K.C. Bhatt's Blog, page 7

Grandeur

Ashok���s vision of grandeur was based on thinking himself of being an outsider to his world. He was unable to distinguish himself from it but by holding it in utter contempt, however. But there was nowhere else to go to.

Muma

The winter sun was barely able to penetrate even the thin spikes of pine trees surrounding the temple, though it was a mid day. So it was very cold at the ground near the temple. Some of the laborers were still working on the new boundary of it. The earlier one was being replaced after the area covered by it proved very small to accommodate all the villagers on a day when a major prayer takes place. Since the temple was on top of a hillock, the ground was not even. So some lower ground has to be filled with soil and stones, before the boundary was raised on it.

It was a back-breaking labour. Soil and stones had to be carried on the backs of the people from places at the bottom of the hillock. The stones recycled from the older boundary were not enough for making even the half of the new one, which was nearly a feet higher than the previous.

It was a task in progress for several years now. Earlier the villagers volunteered for the labour. But such hard work was not their nature. Most of them smoked hashis. Also their daily life entailed a rigourous physical work based on agricultural production which was never enoughand the threat of hunger was ever present. Young men were leaving the village at an alarming rate. They went away for a job or bought a small plot of land in the plains to live an agrarian but more productive life. Since the technology and irrigation has reached plains.

It was noticeable that there were very few young boys in the village and a large number of older people. It was evident more at the primary school of the village, where there were less than ten children per class though there were five teachers. Also, the forests which were pushed away to the surrounding hills of the village, through the ever increasing need of firewood were making a come-back. Not the trees have nearly hidden the village and villagers were scared to come out of their homes during night. The wild animals like bears or panthers started to appear during night in the village, posing a constant threat to the livestock. Besides smaller wild animals were again a threat to the cash crops like fruits, potatoes and others.

There was a steady flow of cash to the village now, from the developmental programs of the government, which just began but never progressed much, besides the salaries of the employees like the teachers or health workers; or the cash sent by migrants.

It changed the matters dramatically. Something commonly grown in the village like cabbage or tomatoes arrived from far away locations in jeeps. Ever house had running water and a toilet. Electricity was connected to the village before all this.

Rajib hadn���t been to his village for nearly two decades. He might have avoided further returning home. For his life in the city was too busy for returning home. But he has not been well recently. And the treatment was not working well enough. The doctor has advised him to also take Yoga exercises besides the medicine he prescribed.

Rajib felt frustrated on it. He had been a vegetarian most of his life and exercised regularly. He thought the doctor will make a proper diagnosis and treat him. But it turned out that his treatment will be life-long and the improvement will be very gradual, as it was a thyroid disease. Frustrated at his slow progress, Rajib thought if he was wasting his time and can do without the treatment.

One day, while waiting for the doctor at his clinic, Rajib met another patient of him. The patient was not gloomy like him. On talking further, he told Rajib that besides the treatment with modern medicines he also did Yoga too. And it was really helping. He further said that he has started regularly going to his native village on major prayer days and do all the formalities of taking bath and a fast besides offering prayers at the temple there like other villagers. He stressed it that the deities established by our ancestors have magical powers. So ignoring paying them our regards will be harmful to us.

He has been doing it for a year now. He took a week���s leave on four occasions for it during the year. His leaves requests were kindly granted by his boss at the office, due to the disease he was suffering. He said it helped him far more than any other treatment.

Rajib had a long look at him. He looked cheerful enough to prove that he was much better than most of the patients waiting in the doctor���s clinic. He confirmed that he is taking it all: the medicines and the Yoga too, alongside his visit to the temple in his village.

Rajib got tempted to believe him. He considered himself a man of science and above superstitions. But once a chronic disease takes its roots one becomes prone to try everything which could bring relief. So more than faith it was pain, which brought Rajib to his village.

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His village became a big surprise to him when he met people and explored the matters more. The memory he had of it was of almost totally different things.

Even the villagers with no income through cash sent by a kin away at his city job, did not do the agricultural work as he had known. They instead idled away their time drinking tea at a hotel situated where the village started. Road had reached there and several young men from the village went to the nearby town on their shiny new motorbikes they owned. Rajib knew that the nearest petrol pump was at least fifty kilometers away, higher in the hills.

He met at the tea shop the priest of the temple in the village. The priest was smoking hashish with a few other villagers. They were waiting for the tea being boiled in the hotel by fire woods.

The priest welcomed him but complained that Rajib should have come to the village more often.

���I am sorry, but you know how hard the life is in the city. You need to earn money to buy everything. Like in the village there is no milk or vegetables you have grown. Also how the days pass just is impossible to notice. There is hardly a moment of leisure like you have here,��� Rajib said.

