Work in progress

Here's something for you to consider: what would happen if every single person in the world had your name. Here's another thought for you to ponder upon: why do you keep coming back here when I repeat every freaking sentence structure, pattern of word usage, and other semantics every damn(overused word) time. Also(yes, it's an ironic use of 'also', targeted at my own overuse of 'also' and 'and' to begin sentences because I can't be bothered to do better) (and yes, this is also an ironic take on my peppering my writing with braces to explain things that are not directly relevant (ie, irrelevant) to the topic under discussion.), would you like to read a fiction whose format I came up with?

This is an attempt at fiction that's different. Let's see where this goes.

I was nine. My uncle had just returned from America. He said he had a gift for me, and he would give it to me only if I were a good boy. I had always been a good boy, hadn't I? His nieces wife's side came over unexpectedly from India, and he gave them the gifts he had bought for me. Three twelve-year old girls got American T-Shirts. I got nothing.

I didn't cry. I wasn't there; I felt like an outcast. The flash flood of that afternoon swept one of my friends away. I really wanted to go to watch the new Salman Khan movie where he double-times his wife despite loving her profusely, as he claims in the songs. My friends wanted to go swim. I was thirteen.

I was fifteen. My classmates and I went to a restaurant for an all-nighter. We were not sure why were doing it or what we were doing, but we knew that fun was going to be had and we would be grown men after the night. My dad picked me up at midnight against my wishes. The night that my friends lost their virginity to cheap middle-aged streetwalkers. I remained virgin.

I was terrified. I was the only one from my class who got published. I didn't want want to get published so I made up the most outlandish tale that I could conjure and forced what I thought were the most cliched tropes as a joke. My English teacher made our class submit stories to the newspaper. I was sixteen.

I was eighteen. My group of friends was slowly thinning out thanks to relationships and those guys and girls, so I summed up courage and asked out a girl a year junior to me. I was soon going out with the most cute and lovably nerdy seventeen-year old our school had. I was bored.

I was deflowered. I surprised everyone by making the conversation last four hours. My Biology class was on a trip to Pokhara and the Banda muddled our travel plans so we went to a lakeside bar and I got myself into a bet on how long I could chat up that cute girl sitting next to her emo friend talking to the two large east-European guys. I was nineteen.

Reports from Ghana


Written on 8-14-2013

Thanks to Nana, the roommate of Sam A., I had the best drink that I have ever had, Most Spiciest Drink Ever category-- the drink made my stomach hurt more than spicy Indian food does. You could say I drank up a storm – which is what it was called, 'Storm'. Hard drink, that one, even though the alcohol content is not that much. I was the only one from our table to finish the bottle of Storm, and my stomach ache/gastritis is an alibi(observer/proof?) of that.

Ghana observations 2: there are way too many .(bars, malls, aru kura in kathmandu... R bhai, uthepachi complete gara hai. Aile timi thakya chhau and you know it. Aile ramro writing audaina, so uthnebittikai lekha laa. Love, timro shuvachintak, timi.)

Continuation. 8-20-2013

Continuation... Ghana Observations: Even though per capita income for Ghana is more than twice that of Nepal, and it has way more expensive SUV's than Nepal, shopping, bars, malls and restaurant culture in Kathmandu is much more developed in Kathmandu than in Accra. The fanciest parts of Accra are fancier than Kathmandu could ever be. But, in general, if you ignore the downtrodden-illness-of-the-Earth nature of Kathmandu, it is posher. Perhaps it's because of Kathmandu's reputation as a medium-income tourist destination. Accra is home to the most goddamn expensive hotels and malls you could find on the face of the Earth, but as I saw it, it wasn't goddamn dying for tourists for as much as Kathmandu usually is.

Further observation: Women are way, way, wayyy more empowered in Ghana/Western Africa than in the subcontinent. Even though the situation in Nepal is improving, (I hope. Please lets not be India, please lets not be India) Ghana has a woman Chief Justice, a woman as the IGP of the police, several women ministers, and so on. Smart strong women – NGOwomen, yes, but also professors, businesswomen, even those in technology – seem to have taken a lead, and are doing fantastically. I'll admit, I've never seen women TroTro drivers (equivalent of our microbuses/tempos) but that's just me.

Public transportation here in Accra (or in Kumasi, or in Cape Coast, or in Temale – any city, really) is better than our goddamn system in Kathmandu. This is Nepal's plight then – those fkking syndicates: in transportation, in politics, in ethnic politics, in law enforcement, that oligarchize our democracy. Frkking undemocratic monopolies of power and money that pretend to function under a veneer of democracy.

Ghana has held six general elections in a row successfully-- quite a feat considering it's now the Third Republic, after gaining independence in 1957. I wish we had a semblance of free, fair and nonviolent elections some day.

Ghana Observation

The corrupt autocrat that Nkrumah was (despite his fancy Oxford et al. education or perhaps because of it?) he still had the sense to give absolute priority to education and send Ghanians abroad to study. Ghana now reaps the benefits of the seeds planted on those days: most of the professors here that I have met are graduates from elite east coast colleges and Universities. Two observations:

1) If the current student exodus in Nepal continues, I see Nepal becoming more like Ghana in 20 years than, say, Pakistan or Bangladesh in terms of the elites.

2) The fact that so many well-educated Ghanians have come back to Ghana (to teach, mostly, but also for public positions) is surprising and would be a good model to emulate.


Status Report

I'm in Accra, Ghana.

I've been busy with everything and Internet's spotty at my place. I've not written anything for the last three months because... no muse, nothing interesting to actually write about (even though I had many interesting things to think and talk about) and the fact that this blog in a limbo, stuck between two very different places.

Accra's nice. I thought it was a combination of Kathmandu, Birgunj and Rajbiraj. Most markets are like the haatbajaars we used to go in Duhabi and Rajbiraj so there's that. On the other hand, the nicer parts of the town are also somewhat nicer than corresponding places in Kathmandu.

People told me it would probably be hot here. It's not. It is actually rather chilly in the mornings and my lack of a proper blanket has created some minor wake-up issues. Evenings are unusually humid but we've been getting a lot of cool wind, so it's rather pleasant.

Bi said Kathmandu is run down, coming apart, and broken-down city. I did not agree entirely, but...sigh. What to do what to do.

Watched the latest Wolverine movie at the hall here... I liked it -- it's fast, doesn't have too much nonsense battles and includes two beautiful Japanese women as major cast.

Photography is splotchy. I'm often confused about what lens to take. I guess that's the result of too many choices without corresponding level of skill. Still, I have some reasonably good photos that I will be uploading once the internet stops stuttering.