I wake up to see my little sister jumping up & down with glee. As an everyday routine, I check my facebook and see my college juniors’ status as “yahoo” or “yippee”. The occasion was yet another Nepal bandh declared by some party/ group demanding something from someone. These bandhs have been so frequent and for such illogical reasons that I have stopped keeping track of its WHYs, WHOs and WHATs.
I didn’t share the happiness of my kid sister who didn’t have to go to her school, nor did I share that of my juniors’ whose exam got postponed, all thanks to the bandh. For all I care, I was pissed and angry and if only I had the courage (& I could drive a really big heavy vehicle), I would very well drive a dozer over the protestors and their flags.
Walking to office can be fun, provided that it is a choice. I or for this matter, any one else does not like to be forced to walk under sun for 45 minutes by some agitated groups whose cause we don’t even support.
Let me talk about the nature of these protestors, a typical person from the agitated party given charge of making sure the bandh was effective. He/she has probably nothing better to do all day than carry something large and heavy like a big bamboo stick or stones or brick, anything that would cause serious damages to the vehicles, its drivers & passengers that dared to defy the bandh. They raise voices as if they are the mafias…. they take out their life’s frustration this way, & if asked about their cause.. they might not have half the clue on why and what of it.
It is actually a nice way to mobilize the unemployed, uneducated frustrated masses of people. Yes we can do these bandhs at least once in a week such that the offices cannot function properly, the construction of infrastructures get seriously delayed & hampered.. and then after our demands have been fulfilled… and we no longer need to protest on that particular topic, we can easily find another agenda to have Nepal bandh on. After all, we do need to give the unemployed & uneducated, the unprivileged, a platform to express their frustrations – be it by burning someone’s bike or nice shiny cars the rich & posh dared to have the luxury of or simply by hitting the driver and making him unconscious.
We can surely protest on the extended load shedding, the bad network connection of NTC, the water supply, the mismanaged garbage disposal system, the traffic congestions; yes, we can burn up the vehicles, terrorize the general public and this will result in kulekhaaani being suddenly filled with water, the obstructed construction works suddenly running smoothly, the employees being more productive as they have to walk to their offices… Bandhs! that’s definitely the way of getting things done!
(Please keep in mind this was written in pure frustration over the continuous bandhs we were having few months ago. Am generally not this concerned on the issues outside me.)
