FIFTH COLUMN

Millennium

-By C K Lal

Millennium alcoholic drinks are being advertised in the papers. Hotels are holding millennium celebrations. Millennium wedding receptions are being hosted. Millennium children are being expected. Businessmen are signing millennium agreements. Millennium mania is raging in the city like wildlife, despite the fact that we Nepalese entered into our millennium fifty-six years ago.

On Christmas day, I ate millennium spinach which gave me a millennium stomach upset. I consulted an Ayurvedic practitioner of the millennium Dr. Ananda Kumar Shrestha who gave me traditional medicines of the millennium. It cured the stomach upset, but then I caught millennium cold and was resting in the bed. It was then that I read that scientific minds in the government have advised us to stock essential medicines to be prepared for the Y2K Bug.

It impossible to escape this foreign millennium fever. I gave up, and decided to dedicate my columns this week to the millennium. What you are reading now is the last Fifth Column of this millennium in the last issue of this paper of this millennium. That’s quite a load of millennium to digest.

But then first, and hopefully last, hijacking of an airplane of a foreign airlines of this millennium shook us all up. Yes, security arrangement at our Tribhuban International Airport leaves a lot to be desired and gold Mafia enjoys almost a free run of the place. But, were we as guilty of negligence as was portrayed by the Indian media for first few hours?

Thankfully, it was Zee TV which said an emphatic “No.” Allegedly, Indian Airlines officials issued full four Boarding Passes to an apparently fictitious persons. Lesson of the millennium: don’t plead guilty if you have not been even blamed properly. Humility is an ornament of the powerful, weaklings have to learn to protest, to posture and pose innocence till proven otherwise.

Where was the need for K.P. Bhattarai to admit security lapses publicly? At the most he should have advised his Home Minister to own up and bow out gracefully. As it is, he is of little use in that hot seat any way. Pakistanis are still protesting the propaganda of Indian media, our Embassy in New Delhi probably does not even watch Indian channels, may be because MTV is broadcasting millennium specials.

Troubles never come alone. The last, once again hopefully, plane accident of the millennium claimed ten innocent lives aboard an ill-fated private sector airlines’ lone aircraft. What else to expect when it’s easier to start an airlines than to open a tea-shop if only one has enough money and sufficient strings to pull? Boys barely out of their teens are entrusted with he responsibility of commanding the complex flights over an unfriendly terrain. Result? More plane accidents have occurred over last decade than all these years of flying in Nepal. Despite all that depressing news, do have a Happy New Year, and yes, a Memorable Millennium!