Common Agenda for Nepal

By ANUP PAHARI

It is hard for any living Nepalese to recall a more traumatic period for the nation or its citizens than the unforgiving seven-year span unleashed by the internal war. With bruised psyches and expectant hearts, weary Nepalese are transfixed on the prospects of peace. Will the peace mature and bear fruit this time? Will it be aborted as once before? Are the principals entering the peace process with honorable intensions? Where do the political parties fit in the peace equation? What changes are in store for society and polity if and when a negotiated peace is achieved?

Critical as they are, these are questions wisely deferred for the time being for two reasons. First, only the unfolding of the peace process itself can begin to fully answer them. Second, forcing premature responses to these questions frames the issues wrongly by freezing analysis at the level of what divides the principals and keeps them in destructive competition. The proper prelude to negotiations is constructed by guiding the discussion towards substantial areas of common concern and agreement, not by harping on differences.

War and the conduct of hostilities have exposed and compounded divisions in Nepali society. But in perverse ways the trauma and futility of Nepalese killing Nepalese has obliged all sides to question issues, institutions and relationships that make up the core "Nepali experience" in all its stark inadequacies. Over the past seven years the billigerents in Nepal have nursed their share of doubts and queries and have had occasion to ponder the answers to many of them. Out of this analysis of situation, self and "others" has emerged something close to a Common Agenda for Nepal (CAN). CAN is defined as the bundle of core issues regarding the present condition and future direction of the country over which there is growing substantive agreement between warring principals, in spite, and in some cases because of, the internal war.

By shifting the spotlight from differences and self-interest to widely and deeply shared values, this discussion about CAN urges the public and the principals in conflict to approach the upcoming negotiations process with a fundamentally positive and pragmatic mindset. Negotiations are ultimately about resolving differences, and this is not a call to sweep them under the rug once again. It is, however, a call to not overestimate differences and thereby underestimate the extent to which CAN represents genuine national consensus born out of the hardships and disillusionment with internal war. Emergent consensus is not something that parties involved in mortal struggle are typically attuned to, and often requires outsiders to spell it out. It is in that spirit that this dialogue on CAN is offered.

Territorial integrity sovereignty of Nepal: All parties in conflict already agree extensively that there is intrinsic and infinite value for them and for their constituencies in preserving the territorial and political sovereignty of Nepal. There is also broad agreement that continued instability and violence in Nepal increase the likelihood of external intervention by regional and international interests. Finally, this consensus extends to a realisation that the interest set of each principal is meaningfully and successfully pursued only when Nepal continues to exist as a separate sovereign nation-state in South Asia. In pre-conflict Nepal these would have been too obvious to deserve mention. In a context where the key principals are groping to find common ground amid a sea of potential disagreements, the once obvious becomes less obvious and bears reaffirmation.

Domestic peace: We used to think of ourselves as peaceful people, and perhaps still do during moments of uncontrolled idealism. Our forced collective suffering through seven years of death and destruction has brought home harshly the emptiness and fragility in that self-conception.

The zone of peace has now mutated into a singular zone of war. Suddenly the Nepalese have a mass yearning and appreciation for real, not idealised, peace and what it means to live in a peaceful land. Beneath mutual distrust and acrimonious public arguments, Monarchy, Maoists and political parties share in that national yearning for a secure and tranquil Nepal. Like its effect on the common Nepalese, war has worn out soldiers, rebels, leaders and bureaucrats alike. Conflict is now the confirmed common enemy, and domestic peace is a value deeply shared by the billigerents in acknowledged and unacknowledged ways. This is fertile ground to sow peace.

Equity and social justice: The farce of the "poor but happy people of Nepal" ran parallel with the myth of the peace-loving Nepalese. Seven years worth of exposure to raw, infected social wounds festering just beneath the veneer of accepted everyday life has disabused the nation of such shallow and stagnant ideas about itself. Without condoning violent Maoist means, the vast majority of Nepalese can now agree that the systematic skirting of social justice concerns by successive regimes laid the foundation stone for the armed insurgency. This seven-year education in the adverse results of neglecting social justice has helped forge a national climate of deep empathy and resolve for doing the needful in the days to come to remedy past wrongs. The consensus on social justice provides another solid base for building and keeping peace.

