Short Reply to Rajina’s Article on Buddha Chanting Thingi

some start

I came across the blog “The Unpathed Waters” maintained by blogger Rajina Shrestha through fb (where else?) a few days ago when a friend of mine shared her article titled “Here’s what’s wrong with annoyingly chanting that Buddha was born in Nepal.” And oh my, does she spill the beans here regarding our (Nepalese) duplex inferiority, superiority complex. I will get on this as we make headway towards looking into why she emphatically lambastes Am Nepali for merely stating buddha was born in Nepal. Although, I do agree we can get hotheaded with the issue.

One way to understand how a writer/blogger thinks and uses his/her perspective to write a piece/story is to go through writer's other writings. She has an excellent “in your face” article on “Talking About Orphanages” where she talks about ways to sustainably support orphanages rather than trying to appear to help them through transient, erratic and fake “I am here for you!” grand appearances. Against my will, I have now become a big fan of her honest writing and I think that should be the way how people should express themselves.

Coming back to the actual article on the chants, I see that there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is what it is and by stating just that….is something that shouldn't criticized as she did. In hindsight, it’s a way for Nepalese to finally find a united voice when there’s hardly anything to feel united about. Think about it, we are as divided as it can possibly be and if that provides a suitable means to help us maintain a comrade of sort, then just let it be.

Even if it’s only an illusion.

This being said though, people actually miss out the larger issue of what she is trying to address with the article. As I scanned around the comment section, some people were clearly enraged trying desperately to pull her down and prove her wrong. I understand that but what she was merely trying to state was that there are other, far more important issues that need our time and attention instead of trying to prove that Buddha was born in Nepal.The “so fucking what” clearly illustrates the point. 

As I said before, the duplicity of the complex we have developed (in endemic scale) over the years makes us feel vulnerable to slightest of disrespect that the international community shows us but yet we never think if we deserve any respect…if at all. Do we really?

Time to grow some balls and change that.