A Communal Communist

This was the Greeting Card sent by Ms Hisila Yami Bhattarai to my dad on the occasion of Mha Puja and Newari New Year.

At a time when the Nepal Sambat or the Newar Sambat has gained national recognition, it is indeed a matter of pride for the Newars to celebrate the festival.

However, I expected the Tourism Minister would also remember Dashain and Tihar, the two biggest festivals in Nepal celebrated by the majority of the people. It's easier to remember Tihar as it falls somewhere around the Newari New Year and Mha Puja. Why, then Ms Yami Bhattarai did not wish people a happy Tihar?

Two questions came in my mind, both of them contradictory:

1. Communists don't believe in celebrating traditional culture. If so, why is she printing colorful cards, with her pp-size photo and a signature beneath it??

2. Their Great and Glorious (Mahaaan tatha Gauravsaali) party talks about respecting everyone's religion, caste..If so, why did she willfully forget to mention Tihar, which is celebrated by a very large population, including Newars?

I guess, next time, if she stands in elections, she will ask for votes from only one community.

जहाँ जहाँ जान्छौ तिमी...

कथा दाहाल दम्पत्तिको

प्रचन्डजीको प्रचन्ड पत्नी माया देखेर नयाँ नेपालका लोग्ने मान्छेले केही सिक्लान् जस्तो लाग्या छ मलाई । छायासरी वहाँकी पत्नी जतिबेला पनि साथ साथ देखिनुहुन्छ, चाहे त्यो राजनीतिक कार्यक्रम होस् वा अराजनितिक । चाहे त्यो दाहालजीकै शब्दमा भनिएको 'सम्राज्यबादी' अमेरिकामा होस् वा 'शारिरिक र मानसिकरूपले आशक्त' गिरिजा प्रसाद कोइरालाको चियापानमा--सर्वत्र छाउनु भएकै छ सितजी । त्यसैले त पत्रकारहरुको घम्साघम्सिमा च्यापिदा पनि दु:ख मान्नु भएन वहाँले । हुन त एक हिन्दू नारीको धर्म भनेकै पतिको खुशीमा साथ दिनु हो । तर ....

तर हामी जनतालाई भने यी कुरा चित्त नबुझ्ने रहेछ, किन भन्देखीन न त सिताजीले कुनै मन्त्रिपद सम्हाल्नु भएको छ न त वहाँनै हो प्रधानमन्त्रिको औपचारिक अङरक्षक ... त्यसो भए के का लागि सधैं अघी पछी लाग्नु हुन्छ त वहाँ लखर लखर, दाहालजीको ? शुभचिन्तकहरुको नमस्ते र पुष्प गुच्छा थाप्न? कि पुष्पक बिमान चढ्न ? बरु साचिकै पुष्प प्रेमी हुनुहुँदो रहेछ वहाँ त । यता पनि पुष्प उता पनि पुष्प, जताततै पुश्पै पुष्प ।

तर एउटा कुरो भने दाहाल दम्पत्तीले चटक्कै बिर्सिनुभएछ है! त्यसरी नै जनता को पैसामा राजारानीले मोज गर्दा आज ऊनिहरुको ठेगाना दरबारमार्ग बाट वनमार्ग भईसक्यो । त्यस्तै हो भने त कमरेड दम्पत्ती पनि बालुवाटार बाट बालाजुटार तिर लाग्नु पर्ला, होस् गरौ है ...

सोचौं है सोचौं !!

Report'ing or Eat'ing?

They say one can't concentrate while eating but i've seen so many reporter friends here who make an excuse of reporting for eating. Free lunch!

A reporter friend asked me whether i would be attending a press meet somewhere in Kathmandu. I had some other things to do, so i said no. In response to my negative reaction, the friend sent me a text message: "Let's go, they are serving good food." I wondered whether the journo friend was going for a reporting or for a free lunch. Maybe for both but the msg surely disgusted me.

