Bollywood icon Amitabh Bachchan as Anthony Gonsalves

 ANIL SIGDEL

I was idly browsing through the results of my inane searches on Google and Youtube, I came across the following wickedly cryptic lines:

“You see, the whole country of the system
Is juxtaposition by the haemoglobin in the atmosphere

Because you are a sophisticated rhetorician

Intoxicated by the exuberance of your own verbosity!”

Holy Cow! There was no way that I could decipher anything reasonable out of them! Wait a minute! They rang a bell to me. They are the words of Amitabh Bachhan’s humor in the 70’s movie Amar Akbar Anthony. I went through the verses repeatedly. I watched the song in Youtube several times. Somehow, they reminded me of the quirky sense of humor of Gaijatra edition of the Nepali press. The song continued...

“You see such extenuating circumstances coerce me to preclude you from such extravagance! …You see the coefficient of the linear, is juxtaposition, by the haemoglobin of the atmospheric pressure in the country!”

The lines brought some laughing to kill the melancholy of my day. Slowly the fiendish words started unraveling in my mind. The first fruit of my futile research was a quintessentially Indian skill of imitating western ideas and distorting them in their own silly ways or in other words, subtle act of “indianization”. But such “funda” has worked unbelievably well for them, not only in the movie business, but also in all aspects of life. As a matter of fact, the lines were the distorted forms of those words used by a 19th century British PM Disraeli in order to describe his predecessor/successor Gladstone.

Anyways, Amitabh Bachhan’s performance eventually reenergized me. I couldn’t stop admiring not only Amar Akbar Anthony, but also the whole celluloid or silver screen thing, which has become an integral part of our lives. They have helped me enjoy my life. People need fantasies and dreams to make the grim realities of lives somewhat more bearable. The mixture of action, comedy, drama, romance and melodrama captures our imaginations. What would life be without movies? A “saltless” picante.

Let me come down to the business. I believe that the movies are actually fictions relating to the real life events. They are spicy presentations of insipid realities. But, when your life or your surroundings are full of real actions and dramas, then the reality won’t be any less entertaining and joyful than fictions. I realized this fact when I was on an abroad trip 5 years ago. I felt a tremendous void in me, when I arrived in a country where everything was properly placed.

Now, Amitabh’s lines above, I have found them strikingly relevant to the situation in “new” Nepal. It is dizzying, dazzling, puzzling, alive, kicking, spooky, intriguing…you name it. It’s spiced up with the masala of political machinations, hypocrisy, social decadence and many more. New Nepal has been a sphere of diabolical and fiendish, mouthful and resounding, and alliterative and rhyming discourse. I simply browsed a page of our same old Nepal in Wikipedia, and it turned out Sanghiya Lokatantrik Ganatrantrik Nepal/Federal Democratic Republic Nepal !!@?? I listened to a fellow Nepali, he chirped, Burjuwa Prajantantra birudhha Sarwahara Loktantra natra Jana Kranti/ Proletariat Democracy against Bourgeois Democaracy or else People’s revolt??))!! I watched the news, it began with, Shambhidhan Shabha Shabha-Shad Shamsad bhabanma Shamaya ma Shambhidhan Shampanna shambhav garna Shabhamukh Shamaksha Shadan Abharudha…/||!!???)) Utterly baffling to an ordinary Nepali like me!! The politicians talk out of both sides of their mouth. The editors and journalists, political and economic analysts talk over our head.

Net navigation continued. In the process, I caught on BBC Nepali Sewa. In the aftermath of Tiger Top shootings, some interviewee declared venting off his frustration, in Nepal there was only one Don before, and now there are Don-Donna-Don- so many of them. Lives of all Nepalese are held up at the point of a gun. It made me recall a famous line written by Oliver Stone, „every day above ground is a good day”. I had actually recently watched the legendary gangster movie called Scarface once again. The bullying and bragging in Tiger Tops reminded me of another catchy dialogue from the movie “Say hello to my little friend”. Angry Tony Montana (Al Pacino) doesn’t think and shoots people just like that. To my amusement and consternation, the issue got related to the Pahadi nationalism. One of my friends immediately uploaded on Facebook some pictures of former Prince visiting his wedding, which is apparently the proudest day of his and his family. I saw others liking the albums.

I asked myself, what’s happening here? Is it real life pantomime? Or people have gone out of their mind in Nepal. We all are at the state of our personal Nirvana. We see only ourselves right and the rest always wrong. We are really inebriated by the exuberance of our own superiority, which is in juxtaposition by the haemoglobin of the atmospheric pressure in the country!!??--)))