Economic and human development: The "other" war that Nepal is mired in — against poverty, hunger, unemployment, illiteracy and disease — has lasted centuries and has exacted a human toll well beyond anyone’s capacity to fathom. This gruesome internal war is stalemated, but there is no confusion as to winner and loser in Nepal’s real existential battle – by a wide margin Nepal is losing the war against poverty, human suffering, and underdevelopment. The protracted conflict has exposed, and in many cases exacerbated, vast regions of unattended and unaccomplished human and economic development priorities. Solving the political crisis does not automatically help Nepal resolve such chronic socio-economic underachievement. Maoists and non-Maoists alike can agree that regardless of the outcome of today’s political and ideological battles, Nepalese will have to start winning decisively, and soon, in the war for better livelihoods and living conditions. This common commitment to progress for the Nepali masses offers another reliable foundation for a negotiated settlement.

Good governance: Even in the context of crisis-prone and shortsighted regimes of South Asia, the Nepali state stands out for its abysmal record on enlightened public policy and good governance. The democratic regimes since 1990 have differed from their autocratic predecessors, mainly with respect to how power was acquired, and far less with respect to how power was exercised. Thus, from the vantage of the common Nepalese with no access to power, all manifestations of the state have been more or less equally heavy-handed, unresponsive, ineffectual, and arbitrary. If nothing else, twelve years of misguided democracy and seven years of wanton conflict have served to expose the full extent of political self-indulgence and bad governance. There is emerging across the broad agreement that the state is in need of far-reaching reforms, and that institutional provisions for competent and responsive public policy making and good governance should constitute the core of such proposed reforms.

Representative democracy: At the moment Nepalese are in no mood for sermons on the virtues of democracy given popular premonitions that the Nepali variant of democracy is what landed us in this mess in the first place. But through collective despair over the derailment of democratic ideals, Nepalese recognise that changes unleashed by the 1990 movement by way of mass political participation and representation are irreversible. Indeed, the Maoist movement itself was inconceivable in the absence of the open and democratic political environment won through the 1990 movement. The monarchy and the Maoists – the two principals with no innate affinity for democracy – have separately voiced their commitments to representative democracy. Democracy is in the doldrums, but the Nepalese will not and have not signaled that they favor a return to the era of political oligarchy and autocracy. This is because there are no non-democratic ways to improve upon democracy. The only way to reform democracy is through more, not less, democracy. Broadly, Nepalese still agree that the only form of government that can be made truly accountable and one on which a permanent peace can be pegged is representative democracy.

The inventory of shared goals and common interests among the three power centres in Nepal – political parties, monarchy and the Maoists — reveals that a very wide and deep consensual base is already available on which to build a compromise over outstanding issues. It is not in anyone’s interest for negotiations to begin on a base of illusions. But it is in the interest of all Nepalese that principals enter into negotiations acknowledging the sizeable and substantial consensus that already exists over fundamental issues. Negotiations CAN succeed.

Big fat weddings

By HITESH KARKI

For some of the worried parents who have to fulfill one of the major tasks of their parenthood by overseeing the marriage of their children the sharp decline, never mind even if sharp is too mild a word to justify the present fate of tourism industry of this nation, in the number of tourists has been some kind of blessing in disguise. Now worried parents, you might find that a little too naive way of describing parents these days, for I don’t think there are any more parents left who aren’t worried these days. Thankfully the peace has arrived or so it seems, so safety isn’t really that much of an issue but still I think every dad and a mom can easily do a book a on something like ‘thousand and one ways of confronting your children’ without not much ado.

Talking about worried parents, (keeping aside the majority lot who are always worried about their children even if there’s nothing to be worried of, but somehow they still cannot help worrying for they think that good parenting is all about worrying about their children) I mean the ones who have been very busy of late with making arrangements for wedding of their sons and daughters. From designing of cards to distributing, enduring endless headaches as to someone might just get missed out accidentally, looking for catering services and finally taking the most difficult decision, the one to decide a venue for the party. With all the likelihood of almost everyone of the guest coming in their own vehicles the other major headache is bound to be when it comes to finding parking place. Maybe one of the reasons behind the booming business of "party palaces" which takes care of your parking problems.

