I was hyperactive during the latter half of 2002 at
Sajha, actually so much so, only today I got an email
from a Nepali in Dubai gushing about an article I had
written then, a column piece called Where The Maoists
Lose Me. My activity at Sajha brought me some fame.
High school friends who had not called me before (or
since) were responding to my writings, often
critically, but then, hey, some bonding is better than
no bonding at all. I earned some notoriety on the
Madhesi question. The recently launched Kathmandu
magazine Nation (by some Sajha alum) has been bugging
me to write something for their publication, on what
else, but the Madhesi cause. There are a few people I
first met at Sajha, and then offline. Who says the
internet is populated by predators and hence beware!
I once almost bumped into the monarch himself: San. In
Boston. Instead I spent the evening with two Boston
Brahmins at Harvard Square, one a Chhetri, another a
Sherpa. And, yeah, Sitara called. Don't be getting
ideas. I just read some guy's poem (and what a poem)
about her photograph. She called to bug me to write an
article for Nation about the Madhesi issue. Her first
and last call to me. Oohi Ashu helped Al Gore carry a
Democratic town in New Hampshire, and Al Gore invented
the Internet as a return favor for Ashu. I mean, where
do you have to go online so as to not bump into this
guy? Paschim moved to Vietnam, and has not been heard
from since. He dropped off Sajha (read: the face of
the earth).
So as I meant to say, half way through 2003, I had
mostly moved on. What happened? Did I run out of
steam? I mean, the Madhesis are a severely aggrieved
community, but there is only so much you can say even
about The Cause.
That is when King G sacked King Ding Dong Deuba, plus
minus six months. And there was more steam. Suddenly
every Sajhaite was a pundit, pundit being a casteist
term. What if you were born into a Dalit family but
are more informed than IF, and almost as opinionated
as Ashu? Are you still a pundit? There were at least a
dozen characters at Sajha who were going to undo the
"coup" tapping away at their keyboards, and half as
many who were going to bring King M back from the
grave. Neither happened, instead Deuba happened again.
Must be a treat. Koirala and Nepal agitate, and guess
who reaps the benefits: Ding Dong Deuba II.
It is an undeclared for this site of all sites, the
Mother Of All Websites, as Saddam might have called it
- where is Saddam when you need him - that neither
Prachanda aka Kada, nor Babu Rama Bhatta Rai (so as to
make the name inclusive for various ethnic groups in
the country) have ever participated here. Do they
fear getting tracked down? Like Osama stopped using
his satellite phone?
What really got me were all those "humor" threads
where Ashu said good things about me, and I said good
things about Sitara, and Sitara said good things about
Makura, and, dang, Paschim and Ashu got at each
other's throats. There is a saying in my homevillage:
if in a flood, you get caught in a whirlpool, bring
your limbs together like a baby in the womb, and stop
struggling, for if you struggle, that is a sure way to
not get out of the whirlpool. They would know, they
get major floods every year. These self-centric
threads I think first started at Gaijatra. Everyone
who had ever so much as coined one comment at Sajha in
the past month became a celebrity, and the status
never wore off. It became offensive if you started a
thread and did not get about five dozen responses
within a few days. You had to get onto the Sajha
"bestseller list" for threads. How many page hits? How
many comments?
And then there was the "baby boom." The hastis
retired, or slowed down. And there was a flood of new
entrants. Suddenly people would be like so and so who!
Known names started to feel lost in the Sajha flood of
new entries. Fame can be fleeting. Like Ganeshmanji
would say: "moot ko nyano."
Sometimes it can feel like people who don't get any
email, not even junk mail, gather at Sajha. Some
comments make no sense at all. When you attend
gatherings of Nepalis anywhere in the country, watch
out. That quiet person who did not utter a word but
simply stared at you might be active at Sajha,
gathering material at your expense!
I mean, Ashu can't find a girl to marry in offline
Kathmandu, so he makes fun of the few he does meet
here at Sajha. No wonder he does not connect. Would
you if you were a girl who met Ashu offline and then
got talked about online?
And all the time San is getting popular for no reason
other than that . well, I guess he does host the site,
doesn't he?
