It's been raining all day today, a week before Shivaratri, soon the darkest night of the year here in the Hindoo universe, as Kathmandu peers cautiously into the abyss ahead.
Personally, although I'm nursing a head cold (acquired during my walk up the hill behind our home last w/end w/ Nick & Christopher...), I enjoy the patter of the rain outside. This morning, we wandered in the back garden w/ Lapsi & Gumbi (our two favorite dogs...) under the overcast skies. Gita was out picking the luscious green & burgundy salad, while Ms. Leah frolicked amid the baby flowers of early spring. Shaks, wrapped in her Chinese blanket, like a hill Tamang-ni, admired her newly budding orchids while I sat by the stream watching the water trickle over the translucent pebbles that I'd collected from our land.
By early afternoon the drizzle started, followed by the patter of rain in earnest. From our new reading room (behind the fireplace), I stood peering out at the garden . Rain's seductive on a Sunday. There's a gentle rhthym to the patter of rain, particularly watching it dance on the pond outside the sliding glass doors. The water gently poured over the lip of the pond down the stone weir, that we'd built a year ago, into the deep rivulet that trundles down the eastern perimeter of our land. As my breath fogged up the glass, I moved to a new window to watch the water flow through the bamboo tubes that we'd placed on the roof to keep the rain from collecting above us.
Shakun had gone down into town by microbus, since we still don't have petrol for our Vitara. She was off to Franny's Losar (Buddhist New Year) party with a gathering of the faithful. I'd hung home, feeling a bit fluish, but wanting to finish Josh' applications to schools outside Nepal for next year.
I also simply wanted to stay home. Nearly seven years in this house, I feel a remarkable inner appeal to be at home. While the skies drizzled, I stood at the window longer than I would have imagined. Just standing. Looking. Dreaming. Seeing. Imaging what Hokusai saw when he looked at nature. Watching the water drip off the bamboo leaves. Observing the water swoosh down the weir between two chiseled stones. Enjoying the splash of water on the pond. Counting a dozen types of bamboo we've planted along the perimeter of the land.
There's a security, as well, in being home that isn't common to our larger Nepal. Nepal is in a chaotic mood this year, with shortages of most essential needs, water (ironically...), electricity, petrol, cooking gas and employment. Reading my recent posts, Dave and M&D ask if Nepal's current anarchy is better than the ancien regime. I wonder...
Alas, unlike Proust, we can't go back to the past. Our childhoods are over and retreating further into the distance. We may try to look over our shoulders (or in the mirrors...), but the memories of yesterday are forever fading, pushed back by the stream of our consciousness and the waves of time.
Such is the truth of Nepal, as well. Her lengthy period of adolescence is over and there's a long queue of issues that all require attention at the same time. The anarchy of the present is the price to be paid for her casual metamorphosis into a 'modern' country. As innocent or bucolic as was the past, the present is simply too complicated for easy solutions.
There is no either/or with regard to our historical choice. We are here, here is a mess and here is where we need to move ahead from. The mistakes of the past cannot be undone. (Like the US in Iraq, I suppose...) Any hopes that the peace accord with the Maoists of November 2006 w/ a wave of the magic wand from the UN was the panacea to solve all of Nepal's problems has proven more than elusive...
So, in brief some predictions: On the downside: more troubles, more violence, more disintegration in the near term, more economic pain and less likelihood that we will have the promised constituent assembly elections in June 2007. On the positive side: more voices from outside the power elite will demand to be heard, greater participation in the political process from previously under-represented ethnic and caste communities, and, hopefully, the realization that the suffering finally hurts everyone...
The path forward... with wisdom: peace, investment and new creativity, with insincerity and greed: more insurrection, disorientation and intimidation.
I know which I'd prefer... otherwise I may have much more time to stand in the rain and watch my garden grow...
Goodnight Rain!!
Sunday, February 11, 2007
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
'O pure, O beautiful.'
There, he imagines looking up "at the evening star, his favorite, applying to it simile after simile, finding nothing on his evening walk more beautiful. . . .
Suddenly it speaks:
"Foolish man! What are you excited about? I'm a world too, not like the one on which you live, but noisy and dark like yours. There is sorrow and coarseness here too--and if you want to know at this very moment one of my inhabitants--a poet like you--looks on that star you call 'Earth' and whispers to it: 'O pure, O beautiful.'
Victor Nabokov
Suddenly it speaks:
"Foolish man! What are you excited about? I'm a world too, not like the one on which you live, but noisy and dark like yours. There is sorrow and coarseness here too--and if you want to know at this very moment one of my inhabitants--a poet like you--looks on that star you call 'Earth' and whispers to it: 'O pure, O beautiful.'