���We hardly grow vegetables nowadays. Cannot you see that the shop here gets crowded by the people in the evening, who come to buy vegetables arrived here from the city?��� the priest replied.

���I am surprised uncle,��� Rajib said earnestly, ���that the village has changed so much over the years.���

���You should come regularly and pay your regards to the gods of your ancestors at the temple. You must have seen the new roof we have built over it. It took nearly five lakh rupees to make it. We hired craftsman from the city to make the pagoda style roof. You must have seen the new boundary being constructed around it. It too will take five lakh rupees to complete������ he said. The priest was now high on the smoke of the hashish and was speaking fluently. The people smoking with him shook their heads at everything he said and looked hostile to Rajib. They occasionally laughed asthmatically between the sentences the priest was saying.

His changing mood made him a little aggressive. Rajib was a little started if the priest would scold him further for not visiting the village more often. He hastily took leave from him and the rest. The priest invited him to come to the temple the next day, to see how things were happening.

Rajib checked with his cousin Dipak, who also was his host for his stay in the village, about the matters. Dipak was a teacher at the school. He begrudging told Rajib that the priest extorts a month���s salary from every working person of the village for the expenses at the tample. Also the villagers visiting like him are supposed to pay the same amount. The ones who couldn���t come due to some reasons are sent messages to send the same amount whenever possible. The village also had many surviving pensioners of the Indian army or other jobs. Pensioners were asked to pay a month���s pension.

Nawin recalled that, while travelling he had noticed many temples in other villages too, which were almost the best building in a village. The increasing money among the villagers mostly manifested by renovated temples was a testimony to the faith people had in their ancestral temples. He decided to visit again the temple and the priest the next day with Dipak.

It was late afternoon when they reached there. They found the priest and his fellows smoking hashish in a chillum which was refreshed without stop. There was a large fire of pine cones and wood burning between them. They were simultaneously sipping tea. On a big copper pot haluwa was being prepared by another villager, who took a break from stirring it with a ladle to smoke the chillum a few times. As Dipak has said, the villagers without a job or income were supposed to contribute in the project by putting up the labour of digging or carrying soil or stones. But all of them were smoking hashish or drinking tea, while warming them by fire. They had employed labourers for that purpose, who were paid in cash ever evening.

Dipak informed Rajib that the labour was as expensive as in a city here. The cash so scarce earlier was circulating in a conspicuously big quantity in the village. The idle villagers were having a picnic almost every day for the past two years, as the progress of the boundary construction was too slow. High on the smoke of hashish, the villagers have stopped looking after the progress of the project. They instead were on look out for a potential financier like Rajib, who would put up some money for the construction to go on.

The priest laughed loud on watching Rajib and Dipak approaching him. He offered chillum to them which dipak accepted and smoked a few times. The smell of hashish deepened in the air. Rajib politely said that he did not smoke.

���You should try it sometime. I remember your father smoked whenever he was with us. Listen Rajib, one of your cousins, who works in Korea has promised to give us two lakh rupees within this year. You know Keshav, who works at a job in Dubai, too will give us one lakh rupees. We hope to build this temple into something unique in this whole area. So that people would say what a grand achievement we have made. You too are in a city job for a long time. You have come home after a long time. The temple and its deities were established by your ancestors too. We know what a devoted man your father was to its cause. So we expect you too to contribute the utmost you can. We have set a minimum limit of a month���s salary for every person like you. But you can contribute more too,��� the priest said in his husky voice.

Rajib thought for a moment and replied, ���You know uncle my financial position is not as good as the people working in Korea or Dubai. However, I will do the best I could.���

Surprisingly the priest did not press him further. He looked a little disappointed at his answer though. He probably had seen it that Rajib was not one of those types who would contribute more than their capacity for a religious cause. Rajib had a reputation of being an educated man. The priest asked if he had the money with him. Rajib said that he has just enough for his own expenses only. The priest advised him to take the bank account of the temple from him before he left the village and deposite the money in it from the city. Rajub agreed.

The priest became animated again and chillum began to do the rounds faster. The haluwa was ready now. All of them were served with it on the broad leaves of a wild plant.

Eating haluwa rajib was thinking if his years away from the village to colleges and jobs in the city were worth it. He had become prematurely old. While those illiterate villagers, who rarely left their homes, were having a picnic almost every day from the money they extorted from the people like him in the name of faith. He was aware of the harsh conditions in which his cousin worked in Korea. It was far worse in Dubai. And these villagers here were enjoying hashish and haluwa between endless cups of tea every day, out of their income.

It was all happening in the name of faith. There was yet not a single science college in the area or a library. Literacy made people participate in political matters though newspaper reading and many of them became political activist for one or other outfit to extort money in exchange for votes from its leadership. it looked as if nothing ever will change.

