And there were no imported whiskeys to speak of. Liberalization was still a decade away, so if you did drink at all, you were happy just to be able to buy bottles without having to depend on your own bootlegging skills. [break]
And for the uneducated masses with time aplenty, it was a great way to get entertained. You’d begin to think that from that point on, having got most of the population so interested that they’d come to Patan to drink their liquor, these people would move on to make better of the opportunities.
Unfortunately, uncle and aunty don’t see the necessity. And the customers waiting to be served lined up outside and on the benches don’t seem to mind either.
The word “entrepreneur” was probably coined by some wise guy fighting to overcome the system and red tape to start something he truly believed in.
Ask any person running a business in the country today, and I guarantee you, although they’ll complain about the way things are, they’ll have no qualms about working here.
Where else can you make money on VAT refunds without actually paying VAT to the government? Only in Nepal nothing is illegal if a hundred businessmen decide to do it. Wait. Make that ten.
For every one of the entrepreneurs who deserve a chance, there are those members of the numerous “Entrepreneur Forums” who drive around in their luxury cars, wave flags at Dashrath Rangashala, and are overcome with emotion every time the national team plays football.
Patriotism is all very well for a bit, rather than still driving around the town and showing up at social gatherings wearing a Dhaka topi. But at some point it has to give in to good sense.
A true definition of patriotism would be people honestly paying taxes on their income, not milking the country’s revenues dry even if it means having to take a hire purchase loan at absurd interest rates to book a Nano.
Entrepreneurs these days are a bit like Hindi movie songs. It is available on five out of the twenty channels on your television, but it’s not the first thing you reach for at the end of the day when you get back from running eight kilometers on the treadmill after work.
Were the similarities to end there, it might be something we could overlook. Unfortunately, like Hindi movie songs, Nepali entrepreneur stories tend to be far and fleeting before they end up being buried in a barrage of bad memories.
This is changing, but it’s changing slowly. And the change is coming not from people at Gorkha Brewery who make billions selling the same beer bottled under four different brands but from entrepreneurs who are mixing passion with whatever little prospects available to them.
A disclaimer, lest critics think otherwise: a few of the entrepreneurs are my friends, and have been for the longest time.
This isn’t an endorsement of their businesses, only their attitude. There are people like Akshay Sthapit, cofounder of Harilo.com who has no real connection to the web apart from having an email account and having spent many years surfing it.
There are others, like Pratik Gupta who left his job at Mumbai to manage Kalwar Agro Trading, a company selling spices that are now putting their own stamp on things.
Are they successful entrepreneurs? Probably not. And I’ve been one of the first to tell them so. But the difference between these people and the entrepreneurs that are featured on partynepal.com is that they listen.
They go back with plentiful notes and come back months later with better ideas. Or else they quit and move onto something else. They’re smart enough to understand that if at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.
From the old school, there’s the Didi who runs the bhatti besides Krishna Mandir. While her earlier competitors continued to progress and turn bhattis into cafes advertising free Wi-Fi connections, Didi spent years perfecting the “mixed bara” and the “bhutun.” It must be good. Often I’ve seen people line up and eat her dishes standing up in the middle of the street.
However, it’ll probably be a lifetime before Didi starts offering ambience at par with the food. I figure, at least for another decade, it’ll still be plentiful of mixed bara and “chyyang.” And then, at some point, some smart Marwari guy is going to fund these bhattis and invest not only in marketing but also in inventory, ambience and service.
Until that happens, I suspect me and my wife will continue to stand in the middle of the street and eat mixed bara before going for Albatross, Lyrics by Indy, and Joint Family sessions at the Patan Museum.
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