A Federal Nepal: the Citizens Must Speak

A Federal Nepal: the Citizens Must Speak

Joshua S. Leslie
August 28, 2010

At a dinner the other day, I was talking to a friend who lives in Switzerland. We were talking about the Swiss federal system when he asked me, “Who is the Prime Minister of Switzerland?” I was bemused as I attempted to recall if I had ever heard the name of the Swiss Prime Ministers, in any context.

Yet, my Swiss friend quickly allayed my fear that I was poorly informed when he explained that hardly anyone outside Switzerland ever truly knows the name of the Swiss prime minister because the actual state power is within each individual citizen. The Swiss federal system is premised on a system of referendums where the laws passed by the cantonal (state) legislatures are submitted to the people for authorization.

How I wish the citizens of Nepal had such influence. Instead, we know the name of the current Prime Minister, as well as usually three ‘potential’ Prime Minister candidates. As we’ve seen over the past few months, the current prime ministerial merry-go round occurs because of the inability of the parliament to develop a consensus on whom to elect. This farce has convinced political observers and policy-makers that Nepal’s national political system to come to a grinding halt.

However, is this stalemate truly because of an inability to select a Prime Minister or because the major parties refuse to seriously begin the process of restructuring a historically unequal, centralized, and suppressive state?

Nepal became officially a federal, democratic state through the Interim Constitution on May 28th, 2008 -- but the federal demarcation of Nepal has still not been approved by the Constituent Assembly, which is the only legitimate body that can make constitutional decisions. The Committee on State Restructuring and Sharing of State Powers released its recommendation for fourteen states on January 20th, 2010. However, even now, the full CA Assembly still has not yet voted on the future federal Nepali state.

Instead, the three major parties have again delayed the constitutional process by belatedly proposing to establish a State Restructuring Commission that will require more months to review and redefine the boundaries of each Nepali state. This further raises the question of whether the new constitution will actually be completed by May 2011 as the identity and viability of each state cannot be discussed within the CA until a version of the state restructuring is accepted.

This problem was clearly visible during my visit to a UNDP/SCPBN Federalism Dialogue in Hetauda concerning the future Tamsaling Province. The three day Dialogue was led by respected Tribhuvan University Professors Krishna Hachhethu and Krishna Khanal and included over sixty civil rights activists, local politicians and ethnic leaders. However, the major issues raised by these leaders were not about the critically important government responsibility of the future Tamsaling State to its people -- but rather the fact that Newa and Sherpa received numerous Tamang majority VDCs. Yet the future Tamsaling State is not responsible to its ethnicity only, but rather all peoples within the State.

Yet, can we blame these individuals, donor agencies or the professors for this critical federalism discussion leading to various ethnicities attempting to include their whole population into their proposed state after years of social oppression and political neglect by the central government and the general practice of a unitary government that promoted one religion, one caste, one language.

Furthermore, the Constituent Assembly continues to give these national ethnicities faint hope because the three major parties may change or remove these proposed boundaries through their continual delays in the constitutional process of defining each state. This further hinders and obstructs the constitution building process because the each new state/province must be determined and approved by the CA before they can approve and disseminate the constitutional authorities for the central, state and local governments.

However, instead of finalizing the draft constitution, we find ourselves two months later after five rounds of self-damaging and detrimental politics. The major parties that promised to bring us a ‘New’ Nepal have instead dragged us into a repetitive political abyss from which it becomes increasingly difficult to climb out.

Rather, to begin our ascent, we must each think like a citizen of Switzerland. We must realize that the power is within us to determine the future of our country.

Therefore, I implore every newspaper, television station, radio station and, especially, each Nepali citizen rather than give prominence to the continuing mockery of our highest political position, instead pressure all 601 CA Members to complete their job in the time allocated: to truly create a federal, democratic nation with an equitable, secular, republican constitution

Ezra Reflects on Time, Distance and Space from DSC

Hello Mum and Pops and family,

To be fair, whilst you were writing your email to me, it wasn't completely two months ago that we last crossed paths -- but we are certainly heading towards two months at this point.

Although to be even fairer, it isn't like we haven't done this before -- its funny that we should spend two years apart and yet after just three weeks together in Kathmandu it seems that that is the norm.

Although to be completely fair, we did live some 16 years before that together.

However -- point well taken -- it is funny how life goes on...

