Captivating Kathmandu !

Kathmandu diary
While sitting for my CFA Level 1 examinations, I chose to sit at Kathmandu. Indian cities were not an option considering the sadistic moves of the ICFAI Institute, the naïve (if not corrupt) moves of the AICTE juxtaposed with the speed of dispute resolution in the Anglo-Saxon Jurisprudence as practiced in India.
Why Kathmandu ? Because one presumed that being the closest to India ( Gorakhpur to Kathmandu is barely 225 km), it would be the cheapest location to travel to. (On second thoughts, it was not particularly a smart move - I had to travel from Bangalore and not Gorakhpur, but too late - by then I had chosen my exam center)
The rest of the India was not particularly smart either. Some of my 'co-examinees' were from Mumbai ( a closer exam center was in Karachi- 500 nautical miles by the direct sea - a route which seems to fascinate 10 young men in the last week of November). The Calcuttans too came to Kathmandu in spite of the fact that Dhaka is just 245 km away. Chennaiites were smarter – They went to Singapore and Colombo (less popular of the two). They did not have to battle the climate, food or language as much as I had to.
First Flight Abroad !
I was on my first flight overseas ( Ok,ok, This is was not really overseas but international, nevertheless) to Kathmandu from New Delhi. You know, you still have to go to the International terminal, go through Immigration, security et al. reminding yourself that the famous IC-814 operates between the 2 cities that you were travelling currently.

After cavorting the Himalayan ranges, we land at the Tribhuvan International Airport, named after the grandfather of the deposed king Gyanendra (brother of slain King Birendra).
We landed at the Tribhuvan during the load-shedding hours. One was reminded of Lord Jeffery Archer’s comment, last August in Bangalore to promote the ‘Prisoner of Birth’. Speaking of travel in India, Archer likened the Lucknow Airport to Somalian airports 10 years ago. ( Before the aghast audience could protest, he assuaged them by saying Indian airlines like Kingfisher and Jet were the best airline in the world)
Kathmandu is the capital of the fragile secular republic ( I almost said Hindu Kingdom) of Nepal.
State of Affairs

The inexperience of the new government is telling. They have declared themselves secular. To showcase its secular credentials, the government, recently, provided a state budget to help nearly 400 Muslims go to Saudi Arabia to perform the Haj, declared Bakreid a holiday and assisted in construction of a mosque. Some people can never learn lessons from neighbous. Also, in the new-founded patriotism, the secular government ordered the replacement of the priests hailing from Udupi, in Karnataka, at the Pashupathinath temple with locals. (Aside :Is it not a wonder that Udupi priests perform at Kathmandu’s Pashupathinath, Priests at Badrinath are Namboodiri’s from Kerala and the priests officiating at Rameshwaram are from Uttar Pradesh).

The Maovadi ( as the Maoists are locally known) are driving away investment and tourism. The new government has set higher minimum wages driving away investment. They have also begun what Indian media’s latest peeve- Moral Policing- The Maoist Government has stopped nightlife at 11 pm and banned nude dances. If the hippies ever hear of what had happened to their beloved Kathmandu !!

The entrepreneurs are Indian – you will find the ubiquitous Marwadi in most shopping areas- the workers Nepali. Probably, this is partly the reason for the sub-surface angst against ‘Big Brother’ India and at attempts to remove Indian symbols - like the priests at Pashupathinath. Nepal is a nation tottering to its feet. King Gyanendra has been overthrown, the tallest leader Girija Prasad Koirala unwell, (If you are interested GP Koirala is the granduncle of Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala) , the Maoist-government is on a renaming binge attempting to erase all history of the monarchy and any traces of Indianness.

