Hurried trip to avoid a Bad star    M. Lilla and C. Bishop Barry 

‘Hurried Trip to Avoid a Bad Star’ is an extract form the article ‘Karnali, Roadless World of Western Nepal’ written by two American geographers. It gives a short account of the life of the people in Karnali.
According to it, people in Karnali are peasant folks as in other parts of Nepal with the land which is not sufficient for their subsistence. Hence they are obliged to combine farming with other pursuits to survive such as selling silazit, medicinal herbs, hashish, hand-knit sweaters, blankets etc. in Nepalgunj. In order to make a living, they have to make constant movement to and fro with their goods and animals over the dangerous paths of the region.
People living in this part are quite innocent and superstitious. Some of the people form these parts go to Terai regions to find the work and return home after several years. Unfortunately, most of the people lack education to understand the value of the forest. On account of this reason, deforestation has been on the increase. They feel that they are obliged to depend on the forest area to feed their animals. If the forest continues to be destroyed at this pace, there will be no trees left in this part of the country for the future.
Since the land is not fertile, they get little out of it and earn money through other means and activities. Terai is the bread-basket of Nepali and hence for Karnali too. People from Karnali at their visit to Nepalgunj swarm from shop to shop in the bazaar and buy things like cotton cloth, aluminum, ironware, spice, distillery equipment etc. above all one finds them extremely simple with a very small universe surrounding them.

Important Questions from Hurried Trip to Avoid a Bad Star by M. Lilla and C. Barry Short Answer Questions
1. How is Karnali liked economically with the low land regions to the south? [2057, 2061, 2063, 2068] 2. What did the two writers learn about the life and culture of the people of the Karnali region during their journey on foot? [2059] 3. Give a short account of the life of the people of Karnali as you find in ‘Hurried Trip to Avoid a Bad Star’. [2066, 2069]
Glossary: [folks: people, subsistence: material, hashish: a kind of herb that is used to smoke (गाँजा), fro: forward, superstitious: believing objects or events to be lucky or unlucky, swarm: a large group of things, generally insects moving together]