Adieu, the Walker of A Long and Arduous Road!

It was not uncommon for those passing by Thapagaun, Vaneshwar at varying paces to see an ancient-looking man walking through its streets at his own comfortable pace, all alone. Many would stop by and talk to the bearer of that infallible smile, and would even give him a lift.

The streets of Kathmandu will no longer feel the footsteps of that man, the people at varying speeds won’t get to see him anymore as he has gone, leaving behind his footprints at a time when history is in the cusp of wounding some heels some more and some other heels quite a bit.  

By the way, the traveler was Kamal Koirala and he needs no introduction.

Still, for the sake of posterity, he was a left-leaning journalist/columnist, a diplomat, a legal professional, an intellectual and an avid defender of democracy. As a darling of YouTubers and TV talk show hosts, Koirala  used to offer his nuggets of wisdom in TV debates on contemporary politics and geopolitics, apart from writing for publications like the weekly Jana Aastha.

During his long and hard journey, Koirala became Nepal’s ambassador to South Korea in 2007 for a brief period.    

Last Tuesday, Koirala had a nasty fall that proved fatal. Paralyzed after the mishap, he died in the course of treatment at the KMC Medical Hospital, Sinamangal.  

That he was the son of an important personality—Prime Minister Matrika Prasad Koirala—can go in the footnotes of history as the son always distanced himself from a checkered legacy of the father, specifically with regard to the signing of a treasonous Koshi Agreement during his rule in the 1950’s.

After his passing, tributes have poured in, in social media and beyond.

Narad N Bharadwaj writes (a pedestrian’s translation of his Facebook post reads thus): The death of Kamal Koirala has come as a shock. Though born in a famous Koirala family that followed liberal democratic values, he embraced the Marxist philosophy all his life. 

Koirala was an intellectual with a clear ideology. Though he was the son of the former prime minister, Matrika Prasad Koirala, he stayed in his daugther’s house. He had no private vehicle, and used to travel in public vehicles. Study and writing were his lifelong passions. If leaders and cadres of contemporary political parties had followed his life and ideals, Nepal would have undergone an epochal transformation. Had that happened, we would not have seen reactionary forces parading on the streets by trampling on democratic norms and values. Heartfelt tributes.

Robert Frost writes in 'The Road Not Taken': 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Martin Luther King, Jr goes: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of convenience and comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Adieu, the 87-year-young idealist. Adieu, the walker of a long and hard road.