The public hold Birendra, the slain King, in very high esteem but hold the opposite view for his brother, the dethroned Gyanendra. The deposed Gyanendra is living in a private residence and the government is moving to convert the royal palace, Narayanhity –which covers over 700 acres in the heart of Kathmandu. For an economy, where tourism is estimated to account for 17 % of the GDP (6% for India 3% for Singapore), the scarcity of tourist guides was appalling. And for that matter the knowledge of locals of the sthala purana – the local history. We visited the Buddhist Stupa and the Swayambhunath (Monkey Temple) without as much as understanding their significance. Much of the factfile in this blog on our tourism has been from Wikipedia researched subsequently!!

The Nepali Rupee is pegged to the Indian rupee at 1.6 Nepali Currency for every India Rupee, since 1993. Hence, the local are amazingly quick at multiplying as well as dividing by 1.6 while you struggle with this new Constant at every level of haggling.

The modes of the public transport are the Yayta bus, the ubiquitous Micro and Tuk-tuk.

The Toyota-made Micro is fast overtaking the Tuk-tuk (pun intended) in numbers.
The Toyota-made Micro is maneuverable and comfortable for the short distances in the city if only the staff donot overload it.
A common sight on the streets of Kathmandu was chicken / mutton shops and bars on either side of shrines and temples, something quite unimaginable in the parts of India this blogger has lives in/lived in. Varyingly, different levels of influence of India and China can be observed, i.e. Hinduism and Tibetian Buddhism are on display, in the food, clothing, prayer and so on. The most visible symbol of a Nepali is the Nepali Cap or Dhaka Topi.



Camp Thamel
So much for the state of affairs of the state. Camp: Thamel. Thamel was to be our home for the next 5 days. It is a hub for tourists consisting of all that could be expected in a tourist zone. Hotels ( budget to extravagant), pubs, restaurants, extortionist taxis, Wi-Fi, internet parlours, knick-knack stores, souvenir sellers, mountaineering gear, dance bars, cabbies who turns pimps after-dark et al. Three days were spent studying for CFA exams. I spent some time watching television- especially the channels banned in India – Al Jazeera ( what did you think ? ;)
Sight-seeing
We began our sight seeing day with Boudhanath,,one of the holiest Buddhist sites, located Bouddha, Kathmandu. The stupa's massive mandala makes it one of the largest spherical stupas in Nepal. The Buddhist stupa of Boudhanath dominates the skyline. The ancient Stupa is one of the largest in the world. The influx of large populations of Tibetan refugees from China has seen the construction of over 50 Monasteries around Boudhanath.

Legend say that an old woman built this stupa as a mark of respect on the remain of Kasyapa Buddha (Not to be confused with Gautama Buddha, whose birthplace, Lumbini is also in Nepal and hence caused trouble to the movie CC2C)

Then we visited- Swayambhunath. Swayambhunath is an ancient religious complex atop a hill in the Kathmandu Valley, west of Kathmandu city. It is also known as the Monkey Temple as there are “holy monkeys” living in parts of the temple in the north-west. However, there were lesser monkeys than what one could find at the hill temple of Lord Narasimha at Sholingur (near Tirutani, Tamil Nadu).

The next stop was Patan, by far the more interesting part of the day. Patan Durbar Square contains the King’s Court, numerous temples ( one featuring both Hari and Hara- a rare combination for Hindu temples, one for Bheema). Here, we found a qualified tourist guide, who would speak in Nepali/ Hindi. Much to my consternation, he would mention the datelines and years too in Hindi, forcing me to seek translation. Patan is about art, temples and myths. After feeding on all three we moved to ‘New Road’ and -pardon the cliché -shopped till we dropped. That evening we headed out to a Casino with enough money in our pockets to pay for return taxi fare. Casinos in Nepal are prohibited for Nepali citizens ! (Quite like Liquor is prohibited for Pakistanis in Pakistan). It was fun to watch for a while, but it is a bore if you ahve no money at stake, quite like the stock market ! And since the in-house entertainment did not pass muster, we decided to call it a day.

Last Day. Headed of to meet an acquaintance of an acquaintance. (For those who know me, it comes as no surprise. Networking is inherent in me). Had to hurry to make it to the Pashupathinath. ( Imagine my ignominy, if my family realized that went all the way from Bangalore and had not visited the holy Temple).