This is where I think the decline in the number of tourists has been a major blessing for these worried lot. After having attended a dozen or so weddings this season, I think I have made it to quite a few of the many starry hotels of the city. There was a time when I had been forced to think twice and scratch my head before deciding to enter a hotel (complexity factor not withstanding) even it was just for a coffee or a plain dinner. Today I have already had the pleasure of not only walking into one of them (with head held high!) but enjoying a complete hearty "five star" dinner! The dinner halls where I suddenly realised that the thickness of the carpet is always at least double the size of the worn out soles of my shoes! And when I am not in a hurry I also have an option of taking a walk in the nicely trimmed lawns, beautiful gardens or enjoying the sip of scotch sitting in the comfort of chairs laid around the pool side.

Furthermore, I have had the privilege of killing my curiosity to know as to what the rooms are like or for that matter even the suites in these star hotels, for I have managed to walk straight into one of them without bumping into either the room service people or any foreigners for I can hardly cite any instance where I have bumped into either of them. They just don’t seem to be there, the whole place wearing a deserted look except for the noise of people enjoying the party!

Well like they say ‘every loss is someone’s gain’, today the dwindling number of tourists has suddenly become an advantage for all of us, the hosts as well as the guests of this wedding season. One boasts of having managed to throw an extravagant party at an extravagant venue while the other of having enjoyed the lavishness of these extravagant venues.

Economic development, a collective effort

By CHANDRA THAPA

The notion of development encom- passes multifarious facets. Poverty s a harsh word but tough things make people tough and assign the strength of overcoming it, provided we learn from its harshness and combat it with sustainable solutions. Poverty alleviation is the key and prime objective of all the least developed nations and for all the world institutions, such as World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank etc.

It is a very vague and pervasive phenomenon and also the root cause of all the social evils we face today. Looking at the other and causative side of the coin, poverty is also the manifestation of the lack of commitment and vision. People do understand that it’s not the lack of resources that is the prime cause of poverty but the biggest hurdle to address this sensitive issue is the lack of commitment to administer the resources for optimum utilisation for generating the desired efficiency.

If we confine our analysis to Nepal only, we all agree with the fact that despite all the constraints imposed by nature, eg, land-lockedness, we do have the resources which have remained absolutely idle or even if they are utilised, the productivity is pathetic. One very good example and a fact in our agricultural sector is that its not the lack of arable land that is a constraint but it’s the absence of proper economic and supportive environment (good irrigation facilities, access to good seeds, using innovative technology rather than the orthodox mode of cultivation and harvesting, easy access to low cost finance), which is the most haunting and the biggest detrimental factor for low productivity. Hence, productivity is what matters the most because opportunities are created and are not natural phenomena. Creation of opportunities requires a strong desire and staunch commitment from every able citizen to contribute to the economic prosperity of the nation. After indoctrinating the sheer commitment only we can address the elements which help in the socio-economic progress of the nation. Every member and entity of the nation must understand his duty and focus on his job to do the best and the collective and harmonisation of the individual efforts leads to synergetic output. We can categorise the entitlements of the economy into three broad categories, such as Firms (creating opportunities for individuals by utilising the factors of production), Governments (providing institutional support for firms and individuals) and Society (collective efforts of individual).

