Guaranteed to Grin

America is in the air. There are more outlets 'promising' and 'guaranteeing' a green card than the potholes when one goes through Kathmandu valley. One such sprouting outlet had a proud display to lure their prey which stated,

"We have made more than 4000 people win the DV lottery till date."

I was surprised at their guts. Excuse me sirs, you have made them win? How come? Can you explain? How can anyone make such a claim?
As far as I know the place, time, date, prayers, computer, its operator, Romney, Obama or even Lord Pashupatinath for that matter, have no say or influence in one's winning the Green Card lottery. They are drawn in a randomly. Anyone winning or not is entirely a coincidence. Scrutinizing other such outlets revealed that many more boasted of such unheard of ability with varying figures of success.

It makes me think, is anyone allowed to make such false promise and misguide people? Unfortunately, here, in Nepal anything is allowed. We see the clause "with guarantee" in many advertisements. Some guarantee to make students pass the examinations, some guarantee to cure various diseases. Most of the times, they are not even licensed or qualified medical practitioners. Similarly, we get a lot of guarantees for growing hair, getting a fair skin and job placement. However, all such claims have gone kaput and such guarantors have escaped even without single question being asked, let alone punishment.

It raises a question, has the nature forgotten to install a chip of morality while these specimens were being assembled? What are the concerned authorities doing to stop such tall claims? Why us, the people are prone to being taken for a ride. We snarl about various rights and fight for them. But, such basic issues are least bothered about. So many so called big and better schools are milking the parents under fancy headings in their kin's school bills. A school which charges a hefty amount under computers and internet never has such class or facilities. I once discovered one such school having equipment which looked similar to a computer in their lab. A close look confirmed that it really had been a computer once upon the time. The operating systems installed were long back obsolete; the monitors seemed to be snatched straight away from a historical epic. We are least bothered even when we are considered to be a Kamadhenu cow.

Even when we are aware, do we have a proper place to report such issues or mechanism to control such? Many service providers fail to maintain the required quality even after charging an astronomical amount in fees. Restaurants feed us decayed stuffs, sweet shops have been found to use items which are not even edible. Still those involved in such act get away with minimum of punishment and are set loose again to play openly with public health. We too have a short term memory. Even more pathetic is the case of roads repairing. A patch of black tar top metamorphoses itself to a pothole within a few days. Such miracles are bypassed. The case is common all over the country. The contractors carrying out such job and the authority monitoring, approving and paying for such jobs are never ever questioned.

We enjoy guarantees. We have been guaranteed of a new constitution, better future, and even a new Nepal. These guarantees have joined the same path like all other. Who cares? All we need is promises, not the fulfillment. A content person who does not grumble is the happiest one. So we grin. We are the happiest of people in the whole world. Come, take us for a ride.