Sunday, July 20, 2014
Sunday, July 13, 2014
Questionable Endeavor
“What are your future
plans?” Ask this question to youngsters in Kathmandu, and pat comes the answer,
“I’ll be going abroad.” Dig deeper and you’ll find they already have a list of
colleges tracked out. Invariably, the majority will be those in the United States.
Well, it’s a pity, really. Most of them don’t know what they are getting into;
a pit full of trouble, a quagmire of problems. While there may be some for whom
money is not a problem, their parents having the big bucks needed to see them
through four or five years of extreme expenses, for most others, it’s simply
not worth it.
Living expenses alone
could well total close to a lakh a month, and even if there are all sorts of
gambits of colleges to acquire students, such as scholarships, it’s advisable
to read the fine print. First thing students got to realize is that nothing is
for free out there. You’ll probably have to shell out another lakh or so every
month for fees, books, insurance, and so forth. Does it make sense to spend so
much money to get a degree that will use up all your parent’s hard earned money
or probably put them into debt? There are many youngsters (and parents, too)
who are under the illusion that after the initial investment of a year’s
expenses, students will be able to take care of it themselves. A dangerous
illusion, to say the least.
For one thing, students
cannot work legally; permission is needed, and even if that, they can work for
limited hours only. For another, it’s a tough task having to work and study at
the same time, especially when you know that the educational system out there
is heavily geared towards projects that take up a lot of the student’s time
outside college. It’ a fact that many students (even the locals) do not finish
college within the expected period, because they just cannot pay the fees every
semester without taking off time to earn by working more hours.
Now, there’s one
question that’s pretty much unanswered till now—how useful are the degrees you
get abroad in Nepal’s context? One thing is for sure, it will take you a long,
long, time (if ever) to recover the expenses incurred in getting that
degree. So, the query is the same, does
it make sense to go through all the hardship and uncertainty, and the expenses
you can ill afford?
Nobody can say for
sure, but there are perhaps quite a number who have returned without finishing
their studies due to paucity of funds. And, there could perhaps be quite a
number who have abandoned studies and are living illegally abroad, the
conditions of their student visas having long been violated. Whatever the case
may be, many youngsters surely must be regretting their impulsive foray into
colleges abroad.
Actually, if you think
about it, common sense should prevail; the Nepali rupee is one hundredth of
currencies in many lands students go to. So, tough times ahead are a given.
Okay, a spirit of adventure and all that is fine, but not when you know that
you’re going to land in a situation where you can neither swallow nor spit it
out. It’s hard to abandon dreams and harder to sacrifice the investment already
made. And so, you keep on toiling, and toiling, and toiling.
All those young
exuberant years when you should be having fun, enjoying a great social life,
and building long term relationships. What a waste!
Here Comes the Rain
As he gazed down from
his celestial abode, the Almighty was happy to see the denizens of Kathmandu
Valley building temples galore with great zeal. “These simple folk are leaving
no stone unturned to honor me. They deserve to be rewarded.” So, He, the most benevolent,
blessed the valley with fine weather that would be the envy of all others. However, He was dismayed to observe that with
the progression of the various seasons, his faithful people suffered from
disease during the hot summer months. “It is due to their lack of awareness,”
He thought. “They do not know much about how to keep their environment clean.”
He was, of course,
patient with his chosen ones. He thought, “They need more time to develop the
infrastructure to ensure a better environment. In the meantime, I must do
something to ease their distress.” He ordered the heavens, “Be generous in
pouring clean rain water on the valley during the hot months!” The rubbish
scattered round its many lanes and streets would be washed away. It would also
increase the flow of the valley’s sacred rivers and make them less polluted. At
the same time, He did not wish the heavens to be over-enthusiastic and bring
floods and devastation. He well remembered how difficult it had been, ages ago,
to drain the great lake that was once the valley so as to make it inhabitable.
