Gaijatra: A good reason to laugh at politicians and ourselves
By Anand Gurung
Inside the ballroom of a rundown mock-Victorian Rana mansion people were anxiously waiting for the chief guest to arrive. Chandeliers were lit, upholstered sofas (probably belonging to the original owner of the palace) were placed beside the podium after being dusted and tidied. Some people, probably tired of the waiting, had drifted to the main balcony of the palace which overlooked a large field encircled by trees.
Outside at the entrance gate volunteer girls were waiting for the chief guest with flowers and nice smiles, while photographers and TV crews were fixing their lenses to get the right shot of the chief guest. A while later, a jeep screeched at the front porch and out came the chief guest of the programme -- former prime minister and Nepali Congress (Democratic) president Sher Bahadur Deuba, followed by serious looking security guards with walkie-talkies in their hands. He clasped his hands together to greet everybody with a Namaste after quickly passing over the bouquets he received to his aide, and then headed straight towards the programme hall with media persons tagging along. Finally, after more than half an hour wait the programme began – a cartoon exhibition which attempted to lay a humorous and critical take at the popular slogan of ‘New Nepal’ that everybody and sundry is swearing by nowadays. And this exhibition being organised to mark the occasion of Gaijatra, itself a festival of humour and satire, made it all the more worthwhile.
The annoyance we felt of having to wait was made up in some way by the swift proceedings of the programme formalities, and soon the chief guest inaugurated the exhibition at the Nepal Association of Fine Arts (NAFA) gallery which is housed inside the palace. Having attended few modern art exhibitions in this gallery, the cartoon exhibition was an entirely new experience, first for being spared of having to figure out the intricacies of abstract themes explored in modern paintings and, secondly, it emboldened the idea that cartoons, if used effectively, were an excellent art form to satirise the absurdities that plague our society, or in fact every society.
More than 50 cartoons were showcased in the exhibition and all in their own unique way made fun, lampooned and vilified country’s politicians, bureaucrats, professionals and businessmen and even street protestors and city’s youths - nobody spared.
Asked what he made of the cartoons put up for exhibition after he came out of the gallery, Deuba said in his clipped but hardly decipherable accent, “…looking at the cartoons there’s no way we are ever going to realise the goal of building a New Nepal. People are the same and so are politicians like us who are at the helms.” Deuba could have never been more right, as if he had just come out of the house of mirrors.
Whether we could actually build a ‘New Nepal’ having a democratic, pluralistic and competitive political system with rule of law and recognition of the fundamental liberties of every person guaranteed… it is a different story altogether, but we can always have a good laugh at the expense of the politicians, looking at their banality and also our own.
Happy Gai Jatra! nepalnews.com August 29 07
(The writer can be reached at andygurung@yahoo.com)
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