Monsooner or later, pt. 2

Singin in the Rain
Kathmandu, Nepal

The net was down today because of torrential rainfall....I mean, up to my ankles on the road. I took a cycle rickshaw to the restaurant and it was like a boat. Of course, the driver just smiled and laughed the whole way. I paid him 20NRS, which is less than fifty cents.

People stood in doorways or tromped down the streets sort of cheering the rain on and whooping. Nobody gets mad, nobody seems frustrated, they are almost inspired by the rain's fury. Really, they stand there looking out like kids who are getting to play hooky because of the snow - with big grins, kind of cheering on the storm. It leads to an interesting, "we're all in this together" feeling. All kinds of trash floats down the street, potato chip bags and cigarette butts.
my acquaintance DB Jhirel is a villager from near Jiri which is up in the north. He just came back from a visit to his village. He didn't know it when he left Kathmandu (he works as a trekking guide here) but his youngest sister (of 10 children) had committed suicide - by poisoning. She left behind 3 kids all under 10 and a husband. Evidently they ran a shop together and there was 7000NRS (about $100) missing one day from the till. They had a big fight over it and it escalated. DB's English is so bad, I couldn't get more information. So, "she kill herself, she drink poison" he said with a smile. She was in her early 30s. It (the smile) doesn't mean he didn't care about her...these people are just so accustomed to putting on a brave face in hard times, they take it as it comes. So, she kill herself. Life goes on. Or so his attitude seems to say.

People actually will kill themselves over sums like $100 here, or even less. There are farmers in India killing themselves over unpayable debts of $50 or 100 or so. They take out loans during a bad crop season, and then if the rains don't come or for some reason the seeds don't sprout (bad seeds) and so on they can't possibly make the money back. Fifty dollars, $100, an insurmountable debt to them.

Last year when I was trekking in Panauti valley I ran into 2 young men on their way to a village funeral. The woman, they told me, was the mother of a friend. She had drunk poison because she was unable to deal with the death of her son, who was killed in an "encounter" between the Army and Maoists. They, too, were smiling. You would have thought they were on their way to a party, which in a way I guess they were (funerals, of course, mean lots of food and drink). I was dying (no pun intended) to follow them to the village and see the proceedings, but my Canadian trekking partner Ellen had gone ahead to the lodge, it was late afternoon and I had no way of telling her what I was doing. If you go to one of these folks' houses you MUST spend the evening there, it is rude otherwise. Ellen would have been terrified (women shouldn't trek alone after dark). So I went on to Dhulikhel where sure enough, the lodge owner (a sixty year old Newari grandfather who had been a longhaired hippy in the 60s - he showed us a photo. the 60s and 70s were the hey-day of Nepali travel), his grandson, the cook, and Ellen were all standing outside the lodge keenly watching the road for a sign of me.

At first I thought they were overly concerned. Then the next day Ellen told me PurnaMan Shrestha's (the lodge owner's) story about his own daughter. His daughter had disappeared a few years ago and was finally assumed to have been murdered. That's why he was raising his grandson. I realized how lucky I was to have such people worrying about me.

From then on, I promised to be home before dark.

Monsooner than later

Well, I am sorry I have not written more. SO much is happening. I am in the process of trying to help
about 4 different parties with their lives (imagine that, me helping someone get their life together.)
But it is good for me.

And net access has been terrible. My fave Wi Fi place decided that they will only have wi fi in
daytime. So that cuts down 50 percent.

Trying to arrange a trip to Tibet - because for visa reasons, I need to leave Nepal for 1 month if I am to return for October and November. Sorry for spacing problems... this keyboard is weird.

Nix-odus

Indians are doing just fine here....
Kathmandu, Nepal

Everybody calm down, just calm down.

Tales of Indians threatened by Maoists here seem to have been greatly exaggerated (imagine that, something being exaggerated in India). Bottom line: 2 people have left the country (TWO), no other Indians I spoke to have any plans to and the general consensus is that the Indian news accounts have greatly overstated the facts.

