One of my (bad?) habits is smoking.....
On my fourth day in Kathmandu, some of my colleagues from the College took me to ther famous Pilgrims bookstore in Kathmandu downtown where I wanted to buy some books on Nepali language and culture. After that, we went to a coffee house (yes, and Nepal produces its own coffee in the Terrai area in the souther4n part, and this coffee is fantastic) and had some coffee to relax a bit. I had my pack of Nepali cigarettes on the table.
One of the Nepali colleagues looked at the pack and said: "Oh, this brand is from a factory of which the king of Nepal is the owner". (The present king is known to be more of a corrupt businessman than a real king, and he is highly unpopular in Nepal and only still in power because of the 4,000 soldiers of the Royal Guard loyal to him in his palace that looks like a fortress).
And the other colleague, taking a look, remarked: " Oh, you have even 'King size' printed on the pack".
I felt like making one of my jokes, and so I replied: "May be it is better to smoke the king than to serve him?"
Laughter on their part.....
And I added in the same way: "If it is really true that it is better to smoke the king than to serve the him, you need to be a smoker. All of you are non-smokers, and I am a smoker. Maybe some Nepali teachers from our college also must become smokers first if they want to get rid of that king."
Again laughter....
Is this the missing link between cigarettes and kings in Nepal? I dare not say that I would really be able to answer that question...lol.