Victor Nabokov
Monday, February 5, 2007
The Weather Report: No Electricy No Petrol No Cooking Gas
Inspired by a note from my friend Helen in Dorset, saying she actually reads these images, I'm adding a short post to my blogspot while sitted at my desk in the National Human Rights (Wrongs?) Commission on a dark, blustry and bleak afternoon here in Katmandu.
If, as Herr Profeesor Sigmund Freud was once quoted as saying, "Ze weather iz a reflection of ze collective zexual zeitgeist of ze society.", (or something like that...) then today's sky in Nepal may accurately describe our national mood.
Unlike days of yore, a decade or two ago, when we'd open "The Rising Nepal" in the morning over a sweet cup of Nepali tea with the soothing words at the top of the masthead, 'All is fair throughout the kingdom', alas, the halcyon days of the Himalayan Camelot are long gone from our further tarnished kingdom of Nepal.
Tis more like the winter of our collective discontent here on the mean streets of this once magical kingdom. Not exactly King Lear, although madness may have set in the palace w/o anyone particularly noticing a generation ago, nor quite Macbeth, although the excruitating sound of 'out, out damn spot' may have been uttered within the palace compound during the now renown murder of King Birendra and his extended family over five years ago.
While Shakun kept saying 'anarchy' over the past months, her more sober (almost...) husband was in denial (not, as we know, just a river in Egypt...). But, I fold. I give in. If what we have experienced in Nepal over the past couple of weeks is not a fair mimicry of social anarchy, I'll burn my Doestevski (well, maybe just my Doonesbury or Calvin & Hobbes...).
Let's just say, 'it's a mess...'
For those of you not addicted to the Nepalnews websites (you're forgiven...), the country is splintering and rollicking (chose your metaphor...) with ethnic and political tension. The Terai, the southern districts along the Indian border, have basically been in rebellion for over two weeks, closing the only highways to Kathmandu, burning government offices, attacking police posts and writing the "Madesh Nation" on signboards, signifying their radical intent of separating from the once soothing sacred image of a regal Nepal to create their own linear country, dividing the hills from the terai and leaving Kathmandu to survive on its own.
Interesting, no? Of course, after decades or centuries (depending on how you count...) of basically ignoring and condescending to the more Indian-like Maithali-speaking communities in the eastern plains of the country, these people, fresh with the initial enthusiasm & hubris that democracy and independence offer, have decided to remind the hill people that all roads run through the terai. It seems as if our ever-pompous, greedy & miasmic male high caste political leadership have missed that message along the way to the signing of their Comprehensive Peace Accord with the Maoists late last November... Oops...
So, this morning, with no trucks or transport coming up to Kathmandu from the terai for over a week, we awoke with the three post-revolutionary no's. No Electricity. No Petrol. No Cooking Gas. Not to mention a dark and forbiding sky... Welcome to the New Nepal, as the self-congratulatory politicians have been saying. Or, as they can announce to the non-tourists at the Tribhuvan International Airport: Welcome to Nepal! Re-Visit the Sublime, Mystic Charms of the 19th Century!
And, imagine, dear Helen asked if I'm pessimistic about Nepal. ;-) As a favorite Jewish guru, Abraham Joshua Heschel, said when asked about the peculiar world that man's created, "I'm an optimist, against my better judgement..."
So, borrowing more metaphors on this overcast day, we row on, ships against the current, doing our best to maintain our collective sense of humor and personal priorities while the country appears to be disintegrating around us. As messianic, millennial Yeats would have asked, "what rough beast slouches toward Kathmandu..."
I wonder. But, in the mean time, it's getting dark, dear Helen, darker than Dorset these days, I imagine, so I'm going out on Pulchowk to look for a taxi, then pick-up Shakun at her boutique on Durbar Marg, and plod home to distant Budhanilkantha sans car, sans certainty, sans a bit more elusive sense of sanity, but, remarkably, still with that eternal, although possibly misplaced, sense of human hope... ;-)
Good night, sky!!
If, as Herr Profeesor Sigmund Freud was once quoted as saying, "Ze weather iz a reflection of ze collective zexual zeitgeist of ze society.", (or something like that...) then today's sky in Nepal may accurately describe our national mood.
Unlike days of yore, a decade or two ago, when we'd open "The Rising Nepal" in the morning over a sweet cup of Nepali tea with the soothing words at the top of the masthead, 'All is fair throughout the kingdom', alas, the halcyon days of the Himalayan Camelot are long gone from our further tarnished kingdom of Nepal.
