Pointy parasols

Pointy parasols

I don’t criticise people for walking with an umbrella—it is the need of the season. The weather can fool us at any time; every five minutes it can change and you must be prepared. A few minutes after walking under the sweltering sun, rain may cascade down from the sky. So carrying umbrella not a stupid thing to do; with it you can tackle the tricky weather at any turn. If it is hot, you can open it, as the sun disappears you can keep your umbrella inside your bag and as soon as it rains, you can open it again and save yourself from being drenched.

Umbrellas have turned into a fashion. There is tough competition among females in plus two colleges regarding whose umbrella is the prettiest. And of course boys don’t ignore the fact that if they have an umbrella,

a girl will walk under it with them for protection from the rain. Umbrellas are found in an array of styles, are relatively inexpensive and are extremely handy—so much so that umbrellas can now be considered another item of clothing, something that can be coordinated with your daily wardrobe.

Kathmandu is an exceedingly crowded city, and even on a normal day, it’s difficult to walk without bumping into others. Your polished shoes may be stepped on, or you may be pushed out of the way by someone in a bigger hurry. You are in a crowd even when crossing the road or walking through the narrow paths throughout Kathmandu.

Umbrellas are made up of a circular fabric canopy on a folding metal frame, supported by a central rod. Where the small, thin rods extend from the fabric covering, umbrellas can be turned into a weapon. And it is this thing that hurts others when umbrella owners don’t take proper care of his or her umbrella. Especially in crowded places, when masses of people are trying to escape the rainfall or the heat of the sun, umbrella users may end up hurting people without even realising it. If you use an umbrella, you must remember what a huge area it occupies. People may be trying to escape the path of your massive cover, but without even being aware, you may give them a bump in the head. If you are short, the danger you pose to other passer-bys is even greater as the dangerous metal rods are often at eye-level of taller people in the crowd. Though many people may apologise, there is often little sincerity in the remark because one minute later, another person is made victim of their large colourful canopy. I have been a victim several times, and no matter how much I try, these incidents are unavoidable.

So, this is my personal request to all the umbrella holders out there walking the streets of Kathmandu: take care your umbrella will not injure others when you are in crowded area. Don’t let others get hurt because you aren’t paying attention. Stay alert, because when it hits, it hurts.



PUBLISHED IN THE KATHMANDU POST (JULY 23 2010)

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Monsoon Madness

After a long year, the monsoon has finally returned and I’m sure all of you are well prepared with your umbrellas, raincoats and rain boots. It’s a great season for many reasons and my favourite season as well. As rain begins to fall from the sky, I get lost in a world of imagination and nostalgia. When I see the first drop hit the ground, I quickly get up and rush to my window and start watching the amazing act of nature, letting the hours pass staring at the drops falling down.

When I was in school, I always welcomed the monsoon that came along with my school holiday-giving me the chance to indulge myself in the daily downpour. I have loved the monsoon since I was a small child. I used to enjoy fishing in front of my house in the drainage line, but where those fish came from is still a mystery to me. It was fun making paper boats and racing against my friends. I sometimes wish I could get back those wonderful days. There are certainly many reasons to appreciate and enjoy the monsoon; however, there are some disadvantages that come along with the season as well. As the roads are cleansed by the heavy showers, the rivers end up more polluted than normal. Some people may catch a cold. And the puddles of water are a burden for those trying to get to college, school or office in time.

The main drawback to the monsoon is the need to dodge huge splashes of dirty water as cars zip through puddles. Each morning, it takes 30 minutes to get dressed and ready: your hair is combed, shirt ironed and shoes shined. But within five minutes, you receive a splash and your 30 minutes of effort have gone in vain, most likely making you late for your class or work. The car driver, safely inside the protection of his vehicle has long gone and you are a mess, so what can you do? You could try to note down the vehicle number but that is worthless; all you can do is wipe what dirt you can from yourself and keep walking.

If you have been lucky enough to escape this experience, be careful, with the monsoon upon us, there are puddles everywhere. It is Nepal and on almost every road there are puddles waiting for vehicles to splash through like ammunition waiting to be loaded. As soon as you reach an area with numerous puddles, make yourself alert to oncoming vehicles. Carefully analyse which direction these vehicles are coming from and make a safe and quick move and save yourself from becoming a victim of such monsoon attacks. I doubt I need to warn you to carry an umbrella at all times, as you are familiar with the unpredictable weather that can trick you at any time. But this is one suggestion that some may not be aware of. So stay alert and enjoy the cool days the monsoon brings. Happy Monsoon!






PUBLISHED IN THE KATHMANDU POST - JULY 12 2010

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Citizenship

Citizenship from the dictionary gives the meaning that it is a legally recognized subject or national of a state or commonwealth, either native or naturalized. And legally, no single ordinary person possesses to handle citizenship of more than one country. In simple sense, a child born in Nepal is called Nepalese and he should be granted with Nepalese citizenship! But is it happening so? Still, there are thousands of Nepalese who were born in Nepal deprived of citizenship.

It’s not my writing to explain who should get citizenship and who should not, but all I wanted to do is make the reader analyze how fair system we have. Let me give few examples. A friend of mine, born in Biratnagar whose father was abroad since last ten years tried to get citizenship from his mother’s name, but they asked for father! Let’s look at other, if a couple get’s away without divorce, like if husband goes away and never returns back the wife obviously wont have the death certificate of her husband. Now can her child issue citizenship or not? Bhutanese refugee have been living in Eastern part of Nepal since really a long time, by this time there must have been many child who took birth in Nepal itself, now will they get citizenship or not? If yes, how difficult it is and why is there the difficulty? Now let’s look at the other part, it’s known that there exists maximum Nepalese in places like Darjeeling and Sikkim. They call themselves Nepali owning Indian Citizenship, but has any one seriously analyzed the fact that even many of them possess Nepalese citizenship all because their previous generation too possess Nepalese citizenship. More than that, at the time of CA Poll, when citizenship was made a compulsion many non Nepalese people, especially from the places having boarder with India in the south took the citizenship with their cleaver, bribery, and sources.

The two examples I provided is to show the differences between how easily non Nepalese got and are getting citizenship and how difficult the true Nepalese are facing to get a citizenship. Those people having dual citizenship obviously doesn’t know the value of citizenship but ask those Nepalese who really lack Nepalese citizenship the value of it. They don’t get the job all because they lack citizenship, they can’t go abroad just because they lack the citizenship. They face trouble in getting education even in Nepal just because they lack citizenship! It’s not again possible for the Government to look after every couple who give birth in Nepal or not, but the Government must really be conscious while providing the citizenship because if Government ignores an important issue like this, it’s the most shameful thing that the country is doing.

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