Narayanhiti

Witnessing the lavishness and  the riches of the Narayanhiti
I feel this hate surging within me
I feel the blood boiling in my veins...


When the country lived in hunger
The children and the old died of cold
They lived inside the high walls
Feasting on the exotic dishes
In their fancy glistening dishes of fine china and glass and gold and what not

When people died of hot in Dhanusha
And of cold in Jumla
For the lack of hospitals and roads in Rukum and as Koshi flooded down south
They rested in their imported cushions
Controlling the temperature with the remote controls
As they showed off the namesake halls
And their trophy animals on the walls.

Mahendra shoved down our mouth the khasa bhasa
As he sent his sons and daughters further west
If English was the language you so desired,
If Nepali was not elite enough for you,
If you always desired your sons and daughters to go to the Oxfords and the Cambridges
Why the shenanigan ? Why Nepali?

While people slept by the road in the bone chilling cold of Poush and Magh
While the hut reeked of Bagmati and Bishnumati
While some slept in borrowed  sacks,
They had rooms for what, wait a minute, listen to this—
They had a separate room for rakhi and janai
What monsters!!
They sucked the country to the bone
And feasted on the flesh and blood.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Room of One's Own

Bikhandankari Kabita— by an Ungrateful SoB