so quick

to condemn
highly educated women
who do nothing
with their education

#when will we get through
layers of our own biases?

we argue

we argue whether
education has done ANY good
for women
when obviously
the more educated she is
the more her wings spread
and the more the people around her
will resent it and try to control her
(this is a documented trend)

we argue whether having so many
women in the governemnt
has done us any good
when some of the women
are more patriarchal than the men
and raise not a twig for women

we argue whether having women
at the top three posts in the country
has improved the lives of ordinary women

to be a #feminist
is to be always on the defensive

common room

life gets strangely stilted
when you are away from your
familiar surroundings

you don't know how to act
or talk or behave

the consequences of your behaviour
are not the same

socially inadequate, all of us
we wondered if
talking to new people
on social media
improved our socialising skills

oh no, i said,
it only improves your social media skills
oh no, she said
ive never even talked this much
to these people before....

it's foreign to me

I remember when I was very young
and came across an article about
debilitating shyness

there was a photo of three teenagers
two girls happily chatting with each other
and a boy looking from afar, wistfully,
hesitant to join

the magazine was western
all the people in it where white

i was shell shocked

how can white people in
developed, western nations
have such a mundane problem
like shyness,
which i thought only afflicted me?

we grow up believing
a host of such things about
'developed' western nations

that there is gender equality,
for example,
that men and women both work,
and equally share the housework
that if women don't like
how they are treated
they can easily divorce
and get on with their lives anew

we never heard the reset of the story
that it my not be as easy for women
as we imagine it to be

we heard the word 'system' a lot
there is a 'system' in developed nations
laws are upheld
in fact, you don't even need to
enforce the law
because the people are so lawful
crimes are punished
the government is so good
you don't starve
even if you are not employed
because you get an unemployment bonus

there is no poverty, there is no crimes
even today, the staaatistics or news
of crimes, continues to surprise many
my god!
why would they need to do that in america?
where they have everything they could ever want?

since we saw so many bikinis
we thoguht everyeone in america
is always naked
or if not, then
very fashionably and weirdly dressed

maybe the next generation won't have such images
because there are nepalis all over the world
and also becuase social media and superfast internet
makes every reality accessible

but for us,
travelling
was not so much for enjoyment
or education
but an eye opener
for long held beliefs such as these

the realisation
that people are human
all over the world
there are social problems
no matter what
and that society goes
in cycles and spirals
where one ascent
naturally leads to
other descents

internet

at the end of the day when
laden with hopes, dreams, frustrations,
all our life starts flashing
in front of our eyes
you feel unable to cope with
all the emotions at once
you confuse a new face
with someone you saw years ago
things get repeated
you lose direction
you are just tired and want to sleep

that is what the internet has become
overloaded with everything
in the universe
and yet, missing essential things
happy things
little forgotten niches

for humans,
the night gives rest
and you wake up with at least
a little more measure of peace
and clarity than last evening
and begin a day anew

such is the nature of the world

and yet,
the internet gets no rest
it just keeps carrying on its
old, jaded, overloaded self
over and over again

no, this was not
#meanttobe

this is not natural
this is surely the sign of the devil
something that gets no rest,
does not die when it is overloaded
and continues to grow in power every day
this evil must be exorcised and ended

and yet, i would be the last person
to give up the internet
even if it cost my life

our #dystopian world

सजिलाे

कति सजिलो छ यो संसारमा

विश्वास र अास्था गुमाउन 

 

जताजतै छ पीडा र दुःख

धोका र दुर्व्यवहार 

अनि यो सबमा रमाउने मानिसहरू 

 

बाल्यकालमा नै मानिसको

अात्मा मुर्झाउन सक्छ

 यो निर्दयी संसारमा

सजिलो छ संसारसँग हार्नु

निराश हुनु

र भन्नु

मैले जति राम्रो गरेपनि 

छै यो संसारमा केही अर्थ

सजिलो छ अविश्वास गर्नु

कुनै पनि सकारात्मकतालार्इ

अनि धेरै गाह्रो छ विश्वास गर्नु

प्रेममा

धेरै गाह्रो छ मनमा अाशा राख्नु

 

गाह्रो छ विश्वास गर्न

कि संसारमा निस्वार्थ प्रेम पनि हुन्छ

दुर्इ मानिसबीचको सम्बन्ध यस्तो

कि  त्यसले सास फेर्ने माैका दिन्छ

र दिन्छ यो संसारमा अघि बढ्ने सामर्थ्य

 

हो गाह्रो छ, तर

अविश्वािसको सजिलो बाटो हुँदाहुँदै

उही अप्ठ्यारो बाटो रोज्नु नै

अात्माको विजय हो

the adventuress

From the way she walked and talked,
Boldly and frankly,
I could tell that she was no docile woman,
Then she told me that she was an agent,
a contractor who gathered up laborers to go work,
and it might be anywhere in India or Nepal.
One time we went to Laddakh and Karkil, she said.
Kargil? I said
Yes, karkil, where there was a war going on. 
We were asked to work only in the dead of the night. We would take sacks and sacks of stuff up there
no light to guide us by
we would dump them up there
what did they contain?
oh, vegetables, fruits, rice, all sorts of supplies
because the Indian soldiers were up there
and had no other way of eating
We would walk uphill for half an hill
throw the sack of rice down
and immediately get a thousand rupees
it was on china border, that's why we got such good money, she said
we earned so much and it was so great!
the contractor had told us,
don't smoke, don't light a beedi, and don't switch on a torch
of course we obeyed, because we did not want to lose the money
there was a guy from jajarkot,
we told him so many times not to do so
but then four of us women went ahead of him
and he fell behind,
when we looked back, he wasn't there
he struck a match to light a beedi
and a bullet hit him straight in the chest
we saw him the next morning
the man down on the road
bullet in chest, and beedi and lighter in hand