I paid a visit to the Indian Embassy yesterday, but I might as well have phoned as they would only let me speak to the "consular attache" via a house phone. After the standard denials and nothingspeak ("nothing has happened as yet meddem") he then went on to contradict himself by saying that in fact, a couple of people (couldn't specify the number) had been harassed by "the people who are agitating in this country." And what happened to those people who had been harassed? "They have left the country."

Well, that sounds like "something" has happened to me....how many people? "One or two." What, you don't know how many people have left the country under threat? Then he claimed the Indian Ambassador was now meeting with the PM. (the actual meeting turned out to be with a lesser figure, see news link below.)

As usual, the contact with Indian bureaucracy was more useful for entertainment value than for actual information. It was kind of nostalgic to see the bushy moustaches and "safari suits," though. The old colonial bungalow-style building and bougainvillea trailing over the fence complete the Indian feeling.

Then I went to one of the major casinos - Casino Rad at the Radisson. Most of the casino tourists and some of the managers and employees are Indian. No exodus here - the place was LOADED with Indians. Punjabis with their turbans were waddling around piling their buffet plates high with naan and rice and having a good old time. A bunch of Haryanvis were there from Sonepur and got very excited that I had been to Gurgaon. They were all watching the floor show, which is skinny Nepalis in skimpy costumes cavorting to Punjabi and filmi music (including a dancing midget in a "sexy" outfit. I kind of wish I had not seen that.)

My friend Kenny is a Tibetan Indian (born and raised in Mussoorie) visiting here from Delhi. He had Indian friends there, so I asked Ravi from Jaipur about it. "FAKE news," Ravi retorted, "this is just fake news. Indians have no problems here." Ravi was on the phone to Gurgaon. Someone was phoning in blackjack bets as he sat there. He had chips worth $2,000 US on the table in front of him.

Indeed, lots of Indians seemed to be really enjoying the roulette table. How did I know they were Indian? Easily identifiable by their plaid shirts and tight trousers!

At my own hotel, a couple of Indians are employed. I asked the desk guys who speak good English about it. The street gyan seems to be that yes, a couple guys did get a hard time, but they had run afoul of locals and those locals happened to have quasi-Maoist connections (quasi Maoist, possibly quasi-thug). So those non-representative Maoists came and threatened the Indians. It has nothing to do with any official Maoist party action. Those guys did leave the country in much the same way you might if you ran afoul of some Mumbai goondas and had to leave Maharashtra.

The fact is that, despite admonitions and orders from Maoist Centre, party members afield are continuing abductions, extortions, vandalizing or shutting down factories and noncooperative businesses, holding people's courts and so on - but victimizing only Nepalis. There are several such accounts in the paper daily, and of course those are only the ones that reach media. Average rural Nepalis are in far more danger from the Maoists than any Indians or other foreigners here.

A local paper ran the first story I'd seen about it here.
INDIAN DAILY POUNCES ON "HOUNDING" OUT OF CASINO STAFF
by Surendra Phuyal
As a leading Indian newspaper sounded alarm over a new threat posed by Maoist-aligned All Nepali Hotel Worker's Union in Nepal, India's Ministry of External Affairs on Tues. clarified that the entire Indian cmomunity in Nepali is not under threat and that it has taken up thematter with the govt. of Nepal.

Hard on the heels of the TOI front page report Tues. that "Maoists are hounding out Indians" with addtiional reports on an inside page warning of a backlash (ed note: sounds like TOI was dead set on creating that backlash themselves singlehandedly) - the Indian ambassador in Kathmandu was expected to take up the matter with Home Minister Sitaula on Tuesday.

Exaggerating the story of two Indian nationals - Rajesh Kataria and Kishore Sagar - getting their marching orders from the CPNM affiliated ANHWU this past week, the TOI wrote: "Death threats and 24 hour deadlines for leaving - received by Indian hospitality sector employees have created a deep sense of fear in the community." The 2 were employed at a Kathmandu casino (ed. note: I heard it was Casino Royal at the Yak & Yeti) and have reportedly returned to India after receiving death threats.

