In the process of uncapping the fountainheads of development in this country through speeches and exhortations, our leaders should not forget to partake of the folk wisdom contained in our proverbs.

It is indeed a sad fact of life that one of the side-effects of Economic Globalisation is that our proverbs are disappearing at an alarming rate. At this pace, according to World Bank estimates, proverbs will be eradicated from Nepal by the year 2007. Although we shouldn't count our chicken before they are hatched, it is a fact that an omelet cannot be made breaking all our eggs in one basket.

It is also incumbent upon every man, woman and child to rescue and conserve every proverb that they come across in day-to-day life. If you see a sleeping dog, for instance, you shouldn't let it just lie there, since its bark may be worse than its bite and, what's more, we may still be able to teach it new tricks. After all, every one of those dogs has his day.

You may well ask, how can we as a nation learn from our proverbs before they become extinct? Good question. And if I knew the answer to that one, I wouldn't be here wasting your time and mine writing a weekly column like an ass that likes to hear himself bray. I would be out there: an early bird that knows fully well that a worm in the hand is worth two in the bush, who flocks with others of a feather and who, in turn, tries to make sure that two of us are not hit by the same stone, especially since what is sauce for the gander is also sauce for the goose that lays golden eggs.

And our leaders should do well to remember that since brevity is the soul of wit, they must call a spade a shovel. Rome, as we know, was not built in a day, but all roads lead to it so when we get there we must do as the Romans do: give long speeches with a lot of obscene hand gestures.

Let me add here that when it comes to proverbs, Nepal is second to none. Our proverbs carry the accumulated common sense and wisdom of our ancestors and which they passed down from generation to generation through hand-to-mouth. For some reason, a lot of Nepali proverbs are about crows, monkeys and facial hair. Let's translate some of them and provide accompanying examples that illustrate their exact meaning:

Khane mukh lai junga le chhekdaina.
Translation: A moustache shouldn't come in the way of a tax official.
Example: Even though he's had numerous visits from the vice squad, Phanindra's whiskers haven't been a hindrance to collecting a small facilitation fee from every truck that passes his border checkpost.

Chauta khana gayeko budi, jhol ma dubera mari.
Translation: The greedy drown in gravy.
Example: Ram wanted so badly to remain prime minister that he tried to postpone elections by a year-and-half, so the king sacked him.

Raja ko kam, kahile jala gham.
Translation: Hey, aren't we off yet?
Example: After a hundred days of being in office, Shyam can now tell
instinctively that it's time to go home when the peon wakes him up with a clatter of tea cups.