Firms are the building blocks for generating markets, producing goods and providing services that form the basis of market exchange. They incorporate the farmers, public and private intuitional players, the financial system etc. Firms provide production facilities and economic movement for the goods and services ensuring all the factors of production (land, labour, capital and raw resources) are effectively utilised and the return are thus distributed in the form of rent, wages, interest etc to the same factors of production. Hence, firms generate the momentum for recycling the economic resources for their productive use in the economy. This clearly authenticates that better the capacity of the firms the more will be their contribution in the economic maturity of the nation. This is exactly where we Nepalese are lacking. We have not been able to create the markets with required pace to help expedite the market movement. Our service sector, primarily the financial sector, is doing relatively well but again the access of the most needy to the benefit is pathetic. Our rural sector needs credit injection of almost Rs 40 billion per year but the present availability is around Rs 5 billion only, which is contributed by the efforts of small micro finance and cooperatives firms. Although the government has created tools such as deprived sector lending and satellite branching system for the banks it must strive to come up with more innovative tools to provide wider access of credit to the rural sector where people live in poverty. Similarly, our bio-diversity possesses immense potential to lure the tourist all round the world. It has everything at its disposal for every type of tourists, be it plain lovers or mountain maniacs, rafter’s or trekker’s etc.

Are we properly and adequately mobilising our Himalayan range, our national parks, rapids of our sonorous rivers, the antiques of our cultural heritage and most importantly the hospitality of the Nepalese? Ask this question to a tourism entrepreneur and the obvious answer is NO. Buddhism is one of the fastest growing religions in the world and Lumbini is the birthplace of Lord Buddha but how many tourists visit this majestic place to experience the spiritualistic glory of Buddhism every year? - Relatively very few. All these resources are handicapped without the effort of firms to mobilise them and thus, help generate market for the local dwellers.

Many of the intuitions that support markets are the result of good governance. Government provides the conducive environment for the acceleration of economic activities. Thus, the second crucial element rendering significant contribution to the economic development is the ability of the government - often referred as governance- to provide support for the creation of vibrant and broad-based markets for the industrial, agricultural and other vital sectors of the economy. The government must act as a strong and reliable bridge between the producers and receivers of economic benefits. Good governance incorporates the creation, protection and enforcement of property right, without which the landscape of economic transaction cannot flourish to shed its efficiency on the needy ones.

Absence of corruption is another indicator of effective governance leading to the smooth and efficient functioning of the public institutions, which support market activities. Studies have shown direct relationship between good governance and poverty reduction and the vice-versa.

The third eminent element, which has direct impact on the economic prosperity of the nation, is the emergence of good societal forces, which shape the effectiveness, growth and legitimacy of market institution. The evolution of prudent norms of the society and the propensity to comply with these norms are the symbols of good society. Every individual must understand his/her duty for the protection of these informal norms, which directly contribute to the creation of a stable and secure environment for the augmentation of economic activities.

Our study clearly authenticates that Economic Development is not a unilateral phenomenon but is a collective effort of each individual, firms and the government. Let’s concentrate our hundred percent efforts in our respective fields and contribute to the economic progress of our nation. Let’s be committed.

op-ed   Nepali hakims  READ & TELL

PURAN P BISTA

In August 1996 I visited the Chandragadhi CDO office in Jhapa to apply for a passport. I reached the office at around 10 in the morning, paid four rupees and got four forms in return. I filled them up promptly, sitting in a local teashop and stuck four photographs onto them, separately. I had to get a signature of a gazetted officer in order to prove (Cartesian theory) "who I am" when the mere filling up of four forms made no sense to the authority concerned. I knew nobody, nor had I any relatives working in a government office in the entire Jhapa district. My folks being farmers, so I had to approach a gazetted Nepali officer who could sign in my passport forms.

First, I went to a local agriculture office, and explained my problem to an officer. He did not pay any heed to me though I showed him my citizenship card. "You get out of my office immediately. I am not here to listen to people like you and I am not here to sign your forms." He was so rude that I could not tolerate, thus left the office without uttering a word thereafter. Next was the district education officer who flatly rejected my request in a similar manner.

After approaching a few pannier and bassinet government officials, a friend of mine named Ramesh Parajuli, who permanently resides in Chandragadhi, took me to his uncle-turned working gazetted officer at the CDO office. He was with a bunch of other hoppers, blabbering about who he was and how efficiently he did things. Both of us listened to him for a while. Then, Parajuli introduced me to his uncle and explained the reason why we visited him. Instead of showing his inability, Parajuli’s uncle shouted at him, saying that he should not bring any person to put his signature on such forms. He cared for none other than those who he knew personally. He showed a kind of nature most Nepali bureaucrats have learnt to behave with those who seek their help. But the only thing he forgot to say was: "I don’t have any time now and come tomorrow." Such a statement would have been more tolerant.