The daily added, "the frightened community leaders have gone to the Indian Embassy in KTM for protection." The elaborate report also talked about an alleged Maoist threat to Indian surveyors working at the proposed Koshi Dam site in eastern Nepal, Maoist threats to Dabur Nepal and other Indian joint ventures and last year's ANHWU threat to India's Taj Group which had a stake in 2 major hotels.

There's more, but I can't find the Kathmandu Post link and am having to type it all out....in other words, yes, some Indian ventures were threatened at various times in the past but no more so than lots of Nepali businesses, like the noodle factory that was shut down today or Gurkha Beer which was just recently able to reopen.

Here is a Yahoo news link. http://in.news.yahoo.com/060802/210/66cjk.html

Snake dance

Song of the Serpent

Kathmandu, Nepal

I woke up this morning to the sound of the usual bicycle bells, newspaper hawkers, metal shop gates rattling open and something special - the foghorn-sound of a conch shell and accompanying twinkle of a brass puja bell. I stuck my head outside the window to see two men moving down the street, ringing the bell and blowing the shell in front of each store. (Of course, they then wanted an "offering" for this service.)

Today is Naag Panchami, the Nepali day to honour the Nagas or Snake Deities. Nagas represent the earth-spirits, spirits of the land of Nepal. Legend has it that long before the Hindu gods, the Buddha, or any mortal beings set foot here, this was the Nagas' land. Kathmandu Valley was a big lake of water-dwelling amphibious serpents.

Naag Panchami is mostly celebrated by Hindus, but there is a Buddhist legend about the Nagas as well. When the Buddhist saint Manjushree stood atop Swayambhu hill that emerged from the water like a lighthouse, he struck his mighty sword and cleaved the lake in two, draining it and forming what's now the Valley. But he had to promise the Nagas we would always honour and worship them, because we took their land.

So even at the Hindu and Buddhist shrines here, and in front of every hotel or business (however modern, air-conditioned and slick it may appear), there is an icon of entwined serpents emerging from the water. At the temples it is carved in stone. On modern buildings, it's just a mass-produced colour linotype of the serpents dancing above the water, or sometimes a Naga (snake maiden) holding one serpent in each hand. A Hindu version shows Lord Krishna's conquest of the snake-demon Kalinga (has nothing to do with the legend, but whatever).

So people blow conch shells, rang handbells, waved oil lamps and offered special rice and red powder to the snakes. Then they tack up a fresh new snake-picture over every door. Gotta keep the earth spirits happy.

At Naag Pokhari, a sort of ancient pond in the middle of the city, there is an ornate brass column topped by Nagas, arising from the murky green water. For the past three days there has been a special Naag Panchami street fair. Nothing particularly snakey about it, but it's the thought that counts.

It reminds me of that great Simpsons episode in which Lisa, ever the animal rights activist, manages to convert Snake-Bashing Day into the Be Nice to Snakes Day, with Barry White singing "Leave the snakes alooonnneee, babyyyyy..... leave allllllll...the snaaakessssssssssss...alone..."

The Little Buddha

Kathmandu, Nepal

Wednesday was the beginning of nearly a week's ceremonies marking the enthronement of a newly incarnated Rinpoche, or Tibetan lama. Tharik Rinpoche is only six years old and so small, he has to be lifted up to bless the ritual mandalas in the prayer hall. I have to be up very early for the start of the enthronement ceremonies in Boudhanath tomorrow morning. Here are a few photos from Wednesday's arrival, by Rene Edde.

It takes uncountable lifetimes to become a tulku, or incarnate lama. Tharik Rinpoche (who was born in Himachal Pradesh, India) has been a Buddhist lama in his seven previous lifetimes, including, my printed invitation tells me, one lifetime as a female lama. His previous incarnation "left his body" in 1998 and the Sakya lineage community is thrilled to have "found" him again.