Tis more like the winter of our collective discontent here on the mean streets of this once magical kingdom. Not exactly King Lear, although madness may have set in the palace w/o anyone particularly noticing a generation ago, nor quite Macbeth, although the excruitating sound of 'out, out damn spot' may have been uttered within the palace compound during the now renown murder of King Birendra and his extended family over five years ago.
While Shakun kept saying 'anarchy' over the past months, her more sober (almost...) husband was in denial (not, as we know, just a river in Egypt...). But, I fold. I give in. If what we have experienced in Nepal over the past couple of weeks is not a fair mimicry of social anarchy, I'll burn my Doestevski (well, maybe just my Doonesbury or Calvin & Hobbes...).
Let's just say, 'it's a mess...'
For those of you not addicted to the Nepalnews websites (you're forgiven...), the country is splintering and rollicking (chose your metaphor...) with ethnic and political tension. The Terai, the southern districts along the Indian border, have basically been in rebellion for over two weeks, closing the only highways to Kathmandu, burning government offices, attacking police posts and writing the "Madesh Nation" on signboards, signifying their radical intent of separating from the once soothing sacred image of a regal Nepal to create their own linear country, dividing the hills from the terai and leaving Kathmandu to survive on its own.
Interesting, no? Of course, after decades or centuries (depending on how you count...) of basically ignoring and condescending to the more Indian-like Maithali-speaking communities in the eastern plains of the country, these people, fresh with the initial enthusiasm & hubris that democracy and independence offer, have decided to remind the hill people that all roads run through the terai. It seems as if our ever-pompous, greedy & miasmic male high caste political leadership have missed that message along the way to the signing of their Comprehensive Peace Accord with the Maoists late last November... Oops...
So, this morning, with no trucks or transport coming up to Kathmandu from the terai for over a week, we awoke with the three post-revolutionary no's. No Electricity. No Petrol. No Cooking Gas. Not to mention a dark and forbiding sky... Welcome to the New Nepal, as the self-congratulatory politicians have been saying. Or, as they can announce to the non-tourists at the Tribhuvan International Airport: Welcome to Nepal! Re-Visit the Sublime, Mystic Charms of the 19th Century!
And, imagine, dear Helen asked if I'm pessimistic about Nepal. ;-) As a favorite Jewish guru, Abraham Joshua Heschel, said when asked about the peculiar world that man's created, "I'm an optimist, against my better judgement..."
So, borrowing more metaphors on this overcast day, we row on, ships against the current, doing our best to maintain our collective sense of humor and personal priorities while the country appears to be disintegrating around us. As messianic, millennial Yeats would have asked, "what rough beast slouches toward Kathmandu..."
I wonder. But, in the mean time, it's getting dark, dear Helen, darker than Dorset these days, I imagine, so I'm going out on Pulchowk to look for a taxi, then pick-up Shakun at her boutique on Durbar Marg, and plod home to distant Budhanilkantha sans car, sans certainty, sans a bit more elusive sense of sanity, but, remarkably, still with that eternal, although possibly misplaced, sense of human hope... ;-)
Good night, sky!!
Sunday, January 28, 2007
Plum Blossoms in My Garden
In my garden fall the plum blossoms --
Are they indeed snowflakes
Whirling from the sky?
The nightingale sings
Playing at the lower branches
Lamenting the fall of the plum blossoms.
from Man'yoshu (Collection of Myriad Leaves)
Are they indeed snowflakes
Whirling from the sky?
The nightingale sings
Playing at the lower branches
Lamenting the fall of the plum blossoms.
from Man'yoshu (Collection of Myriad Leaves)
Friday, January 26, 2007
Iroha-uta, a Poem & Meditation
Although fragrant in hue,
(blossoms) are scattered
For everyone, life is impermanent.
This morning I crossed the uttermost limit
A shallow dream I will not dream, nor will I become intoxicated.
...the japanese version of an original sanskrit poem...
Whatever is phenomenal is impermanent;
Their essential characteristic is appearance and disappearance;
When these appearances and disappearances come to repose,
tranquility is comfort.
...the chinese version of the same japanese poem...
(blossoms) are scattered
For everyone, life is impermanent.
This morning I crossed the uttermost limit
A shallow dream I will not dream, nor will I become intoxicated.
...the japanese version of an original sanskrit poem...
Whatever is phenomenal is impermanent;
Their essential characteristic is appearance and disappearance;
When these appearances and disappearances come to repose,
tranquility is comfort.
...the chinese version of the same japanese poem...
