Post my whirlwind visit to Kathmandu, I was back in my flat in London last night thinking that something dramatic will happen sooner than later and here I am now writing this just a few hours after the resignation of Prime Minister Dahal.
The question now is will Pushpa Kamal Dahal once again don his combats and return to his pre peace agreement alter ego of Prachanda?
The resignation was inevitable after the President’s explicit patronage offered to COAS Katwal, a clear undermining of the Prime Minister’s position and authority.
Despite Dahal’s assurance about his commitment towards the peace process, does his decision today mark the beginning of renewed aggression?
And by kitty I am referring to the super power, China, which has decided to add a national holiday to its calendar, compulsory to all, which seems ironic in itself.
A COMPULSORY holiday!
The national holiday will mark the day Dalai Lama fled Tibet to seek exile in India and will be known as the Serf Emancipation day.
China sure knows how to rub salt on sore wounds. Now, all we need is for the international ‘celebrity’ community to get all riled up and have someone stupid like Sharon Stone say something outrageous like how the catastrophic earthquake in China last year was apparently ‘bad karma’ for its actions in Tibet.
Finally, something from the Prime Minister about Uma Singh’s brutal murder on Nepal News but what is interesting is the statement was not an initiative on the Prime Minister’s part but more to do with him being cornered!
Lake Superior State University has recently published its annual list of words that should be immediately banned from our vocabulary.
And the most bizarre appearance is made by the phrase First Dude which has obviously perturbed this commentator who says, “Skateboard English is not the appropriate way to refer to the spouse of a high ranking public.”
What he probably has’t realised however is that he has made quite a significant contribution to my vocabulary by introducing me to the phrase Skateboard English.
I am sure he meant Surfer English right? The dude below is like totally doing it for the team!
A strong contender for the Best Film award at the Oscars, Slumdog Millionaireis Danny Boyle’s latest offering.
Danny Boyle, the iconic British director best known for films such as Trainspotting or A Life less Ordinary, has made a film that is shot in the slums of Mumbai and of course the sets of the very popular TV game show, Who wants to be a Millionaire.
Based on the book Q and A by Vikas Swarup, Slumdog Millionaire is the story of Jamaal Malik, a slum dweller and later a chai wala at a call centre who ends up as a contender on Who wants to be a Millionaire. The narrative style of the film is excellent as it intricately links each correct answer to an episode of Jamaal’s poverty stricken past.
The film does well because of its characters but lacks the rawness and the grit that Mira Nair’s Salaam Bombay was able to bring to the screen.
But then again Slumdog Millionaire is an optimistic rags to riches story but most importantly the secondary plot of the film which shows Jamaal’s quest for his childhood love, Latika, takes over and turns the film into a love story that ends well.
There are innumerable rave reviews of Slumdog Millionaire online but I recently read a review by Ed Stocker, who in his piece sets the tone by saying that because Indian films predominantly still use recurring themes of love, honour and revenge and still follow a formula which caters for escapism, a lot of the ‘weightier’ films either do not get noticed or are made by the South Asian diaspora (Deepa Mehta, Mira Nair, etc) or by foreign film makers like Danny Boyle in the case of Slumdog Millionaire.
I do agree with Stocker in regards to the more realist Indian cinema not getting enough due at the box offiece but I disagree with him in the recurring themes that he has so deftly summarised and pointed out.
The films made in the 1990’s were mostly about love, honour and revenge but thematically the Indian Film Industry has diversified immensely in the last decade and has become so much more progressive. We now see recurring themes of alienation (Swades) or about identity (Rang De Basanti)
Omkara, a film based on Shakespeare’s Othello bautifully portrays the struggle and greed for power in a small village run by ‘political enforcers’ It unleashes the wrath of vicious and consuming jealousy and defies all notions of a ‘hero’ being equitable to ‘good’
Anyhow, I have decided to do mini showcases on some of the excellent films that were made by the Indian Film Industries, just to highlight how the Indian Film Industry is no longer just about escapism.
How can I forget those nights when my siblings and I would huddle together forming a unified front against the ruthless mosquitoes while our father would try and tune his crackling radio to BBC World Service. Those few hours of power failures, about three times a week, were so ingrained in our lives. Those three days in a week, almost like ‘Chicken days’ at my Boarding School, added a certain edge to the otherwise bland and generic week. The neighbours as well would come flocking out as each family had their own load shedding ritual. One family boisterously sang songs, while the other played cards under the light of a kerosene lantern. While my brother and I would often, very bitterly, look at that one pocket in the neighbourhood that was always shimmering shamelessly with lights. The Prime Minister quarter and the lucky few in the surrounding area have probably never experienced load shedding. My memories of load shedding however, seem a bit romantic and dream like except for the mosquitoes.
But, it shocks and unsettles me when I think of the daily power failures of up to twelve hours being face by Nepalis at the moment. Something that I obviously have no experienced therefore am in no position to talk about the level of hardship, inconvenience or disruption that it is causing to the people, their livelihood and their quality of life. This situation has once again pointed out the urgent need for the mini hydro electricity projects such as the one the Upper Tamakosi project which is the second public-private partnership for the NEA (Nepal Electricity Authority)
Once Nepal moves past this transition period ridden by internal wrangling we can perhaps work towards actually achieving double digit economic growth in the next decade (The aim of the ruling CPN Maoist party) surely reliable energy resources are a pre-requisite.
The desired name of my blog was ‘The Poser’ but to my utter disappointment, there was another wannabe out there who beat me to it.
This blog is my attempt to do something worthwhile over the weekends as my weekdays are cosumed by my full time job!
This blog is a result of pure envy. Having been away from Nepal for the past seven years which also were perhaps the most definitive years in Nepal´s modern history, I have very often found myself experiencing sudden pangs of anxiety that probably stem from the fact that I am guilt ridden for not having contributed in any way towards the most important debates taking place in these formative years of a young republic. Specially when I read some great pieces of writing by people I went to primary school with such as the columnist Prashant Jha who writes regular column for Nepali Times, a weekly publication and reports mostly on the Terai Region of Nepal.
Therefore, I have decided to use the blogosphere to be part of the public sphere and of course to appease the green monster.