Now I had no option but to look for someone who could help me. A young boy of seventeen who used to earn his living as he said, by tips approached me. He wanted to help me and promised that he could do the work I wanted. "Give me five hundred rupees and a Deputy Superintendent of Police will do your job", he convinced me. But I began to find out how the semi-baked, corrupt and mean Nepali officials helped their (non) citizens who were not their dear and near ones.

There was a nexus between the gazetted officers and the brokers. The brokers used to mediate between the government officials and those who visited the CDO office for citizenship cards, passports and other purpose of similar nature. For instance, a Nepali faced no legal hurdles if he or she paid at least five thousand rupees. For such categorized people, there was neither a shortage of passports, nor was there the need of documents or relatives to prove whether s/he was a bona-fide Nepalese. The people of Nepali origin living in India and elsewhere obtain citizenship cards sitting at home. Today, Chandragadhi CDO and Damak municipality office take the responsibility to provide them citizenship cards. It is believed that fifty percent of the people living outside Nepal hold Nepali citizenship cards. The only thing they have to show is money. Gazetted officers charge five hundred thousand rupees for their precious signature. It is customary and every individual who needs such things must bribe the Nepali gazetted officers. Unfortunately, a bona-fide Nepalese, who wants to get his work done, has to bargain with a broker before his documents are examined by government officials.

This is an example of the sordid reality of Nepali bureaucracy. The district officers posted at areas, bordering India and China, are alleged to have issued passports and citizenship cards on payment of a few hundred thousand rupees to any strangers. That it does cost much to buy a Nepal bureaucrat needs no elaboration here. There are Nepali passport holders in the US and EU member-countries, who speak a language not spoken in this country. Whether we call it the ethics, moral values or official rights of our government officials, the fact is bureaucracy is mired in corruption. Bribery has become a socially accepted phenomenon. Hadn’t I paid the 500 rupees to the middleman, I would have been passportless, and that would be all due to my stupidity, ignorance for not recognizing the Nepalese bureaucracy.

The hunger appeal

For centuries, literature re mained a widely popular mode of  entertainment, most probably because there were none other as safe as it was. Hunting, drinking, fighting, looting and other less talked about pleasures were also there, but they entailed obvious physical and social risks. Thanks to that, writers were highly respected in times past, not only for being grand entertainers, but also for reasons of their sensitivities and their learning.

Since humans suffer from a widespread and overwhelming syndrome of romanticising everything they respect, they did not miss out on developing a set of desperately romantic associations for writers. One of them, a prominent one really, is the association of writers with hunger. Since hunger is one of the most respected of miseries, it immediately implied and partly continues to, through a curious yet immensely popular logic, that writers should go hungry.

The merit of hunger in terms of letting mortals attain superhuman enlightenment and powers is a celebrated concept in Hindu myths and legends. Legend has it that caste prejudice was a hopeless problem even during the times of great Vishvamitra. Bogged down by belonging to a caste considered unworthy of divinity, the resolute king decided not to eradicate caste prejudice like what present day humans have opted for, but to ascend the class hierarchy itself. For this, he fasted and meditated for many thousands of years, to the effect that gods were forced to hold umpteen round-table talks to break his threatening determination. When straight ways faltered, cunning and mischievous Indra, the king of gods, found a serious job. He managed to digress the saint a couple of times, tempting him with what is the most tempting of temptations for a man: female beauty. What did Vishvamitra do upon realising his mistake? He went hungry for another thousands of years, until finally getting what he wanted, after his austerities posed alarming threats to the functioning of nature. Though many people laugh at such legends, there are more that read them and relate them with awe.

A much recent legend has it that Laxmi Prasad Devkota lived in a prolonged state of destitution, sometimes unavoidable and sometimes accidental as well. The relationship of Devkota’s works with deprivation is often romanticised by his fans. There are many who believe that his works owe their heart-rending quality to hunger.

