Need Potatoes?

For last couple of weeks, I have not been able to go out and spend my spare time elsewhere. I am, now, locked in the walls of rooms preparing for the A levels finals. But, let me be honest, I am not giving my cent percent effort in this. I spend half of my potential reading time watching television, surfing net or sleeping. However, this time has given me an opportunity to witness a weird kind of incidents around the place. It is not that I have not had experience of these things before but not like this time which has actually triggered me write on these. Or maybe I had not given so much of attention to these things before.

   In all of the days that I was at home, I always heard some loud voices tempting to lure the attraction of people. The intensity of this sound so loud that even a person in his deepest of sleep would awake. As for me, I always got out of my seat by the voice that came out of nowhere. It either used to be vegetable seller, fruit seller, or KAWAD WALA (as we call them). The two former would ask the people whether they wanted some and the latter asked whether they had some to sell them, bottles and old newspaper of course. One thing that made me laugh was the language of fruit and vegetable seller. Their appeal would sound like they needed some rather than they were at our doors to sell theirs. By the way, what would one understand when someone says "AAlU CHAEEYE, PYAAJ CHAEEYE". Using simple logic it meant the person needed some potatoes and more.  Did not it?

Similarly, I got surprised by the zeal of children around the place. It was again the loudness of the voice that took me by surprise. Every time electricity was cut off or back again, they would shout on loud voice either "BATTI GAYO" Or "BATTI AAYO". They, for me, at one instance, apparently seemed like messengers, kind of what we still have in my real home back in Parbat. We call them "KATUWAL" there. They shout information that has to be parted to the general people from a place that is audible to most of the people. I tell you what they are very effective means of communication in places like ours.  It may be their impact, the children's, that other older members also started doing the same but this time with few decibels less. So, every time the line came back people shouted in jubilation probably more intense than for a much awaited goal by Nepalese strikers.

Shouting has been both compulsion and hobby for Nepalese. Call it the struggle of 2007 B.S. or mass uprising of 2047 B.S. or April revolution of 2062/2063 B.S. Nepalese have shouted in roads for their freedom , for their voices to be heard and for their plead of change. We shout in our house, our leaders in house of Parliament. We shout in streets, cinema hall, stadium, public places (you understand what I mean), public vehicles and just everywhere and in almost every occasions.

When a player from opposing team scores a century in England, assumed to be most civilized country of the world, everyone applauses the effort. If a player from opposing time scores a century in our soil, we yell at him, we shout at him and we may even go to the extent of throwing some stone at him. Pathetic, is not it? Someone once said this particular behavior of South Asian people have pushed their civilization a step backward. But, still we shout, still we feel o so comfortable in shouting. The shouting habit as it goes.