But the very look at the surrounding hills and forests made him relaxed. The pleasure of being among the natural scenes, so fresh in his mind since his childhood days, filled with him with a joy. The air was fresh and the food was as pure as ever. His cousin Dipak harvested honey every evening form the bee hives he was keeping and fresh fruits were served to him from trees directly. Enjoying this hospitality rejuvenated Rajib surprisingly. After a week he returned to the city feeling much better.

He felt that more than faith, the renewal of his connection with the nature worked for him.

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Haku had joined Rajib at the Diva medicine Distributors as an assistant. He was a few years younger to him. Earlier Rajib invoiced the medicines on a computer, which has very recently replaced most of the ledgers and files there. Then he oversaw their delivery through the boys on bicycles. They were five or six of them, mostly from villages hundreds of kilometers away from Kathmandu. In the evenings he collected the receipts of those goods from them, from the shops where they were delivered.

Binita asked him to look after the goods in the store. He did this job for nearly two years. The business was growing tremendously. Binita paid him enough. She said he looked so much like her step son who was in Australia.

The workload became too much for him and Rajib requested Binita to appoint more people to manage things.

Last winter Rajib has gone home when his father asked him to come and see the girl he had arranged for his marriage. He returned with Reshma after a hastily arranged marriage to her.

They rented an apartment at Dallu, which was a walking distance away from Diva Medicine. Rajib wanted to be with his wife more often. Earlier he worked from eight in the morning to almost eight in the evening. But these days he always left by five o���clock in the evening.

Binita smilingly teased him that since he was now a married man his duties are more than before. Rajib shyly smiled on it.

So the Haku arrived at Diva Madicine. He was properly trained in using computers. He persuaded binita to connect with internet, as it could help him to find new businesses for the company. Binita reluctantly agreed, as it was quite expensive in those days.

On one day Rajib opened the computer to find that Haku had left many pornographic files open, when he went away to toilet. He protested and said he will not allow such things to continue in his work place. Haku didn���t say anything.

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Binita was the second wife of her husband and did not have any child of her own. In fact, she married Rupak after his first wife had died a few years ago. His son had returned from Russia with an engineering degree and was thinking of migrating to Europe or Australia. Rupak had already married off his two daughters to reputable families in the Kathmandu.

Rupak had a reputation in the city for being a good physician practicing ayurvedic medicines. He was a good looking man in his middle age. Binita had gone to his clinic on a few occasions for getting medicines. Rupak became attracted to her. She was a tall and healthy woman with a fair complexion. She always had a smile on her face and her manners were bolder than most other women. She had trained as a nurse and had worked in various hospitals across the country.

Binita might have married long ago had she not been infertile. She tried to treat her condition through various doctors. But it never worked. So she decided to remain unmarried and was approaching her middle age.

In Rupak Binita found a suitable man. He was a well established widower with no responsibility of his children anymore. Binita had told him about her infertile condition. Rupak didn���t mind it at all, as he didn���t want more children from her. After a brief courtship they got married.

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After a few years Rupak became sick. He had diabetes and a heart condition. He was not able to attend his clinic for several months. Binita had left her job before their marriage, thinking that Rupak had enough earning to maintain both of them. They decided to change the business for a regular income.

The son of Rupak was, by now, well established in Australia and worked for a private construction company. But he came only once to visit them only when his father has fallen sick. He informed them that he intended to marry a woman from a migrant Nepalese family in Australia and has no intentions to return home to live here.

The clinic of Rupak turned into a wholesale medicine shop. Binita wanted to build a business which earned much more than a clinic. There were only a few other such shops in Kathmandu at that time. Most of the goods were imported from India. Some of the very specialized kind arrived from Europe too.

Once Binita started it kept on growing. After a few years Diva Medicine was a reputable whole-seller supplying medicine to the government���s health department as well. Many Indian companies��� managers came there to ask Binita to take their distributorship for Nepal. She selectively chose only the reputable companies. Now she had many employees to look after the business, including Rajib and Haku.

Once there was an epidemic of meningitis in the villages near Kathmandu. Only Diva Medicine Distributors of Binita and Rupak had the antibiotics available. People owning medicines��� retail shops queued outside their shop from early dawn. They had to wait till Binita or Rupak opened it. The police had to come there to keep order.

Soon Binita and Rupak bought a large plot of land near their shop and built a spacious house with a shop downstairs. Binita had developed an indulgent nature in the absence of a child. Now there was money too to fulfill her whimsies.

She was very fond of watching Hindi movies since her younger days. She travelled with her friends and relations to Birganj or Biratnager towns to watch certain Hindi movies. Mostly those movies were like that of ���Sholey��� starred by Dharmendra. Dharmendra���s movies were not allowed to be shown in the picture halls in Kathmandu, as once he had made a disreputable comment about Nepal. But they were shown in the bordering towns like Birganj and Biratnagar. He was a good looking actor who was very popular in Nepal too. So people went to those places to watch his movies.

