Our Glocal Village

Dipesh Dulal's views on global and local perspectives

I am trying to make a series of stories which starts from a funny  old woman’s kitchen (Japanese Folk Tale), goes through the series of adventure, moral lessions, glimpses of magic spell stuffs, fun and ends with totally new characters on scene ready for continuation of series. I am being helped by an enthusiastic student too.

Part I : The Funny Old Woman

Once upon the time, there lived a funny old woman who liked to prepare rice dumplings for her husband. She pased most of her time in her kitchen and in care of her husband. She used to laugh “Tee-Hee-Hee”.

One day she was preparing rice dumplings for her husband. Accidentally, one of the rice dumplings fell down on the earthen floor. It rolled down into the small hole on her floor. She tried to pick it up, but the hole grew wider and she fell down through the hole.

She stepped on a new place, which looked like her neighbourhood. Actually, it was not her neighbourhood. She was on a inclined road. The sides of the road were green paddy fields. She began to run down the road crying: “My rice dumplings !”.

At a place, on the side of the road was a ‘Statue God’ who asked: “Where are you going old woman?”.

She didn’t care much about the question. She looked at the Statue God and asked: “Have you seen my rice dumplings?”.

“Yes, it was rolling down the road.” – replied the Statue God and added: “But don’t go further for there is a wicked Oni who likes human flesh and blood.”.

She thought that was funny and laughed “Tee-Hee-Hee”. She began to run down the road saying : “My rice dumpling, my rice dumpling !”.

Same incident happened when she met second Statue God. She was running down crying, when she came across third Statue God.

The third Statue God asked her to hide herself behind him, as there was Oni curiously walking up the road. She also saw a giant-like Oni climbing up the road and hid herself behind the third Statue God.

“Hey Statue God, I can smell some humankind here.” , said Oni.

“I am not sure.”, replied the third Statue God.

“But I am sure, here is the old woman” , Oni saw the funny old woman and picked her up.

“I will be angry with you and will never forgive you if you kill such a poor old woman.” – said the third Statue God.

“She will be happily staying in my kitchen preparing food for me and my friends” , promised the Oni. The funny old woman laughed “Tee-Hee-Hee”.

He took the funny old woman with him till they reached a river. He caught the boat and put the old woman into it. He rowed it with a paddle. They reached another bank. Another side of the river was more green with dense forest. They walked together towards Oni’s home. There were other Onis who were waiting for the Oni. They were his friends. He asked the old woman to prepare food in his kitchen using his magic paddle.

She had to put a grain of rice in a pot and fill it with water. On the fire, she had to stir the pot with one grain of rice and water. The rice began to multiply by two. 1-2-4-8-16-32-64-128-256-512-1024- and so on.  She used to laugh “Tee-Hee-Hee” when she noticed rice multiplying while stirring it.

Some days passed, and she began to miss her husband and her kitchen where she used to cook her favourite rice dumplings.

One day she noticed that nobody was in the house except her. She quietly came out of the house with the magic paddle under her girdle. She walked down through the dense forest until she reached the bank of the river. There was a boat without its paddle.

Looking at the magic paddle funnily; she said “It helps.”.

She rowed the boat slowly with the rice-paddle.

As soon as she reached the next bank, she looked back to see the Oni’s place as she would never come back again.

What she saw on the other bank of the river was the fiercest Oni ever with red-red eyes.

Oni couldn’t swim across river; so he kneeled down to suck the entire river water. He did so and made the river muddy. The funny old woman was helpless and began to cry with funny face. The Oni couldn’t stop laughing and he again filled the river with water.

Poor helpless woman thought of running away from there and she marched up with pace. She saw three Statue Gods on her way but she didn’t talk with anyone. She saw a hole nearby the road on the field terrace and struggled more to reach the other end of that hole.

She cried with happiness and ran to her husbands bed as soon as she reached in her kitchen.

The funny old woman and her husband began to pass their days in home with happiness. Sometimes she used to laugh “Tee-Hee-Hee”.

Part II: Flight to Heaven

One day the old couple thought of selling the magic paddle. One of their neighbours paid a huge amount for the magic paddle. Then the old couple bacame very rich and established a restaurant named ‘Food Paradise’.

They kept 4 staff in the restaurant and the funny old woman became the attraction of the restaurant doing some supervision and cooking town’s famous rice-dumplings. She began to earn more money as the restaurant was very popular and earned fame in the short time.

Days passed on and the funny old woman began to become more greedy.  One day, she went to her neighbour and asked that neighbour to sell the ‘magic paddle’ back to her. That neighbour refused in soft words “I am sorry lady; what I can sell you is a magic broom. Using this; you can save your time and money in your restaurant”. She purchased that magic broom.

Her neighbour’s Tom Cat followed her while she was going home. “Stay back!” she shouted.

Tom Cat said: “I always play with the threads of brooms, kind lady!”.

She allowed the Tom Cat to go with her.

Next day, she redesigned her restaurant with proper corner to the magic broom and Tom Cat playing around it. One of the regular customer liked it and said: “Impressive!”.

In the evenings, she used to clean the restaurant with the magic broom. The broom moved and cleaned as the wish of its master. The funny old woman was happy to get the magic broom in her restaurant.

One day, suddenly her husband died of heart-attack. That was the most gravious moment in the life of the old woman.

She began to stay in her house in grief with her relatives. The restaurant was being run by staff members and the Tom Cat.

