Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Kathmandu!

As i sat staring out to the busy street of NewRoad with my too burgery-burger and a fanta for a change of taste at HotBreads, i realised that quite a few customers entered the joint because of the food on the window display. It was a direct attack on the taste buds and the saliva glands - directly through a POP display of product - not a poster, not a TVC or a jingle - a yummy burger and a fresh chocolate donut on the display - why wouldn't it bring in customers?! No wonder HotBreads is a favorite!

As I was slipping myself through the every possible nook and corner of the crammed traffic at 'Indrachowk before Tihar', I saw a thick moustached taller-than-all-Nepali-around tourist (you can visualize what i mean if you have seen one)... so i saw this guy with a handycam standing right in the middle of the crossroad taking a 180 degree view of the crowd and the mess and the shops and the people and the traffic...and i thought what a great idea of showing Kathmandu to his family and friends back home! Coz whatsoever you describe to them, and the scores of photographs of the durbar square and the surrounding mountain ranges wouldn't give them the feel of kathmandu unless they see this crossroad of Indrachowk and Newroad with all the lively things going around with their own eyes...Lovely!

If you come to Kathmandu, and ask people where should you go and shop? they'd tell you either or all of these three names that pop up in our heads - ToM- top of mind - NewRoad, Thamel, DurbarMarg - - Thamel and NewRoad are quite crowded places - all year round. I had met a few Indian colleagues of mine during a training a few months back. They were quite taken back by a few strange things in kathmandu at that point in time which were evident by their questions to me - e.g. Are those long queue for petrol? (what an innocent question, i thought, ofcourse!). And of the three shopping places i suggested them, they did all the shopping while traversing from one to the next... wow! that's even wonderful.

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