--By Madan Lamsal

Whatever anyone may say, we Nepalis are unique and different from the rest of the world. We love to do things differently. Currently, we are even agitating to prove just this. We are doing what others have not done, and we are doing it quite differently to look different. 

For example, the doctors of our country stage sit-ins. Politicians run hospitals. And teachers and traders do politics. Those who are from abroad live here. And those who are from here live abroad. Even the mafia threatens the government with protests if they don’t get what they want!

Yes, we do things differently. We want to make money without making the effort and want to pass exams without taking the test! We try to find our identity by splitting ourselves up. And we want to win elections by dividing the party. We seek development by shutting down streets and factories.

Yes, we are different and want to stay different. Our houses are connected to water pipes. It’s another thing that there is no water in those pipes. However, we have abundant water resources. We have lots of hydropower companies, but no power. Our government hands out licenses to open medical schools but doesn’t allow them to be run. Similarly, it issues licenses to industries. But the same parties which run the government don’t let the industries run. Otherwise, how would we be different from others?

The people say the politicians sank the country by protecting gangsters. They are right. But if the gangsters are not protected then who will flex the muscles during elections and other times or whenever the politicians need it! Definitely not the cops.

Ours is a country of actors and the country looks like a stage where the teachers look as if they are teaching, students look as if they are learning, workers look as if they are working and the government looks as if it is developing the country. So no surprise that advancement, too, looks as if it is just taking place! If the advancement took place for real, how would we be different from the advanced countries?

Fell as, we chose to remain different!

Currently, some people just cannot do without federalism, others want the entire Terai, yet others just a half of it. Some want a secular state, others will not agree for anything less than a Hindu state.

‘In such situation, how and who should build the country?’ ask the clueless people.

They don’t understand that many who have become MPs, ministers and central-level leaders are doing all they can to become local – just like local tea shops and local chicken, and local booze – just to build the country from the local level. They are trying to do from the local level what they couldn’t do from the central level. That’s why some of them are not focusing on the entire Desh but just Madesh. If they don’t do this, how would they be different from others?

To look different and do things differently, central-level leaders are going local. They are adopting different techniques. When you do things differently, the benefits are bound to be different. For example, one get Rs 100,000 for winning in football or cricket, one million if one dies in road accidents and five million if one dies in political demonstrations!

And if the agitation becomes successful, chief ministership is guaranteed for at least one person per province. And once you become a chief minister, you have free access to the state’s coffers and then even millions will look like pittance. Aren’t things being done differently?

In fact, there is a difference between being different and doing things differently. At a time when everybody, in their attempt to look different and be different, is doing things differently, you too could leave what you are doing and start doing a different thing differently. Otherwise, you could end up being too different!