Gaijatra Festival

Walosi

Walosi

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Jan 10, 2001
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The Nepal News site has item stating that Gaijatra was held, in honor of all who have died in the past year, and describes a procession for the deceased king, queen, and royal family who were killed.

There has been a teaser on the front page for the past week for a "Gaijatra Special", which turns out to be a page of what appear to be political cartoons and cartoons of the conditions and times. The language barrier is up, as the captions are all Nepali, but they seem to range from biting comments to raucous romps at the expense (apparently) of the just-resigned prime minister, and other notables, as well as humorous comments on the changing times.
Is this a Nepali version of an Irish wake for the year gone by? The article and the cartoon page seem to be quite a bit different in tone. :confused:
 
Originally posted by Walosi

Is this a Nepali version of an Irish wake for the year gone by? :confused:
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Whether it is or isn't, it ought to be, so we can steal it! Sounds like just what we need, LOL.

As Uncle Bill would say, "What has any of this to do with khukuris? Everything!" Amazing how much we can learn from each other if we bother to look, ain't it?

:p ;) :D
 
Gai Jatra has traditionally been the only time of the year when the common folks can say anything they please about the big shots, including royalty, with total immunity so they make the most of it. I rather liked it.
 
Only makes me wish all the harder that I could speak and read the language. Some of those cartoons are funny without any explanation or translation. They would rate a huge LMRRAO, if they could be translated:D
 
Break the cartoons down to jpegs and send them one by one to Uncle Bill and have him beg Yangdu to translate and then post w/ translation for you and the rest of us.

"It could work!" to quote my favorite line from Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein".
 
I don't believe WebTV is swift enough to do anything but lift the URLs - or maybe I'm not swift enough :)

Anyhoo, here is the page. If Yangdu is willing at all, it might be fairer to her to let her pick a couple of her favorites, post the individual URL with her caption, and leave it at that. She may not want to admit she has even seen some of them:

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/nepalimonthly/kamana/2058/gaijatra/gaijatraaa.htm

For what it's worth :eek:
 
This one says roughly, "If you want to bring something don't bring a snake, bring water."

Water shortage.
 

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This says from left to right:

Before
Now
Future

The westernization of Nepali girls.
 

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Along these lines:

I remember Nevada's senior senator running campaign ads the last time he ran talking about growing up and going to a one room schoolhouse in Searchlight, Nevada. Trying to make himself sound like Abe Lincoln being born in a log cabin.

Want to hear the rest of it? I thought so;)

In the 50's and early 60's Nevada was very concerned about federal regulation of gaming being imposed on them. They scurried around trying to clean things up on the surface, in the process out lawing prostitution in counties of over 200,000, which was only Clark County then. The population limit has since been raised several times, now including Washoe County. Also passed was a bill outlawing whorehouses within 400 yards of churches or schools. That created a problem for Searchlight whose school was too close to the local cathouse. Their solution? They moved the one room school. Yes, the very one our senator was bragging about.:o :o :o

Hee hee hee :D :D :D
 
Great story, Rusty, and probably one of the reasons I've always loved the way Nevada does business. I have always believed that Nevada had the most sensible laws regarding gambling, drinking and prostitution. Make it all legal and tax it! I think that would solve the drug problem -- make it legal and tax it.
 
Back a decade ago, the feds did seize Mustang for back taxes, and ended up being pimps for months until they finally sold it. Back to the guy they seized it from ( using cutouts and stand ins ) :o !!

Then it took them ten years to find it out and prove it :o :o !!!

Nevadans will never let the feds forget they were once in the whorehouse business, nor that they actually managed it right well for the most part. Almost like business as usual. ;)

Other than ultimately making fools of themselves, that is. :D :D :D
 
Those political cartoons are alot like the ones here. Even though Nepal is halfway around the world from us, we have some common ground, except they only get to do this once a year... :(

Bob
 
Bob, I remember when I was living in Nepal some newspaper reporter made an unfavorable statement regarding a dress that the queen wore to some function. The Royal Police came to his office, arrested him and tossed him in jail for awhile where I'm sure he received a few strokes of the cane and was given time to think about the error of his ways. During Gai Jatra he could get away with it but as you said, that's only one week a year.
 
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