Lamentation of a pensioner

The words appearing here are the “Lamentation of a Pensioner”.

Happened to talk to an intellectual personality who has got 50 years of work experience and who has clearly understood Nepal and its functionality to its root. She started the talk saying, “I graduated in 1964 when you were not even born (She chuckled), and since then I have worked in various places. I have seen Nepal going through her high and low, and now see what we are really going through. I am sure, I will not see light (She meant electricity) in my lifetime, but hopefully, you guys will got to witness that.” She then continued with her another question fired at me with a little more frustration mixed with the her humorous side, “Why do they have to provide us with electricity when we have natural light for 12 to 13 hours? What’s the point in supplying with electricity during the time when you already have daylight?

During my talk with her, it was clearly evident that she loved Nepal as much as we all do. We all love Nepal. But, then, there are just few countable one those who have completely marred the image of Nepal and they have to be kicked out of their position because that is what dragging us down.

She continued, “The people of our country was the one who was once considered as the most trustable people and we had a great pride in British Army Force. British use to trust more on Nepalese soldiers even over their own soldiers. Even in Indian Army our people are in significant number and they were the one in the front line of defense during India’s 1999 Kargil War. Where has that pride gone?” Till when are we going to be vainglorious and keep on flaunting our hollow words which nobody is buying now.

She even said, “Even when India is grappling with its fake currency, we are still standing pure and unperturbed in that context though we have got open border.” So true!

She then added, “If you ask me, what have you earned during your entire life time, I would say, I have earned my children. I have made them capable of earning money without being corrupt. People those who have already tasted the corruption money, they will never try to work on their own will and they will keep on following the same path — It’s just like a man-eating Tiger — once they taste the blood of human being, they will stop hunting the wild animals.”

So true!

Nepal votes

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While the election fever has blanketed the entire milieu on the either side of the Nepal-India boarder, the people on the either side are lined up to vote for their candidate of their choice as their wait for their turn patiently. Yesterday and today, the entire valley (Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur) look deserted with only few vehicles plying on the road. And, it is for sure that this election fever has not left anyone untouched.

For India, it might not be a kind of significant historical event, but for Nepal, it surely is. The reason why it meant a lot for we Nepalese is because it holds the rights of all Nepalese and is going to represent their demands in the coming constitution assembly for the new constitution of Nepal.  

Though it is one of the most historical event in Nepal’s history, the saddest part is that we are so divided because of our cast, color, creed and origin. We were never so divided as we are today! I am not a royalist but the harsh truth is that we started fighting among ourself only after the Nepal’s royal palace carnage – the dreadful night which swept away the entire the then governing royal family of Late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev. We let it go and this is why we are reeling into this unceasing hula-hoop of life. We are being manipulated and that is  for what the royal carnage took place.

I think we are being played by these politicians. They first wiped out the entire royal family, they divided us in the name of region, cast, creeds and origin, and now the are coaxing us to vote for them. This is nothing more than a sheer game of politics to grab the power and money. There is no other way in Nepal to become rich overnight other than turning into and getting associated with some political parties.

While I have been to my home this festival vacation, I saw these political parties preparing for this election. And, the saddest part of this election I got to see was that most of their cadres were the young guys of not over 16 years of age. They didn’t seem to have even crossed their teen age and they were clearly not legally authorized to be associated to any political parties. But, the cache here is that, these young generations who have little knowledge about the politics and those who are battered by the poverty is being manipulated by these politicians. It is easy to manipulate somebody who is hungry rather than who well off.

While I am writing this blog, news are coming up from all national and international news agencies saying that Maoists faction has boycotted the election and has set fire to the ballots. Isn’t that manipulating people who are being fair by voting somebody who they think will salvage we Nepalese from our ever ceasing miseries? So far I have not yet been involved in any of the election and I have not yet casted my vote for anyone. The reason is simple – I believe in playing fair and fighting fair. I am not going to fight an unfair game and getting stabbed on back while I am being fair. I don’t want to be manipulated by some goons who don’t even have the basic knowledge of politics. In my approximately 29-years of age, I have seen some mafias becoming the politicians and delivering their talks on the cross-roads and stadiums.

