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The Year the Lights Went Out

Matthew Kruchak June 22, 2009 Severe power outages are killing Nepal’s few remaining industries. Matthew Kruchak on life without electricity in the world’s youngest republic.

Selling lights without electricity is a tough gig. At Mega Lights, a vast showroom in Katmandu, more than fifteen hundred light fixtures hug the walls and hang from the ceiling. But the only reliable illumination comes from the sun, beaming through the shop’s picture windows. The Nepalese government has instituted controlled power outages—called rolling blackouts, or load shedding—to deal with the country’s escalating energy crisis. On average, Nepalese go without power for sixteen hours every day.

The owner of Mega Lights is Nitesh Agrawal, a young entrepreneur with a smooth sales cadence. He is giving the …

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Tenth Anniversary: Spring

ISSUE 43 Tenth Anniversary: Spring 2012

online content:

also in this issue:

  • Face the Music

    by Tim Falconer How can someone who passionately loves music also be a terrible singer? Tim Falconer takes up voice lessons—and discovers the surprising science of tone deafness.

  • The Big Job

    by Deni Y. Béchard As a teenager, Deni Y. Béchard went to Vancouver to live with his father, an ex-con with a penchant for telling tall tales. He met a man desperate to forget the past.

  • The Homesickness of Astronauts

    by Johanna Skibsrud "She felt a great sadness. She would remember next to nothing of this, even soon."
  • [see full issue contents]