Dedicated to Nepal and the Nepalis

  Devendra Gautam     AI-generated Squirrels are fun to watch as they squeak and run while playing hide and seek, oblivious to vehicles that arrive and leave At a library complex in the midst of a bustling metropolis, there still are a couple of trees, a bamboo grove and patches of Bermuda grass where a wanderer can cool his heels. In those trees that are far less dominant than their neighbours — luxury hotels, shopping complexes, banks, bars, the headquarters of a regional bloc well past its glory days and the like — birds and squirrels have found their habitat.  Squirrels are fun to watch as they squeak and run while playing hide and seek, oblivious to vehicles that arrive and leave. But a fountain without water is not – it’s an eyesore, not only in Rome.    Most of the trees do not bear fruit, making even an amateur observer wonder if these living beings are running and flying on empty bellies most of the time.  Near a parking lot, ...

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    Devendra Gautam A delirious mind is stuck in the intersection of time and space, as if it were a sapien caught in the midst of a ceaseless traffic that does not wait even for the god of death. Even as an overwhelmed cop tries to bring some semblance of order on the road at Sanobharyang, Nagarjun municipality, amid a cloud of emissions and dust, vehicles rush past, several of them with images of different deities and prayers wishing for divine protection for us all from harm — on and off the road. I have a close shave but what worth an ‘ordinary’ life is in this land of the free and the home of the brave? Nearby, a stream flows carrying mud and filth. It has been flowing for ages, with no authority having the ingenuity to harness the waters to build a micro-hydro, irrigation facilities or just a plain and simple mini water supply project. Downstream, a small temple dedicated to Vishwakarma, the chief engineer cum architect of the deities, stands with ironic majest...

  Devendra Gautam   I often wonder if this two-third majority government is more efficient than the Carnot’s engine How is it going, readers? Going great guns? Firing on all four cylinders, like our very own government?  At times, I wonder if this is a near two-third majority government or Carnot’s engine that has materialised, thanks to tremendous efforts from ingenious minds in the government and the vicinity.    How is it going…    I am pretty sure that gas cylinders are full and so are your stomachs. If someone claims that not all people are happy and well despite the government’s guiding principle, then he sure is a rank propagandist from the opposition camp who needs to be brought to justice as he is a serious threat to national well-being.    In my salad days in the 90s, the parliament used to be the place where vigorous intellectual debates used to take place on core national interests. No wonder, the house brimmin...