~Binaya Kasajoo~
Translation : Kunda Dixit
One of the effect of the dawn of “development” in Nepal has been the widespread perception that anything foreign is good, and anything local – however beneficial – is bad. Nepalis therefore prefer high-yield “development” wheat which gives more harvest and bigger grain. Even though the taste is not as good as local wheat varieties, the seeds of development fill the stomach quicker.
The same with “development” eggs, “development” sheep, “development” rooster. They may not be right, but they are bigger and more profitable and therefore are spreading across the kingdom.
Nepali villagers traditionally believe that is very inauspicious for a rooster to crow in the evening or at night. It brings such bad luck, that the offending bird is decapitated on the spot and its head hurled into the valley below.
But today, Development roosters which are descendants of Japanese, British or American poultry, crow at any time of the day or night. This may have something to do with their biological clocks still responding to the time zones of their forefathers. It may be midnight in Nepal but the Development Roosters will let off an energetic cockadoodledo, because his sun is just rising in Japan.
Initially, many a Development Roosters went to the guillotine for crowing at the wring time of day (or night). But as local roosters are replaced by their development cousins across Nepal, night-crowing Development Roosters are not seen as inauspicious any more. And lest they be seen as being backward, Nepal’s indigenous chicken have observed joining the nocturnal chorus of the migrant fowls.
(Published in “Face to Face” magazine for development, No.11. April – June 1997.)
(Source : Writer’s Blog)