That hunger is a necessary prerequisite for artistic brilliance was a popular prejudice in the west as well, until much recently. Knut Hamsun of Sweden went hungry not because he was lazy (or was he?), but because he wanted to become a true writer. His flirting with destitution wasn’t in vain. His novel ‘Hunger’ immediately catapulted him to the status of international celebrity. Not far away form him geographically but distant historically, Henry Miller went to England in order write a book containing ‘everything there is to write’. He lived for years in a chronic state of hunger and wrote that curious piece of literature called Tropic of Cancer, which Carl Shapiro appreciated like a Jesuit praising the Testament.

A well-off writer doesn’t arrest our interest, a hungry writer does. A poet, clad in the plainest attire imaginable, eyes sunk, cheekbones protruding, fingers long and skinny and pockets perennially empty makes one of the most romantic sights imaginable. It has a psychological value in justifying our belief that life is unjust.

After keeping writers hungry for centuries, the west finally got rid of this sadistic mindset and writers started getting paid well there. Tony Morrison and Gabrial Garcia Marquez aren’t destitute. Salman Rushdie does not have to recite essays to buy a dinner. Milan Kundera could easily afford a world tour.

However, our country is singularly faithful to traditions. We are still fired up with the romantic idea of a hungry writer. In order that our sadistic impulses are solemnly satisfied, we make sure that our writers go hungry while we suffer from all the wonderful varieties of diseases owing their origins to over feeding. For ensuring that our dear writers do not suffer from such ailments, we have devised brilliant action-plans. Firstly, we don’t buy the books written by our writers, though what they ask is far lesser than what they offer. We share the books, or even better, we don’t give a damn. Secondly, we don’t reward them financially and even if we do, we only prove our height of stinginess. The state neglects them and so do we. Writers though comparably better off today than ten years back, continue to be one of the least paid professionals in the country. It is therefore only too natural that our writers keep themselves busy complaining about life in general. What kind of writing that produces can make a delicious topic of discussion.

On a literary exchange program organised by Sahitya Sandhya at Nepal Law Campus a couple of weeks ago, some fifty odd writers appeared to recite their poems and discuss on ‘Sandarva: Sanskriti Ra Sanskritik Rupantaran’ by Ninu Chapagain. While that work deserves a separate and comprehensive essay, the poems recited are more relevant to our topic here in terms of their unanimous selection of a remarkably common theme. There were poems of rebellion, poems of disgust, poems of pain, poems of hope, poems of dreams, and poems of reality, poems that were poetic and poems that were not. Around two dozen poems that made precisely one point: alleviate poverty, kill deprivation, end hunger.

And is it not true that most of what gets written in Nepal says much the same?

Poignant tales dramatised in troubled times

NAGENDRA BHATTARAI

We now live in a somber atmosphere. Echoes of gunfire punctuate days and nights. Hills and plains have been turned into the archives that keep the records of unprecedented cruelty and those with a human heart are numbed by stark naked horror. In such situation, the mainstream political stage is activated by some troubled exercises of Eurocentric political theories with a subtle yet unmistakable undertone of the frustration of some of the major playmakers.

However, on the 13th of Feb 2003, a small landmark at Baneshwor witnesses efforts of some artistes as they snatch a tiny space and a thin stream of fleeting moments from the jaws of cruelty. These artistes frame on the theatre the place and moments gained thus, paint them with the woes and worries of our time and release them into the eternity. In short, a theatre happens. A theatre of our time takes shape and comes to life in front of us.

Anup Baral, a well-known director picks up three stories, Wild Herb by Amrita Pritam, Coffin-cloth by Munsi Premchand and The Grave by Mahesh Bikram Shah and renders them into poignant plays that dramatise the formation of human soul and the cruelty that underlies the process. And at the same time, all the plays show how all manifestations of faith are fraught with horror.

