70 days of Waiting Game

70 days ago, no one would have thought the Corona Virus pandemic or affectionately known as CoVid-19 would create what can only be called, the nightmare for every extrovert. Not only is it frightening looking at the numbers on the rise but it is also very disheartening looking at the lack of services we are providing. There should be something more that we can do besides prompting the obvious LOCKDOWN notion and extending it like the last bencher’s assignment submission date.

The funny thing is between all of this there have been so many developments within our country, it is so easy to miss out. That is why I decided to pen it down lest we forget like everything else that has happened in our lives in the last 5 years. This can’t be another Earthquake or another NAKABANDI. I have to remember this because I have to tell my future generations of what it was like at our prime to live in the country of brave Gorkhalis and Gautam Buddha and Sagarmatha (Mount Everest), because apparently these are the national identifiers and nothing else.
I have included links to reference materials throughout the article for you to check the details before you carry your banners to Maitighar.

India Nepal tug of war

This one is EPIC. This is what an epic tale would look like and if you star Amir Khan in it, it would be super duper hit! (Pro tip: Add some item dance by a shirtless Hritik Roshan) So the thing is pretty long and daunting. But let me make it easy for understanding (I maybe wrong and feel free to comment if I am).
During the times when the British ruled India, they were acting like a raging bull. They wanted to conquer whatever was in front of them and get it for themselves. During that time when they eyed on the Kalapani region (current western part of Nepal), a treaty(Sugauli Treaty) was struck between the then India and the then Kingdom of Nepal in 1816 A.D. stating that the Mahakali river (known as KALI river in Indian documents) will work as a border. From the source of the river, eastern side is Nepalese territory and western is Indian territory. The debate now is that the source of the river has now been modified by India in their maps. This means two things, India gets a larger part of land and what is essentially a Nepalese land and also gets the source of water which India needs desperately because of all the drought in different areas.
Nepalese government, for the last 50 years, had forgotten about that land and used a map which didn’t include that at all. But now, when India launched a new political map in the year 2019, Nepal expressed it’s concern regarding the Lipulekh, Limpiyadhura and Kalapani regions being included under India and the debate continues. This was until a couple of weeks back when the Indian government decided to inaugurate the road in the same region to open up the Kailash Man sarovar path for devotees. This tipped the balance and hence he chaos. Nepalese government has , after then issued a new political map including the new area. The government on both the sides, as per the news last night , has spoken of a table talk to resolve this issue.
If you want to be infuriated, check out Arnab Goswami’s talk on Nepalese issues and I don’t even need to say the rest. Honorary mention to Rabi Lamichhane who tried to do the same format of the show with journalistic decency and integrity. P.S. not a follower of Rabi Lamichhane.
Something interesting to read about here.

My version: We were dumb and our political parties weak to not do this sooner. But India also acted a bully to take over something that didn’t belong to them. I don’t need to show my Nepalese identity by shouting at fellow Indians who was born where and what not. Also I, along with many, studied that Nepalese area was of 1,47,181 sq.kms and now it’s changed. I don’t know how I feel about this.

Budget gone wrong : FY 77/78

Nepalese government published the budget for the FY 77/78 a couple of days ago. And it is good that the government is thinking about the administrative work even at times of such pandemic, unlike popular belief of them being not good at their jobs. You can find the details of the budget all over the internet but I am neither smart enough nor educated enough to discuss all in detail. The only thing that pissed me off beyond limits is the new taxation they have introduced for the electric vehicles.
Till date, we have had a very positive outlook towards the whole electric vehicle ecosystem. We had a taxation of 10% on excise and 13% VAT (trust me this is nothing compared to the 240-something% taxes on petroleum vehicles) but now it has been taxed to 120-140%. The best way to enjoy this is by looking at a graphic by Nepal EV – a Electric Vehicle sales company. They posted a graphic on their social media that depicts what the current scenario means for electric vehicle enthusiasts and prospective buyers.
We are the same population who enjoyed a solid 19 hours of Load shedding in a day! Thanks to Kulman Ghising and his team’s efforts, we are now enjoying interruption free electricity and they are pushing us to go more electric than fossil fuel. But this budget has pushed us 3 step backwards in our development marathon. Granted we definitely need to balance our budget and the government needs to increase tax collection but this is a classic THESE PEOPLE WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND DEVELOPMENT IF IT HIT THEM IN THEIR FACE kind of a thing. No offence.
For long owning a vehicle for the general population has been a hard thing because of the high amount of taxes and just when electric vehicles have been grabbing people’s attention by being the cheaper and an Eco-friendly alternative, we got dropped the T bomb and just like that, it was over. This, if not changed, is going to take forever to correct our course of action in the fossil fuel free world.

