Earthquake, Fear and Aftershocks

“I was at the first floor of my house, trying to make tea, it was after a week of first earthquake and when I hold the tea pan, my hand started shaking and I was so scared I threw the pan in the kitchen and then rushed down. From that day on I really have not entered inside my house.”Raju Shrestha, a gym instructor and  a quake volunteer from Thankot shared his experience with me.   

One of his friend who was sitting nearby him on a bench listening both of us, circled his hand on his big arm muscle, squeezed it slightly and told me, see his big muscle and yet his heart is so weak that he can't even sleep in his room. He has been sleeping in a shed even after two months of earthquake his friend revealed his secret with me. I could not hide the smile from my face.

“You must have been inside the room when first time it shook earth,” I remarked. Not surprisingly, he was inside his room when the 7.8 MI earthquake shook his home heavily. Not only that, due to excessive fear he could not even think of coming down from his house because his two children were with him.  Worse, from his room watched helplessly, buildings falling from both sides.  Later on he found out that one person was buried and died in one of that fallen house. The fear gripped him so much that he still can't think of going inside his home and sleep in his room.

What really made me amazed is, as gripped as he was in his own fear, he have been going out to pull damaged houses in his locality, helping people who are in need and also joining his group of volunteer friends to make small jink houses known as tunnel houses. He is an active volunteer from Thankot area. He may not be knowing how to cope his fear, but not even knowingly he found the cure for his fear. This is how he is keeping his mind busy that is  gripped by fear.

He is not the first person I have seen, who is gripped in fear after experiencing such mega shake. Anju lives in next door. When we all ran out, she was in her room and was there for about a minute, when everything in front of her was shaking like anything. She thought, she will die that day. Its not that, we all did not get that thought; when we experienced series of aftershocks in same day and after 72 hours also we were experiencing the continuous shakes. But some are more frightened than others. When she was in her room, she was praying and remembering gods but it did not stop shaking. When I entered the house to after a minutes or two, I called out her name, Anju and then she came out from her room. She was really frightened and that face of her, will be stamped in my mind forever to remind me how much people can be frighten when they are locked in a room, when the earth shakes with the force of 7.8 MI. Once, she was out from her room; she contacted her parents who lives in Kavre. She learned that their village house had collapsed. With that news, her fear of earthquake mounted. She was always the first to run out with every shake and then rush out in the open space.  It took Anju almost two months to feel completely relaxed and go in her room to sleep.

Like Anju, most of the people who were locked inside the room at the time the earth was shaking and heard the news of collapsed house or saw it like Raju Shrestha they are more scared of sleeping inside their room, that others. Its not that others are not scared. I was scared of the shake but my fear was gone, once I saw TV and learned I am safe and my place was safer than many other places. However, Raju Shrestha really made me more determined to go out and do volunteer work and help those who need. Therefore,  I will join various team of volunteers and be at different places then gather all kind of local volunteers experience after the quake. I will be on the field and know what they have seen and been through.

Four women who manipulated men with their sexuality

Satyavati

Mahabharat is a mythical story of our ancient history and fascination towards it never dies even the time pass by centuries. The question is why some characters in this literature  never dies ? This is the story of all generation that suit men and women of yesterday, today and tomorrow. But, here I would like to focus only on four women who are lead character of this mega story. We all know this, women are weakness of men and women are the strength of men. There are four types of women who pose challenge to feminist for her work  

Talk about gutless men in Mahabharat, men of this era jump to argue with you; as if, you just insulted the great grandparents, who were in the board member of creative team of this mythical story which  base is politics. I have completely failed to understand why men like this story ? What fascinates them ? Why some men react in defensive manner about coward bunch of men in story and find reasons to argue with you, rather that admitting, yeah men in that era did not know how to respect women. But, lets be honest and  realistic that will never happen, why ?

The Sex bomb : Ganga purely loved having sex, craved it, enjoyed it but; she did not like the result of it. She was successful manipulating her man to let the newborn child go every time she gave birth. I bet it was abortion whatever said in Mahabharat. But when this continued for seventh child  then the king realised, he wanted to have more than sex.  He needed her to make him father, the joy of being a father of child. Ganga did not like that idea, as agreed earlier, so she left him with his child. Here when we sit down to argue on the subject, it's her body let her decide if she would like to be mother or not it's her right to choose, what she want. See who oppose it and what she had to go through. may be her body her right is not the good idea all the time.

Ganga is portrayed as Goddess river in Mahabharat. Why she did used to let go every newborn child in sea is described in very idiotic way. It was because of a curse from her father Brahma - in her prior life -  for liking the attention from a man in her revealing sexy dress which was blown out by a cool breeze of air. The man who kept staring her bare breast without ‘shame’ and Ganga who enjoyed the attention she was getting from that person; must go through this phase in this life. Nothing can be insane and idiotic than this kind of answer to her abortion without asking her man. No sane person should believe this kind of insane answer.

