Plays at Budhanilkantha School

Robin Hood
I remember this vividly. I was a kid in Budhanilkantha School, and I was acting a small part in the school play, Robin Hood. In this particular scene, there is an archery competition going on, and Robin Hood, comes to participate from Sherwood, disguised of course, with an intent to kill his enemy.

In the legend, after this enemy shoots an bullseye, Robin allegedly lands another arrow on top of the enemy's arrow , splitting it in halves, and thereby winning the competition.
However, in the play, since this can't be done, the target was kept offstage on the right wing, where the audience could not see. They were supposed to marvel at the Robin's shot judging from the 'ahhs' and 'ohhhhs' by the spectators of the competition in the play.

Unfortunately for Robin, the arrow does not even go offstage, and hits an unfortunate guard on his head (who, owing to the limitations of the wardrobe, is wearing a cassock-style black Gorkhali costume of the royal guard of Prithivi Narayan Shah, complete with the Khukuri. Luckily for the guard, he is wearing one of those turbany-type caps (the one that students joked looked much like a condom!), and the cap was thick enough to break the momentum of the wooden arrow without pain! So while the audience is roaring with laughter, this guard does not know what to do and just stands there sheepishly... and I see from the left wing (i was awaiting my entry into the stage) that everyone in the stage is too awed to continue.

The father of Robin's lady is in a big dilemma, because he was supposed to say something equivalent to a 'wow, a great shot!'. Finally, the person reluctantly says it, and the audience goes into another howling bout. Robin Hood is looking so shamefaced, and he scratches his head in embarrassment, guilty of hitting the poor guard, and even more embarrassed because he is supposed to have hit the target. Anyway, after that hilarious hitch, the play went on.

Being a girl
This was the most embarrassing part I had ever played. I was in grade 4, and was small and soft enough to be a girl (BNKS used to be an all-boys school) for a part in the school play. The play was called "Out of the Dark Empire" - I still have no idea what the play was about, I was too little to care. But I remember I was to act as a dancing girl in one particular scene (<5 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153); font-weight: bold;">Three Planets
When I was in the sixth grade, I was taking part in a junior play. This one was a sci-fi, and it concerned a story about three planets, one of which was called 'Zaran'. I was initially chosen as one of the seek-and-destroy robots whose vocabulary is limited to "Don't Move! Or you will be ex-ter-mi-na-ted!" whenever we saw any living creature on our planet. During this statement, we were supposed to make stiff hand movements, tracing a vertical square in the air. Luckily for me, I was promoted to a speaking-role, as a rebel who's invading this evil planet to save the universe. I was the commander of my 'platoon', and I was supposed to liberally caution my subordinates whenever we heard someone approaching. My lines were something like "Quick! Check the laser gun! Stunballs ready!". It was fun, actually!

The playwright was probably a huge Star Wars/Star Trek fan. Anyway, the most hilarious part was that there was another rebel who had one line to speak:
(in horror) What ! Back to Zaran's?!
The problem is he used to verbalise the emotion part too. He always used to say:
In Horror! What? Back to Zaran's?!

Our drama teacher was Glenn Tulip. She sounded soo funny to us, since we hardly understood what she was saying, being an Australian. And she used to lose her patience so often (So obviously she often resorted to screaming at this poor guy), that she seemed much like one of those hot-blooded outrageously colorful characters in Asterix comics. That was, until we got to know her!

Repeated Lines
There was another instance where guys from one of the houses staged a play. Unfortunately one of the guys forgot most of his part. But things got even worse. He got confused in such a way that he started repeating the lines that had already been acted out... after a while, others also got confused too, and soon the play was something like a never-ending story... whenever they got to the part where the guy initially screwed up, he would repeat the old line once more! I dont know how the play ended, but it did finally, and that was that. So I guess all that ends, ends well!

I did not take part in the plays in later years, but those 'onstage days' were quite worth remembering! There are so many memorable moments in that assembly hall for me!

Why are jokes so funny?

My 'Buddhist Traditions' instructor was once marveling at how Buddhist monks are so calm, serene, and unperturbed by anything in life. They seem not to be upset by anything in the world. This is because Samsara is a sham. She said ‘I always wondered how a monk would feel when he is in a roller coaster’. That was a side-splitter for me.

It intrigues me to think about what causes hilarity in jokes. At the foremost, why do we laugh? It at least got me thinking, and I came to realize that jokes target taboo, establishments and conventions, and even assumptions in life(I’ll illustrate this in a minute). Taboos are the most obvious target of jokes. That’s why non-veg jokes are so popular. They usually score well at tense environments. They sound funnier in formal or uncomfortable settings, like at meetings, presentations, microbuses, etc. Imagine a person who burps in the mid-sentence during a formal presentation.

