Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Dr. PRAKASH CHANDRA LOHANI, Nepal

I was surprised to see Bir Bahadur Lama after so many years. He had helped me a great deal during the last three general elections. Always a smiling person, Bir Bahadur spoke with a typical Tamang accent and was ready for a joke or laugh no matter how difficult the situation may be. During these years he had grown older but he had lost none of the brightness and shine on his face that I had always admired. Today Bir Bahadur seemed somewhat pensive and a bit slow and tired.

"Well! how are you Bir Bahadur? How is your family and how are things in the village"? I inquired. I knew he had three sons and he was proud of them all.

"It is all bad" he uttered with some anger and then contin­ued with a sense of sadness that was not like him. "You see, I have serious problems and I see no solution".

This was not like Bir Bahadur. In all my association with him I had found that he could think of a way out of a problem no matter how difficult it seemed.

"So what is the big problem", I inquired with a tinge of sur­prise.

"Well, you know my wife died twenty years ago and yet I worked hard and raised my three sons in the best way I could. But all my three sons went to the Jungle and left me, the old man, without any feeling. What can I say? But that was not all" Bir Bahadur's voice sounded heavy and here was a different side of his personality that I had not known in the past.

"Well, that is too bad", I uttered almost involuntarily.

"Yes, it is bad". He then continued", Even after my sons left I was managing somehow from my little farm of six ropanis down in the river valley. But one day my eldest son comes to me and wants me to transfer the ownership title of the land in his name. He even threatened me, his own father, of dire conse­quences if I did not comply to his demand. Can you believe that?" He asked me with signs of emotional pain written all over his face.

I was a bit shocked and asked him what he did.

"Well, I was scared of my own sons but how could I transfer the ownership title in his name! It would mean that I would be a landless old man who has nothing on which to survive. And you know I am getting old".

I was the same age, as Bir Bahadur and I knew what he meant.

"So............ I wanted him to continue.

"I finally decided to sell the land and with the hundred and fifty thousand that the buyer was willing to pay I was planning to go to the district headquarter in Bidur and find some way to make a living. After all how can I allow myself to starve just because my son is so insensitive towards me!" He looked towards me hoping that I would understand his problems.

"And then did you sell the land", I was beginning to appre­ciate his decision.

"No, I could not sell it" Bir Bahadur's eyes spoke of despair and dejection. He said, "You see doctor sab, my son knew that I was trying to sell the land. So he goes to this buyer and threat­ens his life. The buyer is afraid because my son belongs to the Jungle the buyer comes to me and tells me that the deal is off. And here I am, an old man who is neither able to sell his land nor able to continue farming. Besides, even if my son would allow me to farm I am no longer the strong man that I used to be. I find it hard to plough. " His face showed the anx­iety of a man who is getting old without any means of survival.

"So what are you going to do?" I asked in a hesitating man­ner. "I do not know. All I know now is that I have nowhere to go and this is because the king, the parties, these Jungle people and all the rest have ignored poor people like me and brought the country to this sorry state of affairs. All these idiots are responsible for the plight of people like me. I am an old man and I am getting weaker by the day. Tell me how am I going to live? Don't I have the right to live in my own country any more?"

Tears fell from Bir Bahadur's eyes when he stopped. Here was a proud man of immense self-respect and dignity searching for an answer. I looked at his face and in his tears I saw my own.

Text courtesy: The Kathmandu Post dated June 18, 2006-ed.