Summer...fun?

What's been the primary event or most prominent feature of your summer? Vacation? Record high temperatures? Summer school? For us it's usually the monsoon pouring buckets of rain. Not this year. In fact, the monsoon just arrived only about a week ago - VERY late - but that is another story. No, for all of us in the hills our summer so far has been defined by a strike.

As part of a bid for a separate state local leaders called a strike. All businesses close - except for the chemist shops (pharmacies) and the dudh wallah (milk man.) No vehicles can move except ambulances and cars belonging to the political party. No bills such as telephone or electricity are paid. With shops closed no sales taxes are collected. This results in a fair loss of revenue to the state and central government. Naturally it is also a hardship for the locals.

People rushed about trying to stock up on as much food as they could afford. The main concern is fresh food. Have you ever considered how much fresh food you could keep without a refrigerator to put it in? Not too much really, maybe 5-7 days worth (excluding root veggies) depending on the temperature. We are fortunate in this regard to live in a fairly cool climate. We're also fortunate to have a small frige to put a few things in. There's also the question of how much you really want to carry back and forth from the market and how many times! Though we have a motorcycle right before a strike there can be traffic jams in the market that make it more worthwhile to walk.

I held the camera over my head to try and get a shot of the packed alleyways in the vegetable market but you can't quite get the feel of the press from this!



All stocked up! The strike started on July 13 at noon and was announced as being indefinite. At least we'll eat well for a few days!



During the strike the shops are closed...the streets are deserted...



By the time they called a 'relief day' on July 20 we were ready! It's great that potatoes are delicious AND keep so well!



At the moment we have about two weeks of relief. We'll see what happens after that...
In other news, the largest landslide in our area (June 25) has been cleaned up quite well. They've built some retaining walls against the hill. You can see in this picture that some repair and construction continues.