One health concern is: can jokes (or laughter itself) be addictive? And do you remember (that is, if you were naughty enough when you were a kid) when you were fooling around with the kids of your age, and laughing a lot, an elderly, who could not relate with your humor, perhaps because of irritation or jealousy, say ‘You kids are laughing too much. It seems the crying time’s coming up’?

Comedians create humor by questioning assumptions too. George Carlin, the forerunner of random, one-liners (He literally invented or reinvented them), is famous for this. He is best as a stand-up comedian. He is 68 now, and became famous since the 70s, as a ‘fearless, thinking comedian of the counterculture’ (salon.com). I like him best for his original and individual thinking. In one of his performance, he defined his profession as: I think it's the duty of the comedian to find out where the line is drawn and cross it deliberately.

According to Carlin, Irony is A state of affairs that is the reverse of what was to be expected; a result opposite to and in mockery of the appropriate result. For instance: a diabetic, on his way to buy insulin, is killed by a runaway truck. He is the victim of an accident. If the truck was delivering sugar, he is the victim of an oddly poetic coincidence. But if the truck was delivering insulin, ah! Then he is the victim of an irony.

Nepal in Hollywood and Foreign Pop Culture

It is interesting how Nepal is portrayed in Hollywood movies. Here are some examples (Please add more):

There’s Something about Mary

Mary (Cameron Diaz), the college heartthrob (of 70s?) loves Nepal. She develops a soft spot for Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) who tries to woo her by posing as an architect who’s has a condo in Nepal.
Pat starts the conversation with initially uninterested Mary by saying ‘Do you have a dollar? All I have are these odd Nepalese coins. What good are they?’

Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark

There’s an intro scene for the heroine of the movie. In a Bhatti somewhere in the mountains, with the Sherpas, she has a drinking game with an a huge guy who can apparently down bottles of local spirit with no effect; she eventually wins and still can keep her head straight while Indy Jones pays her a visit, and eventually rescues her from that Nazi guy.

In Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indy, with a new girl and a kid, after a narrow escape from a run-in with a villain in China, passes over Nepal, and ends up somewhere in India, where he has an encounter with Mola Ram (Amrish Puri), who keeps intonating ‘Kali Ma! Shakti De!’ as he proceeds to dig into unfortunate people’s chests to root their hearts out, cackling fiendishly.

Tintin in Tibet

Tintin and his crew have interesting episodes in Kathmandu, the place incorrectly depicted as full of Indian people and culture, and speaking in Hindi. One porter Cap’n Haddock bumps into yells at his face ‘Arrey! Dekhte Nahin ho?!’. Also, Haddock has to race to a nearby well after he mistakes the ‘carpet’ of red chillies laid out in the ground as pimentos (?), his mouth afire, of course. He also has a hell ride with a sacred, white cow (?) when he tries to climb over it.
Probably because he is british, Haddock is too ‘cultured’ to holler ‘Who’s this gai?’, although he is full of colorful expletives like: Billions of blue blistering barnacles!, Ten Thousand Thundering Typhooons!, Bald-headed budgerigar! Blue Blistering Bell-Bottomed Balderdash! Miserable molecule of mildew! Purple profiteering jellyfish! Pestilential Pachyderm! Lily-livered landlubbers! Ectoplasm! Anthropithecus! Anthropophagus! Artichokes! Jellied eel! etc.

Monsters, Inc.

Nepal is depicted as a snowy, virtually uninhabitable place. In the monster’s world, it is a threat to every law-abiding monster; to them it represents a place for banishment from Monstropolis, when they do an especially dishonorable act, probably the ultimate punishment.
When Henry Waternoose, finds that his best employees, Sulley and Mike, have actually smuggled a live child to his 'Scream Processing Factory', and since children contaminations are highly frowned upon, he banishes the duo to Nepal.
In Nepal, Sulley and Mike meet the abominable snowman who, despite popular belief, is genial although low-IQ’ed, and keeps offering Snow Cones.

Bowling@Soaltee SUCKS

Big time. I could have scored so many strikes, and I know that for a fact. i didnt even get a century. and its not my fault.
The balls (what are they called?) are worn out- they cant even be salvaged. chipped, cracked, lost shape, eeteecee. the black balls have lost their gloss, so even when i deposit them in the middle of the lane, the natural spin to the left already caculated and adjusted, friction just whisks them to the gutter!

i like the lane at 1905 so much better. but i am glad that i have tried it out@soaltee- no more suspense remains!

the worst part was on my return from the restroom i went to wash up ( i had suspicious-looking deposits of black dust in my fingers). when i grabbed the knob, a sharp nail or something promptly sliced my poor forefinger. the cut was deep enough that the whole finger was bloody. have you ever sliced your finger in a doorknob? had i? no, never!