Nepal in Full Volume

If you are planning to be subtle and quiet in Nepal now think again. The whole country it seems is in the frenzy and ready to shout, scream and holler (whatever word you want to use) to be heard. Everyone feels without doing this, nobody will take notice.

In the streets of Kathmandu, the vehicles are not only honking horns like crazy, in fact they are trying to outdo each other with louder and more piercing horns. It’s like saying, ‘Move the fuck out of my way!’

Even a horn of a small motorcycle these days are louder than a bus.

Our politicians – they’re never tried of spreading hate – detonating like nuclear bombs every time they speak. They're yelling hatred against rich people, against poor, against Indians for denying us our rights, against Tibetan people. Every time they speak, their mouths appear to spew venom.

Look at students now. Instead of studying and building their careers they are now in the street. Closing the roads and denying common citizens like us the right to free movement. Their unions are as vociferous as ever.

The trade unions are always on strike. They strike for little or no cause and they’ve grown louder and louder. In fact, they are so tired of shouting that they even occasionally resort to using guns to make their points heard.

In the street, when someone hits someone, other people gather around and a commotion soon follows.

From their homes, the whole population is also shouting for constitution – over at the radio, in talk shows, in papers, at each other and maybe even in their dreams.

With shortage of electricity, water, cooking gas and petrol, the cries have reached ever greater decibel. The whole nation has become like a noisy beehive.  

We are so loud we only know how to yell. And when we don’t we close our ears. 

Life after World Cup

Load shedding is back.

At 8 last night I was staring at darkness The light had suddenly died and I hadn't cared to charge my emergency light. A candle was all I could get.

As I lit the candle and the light from it flickered I started imagining this is how life must be like 50 years back. It was 'back to the future' moment.

During the World Cup, as people switched on their TVs and watched football until the wee hours of morning, the electricity board didn’t dare to cut power. The whole nation was watching. It was festival of football. The electricity board knew the wrath they’d have to face. So the lights came all day and all night as every match was shown live in 2 TV channels.

Now, it is electricity board's time to get back at us.

During World Cup, as I made my way home from work at evening rush hour to watch football, the streets to my was virtually empty. Everyone was home watching TV. The first match started at 5.30 local time and everybody had to watch it.

And in my office, our usual chat in between work was fiery, even war like. We all had our favorite teams - the likes of Spain, Argentina, Brazil. We used to boast of their attacking powers, the skills of individual players, and how they had outplayed the opponents during the match.

But those days are all gone now. The old load shedding has reared its ugly head again.

Now, politicians hug the limelight, smoke from vehicles will fill the street and the lungs of the people, and our office has reverted back to old boring days, when we were mouse like instead of tigers the World Cup had made us.

I can't wait for another World Cup to begin.

No Logo

In the world of increasing economic disparity and diminishing cultural choices!

The Road to Serfdom

The book - The road to serfdom - was written by Austrian economist von Hayek. It came out in Readers Digest in 1944, just when second World War was concluding. In the article, von Hayek argues about the dangers of state planning, and how fascism and communuism are the product of grand plans the state undertakes that erodes individual liberty and leads to dictatorship.

The book was an enormous hit and I encourage every Nepali to read it, especially at a time when we are faced with the dangers of extremist forces of the left and the right.

There are some quotes from the book:

"Man does not and cannot know everything, and when he acts as if he does, disaster follows"

"What has always made the state a hell on earth has been precisely that man has tried to make it heaven"

What do you think?

The crowds celebrating Buddha Jayanti - their message

I went to Swayumbhu to pay my obeisance to the Buddha, a great being who many Nepalis like to proudly claim was born in Nepal. But these same people don’t like to read any of his teachings and they don’t even respect the Buddha. All these are mostly people who belong either to the extreme right or the left of Nepalese politics. This is not surprising since the Buddha advocated the ‘middle path’. If at least these extremists tried to became little moderate, without comprising on their core principles - e.g. equality, Nepal would be much more peaceful and safer place to live. What is alarming though is that the moderate voices are increasingly being drowned out by these extremists.

In Nepal, if the extreme left gets a stranglehold, the extremely right will take up arms, and if opposite happens, the extreme left with take up arms. The only solution is the center, or the ‘middle path’ the Buddha taught.

So thinking of this turmoil I went to Swayumbhu to wash my mind of all the politics and insecurity that surrounds us. From about a kilometer away, the police had blocked traffic. Too much crowd.

I parked my bike and walked. The Buddhists activity around their shrine is more about accumulating good karma and letting your mind become peaceful than in the Hindu temple, where the devotees are pleasing the Gods to ask for a favor. You could say wanting a good karma is also similar to pleasing the Gods to ask for a favor. Anyway, the activities vary slightly. You don’t see a crowd in large number circumambulating in a Hindu shrine. In Swayumbhu, huge crowd was going round at the bottom of the hill and at the main stupa. When I was there, maybe 20 or 30 thousand people, all enthusiastic turning the prayers wheels and chanting mantras were walking. During the whole day, more than 10 laks devotees could have walked doing the same.

As I watched, I couldn’t stop my mind recollecting what Prachanda had said during the 6 day strike. He’d declared that the Nepali people are here in the street in millions and whole Kathmandu will come out to greet us.

I saw this procession of devotees, all peaceful, all happy – and thought the Maoists should come to see this.

Off course, they’ll say religion is the opium of the people. That it blinds people and maintains hierarchal system, and only the class struggle will shatter this.

I say to them – it’s their obsession for a class struggle that’s the more dangerous opium of the two, filling them with hatred and revenge and turning humans into animals.

The people in Swayumbhu were all happy and cheerful. They wanted to live in a Nepal that was peaceful and prosperous, and one without hatred and violence. The procession in fact was silently but resolutely answering the Maoists back.

I will find you

I've pasted a link to the video below entitled I will find you. The documentary is about the disappearance of ordinary people during the recently concluded civil war in Nepal. Both sides in the war killed, abducted and disappeared many people, both sides are now helping each other to cover their crimes. Watch the video.

The link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VBDYraMVGY

The Red Flag

The Red Flag is the title of a book by David Priestland. I got to know about it when I read a review of the book in a newspaper. I was instantly attracted to it. I did bulk at the price of it (Rs. 1850) as I had made up my mind to read about Communism knowing how deeply we’ve been affected by it recently.

So the next day I went ahead and bought this bulky book of about 700 pages. It’s been 3 days since the purchased and I’ve spent all my free time devouring it. I’ve finished reading about 25% but suffice to say I’ve enjoyed every bit of it. If you want to know what communism is, read this book.

I want to translate the book in Nepali. I feel every Nepali should read this book and know about the benefits and the pitfalls of adopting communism. Our largest political party – the Maoists, are strongly in favor of a one-party communist rule and the people have been blinded by the favors the Maoists have promised. They (people and politicians) should read this book and decide for themselves if what the Maoists have promised can be delivered.

The book doesn’t criticize communism unduly but writes in 'a matter of fact' way what was wrong about the movement and what needs to be adapted and abandoned for it to have any success. I feel if our communist leaders and ordinary Nepali read the book, at least the brand of communism we will inherit won’t be as disastrous as it was in USSR, China and most of the countries that adopted this political system.

I want to setup up a committee and start collecting funds to translate this book. If anyone has any innovative idea or experience on doing it, please contact me.