Human Rights Acropobia While Throwing Pebbles in a Backyard Stream
like many of us, i suppose, i prefer saturdays spent in our garden, lingering, watering the trees, finding pebbles for the stream bed or taking a walk up the hill behind our home. it constantly amazes me how 8 or 9 am can so easily b/c 2 pm in such languid times. i'm not sure that i can yet slide into such quiet regularly, but it feels good on the w/end when i don't even have go into an increasingly busy & crowded town from friday night to monday morning...
although last saturday, it was good to cross town to help the national human rights commission (nhrc) with the planned press conference on impunity issues. i'd been encouraging them to bring actual victims of such human rights abuses, be it abduction by the maoists or disappearances by the government or killings, torture or the sad litany of human casualities from the past ten years of conflict. we were fortunate to receive frontpage news the next day w/ headlines on impunity and the government's lack of seriousness to respond to past nhrc recommendations on these cases -- esp. w/ louise arbour, the un high commissioner for human rights here in nepal for a week.
still, you would be shocked to hear all of the subtle and not so subtle politics that goes on iin this human rights' world. sometimes i think it's b/c we aim toward the highest levels of human aspiration, the top of maslow's pyramid of human values, whereas we're still dealing w/ the nature of the human ego with all of its passions, jealousies and self-centeredness. one can get moral acrophobia (fear of human heights...) in this type of lofty, at times rhetorical human rights environment. then, of course, we're dealign w/ some of the lowest forms of human distemper, as well, when our beastly nature overwhelms our self-control and we are able to murder another soul in a fit of anger, revenge or mere ruthlessness. some days, when you see the faces of those who have suffered, and the accusations made, i think i've stepped into the nyc prosecutor's world of crimes and investigations -- leaving my past development world of literacy, public health and micro-loans far behind...
then there are the institutional politics between international and national bodies, not to mention, not far in the background, the influence of the political parties on the main actors in the human rights field in nepal. add the donors with their own agendas and, at times, arrogance, with the wealth that is lavished on western organizations while nepalis who work in places like the nhrc must make do with salaries of $150/month and offces that are barely equipped with heaters or computers or vehicles. sometimes i feel like, even in the human rights field, its the equivalent of working in an inner city school with the handsome, well-endowed prep school in over across town up on the ivy-coated hill. after so many years in save the children, which is part of the well-endowed world, maybe it's a good opportunity to be reminded of the realities of the barriers that we try to avoid seeing in our daily lives.
whoosh! as someone said to me when i started this work last september, 'human rights makes child rights look like kid's play...' ;-)
as many of you know, dear nepal, within this unsteady peace process, remains on the knife's edge. political change continues at a dizzing pace w/o actually creating a sense of greater security or stability. we've been rocked by riots in lahan, siraha, of all places, down in the terai (near the indian border) the past few days w/ young students killed and the madeshi (terai people) liberation groups leading the charge. then a few days ago we had a national transport strike for two days, too, protesting their busses being burnt in siraha & elsewhere due to these demonstrations. more, whoosh!
although the strike is over, so no more long 25 km bike rides from home across the valley to pulchowk and back... the political instability promises to continue. the govt is intent on elections to a constituent assembly in june to write a new constitution (over two years), but one wonders if this is an exercise in collective day-dreaming. the signs are not exactly promising, even as everyone keeps promising that the election will go ahead as stated. with all of the political maneuvering going on in the background, proverbial trenches and media airwaves, it sounds, to say the least, and based on recent nepal experience, mildly optimistic.
to be honest, it's also a bit tedious as this story never seems to find its balance. after a week in cambodia over new years seeing the economic growth & potential there, it's disheartening to see how beloved nepal stays stuck in the present continuous tense, or even rewind, w/o finding a way to fulfill the country's wondrous potential. even eternally optimistic shakun is getting a bit fed-up w/ the situation, as she also gets more invovled in the drama of janjati/ethnic politics, proportional representation and constitutional change.
in that sense, i can appreciate joshua deciding a week ago to apply for the world college program. he is eager for something new for his young life, even it means doing his 11th grade over again in a different, challenging environment. the world college program is based on an IB curriculum which emphasizes community service, created by the founder of the outward bound program, there are some dozen campuses around the world, including italia, wales, singapore and british columbia, which is josh's order of preference. however, admission is exceptionally competitive given the limited places for americans which he understands. still, it'd be absolutely wonderful for him, even as we'd miss him terribly at home if he was accepted.