Even funnier in light of my recent escapades into 'War and Peace', where I have the opportunity to live vicariously through the turning cogs of time that Tolstoy relates to a clock, and see exactly how "life goes on." W&P also has absentee family members for stretches of a time, and I guess that ability to make several years pass by in the print of a word is part of the beauty and allure. Whereas in 'real' life we actually have to live through those days, weeks, months and years.

I guess you guys really took my 'not being back for two years' to heart, seeing as my bed is no longer my bed. Unbelievably, really unbelievable. I'm gone not even two months, I get a couple of emails saying how much my presence is missed, and then slipped casually into the fourth paragraph of a seemingly normal email is the subtle hint that all my possessions have been pawned off and my bed conquered.

Call me old fashioned, but I thought the rule of thumb was six months, not a mere two months. In any case, I don't even think my bed is proportioned correctly for Leah's room (although that would be even more the case for my room seeing as it takes up half my room).

I take it that the keyboard has still not been fixed, and instead you've just become extremely adept at using the on-screen keyboard (a skill I know only too well from when my laptop's v and s stopped working). I feel like I should just suggest purchasing a new keyboard, but I also recognize that that is an extremely obvious answer, so instead, I'll modify it to: purchase a new keyboard NOW. don't wait, you may not pass GO, you may not collect $200. (that is until you get that keyboard).

Having said that, I'm always happy to get emails from you guys and even more so when it isn't just a reminder about this or that. I'm sure you guys know only too well that warm feeling when you get an email from a long lost family member sitting quietly in your inbox, often it makes my day :)

Wow, quite a crew you had over to the house the other w/end. If I'm not mistaken there is a lot of history between that motley crew, but I suppose somewhere in these intervening years they have been resolved (like in W&P I guess years and incidents can just slip by in 'real' life as well).

It sounds like you guys had a lovely time and I'm sure having James, Caroline, and Alexa over was wonderful. Its nice that Josh and Alexa got to spend time together though, its always interesting and fun to pick up the threads of old 'childhood' friendships.

I actually just got off the phone with Grammy, it was nice to talk to somebody from my 'old' world. Its strange how passive we can be in accepting new worlds and how apathetic we are to remembering our old ones, simply accepting them and attempting to not look out of place in the new current we've found ourselves in.

It really was nice though, to hear Grammy's voice and be able to hear through the grapevine how everyone is doing and what everyone is up to. It also made me smile to hear her talk about being in HAMSTERdam for the World Cup finals and listen to her nonchalantly slip in how by 10 in the morning everyone "was out in the streets smoking marijuana".

Anyway, the summer term officially ended five days ago, so it is indeed 'inter-term' although there is still, as ever, much to do on campus. I've slowly been being weened into my new job as one of the four members of a 'Ground and Orderly' staff. Although, I think at the moment I'm running it pretty much solo -- not to imply that I'm doing more than my fair share of work, but just that most of the guys who are away for break and that possibly the grounds aren't so orderly...

I've been in charge of the lawns, and I'm proud to be able to say that for the first time in my life i know what it means to be 'proud of a lawn'. Our DSC lawn is looking very green as I cut it with the lawn mower vehicle. (These are just as fun to ride around on as they appear to be).

Other than that I've been trying to tear away at 'War and Peace', reading 100+ pages a day. Then, usually ending the day with a movie or -- for instance last night -- a group of ten of us congregated on the front porch of the dorm to discuss co-education. I'll spare you the details, but it certainly is contentious and I think rightly so, its not a issue to be taken lightly, but I'm strongly on the pro-side of the debate. As I said, I'll spare you the details and what would inevitably a biased report. Since it is break time, we also have two girlfriends on campus, new teachers, and some of the second years have returned giving a refreshing air to life on campus.

The Summer Seminar was great! I really appreciated it. I thought it was a great way to inculcate us into Deep Springs academia. We had one teacher who taught for all seven weeks, and she had different teachers join her for different segments. I enjoyed her presence, but there was some tension with some of the class who felt that she was narrowly interpreting the texts. Perhaps a fair criticism, but if she was -- then, certainly, the majority of teachers must struggle to strike a balance (which I get the sense many teachers do struggle with the right balance).

Th class began with all of us from 9 to 10:30 for a discussion on the previous night's reading, then we split up for the 11 to 12 class to discuss our other reading.

I don't think many would argue against us having had a great collection of material to read. The course was roughly organized chronologically -- but probably a more accurate description was that it built itself. We created of an intellectual foundation, then read more specific areas of social and political interest.

