After the standardization conference, most countries "rounded off" their local time, as it were, so that it differed by a whole hour(s) from GMT and from adjoining time zones. But some, for reasons of geography or politics, rounded off to the half-hour.

Nepal is, too!

Arthur C. Clarke, in one of his novels, postulated a future with only four time zones. A friend of mine who was stationed at a military base in central Alaska told me they kept the base on Washington (Eastern) time because most of the year it didn't make any difference and it kept them in synch with the Pentagon.

Interesting clip!

I would be so confused.....

Nepal, even stranger, is 45 min off. Also political, this time wanting to be different from (and ahead of) India.

How strange. I didn't know!