At times a dozen of them along with Binita reached Birganj to stay at a hotel. They went to the evening show of the movie which was freshly released. They had a party at that hotel in the evening after the show. Next day they went to the bordering Indian town of Raxaul to do some purchasing. If it was winter they prolonged their stay to stay away from the cold of Kathmandu. So they returned warm, relaxed and happy.

Only a few upper class people of Kathmandu took such sojourn away. Binita was proud of her business and the leisure and pleasures it offered her.

During her job of a nurse too, she had travelled widely in the country. She went to those places again to rekindle her memories of her earlier visits or stays there. Watching a brand new Hindi movie was another pleasure. She paid the bills of her entourage. So she was very popular amongst her friends and relations.

In a way it was also to fill the loneliness in her life. Not having a child was the only incompleteness she had in her life���her friends thought.

After a few years the Nepal television started to operate in Kathmandu. Besides a few Indian channels too could be seen through the help of a powerful antenna.

Binita ordered a Sony TV with the biggest screen from Japan through its distributor here. It cost as much as a small plot of land during that time. She also established a bid antenna in her compound to receive the signal of satellite TV. Her drawing room often remained full with the women from neighborhood, who came there to watch the TV programmes. Everone said that there was not a TV as big they have seen in the city.

She planted a guava tree in her compound and kept a cow. As the years passed no fruits appeared in the tree and the cow too proved infertile. Binita felt sad on these developments. But she did not lose heart.

She decided to maintain the tree and the cow. She appointed a servant to look after the cow. The city was growing all the time. Only Binita had a cow in the whole area after a few years. People came to feed the cow with the offerings of a prayer, which were fruits or sweet fried stuff.

The cow often became sick due to eating such nutritious food. After that the servant of Binita restricted giving any such food to the cow. Only after much requests did he allow people to touch the food they had brought to the mouth of the cow. They gave the food to the beggars waiting outside after the cow had touched it with her mouth.

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On reaching Kathmandu from his village Rajib found that a strike has been called by the parities in the opposition so there were no taxis available to reach his apartment from the bus stop. He decided to walk almost three kilometers with the two bags he was carrying. On the way at Kalimati he found a rickshaw. The puller agreed to carry him for two hundred rupees only, as his apartment was less than a kilometer away at Tripureshwar.

He found his daughter Nalini and wife Reshma waiting for him. He had earlier called to inform the time of his arrival. Reshma has prepared hot food for him. After bath he had the food and went on the roof to enjoy the sun. Nalini became busy with her studies. She was to appear in the final school exams soon. Reshma was washing and cleaning.

From tomorrow I will resume my job at Ambassador hotel���Rajib thought. He worked as a guest relation manager. He has built relationship with many Indians when he worked with Diva medicines. During his job with his Jungle safari lodge too he met more Indians. They frequently travelled to Nepal on business.

He carefully maintained those relations. Those people were regular visitors to Nepal, who needed an economical hotel to stay. They also needed to arrange parties for their customers. Rajib arranged those things for them. So their loyalties were with Rajib. Instead of the hotels they stayed in. Rajib also managed to give them receipts of a much higher amount than they paid. So it helped them earn some extra cash. Besides Rajib has mild and humouros manners which they liked.

Rajib switched jobs often. He worked for the best salary he could get, as his customers always accepted the things he arranged for them.

He saw the roofs full of women in the neighborhood. They were mostly house-wives. They idled away their time like that. One of them was talking with her neighbor with her back towards Rajib, her body rested on the balcony and she was slowly shaking her hips while talking and laughing.

Another of his neighbors went downstairs often. Reshma had informed him that she contested for a beauty contest when she was young. The extra swing in her movement while she climbed the stairs confirmed that she had been trained in cat-walking. Besides her voice was nasal whenever she spoke. She was climbing upstairs when Reshma joined him on the roof after finishing the washing. She followed his eyes to find that Rajib was looking at the neighbor climbing the stairs.

���Oh, you have been watching these women,��� she asked with a wink.

���What else I could do? Look at these woman, none of them do any kind of work. Are they all waiting for a chance to fight for women���s right?��� Rajib said.

He was trying to flatter his wife by telling her that by working at a bank job she was doing better than most of them.

After their marriage he encouraged Reshma to continue her studies, while he toiled at Diva medicine for several years.

Reshma completed her masters in sociology from Kirtipur campus. Soon she landed a decent executive���s job in a government owned bank. Soon they had their son Mukesh. Reshma got fully paid maternity leave for three months for her pregnancy. Her salary was equal to that of Rajib but her job was a secure job for life with a pension on retirement, unlike the ones Rajib tried his hands at.

