साझाका एक वाचाल लेखक र केही मौन पाठकहरु समेतसंगको न्यूयोर्कको गएको सप्ताहान्त एक अविस्मरणिय सम्झना र शायद कुनै कठीनसदृश यात्राको सहजीकरण र विस्तृतिकरण समेत रह्यो मेरा लागि । काव्य, दर्शन, राजनीति र आत्मकथा- त्यो पनि ठट्टा र गम्भिरताका दुवैका दोभान पुन्टेजी र उनलाई लिटररी खर्लप्पै निलिदिने भाउजुको लेजेन्डरी आतिथ्य, स्वादिष्ट व्यञ्जन, रूचि अनुसारको पेय, सुरुचिसम्पन्न बन्धुबान्धवको जमघट, बेहद ठट्यौली र अनवरत हाँसोको फोहोरा बिच । त्यसको धङधङी अझै यसरी बाँकी छ, छुट्टिएको आभासै हुँदैन । वास्तवमा छुट्टिन यति कठीन थियो, एक रात अझै थपियो मेरो यात्रा योजनामा । भर्सेलामा जाओस् मलाई ल्याबमा पर्खिरहेका एक्स्पेरिमेन्टहरु, तर यो जमघट, यो माहौल, आत्मोदघाटनका यी आत्मिय क्षणहरुको मोह अहँ संवरण गर्न सक्तिन म । अनि रोकिएँ म एक रात अरु ।

तर पहिले पहिलो साँझको पहिलो कार्यक्रम, "मालती मङ्गले" । हाम्रा राष्ट्रवादी कविवर माधव घिमिरेको यो सामन्तवादी, भाग्यवादी दु:खान्त नाटक हेर्ने कुरा त एक बहाना थियो, नेपाली नाट्यकला र कलाकारहरुलाई सशरिर निकट दर्शन गर्ने । गरियो ।

नाटकलाई एक पूर्वकलाकारको आँखाले शायद मैले भिन्दै हेरें । मलाई छुने एउटै कुरो रह्यो । नायिका लक्ष्मी श्रेष्ठको अभिनय । अरुले खै के हेरे, के देखे, मैले त उनलाई नाटकभरि 'ट्रान्स' को स्थितिमा अभिनय गरिरहेको देखें । त्यो साँघुरो मञ्च, ती लिलिपुट आकारका सेटहरुले उनको अभिनयलाई अलिकति पनि स्वसचेततामा झारेन । अरुहरु सचेत थिए ।

नाटक पछि लक्ष्मीसंग भेट भयो । भनिन्, "चिनें, तर अलि मोटाएछौ" । मोटाईको कुरै छाडौं । मभन्दा अग्ला अग्ला दुई सुकुमार छोराका बिचमा उभिएकी लक्ष्मीलाई जमाना अघि जस्तैको पाएँ । उनिसंग मेरो निकटतम संसर्ग भनेको १७-१८ वर्ष काठमाडौमा "रोमियो जुलियट" को रिहर्सल र मञ्चन हुँदा हो । उनिले "जुलियट" को भूमिकामा र मैले चाहिं उनलाई "रोमियो" सित बिहे गराईदिने पादरीको भूमिकामा अभिनय गरेका थियौं, त्यस नाटकमा ।
contd

The story of the weekend will not be complete without mentioning Sitara, Sitara Ko Tasbeer, in particular, and Poonte's clandestine phone call to Sitara while a private recital of the poem to the stay-over guests was progressing. Sitara was not on the phone, so Poonte let it be recorded on her voicemail, as we learned. Shortly after, Sitara called us back. Damn, it was a little bit embarrassing, but a good one. अब फोनको कुरा त नभनम् होला यहाँ, रे क्या ।

Anyway, oh boy, the stay-over guests, one among which was someone I wanted to meet very much, made me recite the poem "Sitara Ko Tasbeer" three times !

So Sitara was very much part of the show and what the weekend was all about, re kya !

Thank God somebody is going for Siatara. Looking at the post I was kinda fishy. It made me believe Nepe and Poonte r lovers.

You didn't know that. Nepe and Poonte are deeply in love.

O... Nepeji,
Bhudeskal ko Chakkar le bitaula ni, hai. SI- chai haina, tauko ma -TARA chai gharna sak cha hai?

KHS,

यो कलाजनित, कालजयी परेमको कुरा हो साथी, चक्करको कुरै छैन ।

अनि ठट्यौलीहरु त छदैछन् आफ्ना ठाउँमा, तर यसो appreciation of art पनि गरि दिनु भा भे यो बबुरो कविलाई किञ्चित हौसला मिल्थ्यो कि ?

