Sociology of the peace talks By Vidhu Prakash Kayastha A young lady, colleague of mine in the newsroom asked me,ýWhy the hell the political parties are making noise amid much awaited peace talk?ý I was surprised with the utter seriousness in her question because she was least known for any seriousness. ýWell, it is like this.ý I tried to twist the seriousness,ý If a nakkali ýa beautiful girl-runs away with a jhilke-a roadside Romeo- naturally there will be sharp reactions in the locality. Especially the other roadside Romeos will make lots of hues and cries. They may sing emotional song. Some of them may try to settle their grief with extra drinks apart from their regular quota. Some may invite the jhilke for fight to death while other may try to raise questions on the character of the nakkali. And some may, blame the parents of the nakkali for evils of the whole world. There very few to bless the jhilke and the nakkali saying-may you live happily ever after!ý ýOh I see!ý She threw a meaningful look at me in appreciation of my deliberation. Before I could reciprocate anything to her meaningful look, my boss appeared before me to poke his nose for nothing. He should have known three is crowd. After the unwanted guest vanished from the scenario, I tried hard to bring back the little bit of the blend of pragmatism and romanticism. ýCould you tell me about the three commandments of Maoists ý roundtable, interim government and constituent assembly?ý This time the young lady is trying to be matured. ýYes of course!ý I was almost on the cloud nine with her recognition of my intellect. ý All over the world there is system of the some sort of dowry in marriage. Especially, the fever of dowry is bit higher in South Asian country. In plains, boyýs family asks dowry whereas in hills it is girlýs family that claims dowry. Anyway, dowry is after all a dowry. No matter, how much the social workers denounced dowry, they make tall claim for dowry at the time of marriage. Currently, Dr Baburam is claimant of the three known items in dowry ý roundtable, interim government and constituent assembly.ý ýWhy very body wanted to take part in roundtable?ý I felt happy that my colleague is paying attention as an obedient student. ýIt is very simple. When a feast is arranged to give social recognition to a relationship, everyone in the locality wishes to be invited. If someone is left out, he or she will not be ready to recognize the relationship. Rather s/he would be vocal of relationship as illegitimate.ý ýBut Madhav comrade said that his party will not join the feast.ý ýYes, thatýs true. Of late, the relation of love and hate between UML and Maoists has made a dramatic turn. As a heartbroken lover boy, Madhav comrade wanted to hide his failure to lure the girl by avoiding the feast. Rather he had chosen to settle his embarrassment with unholy alliance with the self-proclaimed holy cows including Girijababus.ý ýDonýt you think the feast will be a failure if all the mainstream parties opted out?ý ýWell, my dear young lady, as per the definition of Dr sahib, there is no other mainstream parties in Nepal than CPN-Maoists and the durbar.ý ýAre you also a Maoist, I mean Maoist supporterý At least, now she is talking like a professional journalist! I felt she is interviewing me as if I have just surfaced from the underground politics. ýLook, no professional journalist can be supporter of any political party and no party cadre can be a professional journalist. I want you to know that I belong to a category of professional journalists.ý ýBut there are hybrid journalists too!ý Yes, there are. But I am afraid the talks may fails because of these hybrid journalists. Usually self proclaimed holy cows blame journalists for their failure. (The End)