Laxmi Prasad Devkota

Photo courtesy: Supral Raj Joshi

 Today is Laxmi Puja, the third day of the Tihar festival in Nepal. Indians call it Diwali but Nepalese know it as "Deepawali".  Incidentally, it also the day of birth of the great poet Laxmi Prasad Devkota, won our hearts with his poems. He was a genius. Even after his untimely demise with cancer, he is remembered as the greatest literary genius Nepal has ever seen. He is and always will be more of a gift or Goddess Saraswati than Laxmi.

The reason I said that was because he never got the chance to enjoy economic prosperity. All of his life, he had to deal with economic hardships and pain. He was once sent to the Mental Hospital in Ranchi to cure whatever was wrong with his mind (according to the belief of his contemporary artists). He was ousted, broken, pushed, and scarred. But he never gave up that fight. He carried on. Even in his deathbed, he loved his art. That is why he lives on via his work.

The lesson we need to learn from him is that, no matter what comes in our life, our talent lives on. We will be immortals if we achieve the maximum. There is no compromise in the success if we achieve the zenith of our capabilities. We might complain about not achieving in our lifetime but that is not what always counts. The thing that counts is the life of our work. The value of our life and our work! The value of the smallest thing that we do!

Laxmi Prasad Devkota will always be an inspiration. No matter where anybody is, those touched by his work will always be inspired by him throughout their lifetime. I won't defend or contradict the fact that his demise was a fault of our society. But I believe that if we take him as a role model then we can achieve greatness in our own fields, we will always be successful. This success will be in our work quality and economic standard.

The crowd!

It's true what they say about Nepalese.  They will clap and cheer to any demagogue. I got the first hand experience today. Now, I am not going to lie. It was nice to get cheered and called at by the crowd but it's the same crowd that could rip me to shreds if I trash talk about Harry Potter. (Harry Potter blows! There, I said it! Get over the, "I am the wizard. Ooh! I am the special one!" thing.) I believe now from my experience that a crowd or a mass does not have a mind. Why I believe so? Here is today's story!

The day started as usual; got up at 6:15. My mom brought me some cereals with hot milk. Now, my stupidity led me to eat that in my bed instead of the table right beside me. Well, what do you know; I got the scalding cereal-milk combination all over my crotch. (Ouch!) It left a mark. Then, I went to the washroom and washed it off. Acted like a man and decided to dress up. (Even though it hurt...pretty bad!) Now, time to face the exam.

I went to the exam centre. Everything went smooth, even the exam went pretty well. (I think!) The day did get better when I came back home, all happy and shiny. I got to eat a feast of different cuisines cooked by my mother. They don't call it "Dog Tihar" for nothing! So, I decided to go to a campaign about voters and voter awareness. That is where my troubles started.  First, most participants came late. Second, most were no show!

Now, when we finally decided to do the program, there was little crowd. The crowd gathered as we continued on. When one of my friends spoke, the crowd loved it. I had to follow the act. Surprising as it may sound, I have really no idea about voting. Because I believe the system is flawed, I don't have the idea of choosing the right candidate. So, I just went to the stage, blabbered on about how flawed the system is and surprise. The crowd loved it. A huge crowd gathered and they loved the speech. That's why I believe, the crowd does not have a mind!

Vote the right person!

So, it is Election Day. You are an average person, minding your own business. You are thinking of voting this time. You grab your shoes, your tracksuits and decide that it is time to go to the polling station. After the 5 minute walk, you reach the polling station. Because it is early morning there is a line. You decide to stand in line. Thankfully, the voting system is much efficient. You get to the front of the line quickly. Now, your moment has come. Time to vote but who do you vote for? Here is my suggestion. Vote for the right candidate. Who is a right candidate? Well, a right candidate has the following qualities.

First and foremost, he or should be financially stable person. Now, I know you must think I am the epitome of "the man". That I never want the little guy a chance at politics but here is how it is justified. People with stable economic conditions will not be inclined to do corruption if their needs are satisfactorily met.  As far as I know from history, people who are poor or have bad economic background, have eventually given up against corruption and joined in on the fun. Now, if someone has his or her daughter on the deathbed, he will never think twice about taking the money. It is human psychology. If that same person happens to be a politician and the money comes as a bribe, that person will be a failed leader. That is why it is imperative to understand the financial stability of a person when we vote. That does not mean that we have to vote for the rich. Financial stability does not equal prominence.

Second, we have to look at past history. Has the person delivered his or her promise before? Have you lent that person money and did that person return the money on time?  All of these question matter when we choose someone to write our laws. This also implies to the proportionate system. If a certain political party has delivered in the past, there may be a chance they will deliver again but it may not be the same case if the party has not delivered in the past.  So, remembering the past is important. It also includes things said in the past like, changing the country to Switzerland in 10 years or Melmachi in 5 years.

Third and most important is, the person's education. See, in my view, writing the constitution is a very big deal. You need proper education and proper knowledge to execute that ordeal. If you do elect someone without an education, you will have to deal with the dipshit laws that they will put in the constitution. I know, you could argue saying, "I elected a guy with a PhD. He couldn't do it!" Here is my clarification, relevant education. An engineer necessarily does not have the knowledge for policy making on all fields. Certainly he could or she could do it on the field of science but not on the constitution.  The proportionate system eliminates this but you could exercise this with the direct election.

So, the idea is to get the best candidates. You know who blew the agenda last time. You know who the culprits were. So, it is your time to decide who gets to write the laws in this CA. Choose wisely, it is not like a Pokemon game where you get to reload the game. (Apparently they could reload the game because this is THE SECOND TIME!)