Rajib had left the job at Diva medicines some time ago and was working now for a Jungle safari company, which had its office at Durbarmarg but the work was to accompany the tourists on a safari tour two hundred kilometer away from Kathmandu. Rajib was away from his family for half of the time. But their income was higher and

Reshma smiled on it. Today she had taken a casual leave from her office since Rajib was returning from his tour of their village. Rajib had reached his fifty and she was only two years younger to him. The life in the city was hard for both of them but it was rewarding too. His recent sickness has left her worried. Their son Mukesh was ten years older than Nalini and had joined the police job recently and was away on training for the past few months.

They already have purchased a flat in this posh locality and both had regular income.

They expected that Nalini will qualify to join a medical school and will find a suitable groom to marry later. They have enough savings to afford her medical education at a private college, which could be half the cost of the flat they owned. After her marriage they expected to arrange the marriage of Mukesh too, to live with his family.

They, however, also expected, that Mukesh will find a few postings in United Nations��� peace keeping missions, before his marriage. The earning from it could be much higher than the salary of his life time and make him comfortable financially forever. Rajib had a few friends in higher positions in the police to arrange the things.

Rajib was a bit worried about the prospects of Mukesh in the police job he had joined. When at college, he was involved in the student politics and had strong opinions about matters. Recently, when he came for a week���s leave after completing half of his training, he startled Rajibhe said that United Nations was deeply involved in destabilizing Nepal recently. He thought most of the developing countries were victim of such politics of the UN. He opined that Nepal should stop contributing its security forces for the UN���s Peace keeping mission.

Rajib was trying to talk with his son about his future postings in UN peace-keeping missions and the consequent income. Rajib thought that this is what most people joining police or army talked about in the country.

Rajib had lived a peaceful life which was always preoccupied with taking care of his family and relations besides his job with private companies. He expected that Mukesh too would do the same. May be he is too young and hot-blooded, he thought. With the course of time and after his marriage Mukesh too will change���Rajib also thought.

While Rajib and Reshma were lost in thoughts as the sun got warmer, a commotion broke out in the neighborhood. A young woman ran away to another house weeping and shouting.

���See, she is the docterni I was talking about,��� Reshma said, suddenly becoming animated.

���You mean a doctor or���,��� Rajib interrupted.

���No. She worked as a receptionist at a private hospital. She got married to Maila, the owner of the first house at our street. Maila, though is a junkee and takes and deals in all kinds of drugs, is a good-looking man.���

���Yes I know him. The police had come to his house to take him away several times. But he returned every time a few days later,��� Rajib said.

���Yes the same man I am talking about,��� Reshma interrupted.

���He bought an apron and started visiting the hospital where she worked. Maila became aware that she wanted to marry a doctor though she was a school dropout. Maila presented himself as a intern and she agreed to marry him. Also, Maila���s ownership of a house was another big thing for that woman after the marriage. After all she is a migrant from a village. Now we all call her docterni, because she wanted to marry a doctor. Realising that Maila was not a doctor but a junkee, she became furious. These days they quarrel often, as you can also hear sometime. Maila at times beats her badly and she runs away to a neighbor���s house for shelter,��� Reshma breathlessly divulged the details. She was excited and was speaking very fast.

���Now the docterni is pregnant. What will happen to their child?��� she added.

���See the charm of being a doctor in Nepal. Our Nalini will become a real doctor,��� Rajib said doubtfully. He was worried if they had enough to finance her education and their retirement afterwards. After his sickness Rajib was ever worried about his old age and the medical expenses.

���Yes Rajib. Do not worry too much about that. We have enough to educate and marry off Nalini. Our son Mukesh will also help us when we retire,��� Reshma was as optimistic as ever.

She pointed Rajib to look at the elderly widower neighbor who was reading a newspaper and smoking while sitting on a chair in front of the balcony of his apartment. His maid servant, who was very young, was scrubbing the floor behind him. She was complaining about her husband. She scratched her crotch with her middle finger of hand whenever she stopped and looked at her master while she talked. But his master���s back was towards her and his wrinkled face was distorted due to the news he was reading. So he was unable to take any hint. Reshma smiled at Rajib.

Rajib felt more depressed with such scene than aroused nowadays. ���Possibly the son of this old man has gone to see his in-laws with his family. And they are alone in the apartment,��� he said laughing nervously. He looked carefully at Reshma. She too has aged with him. ���Do not worry we will make it tonight,��� he said, hoping that a few Viagra tablets were there in the bottle in their bedroom.

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Binita did her puja with a thali in her hands. She was sprinkled water on the statues of deities established at different places in Diva Medicine, before she offered vermilion paste and flowers at their feet. She had earlier done the same upstairs in the main temple of the house. She finally prayed in front of the statues of the goddess of wealth Laxmi behind the counter at the shop, where medicines were stored.

