Blame it on the rain !!

[So much is already talked about Taslima Nasreen's scheduled and then cancelled visit to Kathmandu, and here I am not  going into background details. This post is not about the whole fiasco itself but an attempt to look into our own society in the backdrop of the event.]

 ”I consider no country as foreign country.World is ours & we are one”  tweeted Taslima and even while she was typing those words she must have realized that was a poor shot in dark and weak act of damage control. The damage which was already done in one haste of stupidity. Stupidity is the word here because one might love, hate or wont simply care about her saying “(she) did not consider Nepal a foreign country“  – posting something like that in open social media was always going to be troublesome. Sure celebrities should also have freedom to make mistakes and do stupid things (and eventually learn from them – if willing to), one would expect being an author, and hence probably most intellectual genre of celebrity,  she must have a good understanding about the psyche of people of  her own region – South Asia (even though she flaunts the tag of “homelessness” in every opportunity available, as if it is some kind of jewellery). And while it is wise thing for anybody to show some maturity in social media, a little more is excepted from celebrities as whatever they say can have big impact – the situation could have easily got out of hands and turned to chaos. (Equally important for celebs to understand is that not everybody out there is liking everything you say or do – your every follower in twitter is not necessarily your fan, do not expect god like worship everywhere you go and be ready for some criticism. A lot can be discussed and debated about it but here I will try to stick to something rather small – the difference of opinions seen among Nepali tweeples.)

A line was drawn from middle in small Nepali community of tweeter users, one section got raged and jumped to ridicule Nasreen, while others came out there to offer friendly helping hands much to the relief and comforts of “seemingly hurt” Nasreen. Both were clearly unnecessary and equally pointless but that’s what we are. We live in a country where our ministers and prime ministers openly criticize America, India or any other country more often than not. We are very vocal about how we are oppressed and interfered by foreign countries, to the extent that bashing everything about those countries seems to be the only indicator in the barometer of our own nationalism. And yes, we might have few valid reasons (not to forget many made-ups) of our own, but still who we are to decide what any open minded individual living in somewhere outside should think about our country. If somebody does not like my house but if  I am still comfortable in it, why should I be bothered about it at all. What Nasreen thinks does not matter because she is nobody – she means nothing – she does not count, at least that should have been our attitude. And if we are making an issue out of it, we are actually capitulating to that foreign invasion and interference which we are so opposed about. Years of suppression in our society has perhaps trained us that way and we are trying to beat somebody in their own game under their shadow. This is not going to work.

The only honest and scientific conclusion about Nasreen’s consideration of Nepal as not foreign country can be – her knowledge of geography must be pretty poor for someone of her stature. And yes, if you are still feeling humiliated and would enjoy hitting back using stronger words  – you can also call her knowledge is poor and pathetic and laughable considering she is from Bangladesh and have been living in India for as long as most of us know her. Days will be days and nights shall remain nights – they will not interchange according to anyone’s consideration, the world will not spin according to anyone’s mood. Nasreen is just another average, middle class celebrity (out of respect, I will skip getting into her fame built upon controversies) from our region and her visit to Kathmandu should not have attracted any such big attention where so many other equally talented and many better ones were also present. But ah, how we love devalue  someone among us and  glorify the imported ones. Obviously the cut runs deeper when when that is caused by one of the glorified god. It just happened again.

Equally interesting were reactions and sympathy Nasreen got in her favor, which quite reflects the push and pull going in our society. I am in total agreement that Nasreen got treated unfairly by some of the tweeples and should have deserved better. However, if one is addressing thousands at a time – he or she should be prepared for some boos every once in a while. This section probably should have totally let Nasreen deal with her problems which was in first place created by herself, rather than taking this as an opportunity to show how higher their own intellect and wisdom are. Its ok to correct somebody or anybody  and thus even a  talented homeless activist foreign celebrity woman (i can count many more myself, im not refusing her positive attributes) . When we will learn to treat a person as a person and not as some divine, or will we ever ? Respect somebody as much you want but not more than somebody else with different opinion. Amusing it was, how many went ga-ga about the tweets of Nasreen saying the world is one, earth needs no boundaries ……and bla, bla. More difficult was to understand they actually bought those words which the author used to save her face or just wanted to support anyway because she was the wise woman of our generation. But two wrongs can not make one right and if twitter is the only media we are interacting with the author what makes that one twit-id to bigger than yours or anybody  around ?  Are we so low on confidence about ourselves and grown up to accept our share of progress under the shadow of somebody and feel more safer there not wanting to see the light outside of that shadow.

Sadly, our struggle to identify that MAHAPURUSH, the TARANHAR, continues in every faces we meet, Kings, Leaders, Celebs, Activists, Gods and there seems no end to this struggle yet. We are elated so easily and hurt so soon, we have much ego about nothing but nothing much to have a genuine ego for. I hope we meet some more failed TARANHARs quickly to make us realize that flawless, guiltless, immaculate one does not exist, so we can come out of these shadows sooner and accept the faulty ones who can be corrected, worked and improved.

[Lastly I'd like to salute all the tweeples who did not abuse, humiliate or hurled foul words upon anyone. Who did not consider someone was inferior to them but also not gave up superiority to somebody else. Those who stood by their reasons and did not hesitate to question anybody -  no matter which side of the line they were. Peace]