बादल लागेका आँखा

अचानक एउटी महिला मेरो अगाडी आईपुग्छिन, टक्क उभिन्छिन् र टेबल ठटाउँदै रुखो स्वरमा बोल्छिन्, "को हौ तिमी?" म औषधी लेख्दै गरेको पानाबाट थोरै नजर उठाएर हेर्छु: एउटी होंचीहोंची कुप्री परेकी बुढी आमा, जसको पाइलाहरु त ओपिडि कोठाको भुइँमा देखिन्थे तर यस्तो लाग्थ्यो कि उनी जीवनकै उत्तरार्धमा उभीईरहेकी छिन। अन्य सबै बुढाबुढी भन्दा भिन्न , उनको चिनारी भनौं या बिशेषता : उमेरले ७० काटेपनी आँखामा भने आधुनिक जमानाका नौजवान युवतीहरुले लगाउने खालको कालो गग्स हुन्थ्यो । सुहाउन पनि औधी सुहाउने । नाम पनि उस्तै राम्रो आमाको: बाटुली । म उनको प्रश्नको जवाफ फर्काउँछु, "आमा, म डाक्टर हुँँ। हजुरहरुको जांच र ओखतिमुलो गर्न आको ।" यो सुन्नासाथ उनी दंग पर्छिन र नक्कले चस्मा खोल्दै देब्रे आँखा देखाएर भन्छिन, "लौ उसोभा मेरो बादल लागेको आँखाको अपरेसन गर्दिहाल बाबै, झट्टै, आजै ।" म केबल एमबिबिएस ग्र्याजुएट मात्र भएकोले आफ्नो सिमा सम्झाउँदै भन्छु, "आमा म आँखाको डाक्टर हैन , अपरेसन गर्न जान्दिनँ नी ।" अनी उनी मुख खुम्चाउंदै र फतफताउंदै आफ्नो बाटो लाग्छिन, "तेत्ती नि नजान्ने के को डाक्टर?" । म सोंचमग्न हुन्छु, सांच्ची म के को डाक्टर? एमडी नगरेसम्म केबल मान्छेको डाक्टर मात्र भन्दा उचित होला ।

यो दृश्य कुनै ठुलो अस्पताल या नुर्सिङ होमको हैन , यो त हेटौंडा नगरीको कुनो अनी सुनसान जंगलको बिचमा अवस्थित एक वृध्दाश्रमको , जहाँं कैयौँ वृध्दवृध्दाहरु सो जंगलभन्दा सुनसान र भारी मन बोकेर जीवनको अन्तिम अध्याय कटाउँदै थिए, आफन्त र परिवारजनबाट धेरै पर । म हप्ता मा दुई दिन सोमबार र शुक्रबार हेटौंडा अस्पतालको ब्यस्त ओपिडी सकाएर ३ बजेपछी बचेँखुचेको थोरै जाँगर बोकेर सो वृध्दाश्रम को आमाबुवाको सेवामा पुग्नेगर्थे । सो आश्रम मेरो परिवारजस्तै भईसकेको थियो । बाटुली आमै दिनहुँँजस्तो मेरोसामू आईपुग्थिन् र एउटै प्रश्न दोहोर्याउँथिन, "को हौ तिमी?" शायद Dementia रोग थियो उनलाई: बुढेसकालको रोग, बिर्सने रोग । सधैं जस्तो मेरो जवाफ पनि उही हुन्थ्यो अनी उनको रिस र नैराश्यता । दिन हप्ता र महिनाहरु बित्दै गए । उता आँखा अस्पतालसँग सहकार्य गर्दागर्दै पनि उहाँको आँखाको अपरेसन गर्ने अवस्था बनिसकेको थिएन । बिस्तारै म आँफैलाई त्यो आमाको नजरमा कताकता निरिह र गैरजिम्मेवार महशुस गर्न थालेँ । एकदिन गफको सिलसिलामा आँट जुटाएर सोधेँ ,"आमा हजुरको एउटा आँखा सध्दे नै छ हेर्न मिलेकै छ झन कालो चस्मा लगाउदा कती राम्री पुतली जस्ती देखिनुहुन्छ , आँखाको अपरेसन नगरे हुन्न र ? " अनी उनी भावुक हुँदै बोलिन, "मेरो छोरोले २ बर्ष पहिले मलाई यहाँ ल्याएको थियो , एकमात्र छोरो मेरो , मुटु को टुक्रा । आमा यो हजुरको आँखाको अपरेसन गर्ने ठाउँ हो , दुई-तीन दिन बस्नु , मलाई अफिसको धेरै काम छ, अपरेसन भएपछी म हजुर लाई लिन आउँछु भनेर गाको । यहाँ मेरो अपरेसन नै गर्दिदैन । कत्ती भनिसकेँ ।" ई वाक्य सुनेर म अवाक भएँ । मसँग बोल्ने कुनै शब्द रहेन । ओहो आमा कत्रो ठुलो धमिलो कथा लाई विश्वाश गरेर बसेकी छन । लाग्यो तत्काललाई उनको लागि आँखा होस् या झुठो आश्वाशन सङ्लो  नभएकै बेश छ । म चुपचाप कुर्चीबाट उठें र त्यहांदेखी बाहिरिएँ । गेटैमा एउटा मन्दिर थियो , मुर्ती बोल्दो हो त सोध्न मन थियो , यो कस्तो Dementia रोग बनयौ ईश्वर जसले हप्तैपिच्छे आउने मलाई सम्झिँदैन तर बषौं पहिलेको निष्ठुरी छोराको यादहरुलाई बिर्साउन सक्दैन ...                                 

