Too often, literary works recycle public opinion instead of offering the rare, unique insight that we turn to them for. Simply put, writers and poets don\'t seem to care much whether anyone is listening to them.
Bimal Nibha is one poet who intentionally reaches out to a living, breathing audience by understanding the everyday language of his readers and allowing them to understand his. In "Slipper", he speaks of the difficulty of living in dignity more than a decade after the establishment of democracy. He neither lectures to his readers nor purports to feel more deeply than they-a fatal flaw in much progressive writing. Instead he finds a voice that is natural but also deeply evocative, quiet, questioning and occasionally fanciful. What results is an expression of Nepal\'s present politics which is fresh and capable of surprising us with its artfulness.
After many days I\'ve thought of Baburam Bhattarai
I wonder where he might be as I try to sew back the broken strap of my slipper at this hour With this slipper on my foot I must reach my place of work at the office of the weekly newspaper
(Today is Thursday, no less) There\'s much I need to accomplish I must finish a write-up (locked away half-done in my drawer) I must hunt for fresh news in the wilderness of politics and comment on the increase in the price of petroleum products Concluding everything with a forceful editorial I must return home at evening time where I\'m being awaited impatiently (A husband and father are being awaited there) Shoving a few of today\'s papers and all my weariness into my bag as I hurry home I know I\'ll cross my fellow poets by the ancient Bodhi tree They\'ll ask-What\'s in the news, Mr. Editor?
In response I\'ll say-Everything\'s fine The parliament and daily power cuts are moving on course in the country The Congress Party is inside the government The communist parties are standing outside Aggressive micro-organisms are burgeoning everywhere in the flow The yellow frogs of monarchism are croaking The price of potatoes hoarded in warehouses is doubling And this morning the strap of my slipper broke Hearing my account my fellow poets will propose-Well, then, let\'s have a cup of tea each! But I won\'t want to have tea as usual in the poet\'s corner Today I\'ll be running late (This is invariably so: the sun will descend, night will fall) because the strap on my slipper snapped in the middle of the road (It had gotten quite frayed with use) and I\'ve suddenly recalled Comrade Baburam Bhattarai busy leading the People\'s War I, dragging along in my broken slippers am wondering-as are many others I\'m an ordinary person who writes the news who writes poems who drinks tea and rushes off a worker who delights and weeps with ardor and with effort (Nothing exceptional about me) Am I not also engaged in a people\'s war, Comrade? This poem was taken from Mulyankan 58. Nibha\'s poems are also found in his 1984 collection Aagonira Ubhieko.