We started with Hobbes and Locke to build an understanding of man and his movement from the state of nature into a social contract, followed by reading Nietszche, then we moved to Raymond Williams and his understanding the development of the industrial City and the pastoral vision of the Country. We read Karl Polanyi, too, and his analysis of man's progression into a fully fledged capitalist market economy, which was only an indicator of our progression into a fully fledged market society. We then read Carl Schmitt and set a sort of basic understanding of international law and the complications that arose with the introduction of 'the new world' completely free from a jus publicum Europaem.

Then, finally, we read of the fall of that European law with WWI. Meanwhile, we read 'The Book of Job'. Then we ended with a lot of Hannah Arendt and her attempts to convey what politics actually is, plus a look at Gayle Rubin's analysis of sex and gender roles in modern society. Followed by the even more interesting 'The Cyborg Manifesto' written by Donna Harraway, possibly pointing to the future of mankind.

Then with David Neidorf, the DSC president, we looked at 'The Grey Book' -- a collection of letters and significant articles written between or from L. L. Nunn (founder of DSC) to the Student Body between the school's birth and his death not ten years later. I think I heard Keely, our main teacher, describe the class at one point as "setting a framework for self-governance" here at DSC. Certainly Nunn's writings didn't answer all they questions, or perhaps even many, but they did certainly bring some interesting conversations to the fore.

I'll write more soon, but revisiting the whole term has me tired, and 'W&P' is calling to me (I have several hundred pages to read in the next five days), so the next installment will come soon. Lets see if we can get a skype going, I'll ask the Frodo and the Gandalf (the resident 'techies' -- students).

Lots of love, Ezi

The Gardener and His Memories

Another rainy Sunday in Budhanilkantha...

As I dig out my behemoth boulders, shoveling soil over to slope the land and tossing the small stones on to a shimmering pile behind one of the larger rocks, these masterpieces of nature reveal themselves below the bamboo culms above.

For the past few months, nearly every Saturday and Sunday (when I'm in K'du), I'm out in the back w/ shovel, scythe and broken fingernails, clearing the soil and digging out these boulders. For about 2-3 hours I work in my t-shirt and boxers in the mud and water. I've begun to take off my crocs, as the mud feels good between my toes and my grip is better as I step up out of my trench to carry the dirt over to the bamboo groves by the wall.

Usually, after a few hours, Gita will show up with either Nepali tea and some popcorn (which I've explained to Gita that it's hard to eat when my hands are covered w/ mud...).

Today, she stood and watched me for awhile, commenting that it must be good exercise and wondering what I wanted for lunch (fresh juice and yoghurt w/ fruit). She also let me know that Lapsi, my favorite dog and long-time companion is still not eating after two days. Gita said that she's just hiding in the garage with a lonesome look.

Comparing Lapsi to her mom, who is also ill and just went back to the village after a couple weeks in Kathmandu, Gita said that Lapsi is shivering. Two weeks ago, Gita's mom said, "get me back to where it's green and I belong!" She didn't want to die in this unholy city.

We both fear that Lapsi is also getting ready to leave us. We stood quietly for a bit just thinking of our Lapsi, a wolf-like street dog who came to us some 14 years ago when we lived in Mali Gaon. I remember the first day we brought Lapsi up here when it was just land with a wall around it, some 12 years ago. Lapsi ran around like she was in heaven. So much land and freedom, even compared w/ our nice yard in town at that time.

Lapsi was always the best guard dog, too. Attentive, never letting anyone walk by the morning glory covered gabion fence without letting them know that she knew they were there. Yet, so loving, kind and caring to all of us. She's among my dearest friends here. So gracious, beautiful, elegant in her own way, like my long-gone Grandma Rose, refined, calm and steady.

Who knows? Maybe there's a bit of Rose Rose's soul in Lapsi. I certainly don't understand the way of souls, much less where ours go when our physical presence decays and ends.

As they say, "it's a mystery..."

So, who knows, maybe Grandma Rose came back to this odd world to keep an eye on me here in Nepal when the boys were small, to make sure I was on the (nearly) straight and narrow. Maybe she took a long celestial journey, where time probably doesn't exist as we know it, and then found Lapsi's incarnation to enjoy sharing her never-seen grandchildren's early childhood here in Kathmandu.

After all, my dear Grandma was fond of bluntly telling me when I was a young teenager back in Upstate NY more than a few decades ago: "If you don't like America, find somewhere else!"

Funny that, no?

After all, Rose's generation, for good reasons, were true and loving American patriots. For her parents, leaving Eastern Europe and finding peace, stability and generosity in the States was enough of paradise for them. They needn't look any further...

