About the podcast:
It was Virginia Woolf who descried that if only a female could have a room of one's own, amongst a whole host of other things such as the freedom of expression and thought, the ability to travel and be untrammeled by the chains that tether a woman's freedom, we might have a lady Shakespeare. It has been close to 80 years that this Shakespear's sister drowned herself to death in a bout of depression, but the like of a female Shakespeare isn't in the horizons. And thank heavens for that.
If there be female literature, I wouldn't want it to be Shakespearean anyhow. And if you read Shakespeare carefully, he has an art of seeing things telescopically- you wouldn't know that this was created by a man. He transcends sexual boundaries. "The milk of human kindness" was one of his many imperishable phrases, and so was the musing of Mcbeth after his lady dies:
"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."
There's nothing man/woman-ly about him- there's only Shakespearean-ly about him, though you do catch a drift of what Woolf was implying.
But do we really have a parallel of such musings in Nepali politics? When might we have, say, a have a female Prime Minister in our country? Last week only my news feed was bombarded with the anniversary of death of the mercurial leader of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto. This self-professed Daughter of Destiny had quite a dash of courage about her. After all, she saw her father, another charismatic figure of Pakistan politics Zulfiqar Bhutto assassinated by Zia Ul Haq- the same dictator who inspired Iqbal Bano to sing Faiz's "Hum Dekhenge":
"बस नाम रहेगा अल्लाह का
जो ग़ाएब भी है हाज़िर भी
जो मंज़र भी है नाज़िर भी
उट्ठेगा अनल-हक़ का नारा
जो मैं भी हूँ और तुम भी हो
और राज करेगी ख़ल्क़-ए-ख़ुदा
जो मैं भी हूँ और तुम भी हो "
after he passed on a decree that women would be barred from wearing Saree. It was a performance of the most evocative kind, and showed how women can put up a fight, in their own terms, in their own ways, and with a dash of non-maleness.
Given that we've seen examples of Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sheikh Hasina, and Indira Gandhi in our neighboring nations, when can we see a Nepali Prime Minister? There's no predictive theory of politics (as well as the future), so I might be charged with asking a non-pin downable answer, but Ranju Darshana spoke on this matter with a verve that I expected out of someone as capable as herself. She touched upon other plights of women in our country, and added to the structural reforms that might be needed if we are to see a female version of a "Great Leader" in our country.
In as much as I don't want a female Shakespeare, I don't want a female Deuba or a female Prachanda. I want a female themselves.
About the Guest:
Ranju Darshana is a female politician of Nepal and the former mayoral candidate of Kathmandu. In this podcast, we talked with her about the chances of having the first lady PM of Nepal, what structural problems women face in the politics of Nepal and her thoughts on how Kathmandu has evolved over time.
Ranju Darshana is the General Secretary of Bibeksheel Sajha Party and a High School Social Studies Teacher based in Kathmandu.
She has been actively involved in Socio-Political arena since 2013 where she had the opportunity to take various leadership roles. In 2017, she contested for Mayor of Kathmandu and got into fame! She re-contested in 2023 election for Member of Federal Parliament of Nepal with a well-versed detailed Manifesto but didn’t get sufficient votes. However, the learning was profound.
She has a Bachelors Degree in Development Studies from Kathmandu University and has completed Masters in Political Science from Tribhuvan University. She will soon be completing her one year Post Graduate Diploma in Counseling Psychology. She advocates for mental health, and also runs MondayforMentalHealth initiative.
In the future, she see herself working as an elected Politician. Every step she takes paves the path for her journey of becoming a progressive politician that Nepal requires.
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About Us :
The two men who are at the forefront of WiseDumb podcasts are Karan Bhatta and Rupesh Sah who are researchers, educators and media personalities. You can reach out to them for a collaboration:
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