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For the first time in many years, we are indeed getting a sense that there is a gov­ernment that is serious about its responsibilities. The orderly transfer of leadership in Nepal Police to a deserving candidate, the measures against breaking the transport syndicate and a strong statement against the EU’s non­sensical recommendations are hints of it. In this context, it is only natural for many of us to believe that Prime Minister KP Oli meant what he said in the 18-page speech delivered by the Rara Lake last week. One particular point in that speech touched on ending our dependency on foreign­ers. But the prime minister did not elaborate.

The reality is that despite their lofty diplomatic rhetoric, a weak, unstable and dependent Nepal is in all major global players’ interest. Though it sounds unpalatable, an economic war is being waged upon us, in a classic case of war by other means that keeps us poor, breaks our morale by stripping us off our nation­al pride, and compromises our sovereignty by giving foreigners the power to call the shots here. Sadly, more than foreigners, it’s our leaders who are to be blamed for this pathetic situation.

Let’s consider what the foreign powers are doing here: India always delays the development projects that are of economic importance to us, such as high­ways and hydropower. China is yet to open its door to Nepal’s agriculture products. And others are content bullying us and order­ing us into submission. But there are ways to change things.

According to a report in Nagarik daily (March 3), due to corruption at the tax offices and customs, the government is losing Rs 300-350 million a day in revenues; as such almost Rs 120 billion is lost each year. If we could control this and if we could spend only half of it on infrastructure projects we would not have to depend on foreigners for development aid and assistance.

The government can also slap an additional tax of Rs 20 per pack of cigarettes and Rs 50-100 per bottle of alcohol. And that money too can be pumped into infrastructure projects.

Similarly, it can add a tax of Rs 100-150 for 1,000 liters of drink­ing water as infrastructure devel­opment tax, once the water from Melamchi reaches Kathmandu. That’s still cheaper than what one has to pay the water delivery ser­vices in Kathmandu these days.

Not many people will be offended by these taxes if the gov­ernment promises to use them strictly for development. That’s a small amount to pay for the country’s development and pride, and is nothing compared to the sacrifices made by the citizens of other countries.

If we could do these things immediately, by the end of this year, we will have money to begin the tax-and-build work, i.e. if the government agency respon­sible for collecting taxes takes its job seriously.

It will give the government the freedom to choose the best com­panies, whether domestic or for­eign, to do the job. We will not be stuck with the shady foreign companies whose only purpose seems to be delaying the projects they are working on.

When we break the dependen­cy, we can deal with our neigh­bors and the rest as equals. They will have to think of other ways to make themselves important to us. Most likely China will be more receptive to opening its door to our agriculture and other prod­ucts. Similarly, India too will have to allow hassle-free export of our products. And when we are mod­erately prosperous and strong, our leaders will not have to kow­tow before the foreigners for a few more dollars.

The leadership must under­stand that it needs to assert its authority for the greater good of the country. This means being able to make—and implement—important, albeit harsh, decisions for the greater good of the coun­try and rising above the party’s, personal and various lobbies’ interests. We’ve failed because of weak leadership and we certainly don’t want PM Oli to make the mistakes of his predecessors.

PM Oli has talked the talk. Now he needs to walk the walk.

If you look at the twitter handle of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli (@kpsharmaoli), the banner picture shows him appar­ently “standing by the truth and being dauntless in the face of power”. Whether or not we agree with such a depiction, Oli does have the opportunity to prove his mettle now. In the past two weeks, he deliv­ered two speeches. The first was in India during his state visit at an event organized by the India Foundation in New Delhi. The second was delivered to the nation from Rara Lake on the day of the Nepali New Year and start of the Rara-Karnali Tourism Year 2075.

Both speeches overflowed with good intentions, potentially transformative ideas and new beginnings. PM Oli does deserve some credit for at least pro­jecting an image of himself and his cabinet that is different and is committed to change in the forms of economic devel­opment, good governance and anti-corruption efforts.

Glorious past, rosy future

Both speeches carried an intrin­sic message: Nepal has a rich and prosperous past. But things slowly fell apart. While it is our good fortune to be born in such a beau­tiful country, it is now mired in a vicious cycle of poverty. But there is no reason why we cannot reverse this situation by utilizing our vast resources and natural beauty. Together, we will change the course of our collective des­tiny and reclaim our history.