Whereas, I am here, as I mentioned, in my backyard paradise, below lush and sacred Shivapuri digging out my karma on a blessed Himalayan terrace. Possibly, more a student of Milarepa with this constant physical labor than the Yeshiva student I was born to be...

Funny that, no?

But, curiously, it was that same dear, wise, perpetually Pall Mall smoking Grandmother who put my 1954 birth announcement in the NY Herald-Tribune. When it fell out of my "Seven Years Baby Book' some years ago, sometime after starting my life here in Nepal, having carried some of my early life's records and memories here with me, to say the least, I was surprised...

On the backside of the small newspaper snippet encased in plasticine was the bold headline: "The Conqueror of Everest" -- an advertisement for the movie about Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's expedition to the top of Everest.

Now, who would have guessed that the baby, just fresh from his dear Mom's womb, out in the world of space and time, would end up spending more of his life in Nepal, country of that famous Mt. Everest, than in his native land. Definitely, not my dear Grandma, who some thirteen years later would be telling me to find a new country if I didn't like the current one...

Curious, no? Fate, karma, intentions, dreams, desires, ambitions, confusions, creativity, openness, searching, seeking, finding, losing, finding again, love and finality.

So, beloved Lapsi, incarnation of beloved Grandma Rose, we are coming full cycle, again, twenty-seven years after Rose left us in 1983, when I settled in Kathmandu and received my first 'official' His Majesty's Government visa (ironically to leave suddenly to go back to Manhattan for Rose's death...).

Now, I fear and must acknowledge that you, Lapsi, protector, guide and friend, are preparing yourself for the next state of life or non-life, whatever is out there.

While these boulders are timeless in their own way and I"m just another human ant digging around their surface, a faux archeologist-child dreaming that an ancient Lichchhavi dynasty temple or remnant will appear one day.

Or, as I told Gita, returning to my childhood when I used to meander to a stream not far from our new Haverhill Drive home to look for tadpoles and fish hiding in the shade under a small bridge in suburban DeWitt, NY.

Far from the traumas of Mother Russia where my family came from early that century and yet distant, too, from the complex history of Nepal at the end of that same century to which I was moving -- unseen, unknowable, unconscious in my future.

The 56 year old man has become his six year old self, mud between his toes, dirt under his fingernails, tossing stones and playing in water, like a child.

Or, am I simply an old Japanese man preparing the soil for his Taoist rock garden (some succulents are already planted...), so he can sit in later years on the largest of boulders, under the sway of his Crouching Tiger bamboo grove, staring, eyes awake, at the pure and beautiful emptiness from which all true life appears.

I love you Grandma Rose. Love you, too, Lapsi.

May we all travel in peace for as long as time permits us...

I couldn't have shared this life with any beings more precious, loving and beautiful.

Honest.

Again and always, Shanti Shalom!!

In that almost palpable eternity

Life goes on.

Funny how that happens, no? Day after day, evening after evening, morning after morning.

The days pass...

We saw Ezi last two months ago. Off to the airport and a tender, bitter-sweet goodbye, then, whoosh and he was off to America at the end of June. Now, a few emails, blogs and trips around Nepal later and it's already two months.

Yet there is this unseen, deep bond that belies the distance in space or time. A reflection of the years and memories and tenderness that held us together for so many years. A shared childhood -- while Shakun and I practiced at being parents without a handbook or driver's manual. The boys were too little to realize, completely, what amateurs their parents were at this business of creating people, raising children, embuing them with values, spirit, resilience and courage.

Sorry to say, Josh and Ez were our experiments in living...

(How did we do?)

So I'm here with Shaku and Leah asleep on Ezi's bed (transported upstairs by Tek to Leah's room...), nearly midnight at this oasis, Josh rummaging around downstairs in his room, one other live spirit in the house, while the crickets twitter with their friends outside in the dark, and Tek takes his occasional night-guard stroll around the house tamping his stick on the brick porticos and stone paths around the house.

I'm just floating above, half-asleep myself, thinking it's been too long since I wrote Ezra out in his desert solitude, feeling a father's instinct to communicate, reach out, touch the soul of a distant, much loved son.

That's it.

Typing away (trying to beat that unresponsive 'w' key into submission...) in the quiet of the night, hoping that he will be pleased and charmed to see a message when he next opens his mail.

"You've got mail!"

We had a delightful weekend last week w/ James, Caroline and Alexa, here from Geneva to visit their old Kathmandu friends. A lovely dinner party on Saturday night courtesy of Shakun. Karma, Pia and Silash. Christopher and Francis (Dale was in Vietnam). Lucca and Camilla. The Good-Arnolds and us. Excellent food, drinks, tokes and good cheer. Old friends delighted to be with each other again, more memories, more history, more simple joys.

