Bhaktapur, April 8:

The schools are closed and the election to constituent assembly is just two days away. People of all ages are busy preparing for polls in their own ways but some children in the heart of the historic city of Bhaktapur have their own ways to make the most of the vacation, and in the process earn some pocket money!

On the premises of the five-storey Nyatapola temple, the tallest monument in the Bhaktapur municipality, you can find groups of children selling orange-coloured water in used soft drink bottles. Ingredient for their product is simple: a few orange-flavoured candies, salt and drinking water. Their customers are other children.

One of the enterprising children, eight-year-old Bikash Prajapati, who recently completed his third grade examination, told this daily that he and other friends chose to sell water to make some money and help other children playing under the scorching sun quench their thirst.

“I mix some orange-flavoured tofees in drinking water and add some salt to make it more tasty and sell it for half-a-rupee per bottle. Children love the drink,” he said.

He said he brings water from his own house, bottles and tofees from his uncle’s shop.

Rahul Shrestha, 10, said: “It is great fun and a good time pass.” He added, “We can even earn some money to buy ice-cream for the Bisket jatra.”

A customer Binod Bhuju, 12, said the drink is not tasty but he was trying it just for fun.