Imagine, you are speaking something important at a press conference and the media people gathered turn into 'chewing and drinking faces'. If you are hungry, perhaps you would also like to eat but considering the mike in front and a topic in your mind, the distracted faces savoring the taste of Real Juice or cookies irritate you...

I've come to know about 'bhaatay patrakaars'--those who find out the daily engagements in the city from a newspaper like Gorkhapatra, and then pick the ones being organized in big Hotels. They don't even have to be a reporter as no one asks them about their cards at the programme. If, in case, they are asked to 'register' their names, they would do under somebody else's name..

they don't care what happens in the programme, all they care is what they get after the programme. They help thesmelves very well..and pamper their insatiable appetite with second and third helpings....(Sadly, i don't have their pictures, next time, maybe i will try to get some and post here.. )

You can't really control these kind of circumstances but you can definitely take precautionary measures:

1. If you are an organizer--i) If you "have to" provide food, do that only at the end of the program, not when the program is taking place, like it happens at our famous press clubs.

ii) ask your people at the 'registration' to look for valid ID cards of the bhaatay patrakaars in disguise.

2. If you are a reporter--Take notes or get your querries answered first. When everybody is done with speaking and questioning and the stage is cleared, then only help yourself. That way, you will save yourself from critics like me. :)

Born to be slaughtered!

How mean are we?

Come Dashain and the season of slaughtering of goats begins in Nepal. Thousands and thousands of goats, sheep, buffaloes, and pigs are eaten by crores of Nepalis, in the name of celebrating the tradition, and in the name of religion.

People also make money by ill-feeding the animals to sell them at good price, of course by lying how healthy the animals look. Personally, I am a vegetarian and I stopped eating meat after a teacher explained 'Kopila', a poem by Laxmi Prasad Devkota so well that it made me change my mind. The lines of the poem go something like this: "Natipnu hera kopila, nachyaatnu paap lagdachha, namaarnu jantu hai kunai, daya ra dharma bhaagda chha…"

The tradition has been going on for centuries, but at this age, when we talk equally of animal rights as we do of human rights, can we say NO to animal sacrifices and let them live their lives to the fullest?? Maybe we can start by trying and tell ourselves "It's just a matter of taste to us, to them it's their life!"

Also lets ask a question to ourselves: Can we imagine your beloved pet animal in such a painful situation? Think and answer......

Life is life, whether it's the pet animals; or of those who die to satisfy our taste buds.

When are we going to spare their lives?

I don't honk, do you?

Stuck in an immovable traffic jam, just when your legs fight to find some legroom on the streets, pungent smoke irritates your two important sense organs—the ears and the nostrils. You adjust your scarf/mask to check the amount of what-not gases and then another sense organ gets terribly affected—your ears—by the incessant honking of the horn by (I would say) 'insensitive' people.

Already our capital badly suffers from bad traffic system—with narrow roads, abundant street vendors and scarce sidewalks--on top of that people pretending to be blind and not realizing the vehicles ahead cannot move until the vehicles before them don't move, adds woe to it. They, no matter whether there is space for the vehicles to move forward or not, blow horn, assuming as if the 'noise' they/their vehicles make petrifies the rider/driver ahead to clear the road.

Why have a 'don't-care' attitude? Lets respect such signs.

Now here, think for a while and lets be honest, haven't we done that before? Haven't we seen no-horn signs/zones before? How often have we paid respect to it? Haven't we, ourselves, been irritated by the ear-piercing pressure horns? You must have heard the two popular pressure horns that have the tunes of the Bollywood hits—Kajra Re and Dhoom Macha Le?

And one more thing—have we (let's be real honest) ever thought whether people were carrying babies on their rides/drives? Did we then think, those fragile ear-drums could be affected by the high-decibel sound that our horns produce? If you were really honest, you must have an answer by now. I don't want to sound preachy, but I really think we, the 21st-century civilized people should be enough thoughtful and wise to not irritate others and play with others' audibility. I am on a campaign—"I don't honk", are you with me too?

Hope such a situation does not come!