The Young Writer

I. Dressed in grey shorts and a maroon T-shirt with an almost empty black backpack, I walk along the footpath by the Sanchaykosh Bhawan . There’s barely any space left along the sidewalk. People from across Kathmandu have thronged to Thamel today, at Durbar Square –a kilometre away— another group have gathered to commemorate the dead. I have decided, instead, to be a part of Nepal’s first Pride Parade. A sense of joy, a sense of pride is welling up in my chest, I have been a part of something historic. I have become, by participating in the parade, an ally of the LGBTIQ+ community. Instead of getting lost in a centuries-old tradition, I once loved as a child, I have become a part of the birth of a new tradition that celebrates the living and not the dead. The “progressive” in me is happy, wondering why people have issues when other people do not live their lives according to what society considers “normal” and acceptable.  The surrounding is festive. Bright, wide smiles. Rainbow Fl...

Inside the Tomaquag Museum Indigenous communities worldwide, be it in America or here in Nepal, have suffered great injustices at the hands of colonialist settlers.  This visit to Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, Rhode Island, during my Cultural Exchange Program sponsored by RELO— Regional English Language Office, and facilitated by the University of Rhode Island, was one of the most powerful experiences I've ever had. The rosetinted view I had of the American Revolution and Democracy had to come to terms with the reality of the American Indigenous experiences.   The Declaration of Independence, which is said to enshrine the democratic values of individual rights, equality and sovereignty, and is seen as one of the most important documents in the history of modern democracy, to the people of the Narragansett and the Niantic Nations, it symbolizes oppression, injustice, dehumanisation, and seizure of indigenous land, erasure of people and their cultural identity. The Narrag...

यो देशमा— कहाँ छ विश्वास? कहाँ छ भरोसा? व्यापार व्यवसाय गर तिमी दलाल पुँजीपति। सरकारी कार्यालयमा जागिर खाउ तिमी भ्रष्ट कर्मचारी। राजनीतिमा लाग तिमी नेता र झोले। सामाजिक रुपान्तरणमा लाग, तिमी डलरे विदेशी एजेन्ट। जागिर मात्रै खाउ जोखिम तिमीले मोलेनौ। कहाँ छ यो देश? गर्ने के यहाँ? गुमेको त्यो विश्वास, त्यो भरोसा—  फर्किन्छ कसरी? रगतले लिप्त, विद्वंश पश्चात उदाएका  ती आशाका  झिना किरणहरू बलिदान, पीडा र वेदनाले जुर्मुराएका  ती आशाका  झिना किरणहरू कालो, अनाकान्टार अन्ध्येरो रात्री पश्चात उदाएका  ती झिना  आशाका  किरणहरू आगो र ज्वालाको आँधीबेरीलाई चिरेर उदाएका  ती झिना  आशाका  किरणहरू। रगतले सिँचित  ती आशाका किरणहरूमाथि, धावा नबोल! विश्वासको बिउसित  खेल नखेल्!

Based on Gita Khatri's " Aama Hun Aama ", "  Sapana Anek Anek " depicts the story of love and loss centred around a father's search for dreams and happiness for the family in a foreign land crushed by the terror of the fateful day of 9/11. The story is set in Nepal and New York. A visual fest for artists and painters, the light work is phenomenal in Sapana Anek Anek . The white canvas—the only prop used and with some versatility by Ashesh Malla (director), the pioneer of frugal theatre in Nepal— is painted with light and beautiful hand motion of the artists and gives the sensation of watching a painting in motion. However, the play could have done with a bit more props which would have provided a point of reference and material cues to aid the audience to follow the play's narrative which would have made it livelier .   Similarly, the sound could have been better in the show I attended which lacked the necessary ups and downs and at various moments, the ...

Nepal has a long history of oppression of speech. The Rana regime was the longest and the harshest example of this. People were hanged for speaking their mind. When democracy did come in 1951 (2007 B.S.), it was short-lived. What followed was another autocratic regime—the Panchayat system. It was only in 1991 (2046 B.S.) that democracy was restored. This didn’t last long either, the then King Gyanendra seized power and Nepal was forced into yet another autocratic regime. This, however, didn’t last very long and came to an end in 2008 (2065 B.S.) and Nepal embarked into an era of true democracy, or so we thought.  But, the Electronic Transaction Act 2008 and Information Technology Bill in 2019, has once again pushed us in the wrong direction. Sadly, when it comes to free speech the Constitution leaves too much for interpretation and manoeuvrability for those in power and effectively keeps freedom of speech in their mercy. The Constitution of Nepal article 17(2) (1) state...

 Buddha suddenly woke up one day when the rest of the town was fast asleep. He could feel the stiffness in his body. As he loosened his crossed legs, he heard his bones creak and groan like rusted metal parts of an abandoned chariot. How long had he been like this? How long had he been asleep? —he couldn't tell. He looked around but he couldn't make any sense of his surroundings. It was too dark and silent. A gentle blow of the air ruffling the leaves made him realize, he was seated under a tree. This sensation felt oddly familiar— like something he had already done, in another lifetime perhaps. What was not familiar was the bone-chilling cold the air carried with it. Intuition told him the gentle wind was supposed to be soothing. Something was not quite right. He stepped down the stairs and came outside the shade of the peepal tree and turned his gaze to the only source of light, the sky. In the island among the clouds, he saw some stars. With nothing else to...

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 t...

Sagarmatha I carved out of dead lump of rock Lying just down the block A flock of chemists  in ASCol lab Created Buddha on a slab. The Brits went packing and panting All thanks to my skills in catapult aiming. No! They didn't make Jungey their bitch And the Shahs didn't fuck us over in a ditch Because we are Bir Gorkhali soldiers That didn't die in the trenches in the Great Wars And that certainly don't die in the snows of Kargil and sands of Afghanistan We are immortals carving dead lumps of rocks into glorious mountain