Jenji Protest

Is it the same as genji protest?

We were tired of hearing some words and we are now in the verge of eradicating them (the words, to clarify) from public life — Oli, Prachanda, Sher Bahadur. But I am now absolutely tired of hearing this new Nepali word जेन्जी (supposed to be transliterated from Gen Z), especially from the mouths of uncles who have done absolutely nothing but sit in comfort of the salaried positions and blabber about politics non-stop on all occasions since time immemorial and probably till the infinite future.

Let me start with a sentence that I heard here in Phungling Bazaar, Taplejung.

“यो नयाँ जेन्जीहरुले डुबाए।” / “The new Gen Zs have drowned us.”

The word जेन्जी here is assumed to be a sort of a political group. And that largely seems to be the understanding of the older generation. They understand it to equate to something like a political party or a student union. They do not quite grasp the concept that a movement can emerge from multiple small groups + individual individuals (that’s why they’re called individuals!)

If Nepali ‘जेन्जी’ really equaled the English ‘Gen Z’, then जेन्जी would have been understood as a generation. That’s where the ‘Gen’ comes from. But translation can invite loss in meaning — can we do anything about it? Those who do not understand this do not see जेन्जी movement as a nationwide protest, but as different independent groups with differing political concerns doing different things to get whatever they want. This did hold to be true, especially since the moment KP Oli resigned, but the uncles see it to be the case since day zero of the protests.

Of course, this comes with the eternal habit of connecting random dots to create grand political conspiracies and fantasizing them to be true. One cannot not give uncles what they want, can they? They might not watch Game of Thrones or One Piece but they have their own creative side to them.

But here’s the issue — should they not have been the people who should have come forward years before instead of letting things go haywire for those they call the नातिनातिनी पुस्ता / the grandchildren generation? Why be removed from the actual systemic issues of society and let things be as they are for their छोराछोरी? And now, after whatever has happened, do nothing different than finding pleasure in conspiracies?

Let us do better जेन्जीs. Hope we can be better than our collective uncles (and aunts too, in some cases). May we be patient, not talk random bullshit, take time to listen to those who have learnt their lessons or have done their deed, be able to take criticism, mull over our wrongdoings, shift perspectives and habits, let creativity flourish, read more, be as kind as possible, understand that change takes time, be resolute in our morals, and if we really do want to create conspiracies, let us write them as books and label them as fictional.

But perhaps I am as corrupted as our uncles, and maybe this is my own conspiracy theory. Let the Supreme Court decide, only if we had one.