Anyway, I would like to request the readers to read Haandigaun as a symbolic place where weird things can happen. Please don’t assume that this place really exists. In fact, the name Haandigaun could be assigned to any gender, place, device, attitude, situation and anything that is bizarre or acts unusually.
In this light, it was Haandigaunko jatra when Madhav Kumar Nepal became prime minister (PM) despite having lost election from two constituencies. Poor scapegoat! He is not the only one to be blamed. The other parties, scared of the Maoists, which hatched a conspiracy to sideline them and gave such a bizarre opportunity to Mr Nepal were also part of the jatra. The countries, which supported such a move and congratulated Mr Nepal, were also part of the Haandigaunko jatra.
On Jan 30, Republica published a very interesting photograph where young police personnel were shoveling stinking garbage that had piled up for days in the city center. The scene itself was a Haandigaunko jatra. At a time when daylight robbery and other criminal activities are on the rise and that the police had to be mobilized to give security to people, the decision by the government was nothing other than a Haandigaunko jatra.
Nepal, which is so tiny in the world map, has more than two dozen parties. Having so many parties in itself is Haandigaunko jatra. Large and developed countries like the US and Britain have just two major parties. I fail to understand exactly why we Nepalis take great pride in numbers, even in bearing children! On Jan 31, Nagarik, Republica’s sister daily, published a news report with the headline: “17 children at age 45”. Again, most Nepalis believe there are 330 million gods and goddesses, which in itself is bizarre.
The river Bagmati, where people take dips with a hope to cleanse their sins is so polluted and stinky that you often have to close your nostrils while you are near it. Besides, taking away sand from the river is also legally prohibited but it has never been stopped. We make wonderful, if not the best, laws, but allow them to be flouted. This is another example of Haandigaunko jatra.
Nepal is said to be the world’s second-richest country in water resources. But we have 11-hours (and rising) of load-shedding everyday. The concerned authority offers a simple excuse for the power shortage: Water in the reservoirs has drastically gone down.
The government and the authorities at Nepal Electricity Authority know very well of this repeating cycle but they don’t seem to bother. They don’t take any initiative as if it were somebody else’s responsibility. Come next year and they are likely to repeat the same refrain. “Well, you see, it is only due to the lack of water in the reservoirs that we have to opt for load-shedding.” What else is such an attitude other than another example of Haandigaunko jatra!
ezrawfw@yahoo.com
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