How can it even be justifiable that they are going to represent us? Those who were involved in kidnapping, extortion and rape cases suddenly become saint-and-savior and talks about our favor, our rights and our future. They are going to determine our fate! Those who were once the reason of our miseries have become our salvagers. I think, we Nepalese don’t need to get salvaged by anyone. We have done it alone and we can do it alone. We just ask for one simple thing – please leave us alone! We don’t need this election, we don’t need you – just stop becoming source of our miseries.

But, whatever it is, people are going to vote for good this time as not all of them thinks the way I am. I might be cynical in someway  and the way I think, but if you really muse on it for quite some time you will find the truth hidden behind my words. And, I hope this all go well.

Though there have been some skirmish in few places between CPN-Maoists led 33-political parties who are against this election and the security forces which has been deployed for maintaining security for the election duration, the election seems going fairly well. And, even though I am not voting this time, I would wish all Nepalese for good. I urge them to do what you think is right and vote for those who you think is our true salvager. Forget about your heart for a while and think with an impartial mind, think of your nation, think of your future and your child’s future. Vote for those who will bring the same blissful morning we have lost years ago. 

Vote for your sole and just do something right – once and for all! The future is in your own hand, don’t lose it.

God bless Nepal!

 

Altering the Equilibrium

The statistical verification of Nepal’s demographic data shows that we are in the best status when it comes to male to female ratio compared to other countries in the world. This scenario is, however, changing with the legalization of abortion in Nepal since 2002. And, since then Nepal has seen the shifting male to female ratio which shows that from 2007 to 2010, the CSR for second-order births where the first-born was a girl was found to be 742 girls per 1000 boys.

To be more precise, we can say that Nepal’s male to female ratio is 0.92 between the age of 15-65-years-old while it is 1.04 during the time of birth, as of July 5, 2013 consensus data on human population. I am not a preacher of a particular belief and I respect all religion. So, basically, whatever religion you follow, it must be true that you believe in your god — your god. And, god has set its own parameter to maintain the world’s population and check it from wiping out of the history.

But, since the last decade we have seen some heinous crimes of female-infanticide going unpunished. So, now the question is, who is to be blamed for this? — the perpetrator, our system which fails to protect the fetus from being killed or we who are reticent to most of the things going around us?

There is a saying, which means that the biggest culprit is not the one who commits crimes but the one who abets it and/or fails to stop it by acting against it. There is another one such saying which says something like this: “If injustice is happening to your neighbor and you can see, then wait for your turn because you are the next.”

And, I guess, this dictums can’t be more precisely applied to anyone else but us. So far, we were pointing fingers to India and China — one of the two major fostering states of world which is growing by leaps and bounds (where China is already a second biggest economy of the world), for female-infanticide. They were the leaders responsible for shifting the godly-equilibrium towards an grotesque image of society having more boys than girls. And, so far, we have been more reticent on these issues rather than bringing into the discussion and bringing it into the world’s attention in more aggressive manner than it has already been.

Ironically, the trend of sex-selection has been seen to be increasingly more popular in more educated family and has been more prevalent in the urban region than anywhere else in the country. And, probably it is because of the availability of instruments and tests necessary to determine sex before birth.

Like in most of the South East Asian countries, Nepal values male more than female and it is quite infectious and prevalent. And, males are the ones who get more attention than female in our society. The escalation in choosing male over female and going through the process of abortion for male child is because of the family pressure in most of the urban families. Moreover, there are families who use to blame their daughter-in-law for not being male child, which is nothing more than a sheer stupidity.

Nepal has been so far one of the most modest society in South East Asia particularly in case of female and female has been revered as a goddess in this society. And, for that reason they are being prayed in certain occasions and festivals. We are the country of living goddess — popularly known as “Kumari”. However, the way are slipping in the world’s trend seems that we are not far from annihilating our own revered culture.

The skewness in male to female ratio might have severe repercussion on the society and this is something which will turn the society in complete chaos. History has proved that scarcity of female in any society turns society violent.

There are several driving factors which might be motivating the Asian society to follow their self-doomed way through female infanticide such as: earning power and dowry system. Our society is more infested with the deep-rooted culture of dowry system and it is hard to get rid of it. With the modernity of the society this dowry system is getting even more infectious and this is what getting the situation even more difficult and it is even exacerbating rather than ameliorating the problem even a bit.

