My initial days in Biratnagar

Strange things happening which, strangely, isnt sounding strange anymore...

There isn’t much to do in Biratnagar. Here, there is only one street (Main Road) that shows activity, and all the places are reachable by foot. The only restaurant you can take your family for dinner is named 'Valentine Restaurant'. There is a rickshaw syndicate at the airport which charges exorbitant amounts to unsuspecting first-timers (I got lucky). Biratnagar proper downtown is just a stretch of straiiiiight road where 'everything' lies.

The Departmental Store concept hasn’t quite hit this place. I wanted to buy a deodorant the other day, and I had to ask a Sahuji 'Oo, tyo chahi dinus ta... and after a while, 'Arko fragrance ma chhaina?' (then Sahuji subsequently telling his assistant 'Jara woh wala lana toh').

There are many high-profile, family-run businesses; most of the prominent marwari business family (Chaudhary, Golchha, Murarka, Todi, etc.) are all based here. But all the bigshots currently reside elsewhere. But still, you can see the business acumen in the very culture of Biratnagar itself. Almost all banks in Nepal have a branch in Main Road and are so close together that a businessman can venture out in a bicycle and learn the rates offered by all the banks within half an hour- plus, he has the culturally acquired business acumen to employ Game Theory and trigger off a mini cutthroat drive where the banks end up lowering their rates against each other and competing blindly. Here, only the customer has eyes.