| Username |
Post |
| Biswo |
Posted
on 05-Jun-02 02:29 PM
After crawling up a mountain for an hour, he could see the small town
beyond the border. That was Pithauragadh. A nearest town for all Nepali
living there.
People go to Pithauragadh for divers purposes. Prohibition is in force
in this district of western Nepal. So, some go to drink wine there.
There is a cheap market esp for ex-army men. Ex-army men are the most
fortunate ones in this town. Chanda, Thakuri follow them. Rest are
hapless, poor people struggling to make ends meet.
In the "season" of work, people in the other side of border await
arrival of cheap Nepali labourers. A Sirdar takes resonsibility of
managing the flocks of unemployed adults and gets commission from all
involved. The Nepali boys, some teenagers, go with hope in their eyes,
work hard, and then return after the season is finished. They file in
the Jhulaghat border where some greedy custom officers scrutinize their
belongings. There worn out Dhaka topi, their clothes in which
layers of dirt are reposing unapprehensively,their shining eyes all
try to suppress the harsh environment under which they toiled to make
some money. Some buy Radio, and dangle it from their shoulder. The
receiver in radio can only recieve signals from Surkhet station, medium
wave transmission. Short wave Radio Nepal doesn't reach there.
----
He was a chief of one NGO, and pocketed around fifty grands a month. He
figured out that any one who works there in government office is a virtual
ruler of that district. His NGO was a microcredit lending agency, so
his position was also almost as respectable as that of those beaurocrats.
Oh, that prohibition thing.In non-season,the adults used to laze away
all their time in playing cards and drinking alcohol while their wives
toiled in the hardscrabble town. That prompted prohibition. The prohibition
was supposed to be implemented by the CDO and others. It didn't take him
long to figure out that the CDO himself loved wines and so did the police
chief. Those who knew these two could also avoid penalty. The leaders of
political parties were also close to these two, so they were also sacrosanct.
Only people left to be subjected to the law were the poors one. The fine,
often exorbitantly high, was a suitable perk to be divvied up between
these few high ranking people there. Prohibition didn't make the alcohols
vanished from shops, it only raised the price, part of which went to
the local rulers.
---
The people. The downtrodden ones, the poor ones. In government offices,
these people are often scared. They can't speak with confidence, because
they don't know that the government offices were their property. They
look at the officers from outside the door, and hesitate to go inside.
They don't dare to sit in the chair left empty in front of the officers.
The officers also treat them like dirt, that is the norm there. The
civil servants cease to be servant there.
There were five villages before. Here and there. They wanted to glue
them together and make a municipality. It was a joke which the government
approved. People from far flunged villages now had to come to the municipality
offices for small things to be done. Formation of municipality didn't
help them. It only helped to elevate the status of the local leaders.
There , far away in the west, lies two twin towns, Shahi Lek and Gothalapani,
which function as sadarmukaam of the district which had sent one prime
minister to the center. It has one hospital where patients wait in queue
to see a glimpse of the only drunkard doctor who takes time to understand
the prescription of other qualified doctors. Sending prime minister to
the center didn't serve them. They remained as backward as ever. They
remained as ignorant and as hapless as ever. Their kids often lost the
fight with as unsignificant diseases as diarrhea .Yet, they are the
one, saadhaaran Nepali janataa, on whose name Mahendra once deposed
BP Koirala, on whose name Birendra ceded some of his powers, on whose
name army now grumbles, king Gyanedra gives interview, Prachanda
raised arms and political parties claim legitimacay to rule the
whole Nepal.
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| Nepe |
Posted
on 05-Jun-02 10:21 PM
>Yet, they are the one, saadhaaran Nepali janataa, on whose name
>Mahendra once deposed BP Koirala, on whose name Birendra
>ceded some of his powers, on whose name army now grumbles,
>king Gyanedra gives interview, Prachanda raised arms and political
>parties claim legitimacay to rule the whole Nepal.
How true !
I have thought about many times BP Koirala’s directives to policy makers to think about the poorest person they know when they sit down to make plans. Did he not hang the picture of a poor farmer in his office ? Anyway, although it may sound showy or too idealistic, I think it should do something good or at least not harm if we make it mandatory to hang in every civil office a picture of a poor Nepali of today and another Nepali of our dream instead of the absurd pictures of raja-rani. Everybody should be reminded constantly, even if it irritates them, what they are there for. Our poor brother should be able to enter that office and ask the haakim, “... tyo ta thikai chha hajur, tara tyo mero tasbir kina tyo bhittaamaa tagnu bhayeko, pahile tyasko jabaf paun ta !”
By the way, it is my observation in sajha that sometimes very good piece does not get many responses. The reason is obvious. They are so good and almost so complete that people are just content reading them. Even the compliments looks impediment. I think this one is such an example.
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 05-Jun-02 11:13 PM
Biswo: very nice, moving. Tyo town Baitadi ma ho?
Liked the title too, Thomas Hardy ko famous novel chha ni..."Far from the madding crowd"...set in rural Wessex. Euti Keti, three suitors. Life!
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 06-Jun-02 12:28 AM
Nepeji:
Thanks for encouraging words.
Yea, BPs directives are good, but , again, we are supposed to do more than
cosmetic things. I've heard Girija asked the planning comission to hang the picture.
Symbolically, that is fine, but , finally we have to look at the outcome. If we are
not lifting our population above poverty line, all our plans are only papers, and
our politics all deception. Politics is a nice thing, haina Nepeji, one can deceive
all people sometimes, one can deceive some people all times, but no one can
deceive all people all the time. People look at the result one day!
