Zero hour

When there is nothing to talk (or write about), there is the ever-handy weather. “Conversation about the weather is the last refuge of the unimaginative,” Oscar Wilde said it ages ago. Be that as it may, or precisely for the same reason, people will never stop talking about it, nor will opinion writers refrain from it, one too many time for many people’s liking. Understandably, it is a hobbyhorse of British newsmen.



UK’s relationship with Europe these days is ‘chilly’. David Cameron’s big words against the domineering European bosses ‘icy’. Cameron reportedly had a ‘heated’ exchange with his Lib Dem coalition partner Nick Clegg over the same issue. Of course, the English weather is famous for its unpredictability. Fortunately for the British, their politics is far more predictable than the version practiced back at the Home of the Gurkhas.



Sometimes one wonders if the minds of our politicians have not chilled out too. Otherwise, what accounts for the sudden freeze in the peace process? Why have rapid developments in the process following CA extension given away to a disheartening stalemate? On the constitution front, the political leaders have, many reckon, deftly shirked their responsibility by tasking an ill-equipped panel to come up with recommendations on the most contentious issue of them all.



As far as the form of government is concerned, there have been vicious back and forth in the leading op-ed pages, but little progress on the ground. Instead, the positions (PM vs Prez vs mixed) seem to have hardened just as the bitter chill has begun to bite.



Whether or not you can conceivably link up plummeting temperatures with the political logjam (unusual for Nepal where virtually all the important political breakthroughs in the last couple of decades have been made in the winter), there is just no way you can avoid thinking about something more mundane: your freezing body. Try. You come to office, plonk yourself down on your cushy chair, fire up your computer engine, when it hits you: Jeez! Your feet are freezing. And the finger joints feel unusually taut for the unbudging keyboard. It doesn’t help that you haven’t slept for days because your electric heater has been rendered useless thanks to the ever-generous NEA.



On Monday, many international flights at TIA were cancelled because of a thick fog. Sadly, it’s not just flights from TIA that have had to be ground to a halt this time of the year. The fuel supply system has gone kaput. Since there is no electricity, you cannot power your pump to pull a little freezing water for yourself. The same day, incidentally also the Earthquake Safety Day, PM Baburam Bhattarai was put through his paces on earthquake-preparedness. Maybe he was trying to keep himself warm by honing his ‘duck, cover and hold’ skills.



A day earlier, he was speaking to some reporters about how he is the only man after BP and GP Koiralas to look into the eyes of the Indian top brass. Even as all kinds of theories are swirling about what made the Chinese Premier jet it to Saudi Arabia merely four hours after his arrival in the capital. Don’t rack your brain. It’s the regional winds.

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