Science has shown that female immunity is more stronger than male’s immunity and therefore, they live longer than their male counterpart. Additionally, female are getting academically stronger and going stronger in the performance wise as well as they use left brain rather than the right brain unlike their male counterpart.

Therefore, this is the high time to change our perception towards women and female and view them as superior in the human kind. It is just our perception which will bring the change and to bring the change you have to change yourself first. So, be the change to bring the change! ■

Dealing with the devil

|By Rajesh Chaudhary

Kathmandu | June 20, 2013

Time and again, history has outspoken pertaining to the issues of women being subjected to physical violence which suggests from physical to mental ail. Since the beginning of the civilization women has been sporadically been subjected to some forms of violence and it can’t be discounted.

There is one latest example of the one of those violence against women which is harsher, cruel, inhuman or even called barbaric than anything else and it governs both mental and physical ail — “THE RAPE”!  And, this problem is not the product of our society; it has been in existence since the beginning of the era and has been clearly expressed in various occasions and news outlets citing its existence in Greek Mythology, Ancient Rome as well as during the time of Christian empire.

The censes data on rape victims has appalled from rags to riches alike. Some of the few examples are something like this: Delhi has witnessed 700 rape cases in 2012 alone with Madhya Pradesh of India has reported highest number of rape cases which amounts to 3,406 during that time. Besides that, as of January 2013, our country, Nepal, has witnessed 30 rape cases in last 3 months of time. Out of which one third has been reported to be in Kathmandu itself. However, this might be just a part of the story, and might not reflect the complete scenario of Nepal. The reason is more than 50 rapes is thought to have taken place during that 3 months period while police might have been able to collect the data for just 30.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website under the article “Rape Prevention and Education Program (RPE)” has mentioned that, “nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States have been raped at some time in their lives and nearly 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men have experienced other forms of sexual violence victimization in their lifetime (e.g., made to penetrate someone, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact and non-contact unwanted sexual experiences)”.

So, now, the bigger question is, how we can deal with this devil or the perpetrators behind this heinous crime? Would the answers be the anti-rape underwear (which gives shock to the molester) which has just been developed by a team of students of Instrumentation and Control Engineering at Chennai’s SRM University or would it be anti-pervert stockings for females which has buzzed the Chinese media since last couple of days.

I personally believe that the answer doesn’t lie in what we develop, rather than, it lies in our mores. Developing certain kind of tools to fend of these kind of crimes might be appreciating for a while, but this is not going to last long — this is not an ultimately solution. As a human being, our moral values determines what we ought to become — either a human or someone who is inhumane.

Though, the data on rape cases might be subjecting to the fact of level of education we have attained, we can’t completely rely on it. The reason is that even the capital city like Kathmandu and Delhi has tasted the bigger chunk of it rather than more improvised states and regions of both of these countries.

The only ultimately step to be taken to tackle with this existing problem is to introduce more modified educational system as well as stricter laws and amendments of the rules governing the violence against women — just like India has amended its legislation according to which a perpetrator is liable to capital punishment if the victim becomes handicapped or dies.

Different awareness programs along with the NGOs and INGOs might help a bit to tackle with this problem, if not completely uproot it. I think, the violence against women has rooted itself in a such as way that it might take years before even a iota of progress be made in curbing it. And, sadly enough, it is going to remain here for sometime now since the authorities responsible for amending the legislation doesn’t seem paying much heed to this ever growing serious problem.

I think, they (the authorities) are not going come out of their cozy cocoon until the problem knocks their door. This is how it always works and becomes effective.

Find the PDF file here:  Dealing with devil

The Songkran Festival from Nepal

The term “Songkran Festival” comes from Thai language – the water-festival of Thailand where it is being celebrated by splashing water on one another which is basically a gesture of sharing love and happiness. This festival is similar to a Hindu festival which we call “Holi”.

In fact, the essence of both of these festivals are basically the same – sharing love and happiness and to show a sign of closeness and affection and to wish well for each other. The only difference between these two festivals is that we Hindus celebrate it with colored water while Songkran festival is being celebrated with plain water. The another stark similarities between these two festivals is that they are being celebrated with the advent of spring season in both countries.