In India, Oli’s exact words were: “I have a mandate to work for the long-cherished socio-economic transformation of the country. Ours is the dream of a prosper­ous Nepal where people will have a decent living and youths will have decent jobs; where our infra­structure will be better and our vast, untapped resources will be converted into economic bene­fits and wealth. It’s a dream of overcoming the vicious circle of poverty, underdevelopment and social backwardness.”

Reading just this much, it seems almost as though Oli is talking about some other country, and as if Nepal’s last 20 years have no meaning or significance. If the language were slightly more refined, the speech would resem­ble that of a first-world leader. At Rara Lake, Oli’s speech was simi­lar: more about history and glory and natural resources and wealth. He tried again to remind us that there are plenty of reasons to be hopeful about the prosperity of this country.

However, back in reality and on the ground, our woes remain unchanged and unlikely to change.

On the night PM Oli returned to Kathmandu from his India visit, it was around 8:30pm. Inciden­tally, I got stuck in the traffic jam he created as the route from the airport had to be cleared for his entourage. No big deal. After all, these are the kinds of things we have become used to since the days of the monarchy and the Panchayat years.

Similarly, immediately after the glorious Rara Lake speech, PM Oli returned to Kathmandu. What Oli left behind was gar­bage littered all over the coun­try’s prized natural possession on whose back—according to him—Nepal is supposed to prosper through tourism.

Panchayat-era mentality

Of course these are just anec­dotal examples, but they reflect the unwashed remnants of the Panchayat era mentality that if you talk sweet words about prosper­ity, unity and development, you will not be expected to walk the talk. During the Panchayat era, we witnessed royal trips to different parts of the country. Thousands of people used to gather to listen to the rosy speeches of the royal family members. But once they left the venue, the organizers left everything in chaos, forcing the people to clean up afterwards. The purpose of the speeches of those days was to cheer up the public and had literally no practical value or real intent to transform the people’s lives.

Looking at the antics of Prime Minister Oli, there is a growing worry that he will continue to cheer up and cheer on Nepal and Nepalis, but do very little to actu­ally make a positive impact on our lives. That is the last thing Nepal and Nepalis need.

Haven’t we heard it all before? New infrastructure is proposed and the given timeline seems very rosy and optimistic. Everything, it seems, will be up-and-running within two to five years, regardless of the com­plexity of the project. Part of the rea­son is that Nepalis just don’t like to disappoint. So saying no or giving a realistic timeline seems impossible. I don’t think there is anyone read­ing this who has not been on a long distance bus or on a trekking route and asked “when will we reach our destination?” to be told it will be an hour; but four hours later, you seem no nearer the end.

Then of course there are those unforeseen natural and unnatu­ral stumbling blocks. Like the facts that rock is hard to drill through, or blockades do happen. Why is the unexpected not figured into the plan, especially when in a country like Nepal the ‘unexpected’ pretty much happens every week?

Many moons ago (about 16 years’ worth) I worked with WaterAid on a little handbook intended for peo­ple in the valley so that they could best utilize their water. There were drawings, technical and lay-persons advice on a rainwater harvesting sys­tem (did anyone?) on the house roof, how to reuse grey water, how to install a well (there was still ground­water underneath us in those days), how to maintain hand pump, etc. The name of this booklet? “While Waiting for Melamchi”.

Maybe an addendum needs to be added now which includes things like how to turn your dry well into a garden ornament, or how to use the weather app on your phone to gather rain in a bucket. Of course we didn’t think we would need a whole rain-water harvesting system as Melamchi was coming soon.

And before we get too excited about the amount of water that will be coursing through our taps, let’s think about the population of Kath­mandu now and then. When the fea­sibility study was done on Melamchi I’m quite sure it was during the mid-1990s. What was the popula­tion of Kathmandu then? And what is the population of the city now? I don’t have the figures but I think it’s something like a hundred percent increase. More than the population of the whole of Scotland!

And speaking of Scotland, we also have a vast river network. Which we utilize. All the water coming from Scottish taps is water from our rivers. And all our elec­tricity comes from the same source. In more recent years this has been supplemented by wind-gen­erated power. Because hey, like rain-water, wind-power is free after the initial installation and a little maintenance.