After that she had her first tea of the day and smoked a few cigarettes, while sitting on a bench in the sun. Food for her was being cooked in the kitchen by a few servants.

The business was not doing these days well, as many new competitors have appeared. She saw that in the office in the store Haku was pacifying the executive of a company who was waiting to see her.

Haku had got plumper after he returned from his home; which was a village somewhere in the north near the Tibetan border; last time with a girl who eloped to marry him. They lived in a room they have rented in the neighborhood.

Binita wanted to expand the business but had no idea how to do it. Binita has also discovered that Rajib was almost as bad as her at finding new businesses. Nowadays she depended much on Haku and paid him much higher than Rajib. Rajib was looking to shift the job.

The condition of Rupak was worsening. He was on insulin injections and several other medications. He seldom came downstairs these days and mostly remained in his bed.

A servant informed Binita that the food was ready. It was nearly afternoon. Binita thought before she ate, she will ask Rupak to have some food.

She went to the office. The Executive waiting for her was from and Australian company and his name was Sanjay. Binita was unsure of the business from a company so far away, which did business in dollars instead of local currency. She decided to leave the matters to Haku, though Rajib too was sitting there on another desk. She asked Haku to take details from Sanjay with they would discuss later. She said she had to see how Rupak was doing before she went upstairs.

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Haku winked at Sanjay as Binita left. Sanjay was as plump as him but was much taller and fair. He had thick draying hair and a moustache.

���The hotel you referred to me is very expensive at Thamel,��� Sanjay said.

���You know it is a tourist area,��� Haku replied.

���As I said let us do this campaign of vaccination in private schools and colleges. Hipatitis B, C, A my company ahd a vaccine for everything. Typhoid, flu, MMR, you name it!��� Sanjay challenged.

���But the administrators of those schools have to agree with us. It will cost three thousand rupees for each case and we will have more business during the follow up. Though it is a big business no doubt,��� Haku said.

���But these vaccines are not done in such a large population������ Rajib tried to protest from his desk.

���Oh you do not know a thing about business,��� Haku dismissed him. ���It will only take a pamphlet well-written to scare the parents of a student to cough up the money. We will have to give a cut of it to the administration of the school. That is all���

���For the Principals of the schools I have in my mind a trip of a week to Bangkok. My company will pay for everything including the massage they will have or even more,��� Sanjay added with a wink.

So far I have talked to two scholls in the neibhorhood. They have in total three thousand students. Suppose only ten percent of the parents decide to give vaccines to their child, it will be a business of so many lakhs. But half of the money you will have to give us, as we will have to arrange the pamphlets, counseling, commissions and everything. Also you will have to pay for the Bangkok trips of the Principals. Is that OK?��� Haku asserted.

���You are too greedy Haku,��� Sanjay said slyly. ���Let me talk about this matter to my company. You see we have to install a good refrigerator to store the vaccines here there are many other expenses. I think we can part with only a quarter of the money. Remember we will pay for the Bangkok trip and not you.���

���Which other medicine you were talking about?��� Haku asked.

���It is Tamiflu; a treatment of bird flu. It is not original but a copy made in China which I will send you through a company in Hong Kong. Living in Bombay I deal with so many companies,��� Sanjay said. His mobile rang. He excused himself and went out of the office.

He returned and said that his wife has been discharged from the hospital where she was admitted in Bombay. She had pneumonia and became serious when he was about to come to Kathmandu. His in-laws were taking care of her���he also said���and that their children were in colleges in different cities in India.

Haku eyed him carefully. He knew Sanjay went to a dance bar last evening and returned with a prostitute to his hotel. Its manager was his friend.

���But bird flu has not been reported in any patient in Kathmandu. Who will buy it if we import Tamiflu in a quantity you said?��� Rajib protested again.

���For a few doctors too I am arranging a trip to Bangkok. See it is their hands to prescribe the medicine. In a country like India and Nepal, getting a good laboratory report of the disease it nearly impossible,��� Sanjay replied.

���Haven���t you seen the birds being killed by veterinarians after testing them? I have seen a big picture on the front page of Sagarmatha newspaper this morning, where a fully covered person was burying the birds killed after they were found infected. If Birds have flu people too might catch it. Patients do not mind coughing up a few hundred rupees just to be on the safe side. Also the doctors too want their holidays,��� Haku defended. ���Rajib you are always anti-business. Let us have some growth and it will benefit us all.���

���You do not know that the pictures in the newspapers tell only half the story. They kill two hundred birds they report two hundred thousand to distribute compensation to the farmers by the government. Everybody involved gets a cut of it. I have heard that even the killed birds are rarely destroyed and are sold back at a lower price,��� Rajib protested.

