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They huddle by the front door, with big bags on their backs and cracking jokes, as they get ready to rush on their bikes. They are preparing to deliver food loaded onto their large bags, often unaware of the barrage of difficulties that await them. This is the view at the Naxal central office of Foodmandu, an online food delivery service, at 5 pm on a recent evening.

The recent surge in online activity means that deliverymen—and right now they are all men—are more occupied than ever. But the work lives of these people, who deliver everything from cooked pizzas to raw potatoes, have gotten little attention.

The life of a deliveryman is by no means easy, especially with the unpredictable weather, terrible traffic and bad mapping of Kathmandu. And some customers can be downright nasty.

Ramesh Lama, who works at Foodmandu from 5 pm to 9 pm, constantly deals with these issues and yet he has learned to enjoy them as challenges to be overcome. “Figuring out the right location is half the battle won,” he says. “Often, the location may not be accessible on a vehicle, or it may be a confusing road, or worst, the customer may have changed the location and not updated.”

Unpredictable traffic and foul air of Kathmandu are other daily difficulties. Om Prakash Karki, who works for Daraz Nepal, an online retailer, says traffic sometimes delays deliveries. “Even though everyone is aware of these challenges, both our employers as well as our customers hold us responsible if we cannot sometimes deliver on time,” he says.

Talking about the customers, the experience of dealing with them can be immensely gratifying to very unpleasant.

Abishek Suwal, who also works for Daraz Nepal, speaks of the gratification that comes with feeling valued and respected, when a customer recognizes their effort. But, says Sagun Thapa, another deliveryman associated with Foodmandu, “At times customers treat us condescendingly. They try to demean our jobs and mock our financial status.”

“Some customers treat us as if we are their household helpers or somehow inferior to them,” he says.

There are also instances when customers have argued with Thapa for a little change. “One time, the bill was Rs 3,113, and the customer refused to pay Rs 13. It is sad that we have to squabble over the billed amount.”

These deliverymen like to have a smile on their face, even as they are aware that every new assignment is a new challenge. According to those this correspondent talked to, all they seek from their customers is a little respect for their work, for “no work is big or small”. 

 Around 300 bikers and pillion riders, all dressed and deked out, gathered at the Tangalwood premises on September 29 for The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride’s Nepal edition. A global event to combat the stereotype of men on motorcycles, and to connect the global motor­cycle communities, the ride which started in 2012 is now helping raise funds for men’s mental health programs and for prostate cancer research through its new official charity partner—The Movember Foundation.

Founded in Sydney, Australia by Mark Hawwa, The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride this year was conducted a day later on Sept 30 in over 650 cities worldwide. Taking part were 120,000 distinguished gentlefolk donning their dapper clothes and riding their vintage motorcycles.

The Nepal chapter of the DGR was hosted jointly by Tangalwood Events and RS Moto and saw men and women, both locals as well as expats, take part with great zeal.

 It’s not often Nepal sees interna­tional bands coming specifically for a small, one-day festival. It’s even less often we see a woman on bass who literally rocks the stage. This is what happened last Satur­day, Sept 29, during the Kathmandu Blues & Roots Festival.A psychedelic/rock/blues band from Austin, Texas, The Well were the only band of the day that got the crowd on its feet. Performing their own originals, they describe their influences as early metal, the likes of Black Sabbath and Deep Purple, and 90’s bands such as Nirvana, The Melvins and Sleep. Jason Sullivan, drums, and Ian Graham, guitar and vocals, shared “Our music genre is in the seed stage. When we started it was incredible small, with mainly older, and only a handful of younger, bands. And then it just took off and we are kind of popular within the genre now because we have been there forever.”

I asked them how a band from Austin ended up at a Blues festival in Kathmandu. “We were playing in Chicago with a band called Midnight Wolf from Dallas. Kiran Byanjankar, who has an entertainment company in Chicago, came to see Wolf, saw us and asked if we would like to come to Nepal. We spoke to him just that one time and a year later it went into motion,” says Sullivan.

With only a few days in Nepal, The Well was keen to see as much as possible of the country and cul­ture. Just as well, (no pun intended!) as prior to playing at the Blues & Roots Festival, The Well were thrown headfirst into the Nepali music scene when they took the stage in Butwal along with Kathmandu’s Shree 3 and local Butwal band, Rock Gene. “They had a really cool setup there, the sound was crazy awesome,” says Lisa Alley, bass and vocals. “Every­one was stoked and wanted to take photos with us, and the environment was really comfortable for the audi­ence and us.”