I feel some people think that making use of the rain and wind is ‘old-fashioned’. While it is true that these nature given gifts were utilized by past generations around the world, they are certainly not ‘old fashioned’ as can be seen by the upsurge of use and interest in devel­oped countries. Solar-run houses are springing up, and although those are pretty expensive at start-up, a solar panel or two is a great idea. Just ask any villager living in the hills and mountains here—they have had solar panels for decades. Just ask me (snug look on my face as I switch on my solar lights).

So yes, as the papers are all announcing—‘finally’ there is a breakthrough on Melamchi. Let’s see when, ‘finally’, we will see the results in our taps.

Black Comedy

BLACKMAIL

CAST: Irrfan Khan, Kirti Kulhari, Arunoday Singh, Omi Vaidya, Pradhuman Singh, Divya Dutta

DIRECTION: AbhinayDeo.

Black comedies with their cross-cutting plot lines and humor derived from character desperation can be tricky to crack. Done well, this is the genre that leaves lasting impression. Think about Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fic­tion’ or The Coen Brothers’ ‘Fargo’ and ‘The Big Lebowski’.These movies find their way into­every film buff’s canon of modern classics. Given the seductiveness of this style of filmmaking, it has attracted its share of copycats who have dirtied the pool with their for­mulaic and revisionist approach. So whenever a multiple protago­nist comedy with a crime at its cen­ter hits the screen, people invari­ably say, “It’s like Tarantino!”But even Tarantino and Coen Brothers haven’t been spared by detractors, as they have been accused of ripping off their earlier works in their lesser known offerings.

Abhinay Deo, the director of 2011’s much-loved black comedy ‘Delhi Belly’, has just released his new film, ‘Blackmail’. So does Deo play his old riffs or perform a new tune? I’m pleased to say that he finds a delicate balance. ‘Blackmail’in places reeks of ‘Delhi Belly’ but still manages to score a mean punch thanks to Irrfan Khan’s wide-eyed and effective deadpan central performance.

Dev (Irrfan Khan) is a toilet paper sales executive stuck in a thankless job and a loveless arranged marriage with wife Reena (Kirti Kulhari). He would rather spend time playing PacMan till late hours in office than go home to his wife. One day, egged by his office colleague (Pradhuman Singh), Dev decides to surprise her by going home early. But when he gets home, he’s the one getting the surprise. As he peeps into their bed­room, he spots Reena in bed with another lover (Arunoday Singh).

What does a heart broken Dev do?

He’s a meek sales executive, so Jack Lemmon-like in ‘The Apart­ment’ that his character, if he walks into a room where his wife’s canoo­dling her lover, he would rather apologize and excuse himself than violently confront them. So Dev runs away quietly.

But as he is under a pile of debt, he makes up his mind to use this new found information about his wife’s affair and in a stroke of weird genius decides to extort money from the lover by blackmailing him. But his action backfires. Without spoil­ing the movie, I can just hint that what starts off as a harmless black­mail scheme instigates a chain of events that circles back to Dev and he finds himself getting blackmailed in the end.

What works well in ‘Blackmail’ are the moments where Dev needs to come out of his repressed existence and improvise to escape from sticky scenarios. There’s a point where he flees a crime scene and to make himself unrecognizable strips down to his boxers and covers his face with a lingerie brand’s shopping bag. Irrfan Khan shines in the film’s fish-out-of-water scenes and he does so by keeping a straight face, thus escalating the humor.

His nuanced acting is matched by Arunoday Singh, who plays the dim­witted body-builder lover of Dev’s wife. This lover in turn is married to an alcoholic and ball-busting rich lady (Divya Dutta). Similarly, Omi Vaidya makes a comeback after a short hiatus from Hindi films as Dev’s boss who wants to teach Indi­ans to save water by wiping their bottoms with his toilet paper. In a standout scene, Vaidya’s charac­ter announces a war against jet-sprays which he deems his product’s toughest competitor.

But director Deo’s eagerness to make Khan’s character emotionless definitely weighs on the movie’s length. The film’s runtime is 2 hours 19 minutes(nearly 30 minutes longer than the runtime of ‘Delhi Belly’) and much of the middle part is spent treading water. So it is a little slow, you could say.

But ‘Blackmail’ deserves a view­ing for its quirky sensibilities and colorful characters. I don’t think it will have the same recall value as ‘Delhi Belly’.Nonetheless this black comedy scores high on originality and twisted humor.

3 stars ***