Even as we wait for the outcome of several meetings between the powerful transport lobby, tyre-burning students and a somnolent government, we've learnt that this is all probably for the common weal. The streets of Kathmandu have been visibly cleaner for the duration of the public transport strike. The lungs of Kathmandu residents were spared the soot, and we all got a lot of exercise walking or biking to and from work. All this must have added at least five days to our lives. This week we were looking at a control sample in air quality: what would happen if the streets were minus 20-year-old vehicles. And what we saw was what we'd get if perhaps emissions standards were more strictly enforced. Alas, it was not to last, the vehicle lobby has compromised with the government, the belching buses are back on the streets, and the pollution levels are back to normal. Just as well. All that oxygen in the air was making us dizzy.