Why “not” Nepal?

So you force-close a city (Kathmandu) for a day:

• you put brakes on 5 million people’s mind for a day
• you make 5 million idle minds become a devil’s playground
• you force a million youths to lose their morale and purpose (one level down at  a time).
• you strangle any entrepreneur’s budding desires to start something here.
• you make me question your moral superiority and …doubt mine (for bowing to you)
• you make me not want to do anything for anyone.
• you make us all dumber
• you force 5 million people to be poorer.
• you make it easier for us to leave and leave you all alone.

what a Lose- Lose situation.

As we grow up, we look for ways and patterns in which we can make a ‘deep emotional’ impact on our surroundings besides feeding our desire to be self sufficient.

In Kathmandu, i have lately been meeting young entrepreneurs who not only want to  make it big, but make a ‘positive social impact’ while doing so.And lots of opportunity is here during this transition period in Nepal, to rise out from the crowd of normal entrepreneurs. I see a big opportunity for entrepreneurs with social conscience’ to stand out and be recognized and preferred by clients, customers and be profitable socially and economically.

here are some small ideas where i see social entrepreneurs in Nepal can make a difference:

a) Angel investing in startups (for other young entrepreneurs who have  non existant collatorals, and who have ability to create jobs)

b) Waste into “recyclable energy” . You can be the darling of Kathmandites who are tired of seeing waste littered around day after day while earning from tons of organic waste that falls in the streets each day here.

c) Drinking Water problem: Tapping rain water to replinish households during the dry winter and early spring ( people will thank you while giving you profits from your actions)

d) Incorporate social responsible ethics into any business. here is an example. I just opened a website about responsible way to travel in Nepal site inside the travel nepal portal exoticbuddha.com . Check the tips out here.

e) add your social entrepreneurship ideas and opinions… below!!!

India has Goa. India exploits Goa a lot (more than a million travelers come there every year).

Goa has an international airport. Pokhara could have one… here is a scenario

How about linking Goa and Pokhara directly. Travelers would see such contrasting differences within a flight of 3 hours that it would be mindboggling. From relaxing in sunny beaches to sunny boating in the lakes of Pokhara admist the highest mountain ranges in the Annapurna mountains.

What travelers want is accesibility. The missing part of the puzzle in Pokhara is just that. It has hotels, infrastructure etc. It needs the co-branding. (Goa could be perfect). Tie in with an established tourist hot spot that compliments.

Tagline: Come Sunbath in the beaches of goa , party hard and then fly off to watch the highest mountains in the world while boating in a lake. Then raft down for some adventures and top it off elephant riding and rhino watching nearby and then back to the beaches of Goa with some crazy parties to top it off.

One way to stimulate our  travel and tourism brand…

It seems  most potential entrepreneurs /investor / business people are after “the big fish”. (of course big fishes are harder to catch, harder to find, and harder to track ).

Why not go after a few small fishes that “has a chance to grow into a big fish”. Easier to manage, maybe even less risk ?

And when the pond gets drained away, its the small fish which usually escape, not the big ones.

In the time of darkness and gloom in Nepal, this entrepreneur is slowly turning to poetry as an escape.

“when the way the society is functioning defies common sense, when the way we live here in kathmandu baffles even us who live in it (you who live away, will be in awe at how things work here), I have found myself in loss to express myself in logical ways, in a common sensical way.”

Business and entrepreneurship mostly assumes  a fair degree of stability as a pre-requisite (or semi-stability at worst). Here I am at a loss to explain how business run and how entrepreneurs fare in a (potentially) imploding scenario.

The only thing that makes sense to me  amidst Kathmandu’s anarchy /chaos is raw poetry. Lately been doing that more and more. Maybe it is the only place i can escape to.

enjoy,

Ujw