This time “Holi” has been largely peaceful in Kathmandu with just 35 arrests being made by police – unlike yesteryear when there were approximately 660 arrests being made following untoward events such as traffic accident because of drunken-driving, pelting hard water-balloons targeting female which had lead to serious injuries earlier.

Thanks to Metropolitan Police Department that has somehow managed to bring this harrowing situation under control. It has come as a sigh of relief to most who have to travel during the festival day as well. The stricter measures has brought denizens of Kathmandu to feel safe and secure and have been able to go on with their work even on the festival day.

In another way, however, these kind of stricter measures are damping our way of celebrating festival in more humanly and traditional manner. After biking across Kathmandu this morning I experienced that we are loosing the charm and vigor of this great festival as we are basically being confined to our rooms, apartments and our homes. In another sense, this wonderful colorful day has largely been observed as a black-and-white day while people are confined in their homes munching items of meat. Even I have toothache today, and I don’t know how long is it going to last!!

Since the festival is being celebrated in two successive days depending on the regions of Nepal, the terai belt (of course including my hometown) of Nepal is going to pick this color tomorrow.   And, I am already missing it this time as well.

For me, the festival was just so-so as I was also the one who was confined in my room with just my computer and internet as my companion. It has been almost 10 years now since I left my home for my higher education, and since then I have not yet been able to manage to go back to my home and celebrate with my family.

But, as the saying goes: “There is always the next time”, I am quite optimistic for next year. Hope next year is going to bring some colors to my life.

Happy Holi to you guys (friends in Nepal, India and elsewhere in abroad) and happy belated Songkran festival to my friends in Thailand.

In the hands of adversity

When you have the tools to pen down your thoughts, ideas and imaginations of fantasies you are short of words, phrase and idioms to shape it. But, when you have whole bunch of ideas and creativities flowing through your mind you are far from your tools. This is what happening in my context.

I am missing my computer clattering keyboard most of the time – specially when I am overwhelmed with school of thoughts rambling in my mind and its all because my laptop has turned out of be a portable desktop due to worn-out battery backup strength. So, finally, I thought of coming down and getting befriended with my haplessness rather than being a mutineer to it.

Sometimes, I think we Nepalese are more resilient in our creativity and our nature of acclimatization with uninvited impending difficult situations which often come as a surprise. And, the political impasses and unending and protracting deadlines for the promulgation of constitution of Nepal is the best example to cite as of now.

It is not long gone that we have come out of civil war in Nepal and, therefore, the entire milieu is in total disarray, confused and kind of havoc. But, we have that charisma and the flowing resilience racing through our veins. We are still surviving hundreds of basic human rights cuts. We are still escalating in the hands of adversity, and this is really something to be acknowledged with whole-heart and getting praised for.

Even after this much of turbulence we are going through, I feel proud to point out the fact that Nepal has not lost its position in overall development and more particularly in tourism sector which is one of the standing pillar to country’s economic next to remittance which is holding Nepal from vacillating from its position.

We, the young generation of Nepal are still optimistic that we will come out of this quagmire doesn’t matter what’s going on in Nepal’s polity. We are entering into a new phase which can better be termed as “Brain-drain to Brain-gain” system – a theme which has primarily been used by Biotechnology Society of Nepal (BSN) in its seminars and conferences.

Biotechnology Society of Nepal (BSN), Research Institute for Biosciences and Biotechnology (RIBB), Genesis International, Everest Biotech, Intrepid Nepal are some of the shining examples to name which have graduates from international as well as National graduates.

Nepal which is sandwiched between two giant fostering states (India and China) seems to be another glittering little stone in between the boulders. Nepal is one of those fostering countries which even battered by several stymies – political and social, which is still escalating when it comes to maternal health and child care, education and the world of mass media and communication. And, I feel proud to flaunt that our country is engaged in generating more than 2000 potential medical graduates every year – a big-leap on the health sector.

