A Hectic Day

Reporter's Notebook

Today turned out to be a hectic day. I hope this blog will not be a typical diary entry (which I don't want it to be). I arrived early at 9:30 am at office. Scanning through newspapers is a hack's must do job but I always enjoy the thrill news brings to a reader. Every morning, I go through Kantipur Daily, that I believe, suffices in updating you.

I knew I had a lot to do this Wednesday. I made contacts for my assignment of retail boom in Kathmanudu. I am doing its lifestyle side. But, its been tough to find a character or two for my story. Finally, I ran into a genial lady in Bluebird Department Store, Tripureshwar. The Bluestar Hotel is being transformed into a shopping mall. The good thing about reporting is you know a great deal of things that could go unnoticed. But, the flipside is very few people know what you are going to do and they are really scared once you utter that you are a journo. But then, every calling has its pros and cons. Once the reporting is over, writing is another painful task. We often call it Prasav Bedana or throes of birth in rough translation.

In between, I received a couple of calls that dealt either with my job or were from my dear ones. I wished a sick friend to get well soon. Today, Bikas Karki, the jovial photojournalist was my partner in the assignment. We hopped from one branded shop to another. Now Reebok, now Peter England, Giordano etc. World class brands are vying to attract Nepali consumers. We ate momo at King's Way, entered Royal Academy for a few minutes. My first and the last destination for today happened to be Bluebird Department Store. I bought a Gillette shaving machine at Bluebird (of course, to look handsome!).

At Bluebird, Bikas forgot his cell phone but luckily it was found later. He noticed it as we were climbing the stairs of our office building and he rushed to Tripureshwar. Finally, he heaved a sigh of relief and quipped: "OK, there still seems to be honest people around."