Beware! Scantily clad sadhus are around

Bikash Sangraula

Sadhus of various communities arrived in Kathmandu last week to participate in the celebrations of Mahashivaratri, one of the greatest Hindu festivals. Just drop in the Pashupatinath area and you will feel like having stepped into medieval times. Queer-looking sadhus will offer you their blessings and some may even want you to be their disciple. These sadhus belong to Gorakhnath and Baishnavi and Naga communities of India. In order to shelter and feed them, elaborate preparations have been made. Apart from this, various free health camps have also been provided to attend to health emergencies.

While the festival of Mahashivaratri attracts pilgrims, bairagis and sanyasis of various camps, the Nagas offer a special attraction. These sadhus are believed to have attained emancipation from the physical bonds of existence, and therefore, it is only too natural that they don’t believe in wearing clothes. Giri Baba of Akhanda Annapurna Ashram in Pashupatinath is thankful to donors and organizers for the arrangements but he does not care much about shelter and food. The most precious offering that one can make to him is marijuana, charas and bhang. Whatever the legal arrangements of the country for these substances, Mahashivaratri is one such occasion during which tradition gets the better of law.

The Nagas are a weird lot. They have no worry in life. They have mastered their bodies to such an extent that they can comfortably leave physiological needs unattended to. When they get food, they eat with an incredible appetite, and then can go on living without another meal for a month. They have long hairs, tangled and neatly bundled up into really attractive patterns. They are lean and their half-naked bodies are smeared with a thin layer of ashes.

Giri Baba and his disciple Pashupati Baba saw to it this time that all the visitors of the Naga community were fed well (with food and marijuana). In his ashram only, about a hundred Nagas are being acommodated. The inability to accommodate more in the ashram is not much of a worry, as these babas prefer to sleep beneath the empty sky inside the temple premises itself. They light campfires inside the temple and form groups of four to five. Then they enjoy the three days of the festival smoking pot, offering tika of ashes to devotees and, of course, dreamily contemplating lord Shiva.

Many devotees enjoy Mahashivaratri sitting with these Babas and chitchatting with them. Pashupati Baba and Giri Baba have regular visitors these days. Some of them will surprise you if you can figure out what illustrious backgrounds and elite groups they belong to. Many visit these Babas to assist them financially or physically, and then get rewarded with a blessing. Others visit them just to talk about things that do not belong to this world. Still others visit them with the hope to get some marijuana.

"Baba, give us some prasad," they implore without tact. The Baba replies, "Who is this beggar who begs from a beggar?" The lad is sad at being brushed aside that way. The Baba, though high with marijuana, sees the embarassment in the face of the visitor, and softens up, "Take this sweet. I have put a magic ingredient in it. Eat this before going to sleep" The lad is happy. The name of the magic ingredient is bhang.

The smoke is heavy in the sky above Pashupatinath. The Nagas are red-eyed and have gotten rid of the last strip of clothing. When they leave the temple premises for a while, inquisitive photographers hound them. The Babas pose, with a grave expression in their misty eyes, and for a while, they are no lesser than international celebrities. The photograph that captures the expression shall be a faithful testimony to the wonderful spirit of this year’s Mahashivaratri.

See you next time, Babas!

Go for designer wear, but cautiously

Pragya Koirala

Your favourite designer tag? Nike? Adidas? Levis? or Dockers? Who creates the clothes to suit your style and taste? You might like just one among them or all these brand names appeal your sense of style. Whatever the case all of them create clothes which can be termed ‘the eternal INs’. They have remained the hot favourite brand names for decades especially among the young people.

Aashish, a young college goer likes express himself through the clothes he wears. But like other young people he is tired of seeing youngsters dressing alike in identical clothes. "We are tired of seeing everyone dressing alike in similar fashionable clothes. Everyone wears the same stuffs. Due to this now a days me and my friends prefer to shop at places where new and unique clothes are available," he says and adds, "I go for brand names because not everyone wears them and selective items are available under brand names."

Sunil Dangol, director at the LABELS located in Durbarmarg, has been selling internationally recognised big names like ADIDAS, LEVI’S, and DOCKERS. Despite the prevalent recession in the market, Dangol says that his business is doing relatively well. "There is sixty percent increase in my customers and most of them are youngsters." According to him, previously there were very few showrooms, which sold brand name items, and investors did not prefer to put money in such business. Things have changed now. Popular names like the North Face, Nike, Benetton have their stores in fashionable parts of town like Durbar Marg and Kantipath.

Dangol sees a change in buyers’ taste for clothing in recent years. "People have become more quality conscious, especially the young crowd. They prefer small wardrobe but want it to have nice, good quality clothes. Quality matters a lot to the present fashionable generation," says Dangol.

Tashi is a sales person at NIKE shop. "Young people love to wear sports gears by NIKE. This brand makes its own fashion statement and its liked by people all around the globe. T-shirts and sports shoes top the list of the things that young people buy from our shop," says Tashi. According to her the problem of fake brand name items is plaguing the buyers. Even cautious buyers end up paying high price for counterfeit items. "People fear that they might be tricked into

buying expensive items which aren’t worth the price they pay," says Tashi.

Pushpa, who works for an export oriented garment factory prefers to go for United Colours of Bennetton clothes. "I still have a T-shirt which I bought 8 years back and I’ve been wearing it every summer since then," she says and adds, "I go for quality and comfort rather than anything else. It is nice to wear fashionable clothes but one should keep these two things on mind while buying clothes."

Young people readily spend huge amount of money if something catches their fancy. There are many shops in town which sell fake designer items and cheat the gullible teens and the youngsters. If people shop from authorised dealers of designer items, there are less chances of ending up with cheap items and paying huge sums. It is always a good idea to explore a few reliable shops before paying hefty sums for designer items.

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