���So be it. This is how it works for everyone,��� Haku replied, winking at Sanjay sitting in front of him.

Rajib knew that Haku made such deals often for Diva Medicine Distributors but rarely paid him anything. Whenever they went out for lunch Haku paid the bill. That was all. Binita too ignored what he said nowadays. He was thinking of joining the Jungle Safari company, where the salary was much higher than here and he wouldn���t have to toil it away in an office.

Binita now has realized that she was dying. It was a day of Maker Sakranti. As per the religious books, on this day the sun begins to go towards the North. So summer begins from this day. The winter was harsh. She thought if she made it to another year when the Maker Sakranti neared. After that there were the festivals of Shivratri and Holi���she thought–before the summer becomes warmer– till very recently. But it was proving an uphill battle.

Binita asked her sister���s daughter Lata to take her out of the house, though it was very cold. Lata has been looking after her for many years now. She ran a small shop with her husband and her two sons had grown up now. Lata had more time to spare with her ailing aunt. After all she has helped Lata financially all these years to build a house and own a shop.

���It is very cold outside Muma. Keep in your bed and stay warm,��� Lata protested. ���Besided I and the servant Lamu are not able to carry you out on our own. I am too an old woman now and Lamu is too young. Let my brother and his son come. You know they always are here all the day to look after you.���

Lata too have realized that the old Muma might not survive much longer. She had stopped taking anything besides sugar water for past few days.

But Muma insisted them to take her away in her feeble voice. From the ground outside she wanted to take a long look of the house she built with her husband nearly fifty years ago. A few years back she had established a marble statue of her husband Rupak in a glass case a few feet higher than the ground in the middle of the compound. He had died many years ago. Lata and Lamu took her out with a great difficulty on their shoulders through the narrow stairs. Muma was unable to sit. Lamu rushed to bring some cushions so that she could lie down on it. From the ground Binita looked longingly at everything for a long time. She had stopped responding to the things her relations were asking her. There was everybody: her only surviving brother and all the children of her brothers and her only sister, and their children. Then Binita closed her eyes forever.

���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������

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Business schools

‘Business schools are a big business,’ I said.

‘Yes. Look at the prospectus of the school. The directors and other officials have a same family name. I think a family owns and runs it, though it is affiliated to a University in Singapore’, said the professor.

‘You can not blame them’, I protested. ‘You said your education in the USA is a first-rate one and the foreign students coming there are now numbering in millions. They are mostly the children of the family which run a business school here. And they hardly find a job there and return here to open more schools of education. I remember in my younger days teacher were greatly respected and they accepted nothing in return for their teachings besides their salaries. Only the ambitious few gave private tuition for the extra income. Nowadays the education in the government schools is almost pointless and an indicator of your poverty, if you send your children there. The teachers are activists of different political parties there. Education is more like an investment you do to receive payments later in terms of money.

‘Look at the newspapers. You will find female models promoting a private Business school which promises a free laptop and a free educational trip to HongKong. The models wear very low-cut blouses and high skirts. The dress of cheerleaders has intruded even the domain of a literary festival too.’

‘You are a wise man my friend, let me give you a decent lunch when we reach my hotel. But you will improve, I hope’, the professor said.

‘Keep going my friend. The traffic is thick and we have made it so well so far on your bike’, he added.

The legend of Ram retold with more clarity : A review of Ram the soul of time by Yugal joshi

The legend of Ram is familiar to most Hindus. The story of Ram is a philosophy of life which could lead one to live a fulfilling life. It is about doing one’s duty to one’s family, country and the people. An abiding sense of duty and a zeal to live up to it through every thought and action is something which people are expected to do. As only it may lead to the creation of a just world where peace prevails lastingly. This is what most people expect of their life: fairness, peace and harmony.

But there are forces constantly working against the wishes of the majority and disrupt their dreams. In earlier times this tendency was called ‘Rakshyas’ tendency. It is present from a family to the national level. The endeavour of Ram is to identify, circumscribe and deal with it to protect and further the divine or ‘daiviya’ tendency. It is a long battle consuming one’s whole life and energy. Also, it is a larger battle to fight alone. An alliance of suitable people has to be created therefore.

So it is a work of creating fine strategies to deal with the threats trying to destroy the peace of the country and finally bring it to subjugation. This life mission of Ram is described several times by various great poets and writers before. It is a part of folklore which is repeated in every Hindu household since time immemorial.