His first play, The Wild Herb, in a series of flashback, choric narration and implied action performs the coming into being of a woman. She, in the beginning, is a non-entity. Her father thinks for her, selects an ill-matched husband for her and finally gives her away in marriage. She enjoys wearing and flashing about the jewels and trinkets she receives from her groom. She tells her interlocutor that it is a sin to sing and that singing is a sign of love, which also is a sin that a woman may commit under the spell of a wild herb given deceitfully by men. This very person, one day, finds herself singing passionately. When brought to her senses by her interlocutor, she confesses that her heart aches for a certain milkman who had not come for his regular delivery of milk for three days. Now, at this point, she wakes up from her trance-like moment. Her confession in her reverie has already articulated her love for the man. Now she laments that something very wrong has befallen her. She has been led into love. It would be significant to note here that she does not think she has fallen in love. She rather thinks that she has been tricked into a new state that she consciously calls sinful. She blames the man thinking that he had, by some clever contrivance, made her swallow the wild herb with the magic power that would make her long for the young man’s company. The play ends with a poignant disclosure: the girl has no place in her mind or soul for the concept, love; her whole being is overpowered by one grand sign, ‘sin’. This sign hinders all her attempts to understand the language accentuated by her own body. In other words, she has no software to read the pulsation of her own body and locate the surge of love there. She is biologically human but culturally rendered subhuman.

Any society is always active shaping the body and writing the psyche of its members. Anup has meticulously captured on the stage the society as it is engaged in molding the body and the mind. In addition to this, he does not fail to expose the cruelty that is a necessary part of the breaking and the subsequent making of wo/man as a socially acceptable being.

His second play also exploits the same techniques and presents two characters, who have lost human dignity, fellow-feeling, love, pity and sympathy to other human beings. These sub-human creatures are human at all to the extent that they bear the marks of the blows they have received from society. They, surprisingly enough, are capable enough to perceive the injustice that underlies social institutions. They refuse to cooperate with the unjust society, so they refuse to enter into the then valid modes of economic and family relations. However, the final result is that they delete from their mind all the feelings and convictions that make human beings recognizably human. The young woman of the house shrieks and moans the whole night in labor pain but these two sub-human creatures do not care much for her. They do not budge an inch from their fireplace. They sit dozing by the fireplace and chatter incessantly about the feast the old man (the father-in-law of the young woman) had enjoyed some twenty years ago. The unfortunate woman dies, these two males beg money for the coffin-cloth and finally drink it away. When they are tipsy-turvy, their slurring tongue blesses her. They shout in a drunken voice, " May she find abode in Baikuntha!" However, this blessing also is just a meaningless repetition like many other repetitions they make of socially accepted value systems. In short, the play is a comment on a society that snatches away the heart and the soul of its members and offers a choice that in itself is a trap: its members can either accept the social norms and that way collaborate with the rank injustice or they can reject the prescribed value systems and turn stone-dead in terms of human feelings. No matter whatever option one takes, one faces a double-bind impasse. There can be, however, a third option. That is the option of inventing new value systems and regulating life accordingly. The play shocks the audience and by doing so makes them think about the third alternative.

The third play is the dramatic rendering of the story about a man who robs and murders five old men so that he could secure for himself a grave in a church graveyard. This play exposes the tension that lies between the two-way function of faith. On the one hand, faith mediates between life and inexplicable reality and thus gives a way to life. On this capacity, it gives people the courage to face and ritualise death. And on the other hand, faith binds human psyche in such a way that one becomes blind to all the paths of life except the one dictated by the faith held by the subjects in question. So, the ultimate result is: the stronger the faith, the more likely one to become cruel. It is true indeed that many people are ready to sacrifice their own life and other people’s life to faith.

As regards dramatic techniques, Anup makes eclectic use of illusionist as well as non-illusionist theatre. In his use of light, costume and sound effects, he creates an illusion of reality. At the same time, in his patterning of action, dialogue, narration and space on the stage, he executes meta-theatre. By doing so, he achieves an intricate balance of depiction and performance. He simultaneously presents an interpretation of reality and performs the celebration of life as it is engaged in the act of interpretation.

Gurukul, along with its Sama Theatre Hall seems to have ushered in a new age of cultural activities. Sunil Pokhrel and his Aarohan friends and other theatre persons like Anup seem to be well determined to revive the theatre. In fact, they have already gained success in their first step. I believe that those who care for culture will be a part of the shows these courageous theatre persons promise to present regularly.