Category Archives: Wagle Observation

The Earthquake that Rocked Us [भैंचालो जसले हामीलाई हल्लायो]

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[This post is bilingual. यो पोस्ट दुइ भाषामा छ । Read a news report on the quake here]

The scary thing (or good, depending upon how you see things) is that the epicenter of the 6.8 earthquake that rocked Kathmandu and eastern Nepal this evening was, according to the US Geological Survey, 272 kilometers away (east) from Kathmandu. (68 km north west of Gangtok, Sikkim, India). It was so terrifying. (Personally speaking, the Quake Moment was the most scariest I have experienced in a looong time.) Imagine the situation if Kathmandu WERE the epicenter! And think about the people living in mud-and-stone homes in the hills of eastern Nepal that is close to the epicenter. [Three people have died in Kathmandu, and two in Dharan, after the British Embassy compound wall collapsed. Many people have injured themselves as they tried to ran out of buildings.]

डरलाग्दो कुरा (या राम्रो किनकी त्यो हेराइमा भर पर्छ) चाहिँ के भने अघि साँझ काठमान्डू र पूर्वी नेपाल हल्लाउने ६.८ रेक्टर स्केलको भुकम्पको केन्द्रबिन्दू, अमेरिकी जि‌ओलोजिकल सर्भेका अनुसार, काठमान्डूभन्दा २७२ किलोमिटर टाढा (पूर्व) थियो । (भारतीय राज्य सिक्किमको राजधानी गान्टोकबाट ६८ किमी उत्तर पश्चिम ।) ज्यादै डरलाग्दो थियो त्यो क्षण । (व्यक्तिगतरूपमा भन्नुपर्दा त्यो भैचालो क्षण मैले लामो समययता अनुभव गरेको सबैभन्दा डरलाग्दो क्षण थियो ।) कल्पना गर्नुस् भुकम्पको केन्द्रबिन्दू काठमान्डू भएको भए ! अनि सोच्नुस ती मानिसहरका बारेमा जो केन्द्रविन्दुभन्दा नजिकै पूर्वी नेपालका डाडाहरूमा माटो र ढुङ्गाका घरमा बसेका छन् । [काठमान्डूमा बेलायती दुतावासको पर्खाल ढल्दा तीनजना र धरानमा दुइको मृत्यु भएको छ । धेरै मानिहरूले चाहिँ भैचालो जादै गर्दा या गएपछि घरहरूबाट भाग्दा आफूहरूलाई घाइते तुल्याएका छन् ।] Continue reading →

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The Spillover Effect: from Bihar to Nepal [and the Maoists]

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By Dinesh Wagle
Wagle Street Journal

We are waiting for the spillover effect to take hold. China is growing phenomenally. India is following China so very closely. We are tightly sandwiched between them. We are folding our hands and sitting back, hoping that one day the economic progress will spillover from both sides and submerge us. We are hoping to swim. While hoping so we continue to berate both of our neighbors. We call the Chinese the “ex-Maoists who have no idea about democracy and freedom.” We call the Indians “expansionists who have nothing except the Bihari-style democracy.”

spillover effect

Kathmandu Post 28.11.10

The Bihari-style democracy! Turns out the Bihari-style democracy is much better than what we have been told we have—”great achievement of the great People’s War”. In the past four years since the ‘great People’s War with small help from People’s Movement-II’ gave us republicanism we have gotten nothing but instability and inflation. Life has become harder for the man on the street while leaders are engaged in an endless power struggle. Frustration has surpassed the height of Sagarmatha.

Until recently, Bihar used to represent the worst of India: crime, corruption, insecurity, lack of development and immoral politics. Everything negative. That image of Bihar has changed dramatically in the past five years. And in the meantime, all these negative Bihari traits have crossed over to Nepal. That’s the actual spillover effect taking place. Neither Bihar nor India is to be blamed for that. We are solely responsible for stagnation and the deteriorating situation in our society. What have we done in the past five years when Bihar went through the historic transformation? Okay, we too witnessed historic political changes. We ended a decade long bloody war. We transformed from an autocratic monarchy to a democratic republic. Certainly things to be proud of. But, the question is, is that enough? The answer is a resounding NO. Continue reading →

Extreme Nepal: Lukla Airport

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Last week Suraj Kunwar forwarded to me a link to a video that documents thrills of flying in and out of Lukla airport of Nepal. The film, made by History Channel, rates Lukla number one in the list of the most extreme airports of the world. The film also contains video footage of 2008 Yeti airline crash at the airport that Suraj had captured almost live. From a reporter’s perspective, he was almost in the right place at the right time. I was pleasantly surprised to spot a familiar face in the film. Arpan Sharma of nepa-laya reports about the airport in the documentary.