lastly, there is still english premier league football. the boys command the tv on the w/end nights when their principles play. last w/end it was the league leading manchester united vs a resurgent arsenal. alas, ez was emotionally crushed when thierry henry scored w/ seconds to go against man utd. ezra, literally, sat still for ten minutes, staring away from the tv, then rolled over and slept on the floor of the room. i felt so bad for him, but he wasn't to be comforted, alas. whereas josh seems to have made some emotional separation from liverpool (a girlfriend, methinks, helps...), but ez is in blind young teenage love w/ his redmen from the north country...
xoxox from afar...
although last saturday, it was good to cross town to help the national human rights commission (nhrc) with the planned press conference on impunity issues. i'd been encouraging them to bring actual victims of such human rights abuses, be it abduction by the maoists or disappearances by the government or killings, torture or the sad litany of human casualities from the past ten years of conflict. we were fortunate to receive frontpage news the next day w/ headlines on impunity and the government's lack of seriousness to respond to past nhrc recommendations on these cases -- esp. w/ louise arbour, the un high commissioner for human rights here in nepal for a week.
still, you would be shocked to hear all of the subtle and not so subtle politics that goes on iin this human rights' world. sometimes i think it's b/c we aim toward the highest levels of human aspiration, the top of maslow's pyramid of human values, whereas we're still dealing w/ the nature of the human ego with all of its passions, jealousies and self-centeredness. one can get moral acrophobia (fear of human heights...) in this type of lofty, at times rhetorical human rights environment. then, of course, we're dealign w/ some of the lowest forms of human distemper, as well, when our beastly nature overwhelms our self-control and we are able to murder another soul in a fit of anger, revenge or mere ruthlessness. some days, when you see the faces of those who have suffered, and the accusations made, i think i've stepped into the nyc prosecutor's world of crimes and investigations -- leaving my past development world of literacy, public health and micro-loans far behind...
then there are the institutional politics between international and national bodies, not to mention, not far in the background, the influence of the political parties on the main actors in the human rights field in nepal. add the donors with their own agendas and, at times, arrogance, with the wealth that is lavished on western organizations while nepalis who work in places like the nhrc must make do with salaries of $150/month and offces that are barely equipped with heaters or computers or vehicles. sometimes i feel like, even in the human rights field, its the equivalent of working in an inner city school with the handsome, well-endowed prep school in over across town up on the ivy-coated hill. after so many years in save the children, which is part of the well-endowed world, maybe it's a good opportunity to be reminded of the realities of the barriers that we try to avoid seeing in our daily lives.
whoosh! as someone said to me when i started this work last september, 'human rights makes child rights look like kid's play...' ;-)
as many of you know, dear nepal, within this unsteady peace process, remains on the knife's edge. political change continues at a dizzing pace w/o actually creating a sense of greater security or stability. we've been rocked by riots in lahan, siraha, of all places, down in the terai (near the indian border) the past few days w/ young students killed and the madeshi (terai people) liberation groups leading the charge. then a few days ago we had a national transport strike for two days, too, protesting their busses being burnt in siraha & elsewhere due to these demonstrations. more, whoosh!
although the strike is over, so no more long 25 km bike rides from home across the valley to pulchowk and back... the political instability promises to continue. the govt is intent on elections to a constituent assembly in june to write a new constitution (over two years), but one wonders if this is an exercise in collective day-dreaming. the signs are not exactly promising, even as everyone keeps promising that the election will go ahead as stated. with all of the political maneuvering going on in the background, proverbial trenches and media airwaves, it sounds, to say the least, and based on recent nepal experience, mildly optimistic.
to be honest, it's also a bit tedious as this story never seems to find its balance. after a week in cambodia over new years seeing the economic growth & potential there, it's disheartening to see how beloved nepal stays stuck in the present continuous tense, or even rewind, w/o finding a way to fulfill the country's wondrous potential. even eternally optimistic shakun is getting a bit fed-up w/ the situation, as she also gets more invovled in the drama of janjati/ethnic politics, proportional representation and constitutional change.
in that sense, i can appreciate joshua deciding a week ago to apply for the world college program. he is eager for something new for his young life, even it means doing his 11th grade over again in a different, challenging environment. the world college program is based on an IB curriculum which emphasizes community service, created by the founder of the outward bound program, there are some dozen campuses around the world, including italia, wales, singapore and british columbia, which is josh's order of preference. however, admission is exceptionally competitive given the limited places for americans which he understands. still, it'd be absolutely wonderful for him, even as we'd miss him terribly at home if he was accepted.
lastly, there is still english premier league football. the boys command the tv on the w/end nights when their principles play. last w/end it was the league leading manchester united vs a resurgent arsenal. alas, ez was emotionally crushed when thierry henry scored w/ seconds to go against man utd. ezra, literally, sat still for ten minutes, staring away from the tv, then rolled over and slept on the floor of the room. i felt so bad for him, but he wasn't to be comforted, alas. whereas josh seems to have made some emotional separation from liverpool (a girlfriend, methinks, helps...), but ez is in blind young teenage love w/ his redmen from the north country...
xoxox from afar...
