| Paschim |
Posted
on 12-Nov-02 10:05 PM
Exiles are a punishment – Josef Stalin deported half a million Chechens to Siberia in the 1940s. But self-imposed exiles are worse…Milan Kundera has just finished a new novel (“Ignorance” – on émigré life of Czechs—I read a review, not the book), but across the English Channel, Naipaul mocked the very notion of exile. Exile, what exile? In the age of “cheap air fares” everybody can go home!!! I self-exiled myself from Sajhapur for 5 days (work and travel) – and boy, was that painful?
I started by doing an “ego-search” – typed Paschim, and wanted to see what threads come up. You never know these days -- which pretty ladies I am being hooked up with today (private interest!), and which gentlemen are looking for what they want to see as their “truths” (public interest!)…Batauli said earlier: “bheed ma jiu jogaunu, anikaal ma biu jogaunu”…Sajha is a bheed…and it can be awkward when you are lonely in a crowd…anyway, would I even want to bother with the retorts…naahhh. I come here for fun (learning is bonus). My real life is led, and my worth earned, elsewhere.
So, Hahooguru wants to know how I look like…for the only publicly disclosed photograph of the “underground” moi, check out http://www.suskera.com/sept2002/bhurtel.html; if you want other versions, email me! But Guru-ji, I give you 7/12, or B plus for your projection; and you were quite wrong about the teeth – Melbourne ki Joanna le mero chiundo ma haat rakhera, “timro je chha, ti gajjab daant baata niskane muskaan chha” bhaneki kahilai birsinna. Probably the second best compliment that a woman has ever given me. The first one was: Oi, YOU, don’t you hear me, I want to mother your child! This happened at a bar in Washington not many months ago…I seldom lie…although you do know that clever quip on fishermen, don’t you? One fisherman is telling the truth about the other when he calls him a liar!
The Great Paramendra threads!!! As someone who has probably known PKB the longest here (20 years), much of this (not everything) is amusing. While I have my own views and strategies on dealing with thugs (both with low and high IQs), my general position, expressed on at least two occasions here in the past is along the lines of…personal offense, and hate, etc. against anyone, under any pretext is wrong, and just not worth it. Let us all condemn, and refrain from malice and slander…some civility and respect of the other being is always nice…but we should also accept that the perpetrator or the victim ought not over-estimate or misinterpret the “silence” of face-less, unbound, non-committal posters here. Names, real or otherwise, mean little to me on this virtual board. Who cares who is Ghanashyam and who is Suntali ko poi? And perhaps except for PKB, other folks taking and firing cheap shots may not even be noticed (I for one don't patronize more than two or three "pet" threads at a time -- or may just be on exile). But what I write, I write under Paschim (except on rare occasions when I resort to an English translation of a beautiful Maithili word. Guess what that is? I do that just for a change when I see my name plastered all over. Not exactly a fan of Narcissus.)
Do people remember their firsts? First day in Amrika, first time on an aeroplane? First day at college? First time you saw a face of a Japanese tourist and his fancy camera? First meal you took using knife and fork, first time a woman was sensuously touched? First time you read Czar's musings, Deep's story, NK's poem, and Nepe's Ghazal on Sajha? First time you swam on fresh-water, or the first letter you ever received in your life?
Okay, a Sajha trivia:
The first letter, I, Paschim, received in my life was from a friend from the Plains. It was some 20 years ago. It was a post-card, don’t remember what the picture on the front was (not a Bollywood actress, I know for sure, possibly Janaki Mandir)…but I -- to this day -- remember the address it came from:
Paramendra Kumar Bhagat
C/o Shri Muni Bhagat
Natraj Sound Service
Station Road, Janakpurdham.
PKB switched to his address in Mahottari soon after -- too complicated to memorize. The Ward numbers keep changing these days. My station in Chitwan just became no. chaar from no. teen. No gerrymandering or Pahade conspiracy though. PKB showed me that letters are written, sent, delivered, and received; and they are one of those “small” things that brings immense joy in life. I was almost 9; he might have been over 12. Wisdom is the daughter of experience. Phebe, wife of the geographer John Tyson used to be a great fan of the monthly letters I sent them when a student in London. With the invasion of emails and glorification of two-liner communications, I’ve lost that real gift of good letter writing now.
Simplegal ko killer kabita. Sitara ko tulutulu Najar ra kesh jastai. Khai, ke bhanam? As Slipknot put it so accurately: whoever that lucky bastard is?! Awesome. Dr. girl ka simple feelings are awesome. Hajur kai sabdama: khai aru ke bhanun? :) And you don’t direct cardinal directions…a direction can come pointed and looking! But life is windy, and directions can also mislead.
That song by Yam Baral: “Badalu ko ghumto le Illam bazaar chhopinda, maile sablai birsechhu, timilai samjhinda”…reminds me of a real day when I just took off for Purba, the real town of Illam, one foggy day in 1998, when ek jana (to borrow another Yam Baral song: nisthuri le chhadera gai haali) chose to fly Paschim on a bankrupt RNAC jahaaj! "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" was released a few months later at Goon Cinema near Gwarko, Chakrapath. I went to see it with a feminist named Charulata (real name withheld). I haven’t returned her call since.
Anyway, good to be back! Let me now go on to do some serious bhaasan in “Democracy in China" thread. And has Arnico begun some policy stuff somewhere? Or is it poltis bhitra ko rajniti -- must visit that too.
p.s. akhum lalumai lalayauri bilyauri (anyone recall this great folk song?). Thank you for putting up with my atma-kendrit ganthan. I do this for selfish therapy. I disavow any side-effects.
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