Legend has it that a cow which would not yield milk when the cowherd milked it, used to secrete milk suo motu at a particular spot. When that spot was dug up, a Shiv linga was found on that site ‘Pashu’ pathinath was established.
Took pictures from my phone camera. Got caught by the police. Had to delete the pictures :(

It was time to leave, pay the departure tax and head back home.

Let me conclude this blog with a Nepali PJ ( created by yours truly)
Hum: Why will Nepal not have any thefts?
Tum: Because it is the land of the Gurkhas* !!

After In Love with Lahore, Captivating Kathmandu, watch out for Sing-Sing Singapore !!

In Love with Lahore

The student Exchange visit of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to Pakistan (under SAFA – South Asian Federation of Accountants) was finally cleared by Government of India in December, to the collective relief of 9 students and many officials. However, the excitement dropped a couple of notches when we discovered that visas had been granted (inexplicably, isn’t it always?) for just 7 days and for the city of Lahore only as against the application which also included Islamabad and Karachi and was planned for 10 days.

Nevertheless, the enthusiasm of travelling ‘abroad’ and that too to troubled neighbour was sustained. To top it, we were informed that our escort officer’s visa application had been rejected and that we were ‘on our own’. An official briefing just summarised the repetitive buddhivada many including my sister, had delivered – avoid contentious issues, DONOT utter K- word.

While PTDC of Pakistan and DTC of India operate the Delhi-Lahore bus, the officials of the home country manage the administration whosoever bus may be plying. ‘Patriotic’ DTC officials charged Pakistani travellers for excess baggage and let us- Indians- off as the monies went to PTDC (as our tickets were booked on PTDC bus). T

he Delhi-Lahore bus is probably the most secure surface public transport vehicle in the subcontinent. One pilot jeep and one escort vehicle of the local Police accompany the bus right through the entire journey on the Grand Trunk Road built by Sher Shah Suri. Additionally, an anti-hijacking commando sits right inside the bus. The journey time of 12 hours provides an hour and a half for immigration and custom formalities on either side of the Wagha border. This requires physical unloading of the luggage for inspection, reloading, and travelling 200 m to cross the border and unloading again for inspection. We were lucky to be delayed just so much as to witness the Change of Guard ceremony (locally called “Parade”). 20,000 Voices rent the air with emotional cries of “Zindabad” just after the Indian BSF and the Pakistan Ranger alternated the words “Hindustan” and “Pakistan”.Throughout the journey our Pakistani co-passengers tried to tell us that Lahore was no different from any other Indian city.

Upon arrival, our tired contingent had a quick evening tour of Gulberg, a posh locality where we were put up, and discovered (to my considerable disappointment) that Lahore did, indeed, look like any other Indian city.The Next morning, a Sunday was reserved for Sight-seeing. The tour was prefaced with security instructions, asking us not to reveal our nationality and always be within earshot of our armed security guard (who was with us 24X7). Our first visit was to the Race Course Park which once served as the Race Course, until the Islamic hand struck and all forms of gambling was declared Un-Islamic and so it came to be a park.

Our next visit was to the Shalamar Bagh built by Shah Jahan (His idea was to bring the beauty of Kashmiri gardens to the plains). An expansive terraced garden with symmetrical entrances, it has marble structures for the artists to perform and a pavilion for the Emperor. The garden is filled with fountains (of Shah Jahan era). The Bagh’s hydraulic engineering is apparently a marvellous mystery to modern engineers. However, the fountains were not working and when asked why, the ball was thrown back at us. Apparently, India has held back the water on the River Ravi and hence the garden is unable to meet its water requirements. Indeed, we did view the Ravi ; all we could make out was puddles of water.An interesting incident happened at the entrance to the Shalamar Bagh. The entrance to the UNESCO heritage site is priced Rs 10 for locals and Rs 200 for foreigners. Our hosts hoped to get away with the Rs10 tickets but the ‘bindi’ worn by a Thiruvananthapuram colleague gave it away and the security guard wouldn’t let until we bought the Rs 200 tickets.The next stop was at the Shahi Qila (Royal Fort). Built by Akbar, it is about 5 centuries old and houses a museum. Here, we discovered that the city was founded by Lava and Kusha, sons of Rama and was named Lahore after Lav (locally pronounced as ‘Loh’). The North Indian festival of Lohri (coinciding with South Indian Bhogi) apparently derives its name from Lahore.