Monday, January 15, 2007
Visions from Utpal & Caroline's Porch at 1 am on Friday Night & Memories of Scott & Sochua's Riverside Home in Cambodia
in the half-light that passes as electricity in kathmandu during winter, ms. leah's testing colors on the palm of my hand for the rainbow she's painting for her best friends, choyang and tsering, while i'm importing a paul simon collection (nick drake queued up next...) on our computer for future (and present...) aural amusement. my dear chelsea friend, nick dawson, handed us a major part of his massive cd collection when he thought he was leaving nepal this past spring. he's back (i guess k'du, for all its hardships, is a hard place to leave...), so i should move, at last, to stockpile some serious tunes on our hard drive while the the music is nearby...
actually, about 1 am this past friday, standing in the cold, night-time air on utpal and caroline's front porch for their house-warming party, i was telling computer-savy nick about my mental blocks w/ computers. even at the age of 52, i'm still intimidated by their plugs, wires and commands. maybe a phobia from too many late night viewings of kubrick's '2001: a space odyssey', "open the pod doors, hal" -- but it's since it's already 2007 and we still haven't our space colony on the moon, maybe it's time to join the 21st computer literate century. after all, talk about a slow learner...
so, this w/end, with the able assistance of ezra, i've made some modest steps forward that have lifted my techno spirits and given me some slight (and needed...) confidence that i can master some more complex tasks in the future. i learned (at least practiced...) how to download photos from our new mini sony cybershot, as well as these exquisite rock n' roll songs, onto our user-friendly apple computer. so, my next tremulous lesson next w/end will be to move these soulful western rhythms onto the ipod for easy access at my office during the day. such, it seems, are the emotional achievements that these middle years offer this greying soul... ;-)
as I've repeated a few times... it's winter in nepal. that means lovely autumnal days w/ a gentle warmth in the crystal cerulean air -- but, no secrets among friends, the night chill is monstrous, if i may say. zero centigrade w/ zero central heating. of course, partially we're to blame with the exquisitely semi-tropical home shakun designed (when she still thought nepal was bali...). for those of you who have been here, you'll remember that this house has more glass per wall space than anything designed since i.m. pei's pyramid in front of the louvre. not to mention that charming nepali craftsman-like work, which has left space around all of the wooden window and door frames allowing the mountain breezes to unself-consciously waft into the house from the 8,000' shivapuri national park behind us. yes, we have lovely ridgetop views, a magnificent acre+ garden with scores of conifers, fruit trees and bamboo amid streams and ponds to delight us -- but nothing will stop the january wind from blowing in off the 20,000' snow-clad peaks only 15 kms behind our home -- until central heating comes to nepal. ahhh, nature in her frozen glory...
we escaped our himalayan winter for ten days over new years to scott's wondrous new tropical home near kampot, two hours south of phnom penh. his new home puts paid to any hotel on the beach in thailand forever. i'm not sure we have an open winter invitation, but there's no other place now i'd rather be to escape the cold. what scott and sochua created over the past eighteen months has been magnificent, much more beautiful than i had imagined or expected. i call it his 'four seasons' home -- it's that exquisite, aesthetic and peaceful...
like the frangipani tree at the entrance to their home, the joy of the vacation w/ scott and sochua is still fragrant. imagine a large, two story wooden frame home rising like a dream on stilts in the expansive, open pasture of rice fields, with a twin (hans' home) next door, as if you're seeing double. then, as you drive around toward the front of the home, facing the 200 m. wide kampot river, you see a stairway to heaven, reaching from the young garden below up to a wide porch on the second floor at the center of the broad v-shaped home. as you climb up the stairs, your mind is drawn across the river toward the rounded ridges on the highlands beyond, until you step into a spacious dining/living room with wooden floors, a 22' open pyramidal ceiling, a gracious, modern kitchen, and a lengthy, elegant dining table with perfect views back to the river and mountains beyond. not bad, bodhi. not bad, at all...
