TOPICS
JULY 25
Ever since their successful overthrow of the 250-yearold monarchy, the Nepalis have transformed into God almighty.
Or so they think. Examples of Nepali prowess are on display everywhere – in the streets and parliament.
Some Nepalis have the power fit for gods. They may have derived it from politics, the source of omnipotent power in modern Nepal. Since politics is a sensitive subject, we will steer off it for the current topics.
After this brief, we come to the gist of our story. Every morning and evening, when I go on a dog-feeding walk, I come across a new homeless dog, evicted, dumped or thrown out. It's a handsome Dalmatian male.
At first, I was under the impression that the masters would have let it loose to relieve itself in the streets. A few days later, I was shocked to see it foraging for food from the street pile. I still had some chicken rice left. But I was hesitant to offer it a morsel lest the masters got angry with me.
So I inquired of a gentleman if the dog was a pet or homeless.
He said his neighbour owned the dog but has now almost set it free. A streak of despair ran through my mind.
Can we imagine a Dalmatian dog turning into a homeless street dog? I left the dog to its fate and plodded home, guilt-stricken.
Not too long ago, someone dumped two friendly dogs, both German Shepherd, in my neighbourhood. They must have known that we feed the homeless dogs. These two discarded souls were so friendly and well-behaved that they immediately became a darling not only of our neighbourhood but also all other homeless dogs.
It was nice to see these two gentlemen 'dogs' allowing others into the kennel that one of my neighbours had put out for them for rainy days and cold winter nights. It was so surreal to watch them take care of the puppies that they had not fathered. We fed and looked after them well, but both of them died in nearly two years.
It breaks our hearts when we think about their turbulence in life.
Incidentally, when I started my career, my seniors would joke about adopting Western children. Those days Westerners were adopting Nepali children regularly. My seniors would say maybe they could turn the foreign kids into 24-carat Nepalis.
I would tell them a real-life story about a girl born to a Nepali father and an American mother. Growing up in a lower-middle-class family in Birgunj, the girl was like a local rustic who could not speak English, her mother's lingua franca. It is the vicissitudes of all life forms.
Laloo Yadav was said to have told that he could turn Japan into Bihar within six months.
So, there we go. Politicians of the third world have power fit for God almighty.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 26 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