Situated opposite the Qila is the Badshahi Mosque, built by Aurangazeb almost entirely of red sandstone. It is the world’s largest mosque courtyard for outdoor prayers. Amongst its revered exhibits are relics of Prophet Mohammed including his hair (yes, a single strand is well preserved and so is his clothing) Built across the road from these monuments is Minar-e-Pakistan, a National monument celebrating the creation of Pakistan. It has been built on the very spot where a Muslim League Resolution was passed in 1940 to demand a separate state carved out of Muslim dominated regions of British India.At the Shahi Qila, our contingent took a break for tea at a restaurant and I walked into a souvenir-cum-book shop about 50 metres away. I asked the shopkeeper for a map of Lahore city and he demanded Rs 100 placing it in front of me. I, in my broken Hindi, masquerading as Urdu, said it was beyond what I could afford. The shopkeeper asked if I was a student and to a nod reduced the price to Rs 80. I claimed that it was still way too much. He then questioned me if I was from Karachi to which I said “Nahi”. He asked me as to where I was from. Evading an answer I started looking around while he persisted and I was forced to confess “India”. Do you watch Hindi Movies ?” . Relieved, I beamed “Yes” to which came one more poser. “Is saal kisko milega Best actor award ?” Not having much of a clue, I safely said “I hope it is Shah Rukh; He is my favourite”. To which the two persons happily pronounced that Shah Rukh was their favourite as well and shook my hands profusely, sold their Rs 100 map for Rs 40 and sent their best compliments to Shah Rukh Khan and Madhuri Dixit.Later, we realised that the local cable TV operator, funnily -or is it villainously- named, Mogambo ( In a tragic coincidence, the man who made Mogambo famous – Amrish Puri died that week; Pakistanis too mourned his death) delivered atleast 8 Bollywood movie channels on his own. On the subject of movies, enquires revealed that locales in the movie “Veer-Zara” were not shot in Lahore but probably India itself.

Most of the satellite channels were Indian, even though there exists an official ban on Indian Channels. Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi is a superhit there too, we realised when locals discussed with us the morality of Tulsi killing her sons. Our waiter summed up the situation rather aptly- “Hindustan ko Pakistan harane keliye Bandhook ka zaroorat nahi,sir. Indian films aur Indian TV channels ko bandh kariye; Pakistan ka log pagal ho jayenge, sir.”

We sneaked past Lahore International Airport named after Allama Iqbal, the poet who gave us “Sare Jahan se acha” and the Qaddafi cricket stadium. We visited ‘Food Street’ a Pre-Independence part of Lahore which houses ‘Hindu buildings’. Our hosts were keen that we taste the best of Lahori cuisine but were disappointed because of “your vegetarian problem”. (sic)

The next day onwards our official programme began and we visited a CA firm, a couple of factories, the Lahore stock exchange and Chambers of Commerce. Here, we came across very friendly people chatting with us about “common origin”, dosti and all until Kashmir somehow sneaked in and the mood became sober. We were even surprised that officials of the Chambers of Commerce in Lahore placed priority on political issues over bilateral trade. In the evenings, we went shopping and visited the old Anarkali Bazar (named after a courtesan in Akbar’s court) famed for alleys name-it-and-you-shall-get-it goods and some haggling.