जनै पूर्णिमा किन र कहिले देखी

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h56AigKBbms

The story behind Kwati

Long time ago, Kathmandu valley was all green with very little settlement. And most of the people were farmers working very hard day and night. The farmers were very diligent and loved what they do. But working during monsoon was little tough because of the weather. And to be able to plant rice at the right time, they had to work tirelessly, often even requiring help from other farmers from distant. One monsoon day, a farmer Baucha was waiting for his fellow farmers to finish rice planting. But none of them arrived. Being little annoyed and surprised, he went to their house on the evening.  He asked them the reason behind their absence and mentioned that they would have finished the job as that was the last filed patch left. The fellow farmer begged apology and told that he was sick. Not just him, his wife and whole community is having cough and cold because of monsoon season and unavailability of nutritious food. Baucha was very sad and wanted to help them by feeding some nutritious food. All he could find on his store was nine kinds of bean that he had harvested. He soaked them and next day he cooked half of them and made hot soup. All had the soup , it really worked like a magic. Soon they started to work in paddy field. Next day, hearing the news, people from neighbouring village also requested Baucha to make such soup for them too as they were also feeling sick . Suddenly , yomari remembered about the half of the beans that he had soaked. They were already germinated. He then took the soup to village and fed all the villagers. Later, they gave the name “Kwati” to that soup meaning (Kwa: hot, ti: soup).

Ref. : Facebook/yomari cartoon series

Gaijatra: A festival of cow & humor

‘Gaijatra’, a popular festival in Nepal, is celebrated in the month of Bhadra with great excitement and enthusiasm especially in Kathmandu valley by Newar community. On this day, a cow or a child dressed up as a cow is taken in procession in the name of the dead and it is believed that the cow will help them in the journey of freedom into heaven. Besides sending a child around the city, different other things are done in Bhaktapur e.g. stick dance called “Ghintang Ghising”. People also have fun on this day as they dress up in comic way and the political and social problems are mocked publicly.

In ancient period, people used to celebrate it as a festival of worshipping god of death “Yamaraj”. Later, King Pratap Malla established a new trend of celebration. The most renowned king of the Malla era, Pratap Malla had two wives and five sons from them. King Pratap Malla being an enlightened soul, he wanted to experiment with a new concept he had in mind. He wanted all of his five sons to have the experience of ruling a kingdom in his own lifetime, so he allotted one year of rule for each of his sons. As luck would have it, the second eldest son, Chakrabartendra, was trampled to death by an elephant on the second day of his taking over the reins. King made a pond named Ranipokhari. The king filled the beautiful pond with water from all the holy rivers of the kingdom. This was to fulfill his queen’s wish of wanting to sanctify herself by bathing in the waters of all the sacred rivers of the kingdom. The queen, was devastated, since her dead son happened to be her favorite offspring. The sadness was such that she fell into a deep depression. The king brought in all sorts of entertainment and entertainers to the court in repeated attempts to make her forget the tragedy. However, no matter how hard everybody tried, nobody could make her even smile a little, let alone laugh.

