» Kinda like Christmas…only everything dies…

Kinda like Christmas…only everything dies…

Written by jillian on Oct 20th, 2008 | Filed under: WTF, supersoul, thirdworld

It is holiday season once again here in Nepal, and it is just another reason not to work, or to do anything much at all for that matter. With the exception of watching the news and freaking out that the entire Western society is facing doomsday - but I will get to that in a minute.

Dasain is the first holiday that shuts everything down tighter than a submarine for a week. It just finished, thank god, and I can seek out pizza once again. Dasain is kind of hard to explain, as no one seems to really know the origins. This could be for a few reasons. One, Hinduism is a very old religion and people tend to forget after awhile, or they just don’t want to explain it to the foreigner who has been here long enough and should already know. From the best I can tell, Dasain is kind of like Christmas, except that a jolly fat guy doesn’t go down peoples chimneys and give out presents; rather the people here kill things. Lots and lots of things. Many animals die during this season. But people still give and receive presents.

Chickens, goats, ducklings and buffaloes all die for a blood thirsty god. But this is not the only strange occurrence to my non-killing- for-god-Western perspective; they also worship various things during this time. Like there is cow tikka day, where they dress all the wild cows and bulls in garlands of flowers and put the red tikka dot on their foreheads. Ok, this I can reason out- cows, after all are a very sacred animal in the Hindu religion. Then there is dog tikka day, where all the local wild dogs (without rabies and other ailments) get their tikkas and flower garlands around their necks. This was the one day when I did not receive strange looks for feeding my favorite neighborhood dogs, who I have named Lucy, Charlie, Michael and Sammy. Funny enough, Charlie also surprised me this week by getting pregnant. Guess Charlie needs a new name now.

But the oddest of all worship days is a day for the god Durga, and apparently Durga is a fan of machines, because Durga Day is the day that people worship their cars and motorcycles. No joke, they kill goats and spatter the goat blood on the cars here to appease the god Durga. I have seen some strange things in my life, I have been to some pretty random places, whether they be in Asia or on Colfax in Denver, but never in my life have I seen grown men bow on their knees and kiss the hood of their car. AND THEY AREN’T EVEN JOKING WHEN THEY DO IT!

Now, one may think that we place too much weight in the local mechanic back home, but on this one, I will not give in, give me a wrench and jumper cables any day over some goat blood. It just seems more reasonable.

Again, I don’t want to sound like a disbelieving, jaded foreigner who thinks that “my way” is far better than “your way”, but in the case of mechanics, I guess I leave it to science to figure out, rather than the Gods. I figure the Gods are just too busy to worry about my car or motorcycle.

Speaking of motorcycles, I have decided to sell mine. I bought a Chinese Loncil 125cc. Ugly little thing, but I reasoned that it could get me from point A to point B cheaply enough, and had little enough power so I would not seriously damage myself or others. Yeah, well, I was wrong.

It is an evil monster of a contraption. And I am quite certain it has broken my finger. I am not exactly positive, but I think so. It has a funny bend to it, (my finger that is) after I smacked into a rickshaw, my pinky finger tends to go opposite of what I consider the natural way, all of its own, and I hate to admit that it is of my own doing, but I think it might be.

Truth be told, I don’t think I had much business on that damn Chinese motorcycle. So, after some consideration, I am going to sell it to an unsuspecting tourist. Not at a huge profit, but at a big enough profit to make myself feel a bit better. I am sticking to my luck walking, or in the back of taxis if need be… it is better than the law of busses an

See, the busses have a scary law. Well, it applies to all vehicles, but busses seem to reek the harshest consequence. If a moving vehicle strikes a pedestrian or another moving vehicle and causes irreparable damage, the driver of the vehicle (in most cases a bus, since all traffic moves slowly here and cars and motorcycles don’t do much damage), must pay for all medical damages and all lifetime expenses for the one they hurt…unless, that is, the bus driver kills the other driver, then there is a one time compensation payment made to the family.

Now, reason this out, not as a logical human being, but as one struck by poverty, making only about $340 USD per year, trying to survive and make enough money to support ones family. Say this bus driver strikes another and knows that this big bus has caused a lot of damage. Is the bus driver going to stop? Or is the bus driver going to back up and go forward enough times to make sure that the person hit by the bus struck is dead? Well, the logical answer is not to behave that way, and make sure the pedestrian or motorcycle driver is ok, but the law of unintended consequences speaks differently. In other words, if a bus hits you here, rule of thumb is to die fast, otherwise, your death will be painful and slower than you wish as the bus will be sure to drive over you more than once to make sure there is only a one time compensation rather than a lifetime of support.

Yikes! So, I will report on Tihar next- as there are sure to be many things to shock and amaze. Jai Nepal.

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Linda in Chicago, on October 23rd, 2008 at 6:35 pm Said:

I always thought most Hindus were vegetarians because they didn’t believe in killing animals. What a revelation!

Michael, on October 30th, 2008 at 10:25 am Said:

Hey Jilly, love that I can now read a blog. I gotta catch up on all your posts and endeavors but I thought I would leave you a comment. I’m in a history class right now that is pretty cool, always nice to know why things happened the way they did, and hopefully I can manage to study abroad and immerse myself. Maybe someplace like Madrid, and I would def. want to come and see you. Well, happy Halloween, sorry I’m a forgetful dick and didn’t contact you for your B-day.
Love Michael

P.S. Don’t write such scary posts you’re gonna give Aunt Mary a nervous breakdown, that or my mom…. And me, well maybe high blood pressure but I got confidence that you’ll stay safe.

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