Amazing, of course, to see Alexa in her fulsomeness of 16 years, thrilled to be back in Kathmandu, planning on doing her IB paper on modern Nepali politics, youthful wrists covered with bracelets and memories of all varieties, reading your "Alchemist" and rushing off to 'Fire and Ice' to meet her friends. Alexa and Josh had an even later night than the parents, up to nearly 3 am, talking and watching a movie late on Saturday night.

Such a profound, almost inexplicable joy seeing friendships develop among our teenage offspring... count it among the subtle, lasting joys of parenthood and this aging process...

[Has anyone read 'Fatherhood for Amatuers' by Michael Chabon? Ez gave it to me. Brilliant, funny, ironic, wise and tender, ever tender...]

Then, Sunday, mid-afternoon, Karma & Pia strolled over and we all went for a walk over to the French cheese factory in Tokha Chandeshwari, an hour from here, for fresh, home-made cheese, lemon tea and some saucisson. Back in the rain, watching the clouds encircle Shivapuri and our homes as the drizzle drizzled while we chatted, mozied along, enjoying the NEFIN bandh in the peacefulness of our little hamlet up in B'kantha.

The week before, Josh and I took a three day 'gumne' (trip) together to Hetauda from Wednesday through Friday. Josh was keen on attending the Tamsaling Federalism Dialogue my team had organized as he and his colleague, Tejendra Lama, from the Nepal Tamang Ghedung (NTG) have won a $1,250 small research grant from our project to do a background paper on the proposed Tamsaling province. We flew down to Simra airport together and shared a room at the Avocado Motel in Hetauda.

Since there were some of our Constituency Dialogues going on at the same time (we are doing these in all 240 electoral constituencies around the country), Josh and I spent one day driving to Birgunj, on the Indian border, to hear 70+ constituents tell their elected Constituent Assembly representatives what they want in the new constitution, and give them grief for not finishing the constitution when they were supposed to last May. Good political theater, of course! But, Josh got fed-up when the local politicians spoke at the end and basically gave their own stump political speeches, instead of concentrating on the real-life issues presented by the local people.

Still, Josh really enjoyed, as he has a keen political and social conscience, particularly with regard to things Nepali -- plus he was with some of his NTG colleagues, practicing his rapidly improving Nepali and observing a unique, national, historical, once-in-a-lifetime, political process outside Kathmandu.

Vat's not to like??

Dear sleeping Leah is more caught up with the real-childhood struggles to keep her young kitten, Coby, away from our household dogs and negotiating (unsuccessfully...) with Mom to keep Coby in her bed at night. That, with the daily dramas of school and her friends, keeps her pretty occupied.

Plus, Leah's really happy with her new Lincoln teacher, Mr. R. (Ryan). He seems like a sweet, caring and insightful young man. He's just recently married and came from Khartoum (with Phil Clinton, the new director). A real find for Lincoln, it seems, recruited to come with Phil. Leah' 4th grade has been divided into two sections of about 12 kids each -- a wonderful size for this age. Tragically (in her mind...), she's separated from her 'best friend', Aarya, and Tapashri, but, fortunately, her other dear friends, Anna and Purnika, are in her class. It's great to see how motivated and positive Leah is about school. That's still the best indicator of her overall state of being and mind.

Whoosh, again!!

I'm out to Dhulikhel for a couple days for our Newa province Federalism Dialogue. I've also been invited to present a paper at a conference of Himalayan scholars and professionals on our Federalism Dialogue work in Madison, Wisconsin in October this year. My friends and colleagues, Professor Krishna Khanal and Professor Krishna Hachhethu and I will co-write the paper and, hopefully, if funds are found, travel together for the presentation. A new experience for me after all these years of my development work.

Ok, it's 12:40 am and time to get ready for another day...

Tomorrow.

Tomorrow.

Til the last tomorrow...

When we sleep with G-d

In that almost palpable eternity,

Between our breaths.

Anicca. Anicca. Anicca.

'When the earth was unformed and void...' [Genesis 1.2]

More Whoosh!

This Circle Game.

Shanti Shalom,

... once again!

A New Nepal Revealed: Hetauda Returned

Sitting with the professors, Joshua and Surendra behind the Motel Avocado in Hetauda on an August evening with a table of snacks and drinks after a long and busy day at the Tamsaling Federalism Dialogue...