Our School Leaving Certificate (SLC) board examination which is the landmark of national system of education is still doing great with approximately 547,165 total examinees appearing for this year board exam. And, our government even with its hobbling feet is supporting it with its total investment for year 2013 amounting to NRS 280 million. This is really something to wow for when the total examination centers are 1786, 1786 superintendents, 21, 890 assistant superintendents and 19,860 security personals being mobilized to give it a successful completion.

Wish, Nepal will always rise and shine just like this even in the time of adversities.

“Marriage is a Private Affair”

“Marriage is a private affair” – this is a very well know topic and it has been matter of discussion and talk of table since long time. One reason might be that even the name of the topic is in itself very much sensational, and moreover, it has been one of the most crucial part of our life – MARRIAGE! Therefore, I thought of writing on this topic thinking of possibility of gravitating more thoughts, and subtopics which it will garner after this, for more discussion.

Before starting to write on this topic, I first tried to find some tangible facts that will help to bolster this topic, such as, the number of male and female in a country and a region, the issues governing female infanticide, the way of marriage in a particular country, religion, region and community, the average divorce rate (to clarify the fact that how successful a marriage is in today’s date), and how is it being taken in a particular society as a whole.

For me, what I understand as a meaning of this topic is that, marriage is a relationship which is more intimate, more secluded, more personal (in everyway), and is the closest relationship between two persons – if we talk about monogamy lawfully. However, polygamy is still prevalent and pervasive in most parts of the world which is still taken as lawful – not to be specific about the country or region, because in most cases it is justified depending on the momentary existing circumstances.

Since,  it is difficult to include every single details on this fact, it is wise to make it short and concise, and it is so flexible that it can be defined in several ways. And, I guess married are those who should be writing on this topic rather than a single person  like me, because they are more seasoned than people like me.

From the raw data what I can guess is that almost half of the Asian countries are still practicing the methods of arrange marriage which has been thought to be more successful compared to the love marriage – this is the crude raw data which might be different, and the exceptions are still there. This is a long past history and has been deep rooted mainly in the countries like India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, SriLanka, African countries, Middle East Countries and pat of East Asia.

It is more a matter of discussion rather than information on facts because of the fact that whether arrange marriage is kind of marriage which is more successful and better than love marriage or is it another way round? Because, as the data from the various sources suggests that the divorce rate in the western countries are higher compared to the middle east and the Asian countries. And, more specifically, countries like India and Nepal has the divorce rate even lower than 1%. But, the story doesn’t ends here!

Though the divorce rate is lower in these countries and many other Asian countries like these, there is definitely higher suicide rate, depression and the killings of the newly-wed bride relating to the dowry issues which has deep rooted in these regions. However, since Indian and Nepal is more into the dowry system, still hazy or no data is found relating to the dowry-related-killings in Nepal. But, the sister organization of United Nation (UN) – UN WOMEN – data on India suggests that 24 women lose their life everyday because of the dowry issues.

The topic: “Marriage is a private affair” sounds even more meaningful to me in some particular cases relating to the violence against women when their years of shattered marriage life is still concealed to the world and never comes out until the suffering women is in her moribund.

The dowry exchange is illegal, but the law itself doesn’t seems taking out this problem. The problem is becoming more and more violent which is costing more and more lives everyday in these countries. So, just one part of the issue is not sufficient in describing the successful life after walking down the aisle, but it has got more devastating facts, that is more dire than the unsuccessful marriage, where divorce is more prevalent.

Growing Power House of the World — China

If we flip through the pages of the history we can find China having conflicting relationship with its neighboring  country even couple of years earlier to the beginning of World War II. China was technically in war with Japan in 1937, however, the World War II begun in 1939 – one of the biggest debacle in the human history the world had ever seen. The war had been an eye-opening experience for the whole world and the war in Asia ended in August 15, 1945 when Japan agreed to surrender.

Even till today, we can see that the broken relationship in WW II has not subdued and there is still mark of broken relationship since then. Even though there has been number of treaties formulated, promulgated, incorporated and has been subsequent change in the bilateral relationship between the superpowers, the sense of enmity doesn’t seem to be erasing anytime soon. China, US, Israel, Iran, Russia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea in the present situation are the few examples.