of course, if the physical setting wasn't divine enough, there were three 'didis' on duty at all times. sochua's table is always set for the guests. with her gently smiling cousin-cum-cook from phnom penh there under mu's supervision, if one's spiritual appetite wasn't filled by the cambodian landscape, there were snacks, fresh baguettes from kampot and fresh seafood and vegetables every afternoon and evening. with a holiday bar, cold drinks (in the bright orange plastic ice box) and some 'quintessantly quite' on the daily menu, days and evenings passed with the quiet, tender ease of a thirty-four year friendship... although, for a measure of excitement, there were always evening swims in the kampot river or next-door in hans' swimming pool when the sun was hottest or for more adventure two man kayak trips up amid the lush, tropical palm banks -- although the peacefulness of the environment rarely called for more stimulus or travel. we had arrived.
now, back to nepal's himalayan winter of discontent, the political situation remains vague and uncertain, hun sen's cambodia certainly showed the economic strength (and moral vacuum...) of a democratic dictatorship. but, even for the seasoned observer, it's hard to see which way nepal is going. we hope for greater peacefulness and stability, given that the country has slipped steadily backward over the past ten years (made more evident by the comparison w/ cambodia). but, even with the positive steps of the maoists tentatively giving up their weapons and agreeing to participate in future elections, there are new ethnic and regional splinter groups taking up where the maoists left off in blocking the highways, blackmailing the economy and murdering to make a point. it's hard to know if we're takling two steps forward and one step back or one step forward and two back...
we live in a country of epochal uncertainties. not always easy on the state of mind, unless national uncertainty is your pleasure. still, it appears that the worst of the internecine war is over. now, it's time to wonder what nepal's peace will look like? the continuing semi-chaos of a fragile democracy or an evolving semi-benign communist dictatorship? or something in between? put down your bets before the wheel stops spinning! although in nepal the wheel of life never quite stops spinning... as the dharma says...
next there is a constituent assembly election planned to write a new constitution in june 2007. will it happen? what new forces will it unleash? who will be thrown to the foreground and who into the background? and, who will go peacefully? do we predict greater political openness or grinding repression? will we achieve new forms of economic stimulus or the continuing draining of national resources out of the country? the constituent assembly's first vote is supposed to be about the king. remind me: which was the last country to peacefully vote out a 250 year old royal family? not to meniont, when did a recently 'royal army' ever integrate with a 'revolutionary people's army'? reasonable questions, methinks...
or, dear g-ds, can nepal, true to it's remarkably syncretistic and wordly cultural identity overcome some profound classical mental categories to churn out a surprising 21st century hermaphroditic national political identity? will nepal's youthful population take this opportunity to create new inspiration and optimism? or, will the past dogmatic social forces that continue to afflict the national identity still play the 'zero sum' game to everyone's detriment?
best to remember the final words of 'the count of monte cristo', that monumental tale of historical passion and renewal: 'wait and hope'. for like any great novel, the joy is in the reading or, in this case, in the living through remarkable times... even w/o electricity occasionally and w/o central heating always ...
for spring grows eternal even in the heart of this father of three children, husband of a single wife, who once, long ago aspired to be a 'philosopher-poet/itinerant painter'...
actually, about 1 am this past friday, standing in the cold, night-time air on utpal and caroline's front porch for their house-warming party, i was telling computer-savy nick about my mental blocks w/ computers. even at the age of 52, i'm still intimidated by their plugs, wires and commands. maybe a phobia from too many late night viewings of kubrick's '2001: a space odyssey', "open the pod doors, hal" -- but it's since it's already 2007 and we still haven't our space colony on the moon, maybe it's time to join the 21st computer literate century. after all, talk about a slow learner...
so, this w/end, with the able assistance of ezra, i've made some modest steps forward that have lifted my techno spirits and given me some slight (and needed...) confidence that i can master some more complex tasks in the future. i learned (at least practiced...) how to download photos from our new mini sony cybershot, as well as these exquisite rock n' roll songs, onto our user-friendly apple computer. so, my next tremulous lesson next w/end will be to move these soulful western rhythms onto the ipod for easy access at my office during the day. such, it seems, are the emotional achievements that these middle years offer this greying soul... ;-)
as I've repeated a few times... it's winter in nepal. that means lovely autumnal days w/ a gentle warmth in the crystal cerulean air -- but, no secrets among friends, the night chill is monstrous, if i may say. zero centigrade w/ zero central heating. of course, partially we're to blame with the exquisitely semi-tropical home shakun designed (when she still thought nepal was bali...). for those of you who have been here, you'll remember that this house has more glass per wall space than anything designed since i.m. pei's pyramid in front of the louvre. not to mention that charming nepali craftsman-like work, which has left space around all of the wooden window and door frames allowing the mountain breezes to unself-consciously waft into the house from the 8,000' shivapuri national park behind us. yes, we have lovely ridgetop views, a magnificent acre+ garden with scores of conifers, fruit trees and bamboo amid streams and ponds to delight us -- but nothing will stop the january wind from blowing in off the 20,000' snow-clad peaks only 15 kms behind our home -- until central heating comes to nepal. ahhh, nature in her frozen glory...