The manipulator : Satyavati used beauty and sexuality as power to get what she wanted and when she wanted. Its same like men who misuse the power in politics there are always women waiting around the corner to take him in her arms, knowing he is the right person for this. By default, some women just like men who misuse their position in politics. Some women like to use it, all but for wrong reasons. Satyabati was one such character in Mahabharat. She was a beautiful daughter of a poor fisherman.  A king fell in love with her. She is beautiful, she knew it, when she is beautiful this means power in hand. How people use it depends on person to person. So when king wanted to marry her, she made her father speak what is in her head, only if; her son will get a chance to rule the kingdom. The short message was, she will not enter palace as mistress even if she was poor, but will rule the kingdom, because the king was in love in head over heels and she knew it and he could not say no to her demand.

In fact, Satyabati was a pure manipulator, who knew how to manipulate men using her beauty and sexuality and she did this purely for her own personal benefits. Whatever written in Mahabharat, she knew how to make men dance in her fingertips;  the poor father and her husband both  were the victim of her manipulating habit. This is how some women play politics. When women play politics like this, this pose threat to the stability in society; as well as feminist activist across the world. Because, men will come up with pungent questions that will silence the strong women.

Extra Marital Affairs : There is no doubt, Kunti  was the queen of extra marital affairs. Although, she is the wife of Pandu but nobody knows, the fathers name of her five sons. It is not hidden fact, Pandu is definitely not the father of her five sons. Again, Mahabharata tries to give you very idiotic answer of who is the father of her sons and how they were borned ? On top of it, there is Karna her first child, she had when she was only a teenager and she was not comfortable to talk about her first child to Pandu or to her five sons until before the war. 

What is interesting is, she is the mother of five powerful men of this mythology. She had not been shamed for this act of her nor she seem to feel ashamed of it.  It seems she indeed used it in her favor. In that case, why an illogical answer is given to name the father[s] of five ? Always insane, illogical and a face saving answer which is far far away from reality. And still there are people who believe this without asking a single question. What a blind faith in god ? and that scares me a lot Do we worship this kind of God ? God save me from nonsense.

Beauty with Foot in her mouth : Draupadi was young, indeed she was much younger than some of her husbands, about 25 -30. Sure, she was naive at times but more than that she had foot in her mouth  when egoistic men like Duryodhana was around her. I know, it's unnerving when a man  lusts us and treat us like nothing more than an ice cream pick and lick but there are a lot better ways to avoid men like him, so why tangle with them ? but this is not easy to tell every young girls  and like millions in their teen, she too did not know how to handle that lustful eyes with no respect for her. But how come Draupadi could  handle five gutless husband at a time is Draupadi and not one insecure Duryodhan ? How come Duryodhan insulted her and her husbands who lost her in a game of gamble did not insulted her being as their wife ?

To add my curiosity, instead of taking that episode as an eye opener, she ends of cursing Duryodhan - a sure sign of another war - rather than leaving her husband for better, who lost her and who did not have a word to say to save her lost dignity in the royal court ! had not she had foot in her mouth a sign of arrogance believe, she is the wife of five powerful men of the era so she can say anything to anyone and anywhere can be seen in this naivete.

This book tries to tell us in failed attempt,  she was respected by all in that era but she was not because she was gambled and lost without her knowledge and consent. How much insanity Mahabharat tires to infuse in our head is hard to believe but the truth is each five men had separate wives and then they had Draupadi a common wife to all five men. Kunti is blamed to be the main  behind this and Arjun could not utter a word to disagree with his mother to say that what she is telling them to share was not a toy or trophy but a human being. That is another failed attempt to answer irrational behavior from Mahabharat. There is no doubt that society was sexist like today and it did not respected women an inch.  Draupadi’s insult in royal court can be seen in this video.

What really makes me think is still Draupadi choose to stay with her five husband who are worshiped as god in our religion and she did not leave those men who were suppose to give her due respect. If you think this is love and devotion to her five husbands, then I have to tell you this, we are all taught very wrong way what is love and what is respect.

Sometimes I feel like burning this book, but when the perception is build inside the head, what's the use of burning things that is outside ? It sure created curiosity when Russians once burned Gita for corrupting the mind of young generations. Of course, that event angered the parliamentarians in India, and they created a brouhaha over this topic. That shocked me completely, because they have always given blind eyes and ears to rape, female foeticide and sexual harassment and loads of other women's issue including equal rights.