Lukla! I have always wanted to go to Khumbu (the Everest region) of which Lukla is considered the gate thanks to the short take-off and landing airport there. Last time I was close to landing at Lukla was in 2005. That didn’t happen because the weather wasn’t good enough for a plane to land at Lukla that day. After making us wait for about six hours at Kathmandu’s airport the airline, Yeti, rescheduled the flight for the next morning. But I canceled the trip that evening because I wanted to be in Kathmandu to witness important political developments (the royal regime attacked Kantipur FM that evening).

While watching the History Channel film on Lukla airport I couldn’t stop thinking about my own desire to go there. But more than that I kept asking one question: Do I really want to fly in to Lukla? It feels so dangerous to take a plane to Lukla when you hear Captain Bijay Lama telling why the airport is so risky to land at. There’s no question of NOT landing once you reach a certain point, he tells. Also the structure of the runway and the notion that you will be landing there scared me. I have landed at several STOL airports in Nepal, some of them without paved runways where cows and buffaloes are seen grazing. At one point, while watching the movie, I felt good that I didn’t fly to Lukla then! Continue reading →

IPL is not India-Pakistan League

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Pakistanis should know that the I in IPL stands for Indian, not International. And the P definitely doesn’t stand for Pakistan. IPL is not the India-Pakistan League. It’s purely an Indian Premier League of cricket. A tournament for the Indians, by the Indians and of the Indians. I am amazed by the responses of some Pakistanis who feel so humiliated because none of the Pakistani players who were up for auction were picked up by IPL franchises. If there was indeed an Indian conspiracy, as pointed out by some in Pakistan, then no one but the ISI should be blamed. The spy agency should have known this beforehand. Certainly before the Pakistan government cleared the players the Indian tournament.

It is no surprise that given an opportunity many Indians would always try and want to humiliate and defeat Pakistan. What do we hear about Pakistan in India? The media is generally filled with skeptical/negative reports/propaganda about Pakistan. I am sure same happens about India in Pakistan. Many Indians have no fair idea about the society of a country that is so much talked about in media for negative reasons. There’s frightening lack of information about Pakistan in the world’s largest democracy. I am sure same applies with Pakistanis with regard to information about India. There are always some people on both sides of the border who want to play the nationalistic politics. They are celebrating now.

There are some people in India who talk good about Pakistan and my sense is that many of those folks were genuinely troubled by the IPL rejection of Pakistani players. Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood actor and owner of IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, today told India’s NDTV that it was, in fact, “humiliating” for him “as a KKR owner that this has happened. We are known to be good, we are known to invite everyone, and we should have. And if there were any issues, they should have been put out earlier so that everything could happen respectfully.”

Here’s a very interesting observation made by Shah Rukh Khan in the same NDTV interview (video):

“I am not giving an excuse and I truly believe Pakistani players are the best T20 players in the world. They are the champions. They are wonderful. But somewhere down the line there is an issue and we cannot deny it. There is an issue, we cannot keep saying ‘Oh this was wrong’. Yes maybe the way it was done was wrong, the way it is being carried out may be wrong. But you can’t keep on saying ‘Koi issue nahi hai yaar, woh aa jate’ (There isn’t any issue, they could have come). There is an issue lets not deny it. Every day we blame Pakistan, everyday they blame us, it is an issue,” he added.

So true. The blame game is because of lack of fair information about each other, I guess. Both societies need to open up themselves to people from other society and promote exchange of ideas. As their neighbor, we can only wish they came closer and worked towards the progress of the region.

Nepal Banda and Power Cut

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By Dinesh Wagle
This is part of an article that appeared on today’s Op-Ed of the Kahtmandu Post. The other part is here. The complete article in PDF is here.

In my five-month-long stay in Delhi, I almost missed two things in particular about Kathmandu. 1. Why no bandas here? 2. Why no power cuts?

I was back in Nepal for a week recently and experienced both in ways that were in no way enjoyable.
A colleague at Kantipur told me about the banda the next day as I reached the office in the evening after booking a nonrefundable ticket with Buddha Air. I was destined to get stranded in Biratnagar (from where I planned to reach Delhi via Darjeeling). I thought, okay, a day of banda has become a non-issue for many of us these days, so I’ll take it. It’s like only a couple of hours of power outage a day. But eastern Nepal has become a hotbed of protests of all kinds. So my sixth sense and my colleagues at the Biratnagar office were saying that there might be another sudden banda or disturbance on the East-West Highway the next day as well. Continue reading →