Another thing on His
mind was that his favorite valley was becoming more ever more crowded, resulting
in chronic water shortage. The usually clean denizens were beginning to be
odorous due to lack of water for bathing. More serious was that even when He
had provided numerous ice-fed rivers, the people did not have the good sense to
build adequate storage capacities. Besides ensuring 24-hour running water, it
would also have rid the dictionary of the word ‘load shedding’. But, the foolish people bickered and politicked
continuously for 200 years and more, and nothing concrete was achieved.
In their desperation,
the foolish denizens began pumping out the precious groundwater at an alarming
rate, and even the abundant monsoon rains were failing to replace the loss.
Then, his loyal but foolish people went about constructing concrete roads and
housing developments over the hereto fruitful fields, which prevented the
rainwater from seeping into the ground. He is certain it will not be long
before groundwater reserves dry up altogether. Still and all, He loves his
people, and so even if he is angry, their suffering gives him sadness, and he
waits for them to wake up to reality. He is not vindictive towards them and
still commands the heavens to be generous in their favors to the blessed
valley. He loves his people so much that he has ensured that they get a
comfortable average between 200-375 mm of rain and that it usually rains during
the night. All things being favorable, this year, too, the valley can expect
satisfactory monsoon rains.
A Question of Character, a question of Pride
Too many of us are going abroad. It’s understandable
that people without much of a chance to earn a decent living in the country due
to various factors should try out their luck in foreign lands. It is, however,
not understandable why those with good education, substantial family resources,
and some personal ability should make foreign shores their destination. Things
have reached such a point that everybody, but everybody, seems to be doing all
they can to get a Green Card in the States, or Permanent Residency status in
places like Australia and elsewhere.
Recent revelations show that government employees in
their thousands are already well on their way to abandoning their motherland;
they have already acquired their Green Cards or their PR status. In real term,
they have, of course, become if not totally unpatriotic, then at the very
least, much less so. How weak do we seem to be in character; how poor in pride.
It is not only the average Nepali; even the fairly well-reimbursed civil
servants have no qualms at all about abandoning their homeland. How tragic is
the state of being today. How bitter is the truth that Nepal has, every day,
less and less number of patriots. How sad that we all have forgotten the lesson
we learnt as children in school: that love for the motherland comes above all
else; that
There is something deeply wrong with the average
Nepali psyche today. Scratch the surface, and you will find plenty of wealthy
and successful businessmen, not to speak of shifty politicians and well
qualified professionals, who have a Green Card or a PR status stashed away like
an insurance policy. What is this? Do even such people have no hopes for their
own country? What is this? Do they have no misgivings at all about living up to
their responsibilities as leaders of society?
And then there are those who have won high acclaim in this country;
those talented artists who have been rewarded with all the honor and awards
that this country has to give. Unfortunately, all the awards, all the
recognition, what purpose have they served these people? They have served just
to help them acquire Green Cards and PR statuses. How tragic is the situation
when a country’s highest awards are deemed useful only for this purpose.
Yes, this country is poor; yes it is misgoverned;
yes, corruption is all-prevailing; yes, there are more wrongs than there are
rights. No doubt, Nepal has a long way to go for its citizens to be assured
adequate security, good employment opportunities, and a decent standard of
living, but is that reason enough for everybody to be so utterly hopeless that
we act so beaten? So defeated? This might all sound idealistic to the extreme,
but what can we deduce from the fact that even well-to-do Nepalis of all
sections of society are all too ready to sell their very souls for a few
dollars more? At the most, one can understand poorer/weaker citizens taking
resort to desperate measures and going wherever they can to earn a few dinars
more, but what to say about fairly-paid civil servants, successful businessmen,
and well- awarded artists? How can they surrender their character and pride so
easily?
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2014/05/15/related_articles/postplatform-goodbye-motherland/262824.html
http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2014/05/15/related_articles/postplatform-goodbye-motherland/262824.html
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