Just a fortnight has passed since the last great celebration on earth to welcome year 2010. Per capita resolutions made and broken very next morning is not exciting conversations anymore. Neither is any forecast by fortune tellers. It is business as usual for me except that I have a new diary. Making resolutions is quite an effort of its kind that consumes very important productive hours of a person’s life be it at work or leisure. You concentrate on pros and cons of the resolution, feel uneasy about it throughout and weigh in benefits and losses and usually have a slight worry all along what if you actually succeeded or failed. Personally I have realized that resolution only tempts me to overdo what I want to stop doing from the first day of the New Year.
These days, keeping a second option open always helps in Nepal. That is, if I succeeded fine, if I failed there is always a possibility of fresh start on the first day of the next month. And we in Nepal are privileged to have actually two different calendars in use. One that is English, Gregorian and other is Bikram. New month of one calendar begins somewhere in the middle of another. For example, 15 January 2010 is Magh 1, 2066. So no worries if anyone missed it 15 days back has an opportunity today for a fresh start if you do not want to wait for New Year sometime in the middle of April.
There is at least one solution to every problem. In Nepal, we seem to be overly blessed with many such solutions existing. It is said that there are about a dozen New Year celebrations in Nepal. Of these today is one called Maghi that Tharu community celebrates. In addition, today also happens to be the solar eclipse supposedly one that is longest in the millennium. What a reason to resolve , celebrate and stay home on this chilly day. Especially, when stupid load shedding is nine hours a day. Government has declared it a public holiday. They say it saves them fuel expenses. But the national worry is that the commission will be gone.
Even if there are people who are tired of too many public holidays and want to work, government offices are closed. Period! Government’s elsewhere need to take note of this as a measure to teach a lesson to workaholics. Even if it weren’t a holiday today substitutes would be plenty. There are indefinite holidays approaching us soon. Maoist’s, the only political party in Nepal that has its armed outfit, is planning indefinite Bandh protesting in favor of civilian supremacy.
The irony is the bread winners of the society are dependent on their dependents to avail an opportunity to earn for both. Apparently, being economically active agent is no pride in Nepal. It’s not the law abiding tax payers who enjoy state benefit in Nepal but those who force others to pay. As a result, there is growing tendency to avoid paying tax. The mantra is if you can evade from paying taxes, you save for the rainy day. Country bleeds while individuals nurse themselves. I am sure folks in the other parts of the world must be jealous of us in Nepal just like all Gods supposedly are jealous of humans because only humans die and cease to exist while Gods cannot.
सिध्द विचार 