Draupadi

In every society there will be sex bomb like Ganga, manipulating women like Satyavati, women with extra marital affairs like Kunti, and beautiful girl with foot in the mouth like Draupadi. Just like that, there will be men who will run after Ganga and Satyavati and then blames women for ‘using them’ to get what they want . Sure, there will always be men like Pandu, who won't admit the physical flaws, yet would like to be father and then there will be  strong men who can face all the problem in the world, but only can nod their head in front of their mother - I call this politics women like to play as mother; oops, women. These are the men of all era and every society. These are the characters, specially designed in Mahabharat to silence feminist across the world, of all era not just that era, but it looks like; that was not the world where women were respected. No wonder, we have to keep fighting for this.

Letter to Jamie Mcgoldric

Dear Mr. Mcgoldrick :

The way earth trembled beneath our feet with 7.8 magnitude energy on April 25, was enough to send us in panic zone. But, what we saw on newspapers and television next day made us speechless, stunned and emotional. The loss of human lives and images of collapsed villages, temples and our monuments as well as damaged pillared high rise buildings were beyond imagination. While this made the world news headlines, our only international airport started having air traffic problems, and our cargo department was in serious problem to store and distribute with equal speed the relief materials which were coming-in in huge quantity. If we went by newspapers about the delayed response of our government to provide relief materials, it seemed TIA officials were incapable of handling the flooded support, that blocked air traffic as well.

When international news channels were talking about how many country acted fast to send Nepal their rescue teams, relief materials, and how people around the world were opening their purse and heart, our news channels were showing the faces of quake victims; saying they have yet to see the relief materials, or get a tent. Should then, we be surprised, if we read in newspapers during the following days, there was demonstration in front of Red Cross relief camp for tents ? Or the provocative interview on Kantipur TV of Home Minister by Dil Bhushan Pathak ? No, our media should not be blamed for such behaviour from mass.

The cost of massive devastation as a whole is incalculable, billions of dollar is needed to rebuild and reconstruct for long term. With this, fund collection is a must. We watched on our news sources, many nations started raising fund individually. Well known International humanitarian agencies were on the front row to raise fund to help Nepal, to help it rise from the rubble. Never before in my life, I have heard or seen so many people coming together to help Nepal and so much being raised in short time. Again, what is mere a hundred thousands dollar for US citizen or in European Nations is a million here in Nepal. Not surprisingly, that difference in thinking also remained the same in people just like the conversion of currency here and there. That just got collided, in a very bad way. In result, I/NGOs being lambasted in our social network or in many papers. It was interesting to read so many comments that would scare INGOs’ top heads, if they read in facebook post with links from prestigious sites in foreign land.

And just when I thought, generous people around the world have opened their hearts and purse to help Nepal, I read this on May 15th in UNIC, Nepal facebook post: The window of opportunity to provide vital relief to people in Nepal affected by the earthquakes is closing quickly, as urgent funding requirements remain unmet. To date, barely US$ 59.5 million, or 14 per cent, was received against the $423 million humanitarian appeal, launched by the United Nations and partners on 29 April. “If we don’t act quickly, the implications will be severe,” Jamie McGoldrick, Humanitarian Coordinator in Nepal said “We can only expect misery, a crippling loss of dignity and the real potential for more deaths especially in the rural and remote areas.”

Ever since I read your words ‘a crippling loss of dignity’ it's been hitting my head like anything. There is no doubt, UN and all other humanitarian organisation have all good intentions to help Nepal and Nepali to rise from the rubble as our already poor government can't face this kind of disaster. However, we must think hard at this very point is, has all such good intention help, helped us to rise from our unending poverty ?

At this point, I have a question to ask you, does UN wants to cultivate begging mentality, that is so deep rooted here yet people deny it outright ? Is this kind of huge donation is what  is needed to rebuild and reconstruct now when INGOs working in Nepal have doubts about channelling funds into our government account due to deep rooted corruption. Insiders know how our government works here in Nepal.

One burning question is, how long does it take for Nepal to rise from the rubble or how much money we need for this ? What do we have to do to raise funds, when we need vast money to address fast when we face this kind of natural devastation; sure is beyond our belief. But, when you were busy turning the West to raise funds for Nepal, see what our A grade journalists got in their head and wrote about it. Bijay Kumar, turned South to find answers.   Politics is not my strength nor I put my believe in it, it does not offer us all the answers. So, I wonder why we have intellects in my country who turn north and south for all kinds of problem we face, be it political or natural mega disaster ? Reading this article by Bijaya Kumar, confused me but even if, he is the journalist, I read despite my lack of interest in politics. Should I [all Nepali] not be excited then, they are - South and North - competing with each other, who can spend more to rebuild and reconstruct ?

North and South are competing with each other and UN has raised more funds to help Nepal build back better but reading this post on BBC, might help you to get better idea about where the money goes in Nepal. Or why Nepal is still among the poor country in world sitting between economic giants ?

