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Hands up who did not watch the World Cup this year? Or Wimble­don? Or even the British Golf Open, held in my home town of Carnoustie in Scotland? Perhaps you were dreaming instead of the next summer Olympics, set for 2020 in Tokyo? Perhaps, even, you are one of the men I have seen around Kathmandu, who are in training for the swimming events…I have been doing quite a bit of swim­ming this summer and have noticed a strange phenomena. There are a remark­able number of Nepali and Indian men who consider themselves to be Olympians in the pool. They approach the pool with a swagger that equals that of Captain Jack Sparrow, eye the water as if looking for Moby Dick, then either throw themselves in or do a clumsy dive. Having discovered none of these guys are Asian Michael Phelps, every time that happens I hold my breath. Not in anticipation of the gigantic tidal wave coming towards me as a result of this. No, I hold my breath because the deep end of the pool only comes up to my chin. This means it cannot be more than five feet deep. Surely that is not deep enough for an amateur swimmer to safely dive in to?

Once in the water, the would-be Olym­pian causes geysers of water to rise as he flaps about in whichever style he chooses. With great gusto he swims half the length of the pool then stands, panting, with a look of accomplishment on his face. Being that hotel pools in Kathmandu are not particularly long, certainly not the standard 50-meter Olympic pool, he has probably covered eight meters at most. Then he will, always, float face down, arm outstretched, in a manner similar to that taught to a small child on their first swimming lesson.

He may even attempt another eight metre dash, spluttering as he goes. That done, he will remove himself and his goggles, and perhaps even his waterproof speakers and earphones, from the pool and collapse exhausted on the recliner chair. With his masculinity assured among any watching friends, the recovering macho-man will head off out of the pool area around 12 minutes after arriving.

Four minutes in the pool, eight minutes to recover, seems to be the standard. If there are more than one Phelps in the pool, god help us. They may even stretch to six or seven minutes as they try to outdo each other in a way teenage boys might do. Or they might just stand around in the water chatting to each other. The way teenage girls might do.

Meantime I am taking my time, doing my 30 minutes up and down without touching bottom, in a sedate, relaxed manner. More marathon than sprint. Yes, I am considerate of other swimmers, and no, the water does not form waves.

Member of federal lower house Kalu Devi Biswokarma has repeatedly spoken of how house owners in Kathmandu refused to rent her a room just because she is a dalit. Around three months ago there was another news of a reputed journalist not being able to rent a place because of his caste; the police had even arrested the house owners in this case. Another bit of news read: ‘A Biswokarma roughs up a Pariyar accused of touching a public well’. Why are these things hap­pening and what do these diverse incidents suggest? A few months ago there was a cyber-crime related case lodged with Kathmandu police. The main accused was a Pariyar and the main victim was a Biswokarma. There was a clear groupism between differ­ent castes in this case, so much so that even the dalit rights campaign­ers found themselves in opposing camps. There are many such unfor­tunate cases of inter-community discriminations in Nepal.

Even within the traditionally marginalized communities like dalits, women, janjatis, Madhesis, oppressed classes, and laborers, there is a lot of bad blood. A lim­ited number of people from these communities have usurped all gov­ernment quotas, opportunities and services. This in turn has badly dam­aged their larger movements for collective rights.

Of course this problem is not limited to Nepal. Yet that does not undercut the scale of the problem. One dalit discriminates against another dalit because even within the dalit community, there is a social hierarchy which its members accept. So a Biswokarma discrimi­nates against a Pariyar, and a Mijar discriminates against a Gandarva. There is no marriage between dif­ferent dalit castes and in some cases one set of dalits do not even use water that is ‘polluted’ by another set of dalits.

If we don’t start a campaign against these discriminations within the dalit community soon then we might as well forget the larger goal of dalit emancipation. Even though we sometimes get to hear members of some ‘superior’ dalit communi­ties speak of the need to end these discriminations, not much has hap­pened on the ground.

Nor is this just an issue of dalits. There is as big a problem within Adivasi janajatis as well. For instance there are entrenched discrimina­tory practices within the Newar community, as those belonging to Chame and Pode sub-groups are publicly shunned. While some janajati leaders have reached the higher echelons of power, the janjati leadership is still silent on the problems faced by the poorly-represented Raute, Chepang and Kusunda communities.

Likewise, the moment for wom­en’s liberation has been usurped by a few elites and wives and relatives of powerful political leaders. It is not just a problem of Nepal but of South Asia as a whole that for a woman to establish herself in any field she either has to be born into an aris­tocratic family or has to marry into one. Although the fight for women’s emancipation should have the par­ticipation of women from all castes, classes, religions and communities, Brahmin women or women related to powerful political leaders have hijacked the movement. The state of dalit, janajati, chepang, Muslim and Madhesi women is still pitiable.

Similarly, leadership positions of major political parties as well as the major Madhesi parties are occupied by a limited number of Madhesi castes. While the Maithil Brahmins, Kayasthya, Tripathi, Bhu­mihar and Yadav occupy nearly all the top positions, the Madhesis from dalit, halkhor, Chamar and Musahar communities, as well as Madhesi women, have little or no say.

There are thus big contradictions in all the movements for the rights of the marginalized communities in Nepal. If these contradictions cannot be resolved amicably and in the spirit of inclusiveness, common legal rights and proportional rep­resentation, the fight for minority rights may soon fizzle out. Margin­alized communities cannot make big demands of the state while they themselves are not inclusive.