Shops were stocking up really huge kites in view of the February festival of spring-Basant. Pakistan tourism is attempting to make the kite flying season an international festival. When the merchants eventually got to know that we were from India (Our local escort attempted to protect our identity by proclaiming we were from interior Sindh - where Urdu and Punjabi is not spoken) the reactions were mixed. Some of them exploited the tourists and gave us raw bargain while others gave huge discounts justifying that they had to exhibit their goodwill in a tangible measure for Indians to believe that Pakistanis were serious about Dosti.

Symbols of the common sub-continental history were omnipresent. Many of the pre-partition legislations are common to the countries. The Lahore International Airport is named after Allama Iqbal the poet, who gave us “Sare Jahan se acha”. Pre-partition buildings (many with Hindu inscriptions) in older parts of the city are still around. We dined at a restaurant in one such area.

Overall, a tour of Pakistan turned out to be a wonderful experience. One realises that as individuals, Pakistanis are hospitable hosts and wonderful human beings. I, for one, hope to visit Pakistan again. Or as the Pakistanis say Inshallah I will.

This was written in February 2005, published in the New Sunday Express on 11th February 2005.

In Favour of the Media Ombudsman

The Karnataka Home Minister proposed the Media Ombudsman. We need it now, more than ever.
In an age where there is intense competition from several news channels for eyeballs, editors vie for sensations and create monsters out of molehills, heros out of zeros and vice-versa !
An example of how insensitive TV news channels can be was demonstrated during 26/11. ( watch Al Jazzera's take here and my own here and here).

What better can one expect from a 'contract system' of hiring( hint: They run the widest circulated English language newspaper in the world) The journalist's contract is renewed only if he/ she can produce sensational articles day after day. Who cares for credibility or even readability.

That the Media is protesting against the Ombudsman in the interest of Freedom of Expression is laughable. Read this- NDTV's conduct is shocking.

The Media might criticise the rest of the world. But nobody ought to criticise the Media. This seems to be the media's attitude. And if some one manages to criticise it at all, the response is all too predicatable and irresponsible: Don't shoot the messenger,if you dont like the message.
My foot, the message is fine, Thank you. It is the messenger who is the mischief-monger.

About the Media Ombudsman. The Media is obviously an interested party. And the unscrupulous (most of the Media, is) ones will suppress the voices supporting the ombudsman.
Hence, one should discount Media's own opinion on the proposal. But the real threat is the Media's attempt to obfuscate the issue.

Not long ago, the media forced the Central Government to scuttle a move to bring in controls during an emergency. Apparently because the media has a self-regulatory code. To bolster their argument, they invoke the ghosts of Emergency and Censorship. Seriously, does anyone believe that censorship will work, in this age of blogging.

The bottomline is : We need a Media Ombudsman. The question is:
How, of course, that the Karnataka Government will enforce the Ombudsman is the question ?
Of course, We may never know, since the media is powerful enough to scuttle the Central.

Maybe post-polls some might just have the guts to show the Barkha Dutts of the world their place.

btw.... For those who did not know, the Karnataka Home Minister blogs @ http://www.drvsacharya.blogspot.com

Capital Punishment, yes but no Hangman please

A couple of days ago, I met this physician and we began discussing terrorists, deterrents and Afzal Guru.

He had an unique (repulsive, you might say) alternative to the hangman or the Fasi (or the electric chair, if you will) . He suggested that the convict ( I was about to say 'the capital punishment awardee') be killed so that the body is useful to the rest of humankind.

For instance, healthy convicts may be killed such that their eyes, liver and kidneys are transplanted, the dead body passed on to medical colleges for study purposes.

Sounds very interesting.
Let me play the Devil's Advocate.
What about the dignity of the dead ? What about possible human rights violation ?
Well, organ donation is not known to be undignified. Is it ? It is possible that such donation may be without the consent of the convict, but what-the-hell, the capital punishment probably was not !

As to the exact mode of killing, we did not discuss that, but a physician would know how to effect the same at any degree of pain or painlessness.

After I finished writing this, I googled. There have been other thinkers on the subject here.