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From Sarlahi my wife and I moved to Kathmandu in search of better opportunities. My wife, who runs a vegetable shop in a small rented room and we manage to earn a meager income. We read in newspapers about writing of the new constitution and restructuring of the state. However, I am baffled by the absurd classification of the ethnic minorities and indigenous population. On what basis are states being created and people being granted special rights?
If language is the criteria for new states, Sherpa is my mother tongue, I also speak the Bantawa Rai language after marriage and my children study at an inexpensive English-medium school and are fluent in Nepali and English. If ancestry is a factor, I have a Sherpa mother and a Rai wife. Does this mean my father and I are also aadibasis? If food culture is an indication, nothing is forbidden in my house. If appearance is the determinant, everyone who knows my mother says I look like her. Our daughter resembles her mother and our son and his maternal uncle are mirror images. If economic background is considered, we live in poverty and have been struggling to make a living for generations. During the Madhes movement, my parents had to close their hotel and took refuge at my mother's parental house in the hills. And if the white sahebs are responsible for state allocation, who should I contact and where should I apply?
Under this ridiculous system, my brother-in-law has an autonomous state, my cousins are eligible for quota-based employment, my Jha landlord from Lalbandi has reservations in the Nepal Army and the son of my house owner, a Tuladhar from Budhhanagar who is a gold trader by profession, is entitled to government scholarships. I am the son of a poor father, but am left empty handed because of my surname.
No one bothers about the contribution of impoverished Nepalis to the nation and families like mine already feel unwanted in this new Nepal.