One day when all relatives returned to their homes, the old woman returned to the restaurant and suddenly rode on the magic broom. She said:

“Broom, Oh Broom ! Take me to a ride! To a preson who made me bride !”.
The magic broom accepted her master. Soon, she was riding on the broom with the Tom Cat behind.
The Tom Cat felt wonderful to see the clouds beneath and gradually he began to miss the mice and rats of the restaurant. He asked the old woman : “Let us return back, I want to return back. “. But the old woman denied. So, he slid down the rainbow down the earth and reached the restaurant.

In the sky, the thunderstorm hit the woman and she turned into ash and smoke. The magic broom was just as normal as it had magical power in it. It fell down and dropped just in front of the restaurant. The Tom Cat then became its master.

My Solar Lantern has now got an important space in my room in the evenings. It glows at evening adding to the ambience of my room. My room seemed like a deserted gloom in the evenings; nevertheless my Solar Lantern is now there in the corner being evidentiary of me getting new energy.

I bought this Solar Lantern while I was visiting the city of York, in England. York has been a source of inspiration in my life. Even a day of roaming around the parts of the city, esp. National Railway Museum, the Minster Church and etc had made a remarkable impression in my mind. I still remember the song performance : ’stary stary night’ on the footpath, York Visitor Information Desk, and two caring people taking picture of me at the city walls area.

York has got life in it. What I found more interesting there was ‘Poundland’ where we get many things, each item in a pound !! I entered there, as a lucky national of Nepal (a Southern country). I bought a frying pan, a body spray and this Solar Lantern.

The most catching thing: It was printed on the cover of this lantern like there is no need to replace the battery. It sounded like it works forever.

After I returned to Nepal, I kept it at the top of my house. Its glowing at evenings looked nothing, as number of such Garden Solar Lanterns make a nice ambience in the evening-garden with much landscape design and other arrangements. The fantasy for me was that I am naturally overwhelmed with things caring mother earth. The Solar Lantern was such thing which could reduce the use of fossil fuels, or biomass. But to what extent? the answers could be nearly equal to zero.

However, what sort of fantasy I have made with the particular Solar Lantern; is an example. I hope so.

Time passed on. Busy life schedule began. One day I noticed that one of my nephews pulled the LED off from the Soalr Lantern. Thenafter, the whole remaining things were ready for disposal. My room had been in mess those days. Fortunate Solar Lantern was not disposed off. One day I found a LED when I was removing dirts from the corners of the room. I just collected the other parts of the Lantern and went to a repair service.

The man who was busy on fixing the FM radio questioned me : Are you sure that you will mend this? I replied: Yes, Just for amusement, hehe. He took NPR. 15 for fixing it and asked to keep it under the Sun for complete 4 hours or so. I did the same and waited till the evening.

The very day was lengthy for me. I didn’t have any work to be done for that day. The Lantern did not glow in the evening. Initially, I was worried. Silly me, I then remembered to switch it on. Still it did not glow. Ahh, it was automatic, I then covered the Solar Panel with palm, and then it glowed being sensitive to the darkness.

Amazingly, the LED that I found was not white one, it was red LED. So, it was dimmer than it was before with the white LED. It had already taken much of my efforts, I found a place in my room to add some to the ambience of my room. Before that, I had taken some pictures of red glowing Lantern using my Chinese Mobile Phone.

Indeed, this one is a mini-story. Please comment !

Being glocal is an adventure for me. As the internet world gets more and more accessible, the dependency on almost everything ranging from ‘university texts’ to ‘airfare ticketing’ has been reduced to zero.

In this context, amidst the initial days of professional life; I’ve been researching the ways traveling to my most favorite tropical country – Vietnam. Also, seeking ways to reduce my own carbon-footprint.

It was in 2007, when I came across the number of Vietnamese friends, most of them very smart and very progressive. The country always has a big impression for myself.  Since then, number of professional photographers, teachers, and young students are in touch with me.

The things that I wish to see, research and feel are: the society, natural wilderness, economy.

Arrangement of travel is linked with different matters ranging from Visa to Vaccination. I’ve heard that we may need anti-malaria vaccination. As I am from Nepal, I may need to obtain VISA from New Delhi, India (The nearest VISA issuing authority).

Accomodation, Mobility, Food and Other expenses/activities are but remarkable issues for F.I.T. like me. Research on Google !! Recently, I have discovered that general living cost in Ho Chi Minh city is like that of Kathmandu. Volunteering with Local youth for a cause adds to your Travel !! I am always enthusiastic on this matter. Adventure is always pulling me.

Airfare is more cheaper, if you can connect planes by your mind. If something goes wrong, you’ll get another possible flight from Airport,don’t worry. But here, we have to consider our carbon footprint. There are several ways to reduce these: traveling by electric train, (Source of electricity being compulsorily non-emitting.) carbon offsetting, or never mind (the Clean Development Mechanism works, and the newer trends in energy use may develop in future)

Becoming a responsible traveler is feasible only through the development of new perceptions of traveling. Prime thing is:  travel to save earth and save earth to travel.

The World Ecotourism Conference is an ambitious initiative to bring global ecotourism players together to network, collaborate and share their experiences, best practices and technologies for the betterment of nature conservation, environment protection, preservation of communities and consequently the advancement of ecotourism around the world.The event’s official website is http://www.WorldEcotourismConference.com

There is a golden opportunity for Nepalese Students on Hospitality, English Language, Management and relevant subjects:
http://www.discoverymice.com/WEC2010/world-ecotourism-conference-2010-volunteers.htm