Alive and punching in the land of Bahadurs! Reloaded

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I had written this post almost two years. And I felt that in the midst of the Prashant Tamang -RJ Nitin controversy this one finds some relevance again. But this one's less controversial for I have written about my friends who can take humour (unlike Tamang's fans! And do not stereotype people (unlike the RJ). I write this piece with much apprehension. If Prashant Pakhrin happens to see the title of this blog he will want to punch me. Two things that make him want to punch people is the 'bahadur' tag and any comment that remotely relates to physical attributes. He is almost 5 feet 1 inch tall. He would squint every time he laughed. (Most of 'us' are small time sadists, count me in). I met Prashant in Delhi again last year. I could see that he had pushed himself hard. He rode a....

Prachanda's Little War!

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Around the same time a year ago I was in Nepal. The idea was to get a first hand insight into the mind of Nepal's Maoist ideologue, the then 'enigmatic' Pushpa Kamal Dahal or Prachanda. In Nepalese 'Prachanda' means the 'extreme; The adjective that Dahal took to drive a decade long armed struggle that his supporters saw as a means to end the schism that had existed in the Nepalese society for centuries. They wanted fair existence. And I could absolutely relate to this. Nepal's rich were the richest and its poor the poorest. Most of rural Nepal still qualifies as one of the poorest places on earth. But capital Katmandu was something I had never seen. Casinos, imported cars, a burgeoning yuppy crowd that fed on burgers and pizzas. But some distance away farmers toiled in mountain soil to make ends meet. Young boys made way to....