So, aside from Butwal, have they managed to see anything else of the country? “This is our first time to Asia and we have seen Butwal and every little place in between there and Kathmandu! We have also seen the Indra Jatra festival, the chariot, which was impressive, and masked dancers. This is what I came for,” says Sullivan. “Aesthetically Nepal is beautiful everywhere you look. They have an eye for shape and colour and architecture… even the way the trucks are decorated. It’s like a car­nival,” says Sullivan.

“We visited Lumbini. It is awesome that Buddha was born there. We also eat a lot of local food, learned how to eat with our hands, and saw buf­falo brains being served at Satish’s house,” says Alley. (Satish Sthapit, Newaz, is a founder of the Blues & Roots Festival.)

Why such a short time in Nepal? “We are going straight from Kath­mandu to Rome for the start of a month-long European tour from October 3 to 28. We are hitting it hard right now as we have our third album coming out with Riding Easy Records. We just finished record­ing and mixing right before we left (for Nepal),” says Alley. “It's always nice to get out there and remind people you exist before releasing another album. In February we will tour the US to coincide with the album launch.” Back at the Blues & Roots Festival, I caught up with Kiran Byanjankar whose company Tarang Entertainment both hosted The Well and sponsored the Blues & Roots festival this year. “We are based in Chicago and showcase events for the Nepali diaspora.

Our motto is “let’s have fun”. If our involvement in the Blues and Roots Festival goes well this year, we will continue to be involved and help the festival grow,” he says. The crowd at this year’s festival certainly had fun so here’s to seeing Kiran, Satish and the rest of the gang bringing us more cool music in the future !

Bangladesh is a Muslim-majority country of 163 million people with only small pockets of Hin­du communities, comprising around 14 percent of the population. Hin­du-Muslim relations are generally good in Bangladesh and during my five years there, I felt right at home, even during Dashain. Planting jamara in my Asian Uni­versity for Women (AUW) hostel, getting tika from my professors and seniors instead of my grandmother, playing cards with my friends instead of my cousins, and eating Nepali food cooked with friends instead of with my family—there were some variations, but we tried to celebrate the festival pretty much as we would back in Nepal.

We did not get long holidays for Dashain but on the night of Dashami Nepali students gathered and played the Mangal Dhun, sang Nepali songs, and danced and played cards. Some even cried as they missed Nepal. There were students who felt lonely during Dashain, especially those celebrating it for the first time away from their families.

Hundreds of Nepali students will celebrate their Dashain in Bangla­desh this year as well. Currently, around 400 Nepali students are studying medicine in Bangladesh. The number of Nepali students in other technical subjects has been increasing as well. Besides them, there are around 10,000 permanent­ly settled Nepalis in the country.

“This is going to be my first Dashain away from family”, says Archana Suwal, 20, a current stu­dent in AUW Chittagong. “But I am not sad as I have found many senior Nepali sisters to celebrate Dashain with.” Sanjay Karki, 25, who studied MBBS in Bangladesh and is now working in Maldives, says that he gets excited when he remembers Dashain celebrations in Bangladesh.

“During Dashain, we used to gaze out at the flock of Hindus going for Durga Puja at a nearby temple from our rented apartment in Zam Zam building [in Chittagong]. We Nepalis too formed a group to go visit local temples,” Karki says. Reminisc­ing the moments spent celebrat­ing Dashain with his Bangladeshi friends, he says, “Despite being a Muslim country, Bangladesh knows how to respect and value other reli­gions. I am thankful to my Bengali friends for being there for us.”

There are also working profes­sionals who feel right at home in Bangladesh. One of them is Biswas Kafle, 32, a tour operator who has been staying in Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka for the past one decade. “I visit Shakti Peeths and go to Durga Pujas organized by Hindus in Ban­gladesh. In my view, the Hindus here feel a little dominated by Muslims so when we foreigners visit the temples and meet the local Hindus, they feel good and proud to be a part of the bigger Hindu community.”

When asked if he misses Dashain celebrations in Nepal, he answers “Not really!” as he frequently visits Nepal. “For last Dashain celebra­tions, I along with some other Nepali students in Dhaka had reserved a whole ship for a DJ party.”

But alcohol was not a part of the party. The absurdly high tax, as high as 605 per cent, and Islam’s ban on alcohol makes it hard to get in Ban­gladesh, even for foreigners. Howev­er, most Nepalis in Bangladesh that APEX talked to seemed to have no problem celebrating without it.

You cannot experience in Ban­gladesh the kind of Dashain vibe that sweeps Nepal this time of the year. There are no swings or kites in the sky. But Nepalis, who have been staying in Bangladesh for some time, have found a way to connect with their Nepali roots during this festival: dancing to the rhythm of Sugam Pokharel’s “Dashain Tihar” and cooking masu bhat and tarkari.