Wobblyworm retorts back

Dear SRR,

You have done a wonderful job. Thank you. Its wonderful.. optimism, pessimism, hope, despair, conflict.. all in one beautiful package.

My comments (bottom-up):
1. "son" not ready to take on freedom from "father"
Well, SRR, this is the gist of my feelings. I feel that children who are not mature should have the right to live under father. When the son matures, he definitely knows that its time to take up responsibilities of life and support the family, possibly the father also. Each of the children must have this gut feeling of "responsibility" before we can survive freedom. My contention is that we can have democracy under the father also. Again, I reiterate, the father is not the enemy. Its the immaturity (lack of awareness, of conscious decision)of the child that is the problem.

2. Life is full of conflicts. It is the armed struggle of the mauists that have brought us the cherished revolution.. and yet we blame Prachanda for the atrocities committed. The charisma of Girija and his amiability has brought together a disparate people and yet we call him incompetent. We all know why that happens: its human nature to be full of conflicts, only the degree may vary. The reality does not change, but perceptions do. The important thing is the idea.. of democracy, of freedom of choice, of freedom from fear. These are the very desires that are deep inside every person and which drive in seemingly conflicting ways, of thoughts and actions. Its easy to make judgements on other people and say he did this right and he did this wrong, but it is difficult to do the right thing for ourselves. The point I am making is that like MMS said, perceptions are dependent on the frame of reference. But as an "aware" people, we must remember that its not one person that is important.. not Prachanda, not Girija.. nor any other individual person. We must realize that as "intellectuals" we must understand ourselves, and help our compatriots understand themselves and help them deal with conflicts. This will create solidarity and awareness among the people and give light and direction to our otherwise ignorant and oblivious ways.

3. Democracy is the way to go.
There is no doubt. In earlier discussions, I have mentioned that it is the freedom of choice. But again, it is useful in situations when choices are made consciously. Otherwise it does not deliver its purpose. Therefore, our mission should be to empower each individual to make a conscious choice if (s)he so wishes to make a choice. Only then the true "voice of the people" will be heard. Many people profess about the correctness of the direction of the current movement against the king. But again, I ask has the movement brought any change to our lives? hell no.. we live in the same fear.. same lack of choices.. a pessimist would say: man.. have we jumped from the pan into the fire. an optimist would say: shit man.. but lets evaluate our options. For now, I think our best move would be to create a solidarity of "aware" people. Awareness because we choose what we want, and, solidarity because it sustains our identity at various levels that I discussed in the seed discussions for the solidarity.

4. I have hope for our country.
As individuals, I have tremendous respect for Girija, for the King Gyanendra as well as for the mauist leaders. Maybe each one of them is right in his own frame of reference, but I do not believe they are contributing to the upliftment of Nepalese in terms of political ideology and democracy in general. Only by creating an atmosphere of peace and letting the people know their choices and giving them the freedom of choice (or not to choose for that matter) will they satisfy my aspirations for our country. After these requirements are fulfilled, going with the Olympics motto.. "may the best man win" should be the new motto of the democratic political system. And I believe it can come around sooner than in India. Why wait 50 years when we can start right now? According to the July 2006 estimates there are 28+ million Nepalese and if we were to bring awareness to each individual at the rate of one person per minute, it would take us 106+ years, not counting the population growth. But if we have exponential growth as MMS once explained to us, we can accomplish the feat in 25 minutes. Its amazing isn't it?

Guys, I appeal to you to at least think about 2 things:
need for solidarity
bringing awareness to ourselves and to our compatriots.

We, the people, are in no state to tackle the trio (politicians, mauists and king) if we do not have both awareness and solidarity.

Thats all folks. WOBBLYWORM.