In today’s context, China seems gravitating the world’s attention towards itself. Even a iota of information coming out from China make the headlines of almost all the leading journals and newspaper in the world including the print and digital versions. After WW II, China has been successful in developing itself in an unprecedented way despites of hurdles and some stymies being created by the feared super powers of the worlds – which mostly points fingers towards the western allies. It is a commendable attitude of China for being able to learn a big lesson from WW II and till now keeping it away from any form of unnecessary debate, conflict and proving itself not be a warmonger.

Few years back whenever we use to go to buy some electronics goods we use to get things tagged as: “Made in Japan” – at least in the Asian countries, which is now shifted to being: “Made in China”. China has learn to rise from the ashes and develop from scraps and have developed a sense of: “Rise and Rise Till the Lamb Becomes Lion”, which means NEVER GIVE UP! Chinas have made her house from the stones thrown to her and because of this Chinas is evolving to become the world’s super power in terms of army, technology, and monetarily. This is not an accolade but this is the fact and we have to be pragmatic in this case.

Now taking a veer to another direction and part of China, she seems solicitous to things that she should not be. The first thing is that when the world is moving towards denuclearization, China is moving towards bolstering its military force – may be this time China do not want to get tampered under the feet of superpower if in case the war is waged – which is still a far cry. For that very reason China is collecting all sorts of data it needs for his military research works. The news of collecting meteorological data of the Indian Ocean couple of months back had heated the matter between India and China despite their excellent relationship in foreign trade.

It is really apprehensible to see all the ongoing changes taking place in terms of militarily – moving of US special force to Australian bay, shifting of Japan based US military base, and the presence of US military in the Asian countries in the Asian countries like Nepal, India, Bangladesh and many more. Though  US is indicted with showing belligerent nature to China, the claims were rebuffed indicating US special force presence in Asian countries are just the bilateral move to foster the military development and training in the Asian countries to mitigate terrorist threat.

I don’t know why the world is apparently mute seeing the unequivocal changes taking place. I think the world will soon have to pay the price for being a mute-spectator!!

Language diversity, proficiency and opportunity

How naïve I was to think that I am the only one in that palace and the people inhibiting that place can only see the moon and no one else could! I use to ask my mom when dad not use to be with us because of his official work when he has to travel frequently to attend programs else where. I use to ask my mom: “Mom! Could dad might be seeing this same moon in his place?”  My mom use to show her love and her approval to whatever I use to say in my blabbering tone with her contended-smile at my innocent questions. I come of age a bit more and then started wandering how people might be communicating in another community.

It took me more than 26 years to realize that our lingual is only different, in whatever language we communicate, we all have one thing in common – our language have the same touch of feelings and expressions. However cool or weird it might sound listening to another language, it is obviously interesting and mesmerizing to know that we all have the same thing to say, same way to express, same attention to get, same attitude to make – we all are same in everyway!

I think of myself being fortunate in this regard when it comes to language since I was born in the society where my mother-tongue is Maithali language, which is basically used in our society which is interspersed in the Indo-Nepal boarder area, second is national language – Nepali – which I stated speaking after joining my school, third is Hindi language which I started understanding since my early childhood because of the influence of Bollywood movies which have millions of viewers in Nepal itself – this is because of our Sugauli Treaty signed on December 2, 1815 and ratified by March 4, 1816, between the British East India Company and Nepal, which was a kingdom during that era. This was again fortified with 1950-treaty of Indo-Nepal treaty of peace and friendship. Since then Nepal and India have free movement of people and goods between the two nation. My third language is my English which has been one of my most favorite languages and one of the most dearest languages I speak today – And its been like more than 20 years I have been using this language as one of my second language. Other languages includes Urdu language which I can understand a bit though I can’t speak it fluently and Bhojpuri language which is a kind of local ethnic language used in the neighboring towns of my home town – this language is being confused with Hindi language and my own mother-tongue (Maithali).

Though English language is an international language, depending solely on one language will only marginalize us in the global competition. In Thailand’s perspective, what I can see here is that the kids are taught Chinese language, Japanese and South Korean language because of the influence of those countries on Thailand in terms of business and bilateral relationship. Other languages adds up to their profile and considered as more privileged when it comes to getting job in multinational companies. Now, the day is not far when native English speakers will be considered as secondary option over the one who is proficient in multilingual conversation – because, these days more or less everybody can speak English language, and they have been studying and using English language since their early childhood.  For example: In Asian region, Pakistan have English as their official language despite Urdu as their native language while India and Nepal are other few examples where English is most widely used.

