Once our President said that he almost cried when he saw Nepalis cueing for visas in Narayanhiti complex. He does not possess or like to possess such blinding powers. He seems to care for the public but how come the officials who take care of the high official and ministerial visits bar them from seeing Nepalis plunging into street chaos after their visits? On Maharajgang-Lazimpat road there are multiple hospitals, and on the post-visit chaos of a minister, we saw that a pregnant woman was almost dragged by her husband towards Teaching Hospital. Read the irony of situation: Our president is a medical doctor and the officials do not think it proper to inform a caring person like the president about such critical situations. I blame the officials who do not dare to take care of such situations.
I wonder whether people who take care of the ministerial official outings, ever tell them about what happens after the official caravan passes by. Such cases are just some examples of the rings. There are graver issues than these and there are multiple examples of such insiders within these rings of power. The anger of the people and the rings of power are the most serious oppositional forces disrupting the aspirations of millions.
Let me return to Mubarak and similar wormed (oops, vocabulary problem!) ringed Nepali leaders. When common Nepalis react (sometimes indisciplinarily) to their wrong-doings, the leaders instantly call the Nepalis “bhusuna.” I looked for the meaning of the word and my friend Dr Anand Sharma laughed his heart out. Bhusunas are gnats. He is the one who suggested me to write about the power-rings.
When do you see your common countrymen as bhusunas? It is when your senses do not allow you to see the revolting people as conscious beings. The attitude is called “the division of the sensible” and that is why Marx writes in Economical and Philosophical Manuscripts: “The forming of the five senses is a labour of the entire history of the world down to the present.”
The use of the senses are not just biologically given, they are constructed within history, within culture. The rings of power within which the political leaders reside blindly form those senses and the resultant visibility, audibility, and other sensory abilities distort their understandings.
The impenetrable rings of power are sensory-pathological for the health of our political leaders inside Singhadurbar. Look at the distance of the road to the heart of the palace. Such architectural distances are politically symbolic. By the time, the leaders reach to their offices, they feel relieved because the distance is psychologically separatist. The palatial designs of west European kinds were meaningful and our present leaders are constantly sucked into those power buildings, away from the public.
If you rule for thirty years, you create circles around you unknowingly but with hallucinatory sense of gratification. These rings shape your character very slowly but with the firmness of a blacksmith who shapes the metal on an anvil. Hence Hosni Mubarak is blind.
The funniest of political incidents of present politics was when a prime ministerial group decided to ride on a city-bus to see how common Nepalis face problems in their daily lives on the streets. Power is the enemy of memory. Those leaders who spent their lives on the streets now need to perform distance to come close to the public! I explained and Dr Anand closed his eyes and laughed his heart out.
The Malla palaces in Kathmandu are immanent in structure. They spatially provided less numbers of power-rings. They could see the children playing around. They must have, at times, come down to play “guccha” (small glass-balls) with the kids.
Mubarak should have Malla type residence from where he can see the fuming public around (read metaphorically). He has been ruling for thirty years. He cannot see and comprehend the world beyond the rings of power. Dr Anand loves it: Lincoln once said, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man´s character, give him power.” What Mubarak is doing is that he is shifting his rings within the rings: Shifting and shuffling the same people here and there. His rings bar him to see beyond where the people are shouting and dying. Thirty long years!
I am going to Pokhara soon. Jahnavi-appa is coming for a break. I have already told you that she is an extremely beautiful lady. Her eyes are very intelligent. I cannot look at her eyes for more than three seconds when she is philosophical in discourse. She once was explaining an image of Kathkali dancer to me. I could not decide which the image is and who the interpreter is. You must meet her once. I am going to ask her about Alexandria and Cairo. Last summer she was in Egypt.
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