, those in opposition to them in Kathmandu and in the Terai, Nepal's turbulent plains region along its border with India. Garbage piled up as sanitation workers of Kathmandu went on strike, demanding less work hours and more pay. Petrol and diesel retailers were on strike across the country, protesting corruption and high-handedness of the state-run fuel monopoly.
The most flamboyant strike, though, was credited to two ageing Boeing 757s of state-run Nepal Airlines Corporation. One struck work that August in 2007, refusing to fly on account of shoddy maintenance. It led to ten days of cancellation of international operations. In early September, a desperate management ordered two goats ritually sacrificed in front of the plane at Tribhuvan International Airport. It was to appease Akash Bhairab, god of the skies, whose likeness forms part of the airline's logo.
The plane flew. The other one soon flew away, too, to Hong Kong for repairs, but didn't return, on account of it being the subject of an aircraft leasing scandal that has for long dogged former Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala, of the Nepali Congress, then as now the party in frank opposition to power play by the Maoists.
That December, the remaining jet finally gave up, as an engine was flown to Brunei for overdue checks. All international flights were cancelled for two weeks by Nepal Airlines, which nevertheless continued to advertise direct flights from Kathmandu to Dubai, Delhi, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Osaka.
Other than that, the airline acted with restraint. It did not sacrifice more goats.
The surreal, brutal plane that Nepal operates on has once again become evident this past month ...For full post please visit here
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