Yugal Joshi has done well to publish a book which retells this familiar story from a different perspective: He has dealt with it more pragmatically. He has tried to see the motives of the characters from a more humane angle instead of making them a mystery. In doing so he remarkably brings a new credence to the whole story by making it look far more modern. It is no more a divine story of Lord Rama in this book, but a story of a young Prince who wants to do good to his people but finds millions obstacles in his efforts to do so. And they begin from his home and continue to deter him all his life. But he never gives up and surmounts all the difficulties to establish ‘Ramrajya’ or the ideal governance.

Ram’s insights into the life and the people look far more plausible for he rationally explains them. So instead of being a mythological and religious narrative this book becomes something more : a very realistic explanation of politics and economics of life which is ever relevant. So one may not have to necessarily resort to faith only, for the intellectual queries coming to the mind of a reader while reading this book are adequately satisfied by the writer.

Besides Joshi brings to light so many characters of the story which are nearly forgotten by the people in most cases. Their inclusion imparts more colour and credibility to the story. It also reflects the amount of research the author has done to accomplish this feat which is by means mean.

His descriptions of the time and people so ancient are fascinating. The grandeur of Ayodhya and the royal palace of Dasrath are wonderful besides his depictions of the war Ram fights with Rakshyasas. Also, he has dealt with a great tenderness with the intimate life of Ram. Joshi has dealt also with ‘kuber': the god of wealth, who, like the modern day bankers, only tries to work at cross purpose of Ram’s effort to bring about a Ramrajya.

This book is unique in many ways and a devotional heart could only have accomplished writing it with a scope so wide. It deserves a read even from the very skeptical or inquisitive minds.

The writer is what he is: A review of The world is what it is by Patrick French

The writer has laboured much to bring out the biography of a writer who has written autobiographical fiction besides his travel books all his life. Naipaul seem to have always lived a life of poverty, as given in this book too. He is often bailed out by BBC or other British institution when he was about to sink financially, once he is out of Oxford. Spendthrift and whore-monger, he is in trouble perpetually. So he worked in close association with British establishment, it also seems.

Very often he meets good Samaritans in Britain or elsewhere, who pay him in advance to write about Argentine, just before the Falkland war; for an example. And he finds all the connections there to guide him besides a free accommodation and a lover as well. And he does a kind of writing which rubbishes every place he goes to and celebrates the Britain and British.

The Sepoy mutiny of India, which terrorised colonials for nearly a century until they left India in 1947, as noted by E M Forster in 1917 in “A PASSAGE TO INDIA'; Naipaul describes as the proof of British resistance.

In the Islamic journeys he became more notorious to see a war of religion in the days coming. It was a time when USSR troops occupied Afghanistan and CIA was building Mujjahiddins to fight them and Iranian revolution has taken place. The clash of civilization and settling the score of history is an old theme. The British establishment wanted that kind of books from him at that time. And he wrote what was expected of him. Now the world is only blaming Tony Blair for the war against terrorism which is going wrong and which is looking to escalate by the day.

What is really astonishing is, never in this book, Patrick French questions the motives of Naipaul to do this kind of writing after beginning with an innocuous book like Miguel street. Also, he celebrates the Booker prize ‘In a free state’ won, which is a collection of very ordinary stories, later rejected by all the British editors who read it without the name of Naipaul and its title. But questioning the genius of Naipaul might bring the question about writing his biography as well.

So Naipaul, with his average talent and much ambition, played into the hands of the vested interests.

His writing was not appreciated much by wider audience except for his earliest work. But he found a strong supporter in the British establishment and went on to write the things which see a clash of civilization and a larger war. Time and again Naipaul has felt exasperation for not having become enough British in his work. Paul Theroux mentions him calling the Dutch ‘the potato eaters’.

Understandably, writing life is hard and penurious. And Naipaul minds rendering any other service besides producing words. This is a great weakness in a writer, for it spares him or her the banality of daily life and taking part in activities of the life which reveals a great deal about the people and the society. Without knowing them first hand, and writing out of rage and anger will produce a work which tries to contemplate a war of civilization. Also it calls for financial troubles, which will cripple the independence of the work.

His British wife works hard to make connection with upper class British people, who will bail out them often. So a very unlikely literary career becomes viable.

Naipaul says he is a man of the new world. He has no clue of the rise of China, however, anywhere in his work, which has over taken the USA as the largest economy of the world. And Nobel Academy mentioned his ‘prophetic journalism’ to award him with one. So the failings are multiple, of Naipaul and the world.

A writer is what he is; the world is ever shifting, therefore.

The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V.S. Naipaul

Poop and poetess

Pooping poetess returns, through Danish embassy this time.

http://www.ekantipur.com/2014/12/25/entertainment/sarah-kay-in-ktm-on-saturday/399493.html

A bad year

It was a bad year. I expect the worse ahead. Sharing optimism will be too common, as there is no basis for it. It is not a protest hopefully. For it was bad for not a source outside.

Worst book of the year?

Which was the one for you? The Reason?