An Afternoon With Prdip Giri

I was excited enough to be a panelist on the event put together by Tek Gurung's organization. It was to be at Yak, Sunday, today, around noon. Then two days back I had an email from Somji, as in Somnath Ghimire. His organization was doing a tea reception with Pradip Giri, the email said. The event started at two. If I had not been a panelist with Tek's event, I would have skipped it, no second thought. But now I was in a dharam sankat. What to do? I shot an email to Somji. Start the event as late as you can, and keep it going for as long as you can. I will try and be there as early as I can.

A DaMaJaMaKha Panel



I showed up. The event was supposed to start at 11:30. Lunch for an hour, then the event. Instead the lunch started at 12:30. It might have been closer to one. Different cultures read time differently. Nepalis who are perfectly punctual to their America jobs will unfailingly show up late for Nepali events. Homesickness?

181 Photos From The Event
USNepalOnline Coverage

There are two camps in Nepali politics, the Maoist camp and the Democratic camp. Dr. Baburam Bhattarai is the obvious politician-intellectual in the Maoist camp, and Pradip Giri is that in the Democratic camp. I admire them both greatly.

I have liked Pradip Giri a long time now. It was great to finally be able to meet him in person.

He is versed in both the Western as well as the Eastern/Indian thinkers. And he is an original thinker. I find all that so very fresh. And it is great that he has also been a parliamentarian.

Somji and I concluded the day thinking we need to put together an event soon where Giri is the sole speaker and he gets a slot of three hours or so. Because the event started late, and so Giri's speech was as if cut short. Since there was another event on our heels at the same venue.

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