A big round house for the front line workers

A couple of days ago, a person died while being treated at NMC Hospital. The patient’s family member was calm until being asked for permission to get a swab test to check for CoVid-19 for the patient. He then jumped the doctor and got physical. Let this rest for a second – A doctor got physically assaulted in a hospital while doing his job during a pandemic. During a PANDEMIC when even your closest friends can’t be near you, a doctor who was treating your relative gets assaulted!
Two thoughts in my head – Thank god I am not smart enough to be a doctor and second, I understand emotional outburst but this is uncalled for. It is stupidity to the extreme. And thanks to the genius who decided to assault the doctor, now the entire doctors at the NMC hospital are on a strike. Nepalese don’t need anything to sit on a strike. Sometimes the causes are valid where as sometimes it’s just plain stupid. This one is valid! The guy single handedly stopped the entire hospital’s function. Honestly if this doesn’t say stupidity , I am not sure what will.
I am not oblivious to the pain and suffering of the family member due to the death but assaulting a doctor? Also while we are at it, I happened to see a placard that said – You say we are gods but treat us like dogs! I think that’s an overkill. You can’t just admit the god part. C’mon! But that’s not the point here, maybe some doctors might be at fault but I think we can all agree that at times like these when we have the medical professionals risking their lives to save ours, hitting them just isn’t the right form of acknowledging their good work. Just saying. So now the doctors are all on strike and demanding JAIL WITHOUT BAIL for the person who assaulted. Also here’s the plot twist. From the hospital’s CCTV footage records, an hour worth of video is deleted which includes the time the doctor got hit. Isn’t that just convenient? Police is investigating the case but knowing Nepal, I give it a couple of weeks before everyone forgets and goes on to their lives as normal.

Caste-ing river bed

चार जात छत्तिस बर्णको साझा फुलबारी. Remember reading this and feeling proud ? Well then you are not going to like this.
Our story is of Nawaraj and Sushma. Nawaraj is from a “dalit” or “untouchable” caste where was Sushma is an “upper caste”. Both of them madly in love with each other. But the girl’s parents were looking to get her married to someone of a similar “upper caste”. She tells her boyfriend to take her away (elope with her) before she is married to someone else, and the boy comes in with 18 of his friends. The villagers stone the boy and his friends and chase them. They jum into a river to save their lives but unfortunately the boy and 5 others lose their lives. This case has taken over the country by the storm. This is not the first but it is definitely the loudest its been shouted.
In a country which prides itself of the multicultural ethnicity surviving harmoniously, this is not a very positive display of the same. This has been all the rage right now among activists, influencers and the media personnels.

MCC for the win

Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) is the new talk of the town. There’s nothing new I can say or have thought of that people have already not said. There’s a quick intro video by the very famous Why So Offended team on YouTube which sheds some light into the whole thing.
There are conservatives who are against of this and liberals who are skeptical of the agreements but want this to proceed. The only issue is that majority are just getting riled up over hearsay. It is so easy to get rile up Nepalese for reasons unknown. You tell them Buddha was not born in Nepal, they will publicly execute you and form the world’s largest cohort of hot blood before they let you finish your sentence. Also they will manage to print t shirts, put stickers to their vehicles, spray paint the walls and update their Facebook status. So I know not to do that.
This is another issue that is going to be a dividing factor but it’s just a waiting game at this point to see what the course of action is going to be like and if it works out in the favor of Nepal and Nepalese.

Among all these going on at the same time, like a giant screen with reports everywhere , we are still missing the obvious ones. We have barely thought about the mental health issue of the young and impressionable. Heck, we’ve barely thought about our mental health issue. I have been lucky enough to have parents who spend time at home and enjoy the smaller moments together as a family. But even they aren’t above the taboo of MENTAL HEALTH. Imagine me walking upto my mom and telling her- Hey mom! I get episodes of depression and panic attacks often. I am handling it to the best of my abilities, but I think I will start going to a psych doctor to get myself looked at. I can imagine her jaws dropping and the sheer horror in her face.

She’s not wrong in her opinions, the way she was brought up and told and she received information, mental health is still till date considered not for regular people. It’s for someone who is ready to tear up their shirt and sleep on the streets. But we are different. The younger ones, the ones who can influence others. We can talk to our family, our friends and keep tabs on them. Help them, should they need be. And also understand that every person can’t open up the same way. These are essential qualities, I am sorry to say, we have to learn. There’s no other way about it. It’s up to us to learn it, adore it, adopt it and keep it going.

All of this is hard on each and every one of us. Some for the worse and others a bit less. At times like these, it is very normal to feel overwhelmed. Just know that there are countless others like you who are waiting for the PM to star in a video on NTV one of these days to say – LOCKDOWN IS OVER. Hold on tight, because this might get bumpy!