"Can You Understand This?"

Image by tonynetone via FlickrRadio Nepal would serve the news in Nepali at seven, morning and evening, and the news in English an hour later at eight. This was during the days of the autocratic monarchy. And so there was much state propaganda. I much preferred listening to the BBC. In English, of course.

Of course no one in my village listened to the news in English. The smart ones listened to the BBC Hindi service.

But then there was always some smart alec who would turn the radio on for the eight o'clock news in English.

"Can you understand this?"

"Yes."

"Bring Home An African Next Time"

Image via WikipediaBy now people from my homevillage have gone to far away places like the Arab countries and Malaysia to do manual labor. A bunch of them are on Facebook. Like one guy said recently, brother, I can't talk to you right now, I am off to have dinner.

So going to Kathmandu, the capital city, is less big of a deal these days. But back when I was attending school in Kathmandu, it was a big deal. It was an even bigger deal when my father was doing high school in Kathmandu. At least I got to take the overnight bus, he had to fly. There was no other way to get there.

And so it was all known that I was attending school with the crown prince of the country, the future king, the same guy who in 2001 mowed down his family in a palace massacre, but then back then you could not have seen that coming, not by the furthest stretch of the imagination.

When I was home for one of my vacations a neighbor approached. He knew I had just come home from Kathmandu. Kathmandu was this mythical place far, far away.

"Next time you come home will you please bring an African?" he delivered. "I hear they are really black, I would really like to see one."