Mastering multi-language is not only beneficial in terms of finding job, but it will also makes us independent in most circumstances. It shoots our emotional level and emboldens us with more confidence than just having one language in our profile. It gives us an extra virtue through which we can mingle with multicultural society in quickly and easily. The issue of cultural transformation to multilingual is becoming increasingly more famous and more emphasis has been put forward in transforming the future generation to multilingual, multicultural society especially in the English speaking countries where English is the sole official language and mother-tongue.

One best and latest example of expanding social, cultural and linguistic collaboration is ASEAN collaboration, European Union and SAARC collaboration. How can we expect to benefit and get the best sustainable and fruitful results depending on monolingual pattern of working environ?

 

 

Countenance Dilemma

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[NOTE: Before I begin to write on this context, let me make it clear to you all that this post is not motivated by ethnicity, country of origin, religious or whatsoever dogmas,  perspective or orthodox. This is purely a personal experience I have encountered. And we often get into such amusing situations when we are travelling to a place other than our own country. And I feel happy to share this with you. In case if this might touch you and irks you somewhere somehow unintentionally, please pardon me.]  

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After my couple of trips to India which was literally for the first time in my life I had ever been to foreign land, I come to realize that the perspective of people in India (because that was only where I first travelled out of my home which was a foreign land for us where we are not required to present our visa-passport) towards Nepal is somewhat hazy. And this turned out to be even more pronounced when I came to Thailand. However, the way of taking things is different, which is quite normal. Even we Nepalese might have somewhat different perspective in taking culture, tradition, geography and people from different country. By the way, none of us are perfect and this doesn’t necessarily has to be perfect because this is where people from different countries differ which is fairly normal. 

From the Indian perspective, Nepalese are the one having chinky eyes with flat nose and short stature in terms of physical appearance. While at the same time, people in Thailand think that Nepalese are something like Indian, however, there are time when people often get confused differentiating exactly and they can’t guess even near about the correct answer. Let me share some funny moments with you regarding our appearance and getting into these kind of situations.

One day I was having lunch with my Nepali friends in canteen in our college when an old women asked one of my friend, “Are you Indian?” She said, “No”. “Why?, Do I look like Indian?” The women was confused and was so pestering confident that she insisted that my friend is Indian. After she failed to argue with her, she turned towards me and insisted questioning my friend, “Then, he must be Indian!”. “No. He is Nepali too”. Then, she turned towards the rest and asked, “So, they are Nepalese too?” Finally she left, but unfortunately we were not sure whether she was convinced whether we are Nepalese or not.  In similar incidence when I was in India during our India trip we were surprised to know that people there use to think that we were from North India – particularly from Himachal Pradesh and they were quite perplexed when we use to explain them.

I ever had one similar experience in Thailand:  I was in taxi with some of my Thai friends, when taxi-driver asked to one of my friends, “Where is he from?” One of them then asked me, “He is asking, where are you from?” After that I asked them to ask him to guess, “What do I look like to him?” “Can he guess something?” He replied with a pause for a while when he looked at me through his rear mirror inside the car, “I think he is from Germany”. That was when I started to laugh my head off. But, this is not his problem and his is not anybody’s problem. The thing is we Asian are different little bit, but in over all most of us look alike. For example, we might not get confused recognizing a Nepali guy, but we are often confused when it comes to rightly identifying amoung Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi and sometimes even Afghanistani, however, Afghanistani is mostly more pronounced from their appearance than the rest of the others mentioned in the list.

The gist of this issue is, God has not made us different in anyway, but we ourself tries to differentiate and analyze people based on their country of origin, religion, ethnicity, color and countenance. And, the big question is how fair is it? In another perspective, if we look back we realize that God is the creator and we are the destroyer – there is nothing like devil – devil is inside us – we divide, differentiate, demolish, fight, kill and whatever heinous crime is there we are always inclined to it. Its just the matter of chance when and where it will appear!!