I have one more concern, when Bijay Kumar recommends the name of Dr. Baburam Bhattarai in his post, to be the head of rebuild and reconstruction department. Just because we are having hard time, does not mean we should go for Dr. Baburam. How can we forget this fast its “people war” that costed us billions of Rs and we have not even been able to recover from that ugly mess. No other party or event - other than our own low preparedness for every mega natural calamities including earthquakes like this- in this country, have costed this nation as much as Maobadi movement and its top heads selfish motive. If this country can do justice to its people, then these people should be punished for every bad deeds they did to this nation. But, politics is not my strength; so you might want to have a look on this post by Kanak Mani Dixit. Here, he gives us one of his very best analysis about the war. Still; he forgets to mention some very important informations in that analysis, which are : there are 40,000 young girls and women working as sex workers in many cabin restaurants, dance bars, dohori geet restaurants and massage parlours in Kathmandu alone. Reading a book published by Raksha Nepal on its tenth anniversary will let us know, majority of them are forced to be in flesh trade, because of maobadi war which created a civil war. Mr. Dixit may have forgotten to include it, in his analysis but you must be aware, why our children's homes are flooded ? why everyday 1500 Nepali leave this country, even after the war is over ten years ago ? Again, the answer is maobadi war and so Baburam’s name recommended, to head, rebuild and reconstruction ministry just because our prime minister is too old, too slow and too sick ? My point of mentioning all these is, when in need, please stand for the other option. Why I expect this from you ? Oh, I read in news paper UN requested our custom through government to be flexible to receive turks coming in with relief material.

When all media, agencies, organisations and government are talking about rebuild and reconstruct, I worry about absolutely other thing. Rebuild and reconstruction is possible by the help money coming from outside; is what scaring me most. I do not find my answer there also, because this too focuses all on physical construction not our mindset - there is UN or North or south who will take care of everything that goes wrong in this nation. Cant we find solution in between ?

This is the right time, we have to find new ways to create job opportunities in local market money.

Of all the donation money Nepal collects, minimum 10 percent of it, must go to separate account to be invested in, to create job opportunities and to generate income for our people. Each and every organisation be it government, [I/NGO], private or individual[s] whoever are collecting funds must contribute 10% of total fund collections diligently so that we see the progress in real sense in the years to come. This new policy must be made mandatory to all concerns. Otherwise, billions of donation funds will never see its full potential to bring needed change in this country. I have never seen Nepali joining hands to help each other to face the massive mega earthquake. This earthquake just opened the way for us. Can we continue work together for better result ?

We saw how international humanitarian organisation came forward to help and we appreciate it wholeheartedly. However, as much as we should appreciate what United Nation have been doing, I feel the need of coordination with all organisations that have been working in Nepal, be it small or big; local or international, government or non-government, because we are working for better Nepal, right ?

United Nations not being a business company, can work with our businessmen like, NRN's President - Shesh Ghale who is 99th richest person in Australia, Mr Upendra Mahato, richest Nepali in Russia and local businessmen like Binod Chaudhary, who is only Nepali listed in forbes Magazine. These three came forward to work with their own plan to rebuild and reconstruct. UN can also join hands with other small organisations which are collecting funds to rebuild and reconstruction like Help Nepal Network: One Dollar a Month Fund for Nepal, विवेकशील नेपाली BibekSheel Nepali, on close relation to make this concept work for build back better Nepal. New account for new concept and big or small the policy must work for all.

There should be couple of well thought and planned TV programs to be made, to help our people think beyond the urgent call and seek long term solutions; not just short term solution like shelter and food, when we will rise after the series of mega hits and hundreds of aftershocks. TV programs will bring many creative industries to work under one roof. For a television program to make, it generally requires a whole new creative team to work with; like songwriting, creating music, working on new concepts and ideas, photography, art, fashion designing, you name it. Creating new stars and new talent is also a must to keep the money rolling. Old and new talents can be mixed and new talents needs to be encouraged. Media in fact, is more powerful tool to bring changes in society and our media really haven't used that power in true sense, definitely not yet.

This will help keep rolling money in the market.  TV shows can be used to bring behavioral change in our society. Other plus points of using television is, it also can be used as a platform to creating market for the products that our village people make which partner agencies have micro funded in rural Nepal. once they see it on television our city people can use it.

One teleserial may cost about 10 million Rs a year [approx.], but it will help create more job or money, there will be need to advertise which is another creative industry, bank should be open to invest in new concept of programs or investment rather than freezing their bulk money in unproductive fields like land and home loans.

Television show on National channel[s] and UN ? How can it work ? who are the audience and what are the subjects to be focused on this program ? Well, all that can be discussed further. How can UN stay away from our hyper reactive media people from this ? Well, UN can circulate news among its  partner organisations 10% of its total fund [ in from of TVC advertisement, making those advertisement suitable to air at time like this and commit for whole year so that such programs runs smoothly and it will help individual company to make good program for the country.

Sunita Giri