This is our eleventh Federalism Dialogue. We started in Ilam in the east almost six months ago and have gone all the way to Dadeldhura for Khaptad as we have chased the fourteen proposed provinces of the new federal republic of Nepal, as proposed by the Constituent Assembly State Restructuring Committee.

Being responsible for the civil society outreach for our 'Participatory Constitution Building" project, I thought of conducting these three day seminar-dialogues across the country by inviting 40-50 local leaders of mixed ethnicity/caste, gender, professions, political parties and civil society. Then, I imagined two well-matched astute political observers and engaged academics who could facilitate these workshops while being considered relatively independent and neutral in their party affiliation.

From that thought arrived Professors Krishna Khanal and Krishna Hachhethu, smart, savvy and sophisticated political scientists who know the reality of the political party system in Nepal, as well as the recent and current crop of political leaders as well as anyone who is not an active politician themselves.

I'd known and respected Krishna Khanal from a study he did for SC/US on Dalits in Siraha in the early 90s before becoming the HMG SWC Member-Secretary in the mid-90s, under a Girija Koirala Congress party government. I didn't really know how close he was to Koirala at that time and lost touch w/ him until he gained his national reputation during the 1990 movement and then leaving the Congress Party ten years later in disappointment.

Krishna Hachhethu's name I'd read when I was doing my Fielding Masters, "A Path Forward" on the Nepal peace process in 2006. Then, when I first saw him speak I knew that he had an impressive command of his knowledge and the self-confidence to wisely and sensitively lead a discussion.

A respected Brahmin and an intellectual Newar to lead national discussions fraught with ethnic, cultural, linguistic and geographic dimensions and anxieties. Who better? Two experienced individuals who loved to travel within Nepal to hear the people's voices and communicate their inner workings of their own political system to local leaders who have spent their lives depending on the power of Kathmandu.

So, with the good and dedicated support of Surendra, Mom, Sita, Basanti, Aruna and Neha, our seven month Federalism Dialogue tour d'Nepal begins to draw to a close.

After eleven Dialogues among the Limbus, the Kirats, the Madhesis, the Gurungs, the Magars, Hill Brahmins and Chhetris, Dalits, remote Karnali communities and Tamangs... only Newa Pradesh, Jadan and Sherpa Pradesh left in the next six weeks.

Twice a month since March we have organized two Dialogues a month, carefully trying to balance the invitation list to ensure a rich and stimulating diversity of leaders from these newly proposed provinces while growing from 40+ people to 70+ at each Dialogue.

Many nights, after the formal sessions, Surendra, Mom and I have joined the professors for our nightly political science seminar hearing their stories of the hidden background of the peace process, qualities of the political 'leaders' who have led the major political parties the past few decades (present individuals included...), historical national personalities, missing documents between the government and the palace, external military pressure and the continuing international involvement in the higher affairs of the State...

Like chela with our gurus, students with their professors, we've had the pleasure and opportunity to learn more about modern Nepali politics than if we had simply read Khanal's published articles and Hachhethu's highly praised book.

We've also become good friends.

Evening mates who have created a process and, possibly, an accomplishment for which we all have felt deeply engaged, committed and proud these past months. Out of Kathmandu, in the various proposed state capitals for these new provinces. Personally, carrying the work of this historic Constituent Assembly constitutional process out to people who deserve to know and desire be involved in the unique restructuring of their nation state.

There is so much I've learned...

So much done, and to do...

Relationships deepened...

Understanding gained...

Even after all these years...

A New Nepal revealed...

'As for me...' Ez Checks In from DSC #3

I couldn't decide on a form of salutation, so I suppose this will have to do as an acknowledgment on my part that I thought about it -- but really just couldn't come up with anything that encapsulated what I wanted to encapsulate.

In any case, if that wasn't satisfactory then how about just a simple "Hey!"

The necessities needing to be dealt with first as I was in need of buying several items, namely
'War & Peace', a companion to 'War & Peace', and an Ali G dvd. The essentials of life, no?

There is going to be a Tolstoy/Kafka class offered next term and you have to have read 'War & Peace' before the term starts so I have just started today and en challah I will be done by the start of Term 2. If the first sixty pages are anything to judge by, I will really enjoy the next 1000+. Tolstoy has already managed to weave together numerous characters, places, ideas, trains of thought without sacrificing the larger fabric of the novel.

Anyway perhaps it is time to finish that "As for me..." that I finished my last email with or, as you put it Mom, "the finding of my navel at Deep Springs".

