What’s next: A Jung Bahadur on steroids?
Devendra Gautam
By the roadside, a pond full of water hyacinth—and devoid, perhaps, of even a trickle of water—offers an eyesore (a rare treat for this sapien’s dry eyes!), along with an ensemble of buildings, votive chaityas and the like, against the backdrop of a pine forest.
Sapiens spill over onto a narrow road along with dogs on the loose and monkeys on the prowl, and a steady stream of vehicles moving towards you don’t know where in a fast-atrophying world.
A little above, a piece of the pangea beckons, further divided by a civilisation that takes pride in all things cement, concrete, iron and such inorganic materials that will take eons to decay. No wonder, human civilisation is a graveyard for all other things—living and non-living.
Call it human ingenuity: Long and winding concrete steps wend through a segment of the ancient woods fenced on either side by iron rails, giving birth to two separate simian nations.
A fine example of nation-building in this ancient country turned into a banana republic, right?
Much to the relief of this occasional walker, monkeys on either side of the divide seem to be at peace with themselves and the rest of the world under a close watch of alpha males on either side, even as peace remains in pieces throughout the living planet, with or without our ancient mantras wishing for peace and bliss everywhere and in everything.
A peace is a peace after all, whether it’s simian or sapien, with or without the involvement of the League of Nations 2.0, right? Not having to dispatch blue helmets to another warzone is a huge relief for the deep pockets of the world body, no?
Here, a note of caution to the dwellers of Singhadurbar and other burnt-out centres of state powers: A simian truce in the woods may prompt Nepali sapiens to stage protests demanding a simian rule in the country. For the longevity of this regime, therefore, our rulers would do well to restrict the entry of Nepali nationals into these woods and think about earning money big time by slapping hefty entrance fees on foreign nationals.
By the side of those winding steps lies a sapien, probably full of his day’s fill, breathing peacefully and rhythmically, as if he has found the station of life he wanted to be in for long, beneath a lovey-dovey couple seeking a quiet corner far away from an urban jungle that appears to be advancing towards these woods like the columns of the Birnam wood from the Macbethian times.
Winds with fragrance of herbs blow from the ancient woods, mixing freely with modern air carrying the fragrance of incense wafting from nearby homes along with emissions of all sorts from a bustling metropolis.
Leaving monkeys holding a fragile peace, a granny burning the calories with her rather unwilling grandchild and monks strolling around, this sapien makes himself comfortable beneath a tree and turns on the pages of Chris Miller’s much-talked ‘Chip War’.
Ah, another war in a world already grappling with several wars!
We the Nepalis, facing a shaky present and a very uncertain future, take immense pride in our past, the ancient past in particular, barring a few notable exceptions like the September 9 inferno that turned our historic Lion Palace into a cinder.
So, after soaking in enough of the sun, the wind, the ether, the fire, the water and sanity for the day from a piece of the ancient Gaia that seems to be atrophying a bit less, this sapien returns to catch up with a world in a state of flux, leaving behind the drunk sapien, monkeys observing a solemn peace and all other entities under the watchful gaze of the presiding deity.
Upon his return home, a barrage of headlines greets this sapien.
‘A journalist found dead in suspicious circumstances’.
‘Components of an almost-ready railway track stolen’
‘An ink attack on a youth leader of a party past its prime’.
‘An ancient press comes home from a museum’.
Are these not some of the ‘subtle’ signs of a systemic decline, as if the protest of September 8 and 9 were not a clear-enough indication?
Granted that a political system is not a carnot engine, the most efficient (theoretical) heat engine. Still, what is the efficiency of our prevailing political system marked by chronic policy level corruption, nepotism, rule by law and political instability?
In this day and age of mass enlightenment when information and knowledge are at our fingertips (alas, wisdom is not), what do a people, who think their duty as citizens is over after voting tried, tested and failed parties to power repeatedly, get? What do a people, who trade their votes for petty gains, get? What do a people, who rise only occasionally against institutionalized corruption, nepotism, political instability and consign state organs built with their own blood, sweat, toil and tears get?
Ferdinand Marcos 2.0? Emelda Marcos 2.0? Bokassa 2.0? Deuba? Oli? Dahal? Nepal?
A Jung Bahadur on steroids and pacemaker presiding over a republic hurtling towards the Stone Age?