The Rolpa Boy

The Rolpa Boy

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‘What’s your name buddy?’
‘Hukum’
‘Hukum!!!!’ I repeated the word surprisingly as the word was quite strange to be a name and I thought I heard it wrong.
‘Yes’, the boy replied. ‘I’m Hukum Thapa’.
‘No way man’, I giggled. ‘Is your father a gambler?’
I thought his father might have been very fond of cards and named his son after his best color Spade. But my sarcasm had a little impact on that boy, he just sat silent. I was more interested to bring out the story behind his name so, I threw another question.
‘Who named you Hukum?’ I asked. ‘Is that your father?’
‘No’, he replied in firmness. ‘Might be one of those stupid Bahun Pandit’.
I was knocked out by the answer. He might have noticed me as Brahmin, and that was it to make me silent. I grinned and walk out to hide my face.

Hukum, a boy from a Village Sano Libang was in Kathmandu to start the college. He was among the two students who had passed SLC from his school. That conversation on his first day in our place had resolved our differences between Bahun and Magar. He has been my neighbor ever since. He told me how awkward he felt in his early days of college when everybody laughed at him listening his name. I wanted to told him how out of ordinary his name is. But I contained myself remembering my first encounter. We had many such conversation then after.

‘Ramesh dai, Why are maoist doing the demonstration?’
‘How would I know? Ask Prachanda’
‘You told Prachanda was born in your village’, he grinned ‘why don’t you ask yourself?’
‘Yes’, I replied. ‘But you vote him for MP, he is yours now’
‘He is not just mine’, he remarked. ‘He is the voice of Peasants, Labor and every one of those who are exploited by state’
‘It’s not the same state that used to be four years earlier’, I tried to convince him. ‘The state today belongs to Maoist as much as it belongs to Congress and UML’
‘No way’, he doubts. ‘Government will declare the state of emergency and Royal Nepalese Army will start to slaughter us again’.
‘What, its Nepalese Army not Royal Nepalese Army by the way and how can you say they will slaughter you, Nepalese Army won’t kill any innocent’
‘I have seen many innocent killed in front of my own eyes, it will be the same again’. His face was deeply submerged in the pain they faced during Civil War.

Yesterday was May 1, international labor day. Nepal on the verge of devastation, ready to battle. I was disheartened and passing my time showing my frustration on facebook. Joining groups like “nepal tero baau ko sampati ho ra jailey bandh garna lai???”, “मलाई प्रचण्ड भन्दा काले कुकुर मन पर्छ ।“, “जेष्ठ १४ गते ६०१ सभाशदलाई टुँडिखेलमा लाइन लगाएर सिस्नो-पानी लगाउनु पर्छ ....!!!!!!!!!!!” and many more. Hukum entered my room. I start to read comments for him.

‘All this jungali will demolish our nation, lets save it, say no to Maoist andolan’
‘Wait wait!!’ he stopped me. ‘He is writing remote people Jungali, you capitalist, bourgeoisie’
‘No’, I clarified. ‘He is calling Maoist Jungali, not remote people’
‘Remote people are all Maoist’
‘How can you say that?’
‘Because in our village every people voted for Maoist’
‘Voting won’t make you Maoist’
‘What ever, this city people will not consider us as a human being’
‘Ha-ha’, I giggle. ‘What will you do Hukum, will you fight against them?’
‘Why not?’ He replied in the same firmness like that of the first day meeting. ‘I’ll go to jungle; I’ll take arms and fight if people ask me’

He went out of my room and i logout facebook and keep thinking. I wanted him to ask who the people for him are, Is he sure he want to fight. I know he will find one or the other way to keep me silent. That Rolpa Boy in his own strange way is a Communist; a Rebellion.