त्यसो त मैले आफ्नो परिवारबाट अरु साथीसंगी भन्दा बेसी नभने पनि बराबर चै पक्कै पारख र उत्साहवर्धन पाईरहेकै छु मेरा हरेक असल-कमसल कृतिहरुमा ।

( - http://guild.sajha.com/guild/read.cfm?guildid=19 )

*** *** *** ***
Cooldokin,

धन्यबाद । हाईफ्लाईजी skeptic हुन्, प्रेम होस् वा लोकतन्त्र । त्यसैले उनी बेकार छन् यस्ता कुराको मामलामा । फेरि उनको नाकलाई के रोग लागेछ यहाँ, माछा गनायो रे लौ ?

where was this party huh?? is it in boston or where is it? it looks like all of them had fun :)

Lol Nepe bro, looking at the past and present situation, give me one good reason that I should not be skeptic specially in the case which involves lotta human casualty. (Republicanism: how many casulaty???)

Peace out

Highfly,

What casualty ? Unless Gyanendra Maharaj orders to shoot at people, there will be no casualty. Not a single person will die.

Now, you are not trying to scare us with Gyanendra's bullets, are you ?

गणतन्त्रवादीहरु दिन दुई गुना रात चौगुना भने झै बढिरहेका छन्, बढिरहेका छन् र लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्रवादी समिकरण त्यही हिसाबले झन झन सम्भव र यथार्थ हुँदैछ । अब त एक रक्तहिन क्रान्तिको कुरा गर्ने समय हो ।

कांग्रेसका रामचन्द्र पौडेलले त गरि नै पनि सके,

". . . Nepal awaits a forceful, bloodless revolution."

- http://www.kantipuronline.com/artha.php?&nid=41747

Nepe,

Yo still did not get it, did u. Get it real. I know king is messed up. He will not give up unless he is thrown out. For that lotta people will die. Stop living in lala land.

Thats why I was stressing upon the fact that we need a trustworthy leadership to lead the nation. Cause present leadership is even worsed cause they betrayed us when we needed most. So, I have also got serious doubts about the rally organizers. How far can they go? Whats the agenda, how do u plan to acheive? What are the sacrfices ready to make? What is the agenda for taransition period? If we do not have straong agenda then the nation will turn to Afghanisthan.

Nepe, I do not have any personal grunge against u. I want peace and stability, thats my priority. I wanna be sure that we are heading towards right direction. With the maoists hanging around the neck Nepalese need to be cautious.

To add on, these leaders are stray dogs. Once king will throw bones they will go wagging their tails, if u know what I am saying. I think this is the time to bring up the new faces and wipe out the old.

The end result or bottom line should be peace, prosperity, freedom in the grasroot level. Does not matter how you get there, constitutional monarch, democratic republic. But there is no way maoists gonna bring democratic republic to nation. Its gonna be one party govt.

Peace out.

Highfly:

I agree with you. It dont matter who helms at the top as long as one can bring peace and stability. Mao is out of equation after massacing 12,000 people. Todays netas are almost next to Mao. You are right these netas will do anything or ditch anyone if they get a chance to become PM. Remember UML and Deuba when they got a chance to form the govt. History will repeat itself.

Yes, Highfly, I don't get you. You have seen King's "peace and stability" for over four months and your eyes have still not blinked.

You claim to be a democrat, right ? Or was it only your father and not you ? Anyway, I am seeing even royalists are condescending after seeing the "progress in peace and stability" in the country in these four months of King's rule and here is one son of a "democract" whose support for the King remains unfaltered.

Your loyalty and faith in the King is not understandable to me. I know you are pissed with our corrupt and inept political leadership. But how can you expect me to understand a son who would welcome an assault to his mother by some serial rapist just because he is pissed with his father's abuse to the mother. I am sorry for this strong analogy. But there is no better analogy to make you understand what exactly have been your activities in Sajha these four months.

If you ask me what I think about the "inept and corrupt political leadership" (although you should not ask me because I have already talked about this in detail in my old article that I have cited for you a couple of times.)

Basically the "democratic corruption", to be exact, the lack of will power in democratic leadership to end the legacy of "Panchayati corruption", was the result of the lack of power to espouse and carry out revolutionary reforms in all aspects of national life, which in turn was due to the extra-constitutional residual power in the King and King's natural instinct not to hurt the Panchayati corrupts (that includes the palace itself ni, don't ever think it was only Panchas that were corrupt). In simple words, if you are not allowed to be the BEST person, there is no point in being a GOOD person, particularly when being a BAD person rewards more. And once you are bad but you have to deny it, then what happens next and next and next is what our country is now exactly in.

So our inept and corrupt leaders are the product of our deficient democracy. If we do not rectify our democracy by eliminating power of or the monarch itself, we will never going to get the able and good leaders.

What do we do with the inept and corrupt leaders that we have now ?

That's the question of the day. If you are following the developments in the country in minute details then you must have noticed how the voices for replacing these leaders with cleaner and bolder ones are rising within the main political parties themselves.

Even when Ram Chandra Poudel talked about the oncoming "revolution", he did not say that it is going to be led by the same old leaders and same old styled parties. As a matter of fact, he talks about a revolution within political parties first and then one in the country.