I'm not sure that I have found my navel here because finding your navel here is not the same as most places. It is full of intricacies and nuances that I'm not sure I can express, let alone fully express. In fact, looking back retrospectively it seems that each week only brings me seemingly insignificant amounts closer to having even a basic understanding of the fabric at work here.

You are, of course, catching me right after possibly the most expressive form of the tensions that flow underneath our simple existence at Deep Springs -- the infamous student body (SB) meeting. It is here where the hydra's seemingly endless stream of heads rear themselves in some of the most beautiful, as well as conflicting, forms of truth. The student body fights back and forth, for hours at a time, over relatively innocuous legislation -- finding underneath the harmless veneer of legislation countless conflicts and problems that one can't help but feel are simply symptomatic of humanity itself.

I think perhaps its time I go to bed -- I'll finish tomorrow -- before my ramblings become entirely unintelligible.

However, like a recently disturbed bowl of miso soup, I have to say (before the miso settles to a more distinct and manageable state of confusion) that these ramblings will probably only become more unintelligible before (or rather if) they get slightly more comprehensible. There is a lot at play here and I'm not sure yet that I understand the pieces, or the board, or even the rules for that matter -- anyway as I said, perhaps it is time to go to bed. Hopefully a little bit of 'War & Peace' will settle my broth.

Until tomorrow....

Okay, great! It is no longer Friday night and I'm returning to this email on Monday mid-afternoon. As you can see (and I can as well), my state of mind that night was ... something. I'm not sure exactly what that something entails, but I think it is good to have those 'something' moments -- in fact that 'something' is the mindset I usually find myself in after most SB meetings.

It really is as if the politics and self-governance of the student body lay dormant for the week and then on Friday nights rear their head for all of us to awe at it. Often a combination of frustration, happiness, zeal, camaraderie, and more frustration. Trying to grasp exactly what it is that is going on, what needs to be done, and what your role in all of it is confusing to say the least -- but it is also in a odd way inspiring. I think I'll leave it at that because at this point I really can't elucidate the process any more.

However, in spite of all of that confusion there still is no place I'd rather be, and I am thrilled to be here. The majority of days go by without this degree of internal conflict and as with any community we have begun to develop our own rhythm and idiosyncrasies. There are always things to be done and often people doing them, although equally as often people not doing them.

Summer Seminar continues to be fascinating and we have just come off the back of a week on Rousseau and his 'Discourse on Inequality' and 'The Book of Job', and the week before that we got into political economy reading Carl Schmitt and his 'Nomos of the Earth', Karl Polanyi's 'The Great Transformation', Garett Hardin's 'The Tragedy of the Common', Adam Smith's 'Wealth of Nations', and other good stuff like that. All of it very interesting as we had into our last couple of weeks of the seminar.

It was nice to hear from both of you! Dad, despite your lack of the 's' and the 'w' on the keyboard, it was fun to hear you sort of ramble (perhaps more fun because of it?) Always good to hear that you are in the garden battling the forces of nature, specifically your dearest of enemies -- the evergreen boulder. Perhaps there is some darker and more sinister psychology at work regarding your undying fascination with the movement and manipulation of these boulders -- but I won't even begin to explore them.

Its good to know that all of this is happening to the backdrop of my free flowin' tunes -- perhaps two more won't hurt? (specifically with Miss Leah Loo in mind): Can't Get it Right Today - Joe Purdy and Sunshine - Matt Costa.

Mom, I think I sort of addressed your thoughts on finding my navel here at DS -- all I can say is that I'm working on it. It sounds like Josh is really being helpful to you and I'm glad that you, him, and Kishore are making quite the triumvirate. I'm sure he is elated at being able to fly from one side of town to the other on his new motorcycle -- after all it is the hip thing to do, isn't it (the flying)? Thanks for the lovely musings on Hypatia, balance, memories, and time and space. The poem was also lovely!

Anyway, I'm off to get some work done (although in all probability it will descend quickly and unrelentingly into an extended nap). Give my love to Josh and Leah!

Lots of love, Ez

Rock Gardens in the Backyard

Well, I"ve just gotten my w/end exercise. Not ultimate frisbee yet over at St. Xavier's w/ a much younger crowd, but still digging out my karma in my own backyard.

I put in nearly two hours yesterday and another two this morning moving soil, a bit Sisyphean, of course, like so many of life's efforts, but it feels good to reveal the under-land depth of these beautiful boulders, plus the physicalness of the work, as opposed to sitting at a desk composing literary emails, feels robust and healthy-minded when I've got the time to be home.