Monsoon never comes to Nepal as a surprise. But people in the Tarai have to live in con­stant fear that their houses and prop­erties could be swept away. Those in the hilly regions hope they are not buried in landslides. This leads to my question: where is the preparation for this season? As per the National Emergen­cy Operations Center, 361 people have died in the past three months (Baishakh 1-Ashar 30, 2075): 218 from drowning, 25 from floods, 19 from landslides, and the rest in other disasters. A total of 1,660 houses have been completely or partially destroyed in these three months. In Bhaktapur alone, three people died.

The government mobilized rafts, cranes, and helicopters in Bhakta­pur and Kavrepalanchowk to rescue people and pledged to compensate affected families. But that compensa­tion can never bring back the lives of the deceased. Timely preparations could have prevented the casualties.

The monsoon rains are vital for the nature to recharge, to support agriculture, but they can also cre­ate havoc. After the unexpected floods in Bhaktapur, people started talking about encroachment of the rivers. But cleaning the riverbeds wasn’t talked about much. At oth­er times, sewage, trash and some water flow on the riverbeds. And as the monsoon brings torrential rains, the riverbeds cannot keep up with the flow and the water goes in unexpected directions. Case of Bhaktapur! No preparation for the monsoon season.

We, nevertheless, see solid prepa­ration whenever our prime ministers visit India and China, which are man­datory for every incoming govern­ment—size of the delegation, issues to raise, whom to meet, what to see, the likely agreements, the responses for the press, they are all planned. Often these visits are fruitless. But there no planning to deal with the potentially deadly monsoon.

Sharing information of rising water levels is not enough. There should be mechanisms to move the people in disaster-prone areas to safer places if an emergency hits. Instead, we hear instructions given to fill the potholes. We want more than that. We need convincing examples of what the government will do to pre­vent monsoon disaster—number of bridges and roads fixed, number of riverbeds cleaned, number of emer­gency stockpiles.

A meeting was reportedly held under the Home Minister on July 12 to discuss potential dangers of the ongoing monsoon. How early is that? And if you read the outcomes of the meeting, it’s more for the heck of a response rather than about preparedness.

It is also unfortunate that we, the people, do not put enough pressure on the government on these vital issues. We hardly come out on the streets demanding our right to live in safety. Venting out frustrations through writings like these can nev­er make an impact, but a strong will of a ruling government could. The “response” side of the govern­ment is visible and commendable but the preparation side must be made much stronger, which would not only be cost-effective but also people-sensitive.

Sci-fi/Action/Adventure

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

CAST: Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Michael Douglas, Michael Pena

DIRECTION: Peyton Reed

3 stars

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’ contin­ues the chronicles of Marvel’s lightweight and insect-sized superhero Ant-Man. In this edition we see Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) wear­ing his Ant-Man suit that enables him to both shrink and supersize, to pass through cracks and tricky spaces to help his mentor Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Hank’s daughter Hope aka The Wasp (Evan­geline Lilly) in their quest to bring back Hank’s wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) who has been trapped in a different quantum reality for 30 years. 2015’s ‘Ant-Man’ went through many production hiccups that, among others, saw director Edgar Wright walk out before shooting even began. Wright was replaced by Peyton Reed. But Reed and lead actor Paul Rudd were able to prove the skeptics wrong through an enter­taining movie with a funny and lik­able underdog super-hero. Three years later, Reed and Rudd try to replicate the same magic. Amid the large universe-saving exploits of the rest of the Avengers, the Ant-Man saga is yet again strung together with a scaled down personal adventures. And the results are mixed this time. We get knocked out by the amazing and smart fight scenes and snappy dialogues but the science-heavy story feels messy and crisscrosses at lightning speed between parallel sub-plots.

At one point of the movie, Hank and Hope have a jargoned discus­sion about quantum dimensions, and a perplexed Scott asks, “Do you guys put ‘quantum’ in everything?” This is a question that many audi­ence members would constantly ask while watching ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’.

Speaking of the villains, the movie has one evil-minded businessman Sonny Burch, played with effort­less sleaze and a cowboy drawl by actor Walton Goggins. Burch is after Hank’s high-tech science lab that can be easily shrunk into a rolling suit­case. Bruch wants to get his hands on the lab to strengthen his weapon business. Meanwhile a mysterious super-villain Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen) is also after Hank’s lab for her own needs. Burch and Ghost create hurdles for Ant-Man and his team in their plan to safely rescue Hank’s wife.

When the story’s not spinning your head with long chatty scenes about ‘quantum’ stuff, the support­ing characters draw you in with their hilarious gags. In particular, Michael Pena as Scott’s expendable buddy and Abby Ryder Fortson as Scott’s feisty pre-teen daughter get to shine. But the show belongs to the 49-year-old funnyman Paul Rudd, who appears to be in his mid-30s in the movie. Unlike, say, Deadpool’s caustic sarcasm, Rudd’s Ant-Man benefits from the humor that ema­nates from his Average Joe likability and humanistic views. His scenes with his on-screen daughter are the film’s most poised and heartfelt ones, which in turn make up for his slack chemistry with Evangeline Lilly’s Hope.

Their performances nearly iron out the narrative excess of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’. It’s definitely a good outing at the big screen but I wouldn’t stress that this movie shouldn’t be missed.

Who should watch it?

Even without cameos from other superheroes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, loyal Marvel fans would derive a lot of pleasure from Ant-Man this time as well. As for those who prefer large scale adventure like the ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, they might be a little disappointed by the grounded approach of ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp’.