Paschimji, you are right. The novel is "Far from maddening(Madding haina) crowd"
and the district is Baitadi. I often want to pick up a catchy title for a thread so that
informed readers get intrigued and click on my thread. Since journalists do this all
the time, I guess i have done no wrong Or have I? Before choosing that title,
I was thinking about "Western Nepal: A fine balance", but settled to the former
one. "Bridges of Madison County" gave inspiration for the title "Bridges of inner
country" and the list goes on. I hope you guys approve this. In Nepali papers,
mostly NepalTimes have such catchy titles. Others give somewhat lousy headlines
to the news items, of course, that is my personal opinion.
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| dasein |
Posted
on 06-Jun-02 12:47 AM
"Western Nepal - Far from the maddening crowd" - far from it. Western Nepal is the center of the maddening crowd, the center of the whirlpool rocking Nepal, albeit a bloody one.
Your Caricature of the "sarba sadharan" Nepali seems like a cliche, it is the picture that is painted by self-ordained urban romantics over and over again. The simplicity of the "janata" you portray is an insult to the people you show your sympathy towards, I think.
The portayel of "janata" as a mute, unable to think or protest, timid, bearing the burden of living calmly on its shoulders - this ROMANTIC BULLSHIT has cost the "janata" dearly. It has served as a self-assuring picture for both the suckers at "rajdhani" and the Maobadi's equally.
Its about time folks started recognizing gaunle's as "janatas" as the complicated, intelligent and self-calculating powerhouse that we are.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 06-Jun-02 12:52 AM
Biswo,
The book IS actually called: "Far from the madding crowd".
That said, I have always wondered why women (especially Thakuri women)
from Baitadi look as if they come from the highlands of, well,
Afganistan -- what with their stunningly statuesque presence, lithe waists,
brown eyes that burn with smoldering sensuality, somewhat brown hair, and somewhat European-white complexion and, well, their razor-sharp intelligence :-)
One woman, three suitors, indeed -- reminds me of a certain real-life
story from some years ago involving a certain Catherine Zeta-Jones-look-alike
Far Western Nepali woman from Baitadi.
Life imitates fiction, or is that the other way round?
As some of you can can no doubt see, I can trying to raise some traffic
from that certain place in Europe. :-)
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 06-Jun-02 01:13 AM
Ashu,
Oh, that name thing. I pondered before naming the thread, then became confused
over whether it was 'maddening' or 'madding', then went to google.com, and
typed "Thomas Hardy, Far from the maddening crowd", and lo, there were several
results. Now, I went back to google.com and typed "..madding.." and again, there
are several results. So, I am sort of confused now. I don't have the book right now
with me either!
--
dasein,
If you say so, how can I disagree. But the crux of whole posting is what you are
saying: that they are power, but they don't/can't use power. Are you disagreeing
on this? You think they are calculating power house, but are they aware of this?
You think they actually do calculate?
I didn't mean to preach anything on the thread. I meant to portray only. The last
sentence sounded like preaching, but that was actually not meant to be like that.
It was supposed to be a pure observation (reportage) rather than evangelic plea.
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| Paschim |
Posted
on 06-Jun-02 02:36 AM
Biswo: Novel ko naam "Far from the Madding Crowd" nai ho. Farakai pardaina, dhukka hunus. Borrowing catchy titles is an acceptable journalistic practice. Tara West pani thari thari ka chhan ni Nepal ma. Sudur Paschim, Madhya Paschim, just Paschim like Gandaki, etc.
Dasein: You put forth a great case for exactly why democracy and poverty are not mutually exclusive. An argument that proponents of "benevolent" dictatorship, "right" preconditions, etc., need to internalize. My favorite example has always been the post-emergency 1977 Congress debacle in India.
Ashu: Now we are talking...Baitadi ki ti sundari France tira gayeki thiyin. The last I heard. Phela parin?
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| Biswo |
Posted
on 06-Jun-02 01:45 PM
All right , guys, madding nai ho raichha. Sorry about baatho banekomaa. Library
was a few blocks away, and I checked it this morning. What surprises me is the
result of google search for "Thomas Hardy, Far from the maddening crowd" .
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| NK |
Posted
on 06-Jun-02 03:11 PM
Ok, now we settled it once and for all - It is Madding. Old English I suppose. Never got around reading it. Yet another book I have not read! And that makes 500,000 so far and counting. Before I derail this thread, allow me to say: a superb reportage! And I did like the last paragraph very much.
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| ashu |
Posted
on 07-Jun-02 01:00 AM
Paschim,
I had the good fortune to meet the Baitadi woman in France last
September.
Fiercely intelligent and highly articulate, she was, at the time, working on her
thesis, in French bhasa, on post-modernism (analyzing Sakambari -- a character
in Parijat's "sirish ko phool").
Her conclusion was: "Sakambari is a stand-in for Parijat herself". Sipping coffee
in Paris's ubiquitous cafes, I had had some pretty intense discussions with her about that novel, and much else besides.
Other than that, she seemed busy with her multiple theater and arts-related
commitments around Paris; and the last I heard, this Baitadi woman is spending this summer as a member of a traveling theater companyin France. She wants to be a serious actress -- in the mold of, I suppose, Sabana Azmi or Meryl Streep -- and all one can do is cheer her on to greater success.
I am always impressed with and in awe of the distance some dedicated Nepali
men and women go to pursue their passion of anything, whether theater or anything else.
oohi
ashu
ktm, nepal
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