Here are his words:

For this [revolution in the country], the political parties who have become agents of transformation themselves need a revolution within, for internal democracy and a change of outlook and image.

Revolution in political parties and the same in the country, that's the agenda of our history today.

Ya right Nepe, let the new face come in and the old replaced and exposed. Total revolutoion within the parties first, then in the nation. Nobody will fight to bring the same old inept parties in power. Thats the point I wanted to make.

Caution for you: Do not go after family. I have never abused anybody regarding family.

I do not even wanna discuss draging family in the forum.

Highfly,

Good to see the agreement on that. So I do hope you will withdraw your misplaced support to the King and focus on how to get rid of these freaking nalaayak top leaders from the main political parties.

And why would I go after your family ? It was you in old postings who was draging your father (who fought for democracy as you shared with us) to absurdly justify that you somehow got a right to support the King against democracy.

I honor you father who fought for democracy and hope you walk the same glorious path your father once walked.

Astoo

Nepe,

I never said I support king. But I said I am helpless. Cause I do not see any alternatives and I have been enforcing the fact for leadership change. One correction in your part not my dad but my grand daddy was a part of 07 revolution, just to get busted as BP snitched.

You must realize that the task to clean the Nepalese mess is mountainious. So, it needs commitment and also flexibility. We should tey to choose what best for our nation. I do not see king going for republic setting untill he is defeated. The end result of this is horrifying.

I think he could be brought under constituion. However, we need better leadership who are really commited. So, far my personal expereince I have seen lotta betrayal. All the leaders promised better future, even king is promising the same thing. So it seems we are just replacing one inept with other inept. This should end. We should target what is attainable.

My biggeest grunge with post 90 govt is they betrayed us Nepalese when we needed most. It was supposed to be first step towards democracy but it turned out to be just opposite. You talk about R C Poudel what was he doing when he was in power.

ALright I think Imade clear what I am for.

Highfly,

I share your concern that the King is not going to give up easily, not without some bloodshed if he has to.

While it is unacceptable to accept someone for fear, it makes sense to try to find ways to minimize the risk of bloodshed. We must think very hard of some creative way to give soft landing (bisarjan) to the monarchy.

I believe we can find such ways if we look for. In fact, I have tried, in my own crude and amateur way, to envision such ways in my old essay. One is what I called "Cultural Monarchy". Keep monarchy for cultural functions only, not for political functions. In one of the discussions elsewhere, I presented it with a new brand name for it, the "Deconstitutional Monarchy". Remove monarchy from the constitution, but let it be there as a cultural institution.

I am sure there can several other better and more practical models or ways. But the point is, that we can avoid the bloodshed or at least minimize its chance if we allow ourselves to think freely and creatively and bring the full democracy for the first time in Nepal completing the journey our grandfathers started and lost on the way.

We always hear of democracy fighters who have contributed enormous amount of energy for the spirit of democracy by actually fighting the repressors with their personal strength.

In todays 21st century, we have long distance democracy fighters who fight for revolution from the safety of their desktop or the safety provided by some country half way around the world away from the autocratic regime. Yes, let's fight over something as serious as democracy of our country by having backyard barbeque parties and dancing to Jhyaure and singing songs for some lady, who in fact might not even want her name to be dragged into all this.

Having lived in Europe for a while now, I know it's such a pain to even pay for electricity or other services for my property in Nepal. Few times I have had to make trips to make sure that the property is being managed well.

If something as simple as property needs my constant contact and having to be there to ensure that it's functioning, I think it's pretty silly of you to think that something of as big proportion as democracy can be fought from the safety of the US. Maybe you'll be able to stop some aid - which is highly doubtful, but overthrowing monarchy? You must either be out of your mind or just too hopeful.

Go there if you want to make any difference. Otherwise continue to involve yourself in your ego boosting pursuit where you feel better for your strong conviction about what you want to see in a country half the world away and almost in the hands of maoists.

Do you realize how strong the Maoists are and how ruthless they are becoming? Do you even want to risk the country being fked over by the goddamn politicians again and risk being taken over by the Maoists? Don't you have family back in Nepal? Or do you not care for their future?

Sardarsing and Newuser need not reply :)

Look every post is for rights in Nepal. The only thing is there is different views. A leader should try to bring the divided Nepal together. Fingers with point out. THats what democracy is about. These questions should be addressed.

For the activists, I just got one request. Do not involve in such things which affects public rather than rulers. Do not support sequeezing public to indict pain on rulers.

Do not support sanctions to Nepal specially like trade. It just ludacris.

Right. Don't be inciting the public to go bell the cat. Go BELL HIM yourself.

Nepe and others,

"WHAT A WEEKEND WITH POONTE" भन्?ने thread के हो भनेर हेर्न आको त....उहि राजनितीको कुरा? नेपाल बिग्रेको कारण यही हो । जाहापनि राजनितिको गफ गर्ने बाहेक अरु कुरै छैन कि क्?या हो? Lighten up guys!!

Srikant..