Finally, in desperation, the king asked his subjects to organize a parade in which one member of every family that had suffered a loss that year would take part. He ordered that they dress up in crazy and flashy costumes and drag a colorfully decorated cow along behind them. Those who didn’t have a cow could have someone dressed up as a cow. On this particular day, the king allowed his subjects to make jokes about existing social norms and people in powerful positions. Every sort of buffoonery and lampooning was permitted. This flamboyant parade was to pass along the main gates of the royal palace, from where the king and his queens would watch the revelry.

As the parade drew near, the king pointed out the huge contingent of participants, and told the grieving queen that every participant in the parade had suffered the death of a family member in the year gone by. On knowing this, the queen realized that she was, after all, not the only one who had been so aggrieved. Many others were grieving for the loss of a loved one, just as she was. However, that had not stopped them from moving on or taking part in a very funny kind of parade, dressed in weird clothes and cracking all sorts of jokes, laughing till their bellies hurt. Gradually, a smile of merriment began to form on her hereto grimly tight lips, and eventually a giggle escaped from her, which finally turned into laughter.

Ref. : www.insidehimalayas.com , The Rising Nepal.

The Lost Kingdom: Sikkim

Sikkim is a landlocked state of India.It is in the Himalayan mountains. Sikkim is bordered by Nepal to the west, Tibet to the north, Bhutan to the east, Indian state of west Bengal to the south. Since 1642, Sikkim was under the rule of "Namgyal" dynasty. King of Sikkim is called as “Chogyal”. Phuntsog Namgyal was the first Chogyal of Sikkim in 1642. After independence of India, Sikkim had retained guarantees of independence from Britain. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru agreed to a special status for Sikkim. Sikkim was to be attributary of India in which India control its external defense, diplomacy and communication.  King of Sikkim Tashi Namgyal died in 1963 after suffering from cancer. His son Palden Thondup Namgyal became new Chogyal of Sikkim in 1965. This new king was viewed by India as politically dangerous, due to his wife. His second wife Hope Cooke was American citizen. She was suspected to be a CIA agent. Indian government didn’t want USA interference in Sikkim, India also have concern that unstable Sikkim will invite china to claim Sikkim as a part of Tibet/china. so, India decided to take covert steps for the merger of Sikkim. Indian government sent Ajit Doval as an undercover agent in Sikkim in 1970. He was assigned the job of merger of Sikkim in India. Ajit Doval succeed to unite small political parties of Sikkim under the leadership of Sikkim National Congress Party (Who was in favor of merging Sikkim into India). In 1974, Sikkim national congress party won an election and Lhendup Dorje became prime minister of Sikkim. Tensed relation between new prime minister and king resulted unstable environment in Sikkim. In 1975, Sikkim Prime minister Dorji appealed to the Indian Parliament for intervention. Indian police moved and take control over Sikkim and palace of king seized, all the Sikkim borders were closed. On 14 April 1975, referendum was held, in which Sikkim voted to merge with the India with more than 95% votes. Sikkim became the 22nd Indian State on 26 April 1975 and Lhendup Dorji became chief minister of Sikkim.

The indigenous people of Sikkim are not Nepalese, but lepchas and bhutias. But due to illegal immigration from Nepal, the demography changed to such an extent that more than 70% of the population became Nepali and the indigenous people a minority in their own land. When the king of Sikkim wanted to address this issue of large illegal Nepali immigrants, the Nepalese of Sikkim engineered a coup with the help of RAW, which led to toppling of the king and illegal annexation of Sikkim with India with the support of illegal Nepali immigrants who were facing eviction from that country and against the wishes of the king and indigenous people of Sikkim.