“Muwa, I am ecstatically pleased today as our native representative has been elected at the helm of home affairs of our nation. He is now the Home Minister. You know,” I said. “Gone are the days of our suffering,” replied she. It is one of the maiden achievements in our district’s political history. But the pendulum is swinging in the other extreme. Our bubbles of hope are now starting to burst. He along with other senior dignitaries are now seen as the “Bubble-Breaker”. What makes me shell-shocked is the fact that our dear Home Minister sent his relatives to China unaware about the peril of sanguine turned cynical citizens of his constituency who are living hand to mouth..“Food crisis looms in Jajarkot” (THT, Dec.28, Page 5). Moreover, the health minister knows that there are no must-be services to treat the patients in our district hospital. The patients to doctor ratio alarmingly stands at 10000:1(approx.). Even the physicians under scholarships dare turn out here citing financial and equipment irregularities forgetting the spirit of the Hippocratic’s Oath they take “Sans Doctors” (THT editorial, Dec. 28, Page 6). Do not play vote-bank politics instead transform your mouth glittering canvassing rhetoric into reality.

Jay Bahadur Shah,  Jajarkot

Road crossing

This is with reference with the Topics “Pedestrians’ plight” (THT, Dec. 29, Page 6). Kathmandu is best exemplified by the death of one Dilip BK who was first knocked down by a speeding bike and then run over by a tempo as he was crossing the road in front of the holy Bouddha Stupa gate, “One dies in accident” (THT, Dec. 28, Page 2). Now the road in front of the famous stupa or the one that passes by the crowded Mahankal Mandir in Tundikhel or the road that runs through the devastated Durbar Square or even New Road in Kathmandu are not meant for speeding a bike or a car or a tempo. Yet all rash drivers and riders race as if these roads are their private property. As a speeding motorcycle hit another one in New Road at around 3:30 pm yesterday, a man in blue decided to look the other way and vanish. In another incident, a village ruffian racing his bicycle through a long line of vehicles outside the army petrol pump at Lagankhel almost crashed into a motorcycle with a toddler perched on the fuel tank. A great maneuver by the motorcyclist saved him and his family from a big accident but not without getting a nasty scratch on his right wrist with the jerry cans the cyclist thug was carrying. The fuming motorcyclist was completely ignored by the cyclist and the men in blue. Try telling the men in blue to control speeding and they will draw a blank. As an avid walker, I carry around a golf club that I swing while crossing the road.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu