Is no news good news?

So far today, it appears so. The streets are presently what passes for quiet in Nepal (a mildly deafening din of furiously keening street dogs, rough-hewn construction work without power tools, and noticeably fewer honking car horns.) It's a hair after noon and the protests are currently under wraps, as the parties have all convened to plot their next steps. Major protests are still expected this afternoon or tomorrow, but for the moment things are calm.

It's probably still best that I didn't go into work today. My route to the office and back takes me not only clear across this chaotic hive of a city, but directly through a warren of politically tempestuous colleges home to the local youth wings of the key political parties. When things go wrong in Kathmandu, that's invariably where the misery starts. I have no desire to find myself trapped at the office at the end of the (short, marginally productive) workday.