Plus (another Jewish reason to justify a simple act of well-being...), there is beauty being revealed and created, mefeels. Slowly the rocks show themselves, with their curves, colors and creative potential.

Then, when I add the succulents or low bamboo around their shapes, there is a visible contrast that appeals to the mind and our love of beauty.

So, the act of moving a shovel seems to offer a Platonic plateau of being that lifts me from my Sunday torpor into the elevated realms of creation.

Not bad, when reflected upon...

As I sit here at the iMac, I am also enjoying trundling through the collection of e-music Ez left me on iTunes. Ever trying organize things even as I can be the less organized of souls.

Swinging from the need to find categories (blame Aristotle...) in which to arrange my life, thoughts, papers, photos, music et al to letting it all just float by in the swirl of life's ambiguities and charms, like the clouds over Shivapuri's ridge.

I guess that would be Pythagoras, in a way. The sound of the universe.

Or, Apollo, the god of such ethereal gifts to we mortals.

Music is another of life's gifts.

Tolstoy on the Great Passage

LEO TOLSTOY 1828 – 1910

‘We all reveal ... our manifestations ... This manifestation is over ... That's all’

Tolstoy left his estate, aged 82, to begin a new life as a peasant. Reaching the small town of Astapovo he contracted pneumonia, and died a few days later in the stationmaster’s house. According to the stationmaster, his last words were: ‘But the peasants … how do the peasants die?’

His friend Vladimir Chertkov preferred to remember something from the night before. 'He was lying on his back, breathing heavily … all of a sudden - as if arguing with himself - broke out in a loud voice:

"We all reveal ... our manifestations ... This manifestation is over ... That's all".'

Home is our children...

Life is a lot to manage, at times, and we are all tested along the way, particularly in our primary relationships. Marriage is a great gift but a bit of a maze, as well, at times as we try to fill our own lives and passions while caring for the person who shares the journey and life with us.

I know how much Shakun and I struggle, at times, to find that balance and keep our marriage real and honest while, at the same time, challenging each other and not losing the cord that connects us. We are both so thankful that we have our three children to keep us bound together in mutual adoration and affection of these holy creatures...

Ez, we know is now gone on the other side of the earth's shadow up into the High Sierras. We're so happy for him as it's what he wanted, this form of isolation and intense community. He'd been reading Thoreau at NMH his Junior year and wanted the challenge of finding out some simple, hard truths for himself at college.

Plus, he is a natural for the intense leadership responsibilities that DSC offers and depends upon. He'll have plenty of time to read Plato, Locke and Tolkien while doing his daily chores, learning how to herd cattle and help manage the college. He is definitely following his own drummer in this life and we expect he will meander for a few years ahead in finding his way and purpose in life.

After two years of DSC, Ez may head to one of the East Coast universities to complete his education (ala Obama...) and become fully bicoastal, or balance his new desert world with East Coast urbanity. No doubt, Ez already has a beautiful soul, these years are simply to find his meaning, settle some youthful questions and create his independence.

In that regard, Ez and Josh are quite different. Josh is so happy to be here w/ us in the family home for the summer, watching 'Bambi' on his computer w/ Leah, helping Shakun with her website design, working in a local Tamang NGO on ethnic rights, building an innovative, organic greenhouse in the backyard, buying a new motorcycle and hanging out with his childhood friends here in Kathmandu.

Josh is totally loyal to Nepal and doesn't even want to hear me talk of spending a few years in the States. He's his mother's son and devoted to her, her causes and the Nepali side of his life. Although going back to Georgetown at the end of August, he hasn't really settled in the US in a deep way. He enjoys his studies on South Asia politics and governance, but his heart is still fully in the Himalaya and our home.

For now, Josh says that he is coming 'home' to Nepal to start up his own businesses when he graduates (after spending a Junior year at SOAS in London to stretch his wings and watch football games...). Josh's good and kind heart is right here, near us and on our land.

As for Leah, she is in love with her new kitten, Coaby, who sleeps with her and Leah protects from the dogs, especially, Sumi, in the yard. Her summer camp is over, so she has more time at home with Gita and Laxmi, her two 'didis' and dear, older sister friends. Like Josh, Leah, too, is a real homebody. She wants us to buy a beach house in America (ala Hannah Montana...), but still insists that we never sell this home, the only home she has ever had.

Funny, this sense of home that envelopes us as we're busy doing other things...

Funny, rich, satisfying and profoundly fulfilling...