we escaped our himalayan winter for ten days over new years to scott's wondrous new tropical home near kampot, two hours south of phnom penh. his new home puts paid to any hotel on the beach in thailand forever. i'm not sure we have an open winter invitation, but there's no other place now i'd rather be to escape the cold. what scott and sochua created over the past eighteen months has been magnificent, much more beautiful than i had imagined or expected. i call it his 'four seasons' home -- it's that exquisite, aesthetic and peaceful...
like the frangipani tree at the entrance to their home, the joy of the vacation w/ scott and sochua is still fragrant. imagine a large, two story wooden frame home rising like a dream on stilts in the expansive, open pasture of rice fields, with a twin (hans' home) next door, as if you're seeing double. then, as you drive around toward the front of the home, facing the 200 m. wide kampot river, you see a stairway to heaven, reaching from the young garden below up to a wide porch on the second floor at the center of the broad v-shaped home. as you climb up the stairs, your mind is drawn across the river toward the rounded ridges on the highlands beyond, until you step into a spacious dining/living room with wooden floors, a 22' open pyramidal ceiling, a gracious, modern kitchen, and a lengthy, elegant dining table with perfect views back to the river and mountains beyond. not bad, bodhi. not bad, at all...
of course, if the physical setting wasn't divine enough, there were three 'didis' on duty at all times. sochua's table is always set for the guests. with her gently smiling cousin-cum-cook from phnom penh there under mu's supervision, if one's spiritual appetite wasn't filled by the cambodian landscape, there were snacks, fresh baguettes from kampot and fresh seafood and vegetables every afternoon and evening. with a holiday bar, cold drinks (in the bright orange plastic ice box) and some 'quintessantly quite' on the daily menu, days and evenings passed with the quiet, tender ease of a thirty-four year friendship... although, for a measure of excitement, there were always evening swims in the kampot river or next-door in hans' swimming pool when the sun was hottest or for more adventure two man kayak trips up amid the lush, tropical palm banks -- although the peacefulness of the environment rarely called for more stimulus or travel. we had arrived.
now, back to nepal's himalayan winter of discontent, the political situation remains vague and uncertain, hun sen's cambodia certainly showed the economic strength (and moral vacuum...) of a democratic dictatorship. but, even for the seasoned observer, it's hard to see which way nepal is going. we hope for greater peacefulness and stability, given that the country has slipped steadily backward over the past ten years (made more evident by the comparison w/ cambodia). but, even with the positive steps of the maoists tentatively giving up their weapons and agreeing to participate in future elections, there are new ethnic and regional splinter groups taking up where the maoists left off in blocking the highways, blackmailing the economy and murdering to make a point. it's hard to know if we're takling two steps forward and one step back or one step forward and two back...
we live in a country of epochal uncertainties. not always easy on the state of mind, unless national uncertainty is your pleasure. still, it appears that the worst of the internecine war is over. now, it's time to wonder what nepal's peace will look like? the continuing semi-chaos of a fragile democracy or an evolving semi-benign communist dictatorship? or something in between? put down your bets before the wheel stops spinning! although in nepal the wheel of life never quite stops spinning... as the dharma says...
next there is a constituent assembly election planned to write a new constitution in june 2007. will it happen? what new forces will it unleash? who will be thrown to the foreground and who into the background? and, who will go peacefully? do we predict greater political openness or grinding repression? will we achieve new forms of economic stimulus or the continuing draining of national resources out of the country? the constituent assembly's first vote is supposed to be about the king. remind me: which was the last country to peacefully vote out a 250 year old royal family? not to meniont, when did a recently 'royal army' ever integrate with a 'revolutionary people's army'? reasonable questions, methinks...
or, dear g-ds, can nepal, true to it's remarkably syncretistic and wordly cultural identity overcome some profound classical mental categories to churn out a surprising 21st century hermaphroditic national political identity? will nepal's youthful population take this opportunity to create new inspiration and optimism? or, will the past dogmatic social forces that continue to afflict the national identity still play the 'zero sum' game to everyone's detriment?
best to remember the final words of 'the count of monte cristo', that monumental tale of historical passion and renewal: 'wait and hope'. for like any great novel, the joy is in the reading or, in this case, in the living through remarkable times... even w/o electricity occasionally and w/o central heating always ...
for spring grows eternal even in the heart of this father of three children, husband of a single wife, who once, long ago aspired to be a 'philosopher-poet/itinerant painter'...
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