My Attempts


“I am a part of all that I have met.” I have always found this captivating quote of Alfred Lord Tennyson tallying myself of all stages of my life. I was raised by very broad minded parents who love Nepal dearly and take pride in its richness in terms of its inhabitants, geography, languages, religions, cultures and traditions. My childhood surpassed accepting these diversities humbly.

Growing up I noticed that my surroundings were heavily influenced by the century old retained caste system. Being born in a Brahmin family, I was privileged to have authorities, as to how to run the society by the given guidelines. To a great extent, my life was purged and protected against odds and bad deeds. I could enter to any temple, worship any God, plant any tree, receive any education as I want and participate in any fairs and festivals as I please. In other words, I was a privileged, touchable human being who fell under the Nepalese civil code Muluki Ain (1854) which was written by Jang Bahadur Rana. I find this text just as crooked and misleaded as our political leadership is today. Muluki Ain promulgated for around 150 years.

Any code that existed for that long would definitely change people’s attitude to put their precepts into practice. The notion that all citizens have equal rights largely became absent gradually from the popular mindset. Many people lamented for years with its consequences. Many lives were exploited and many became victims of this unjust sphere.

Gender disparity seems to hit with no lesser magnitude than the caste discrimination in Nepal. In many households, the same equal rights are not given to women. Still in many villages, their lives are valued as penance to be suffered from sins that were committed in their previous lives. I am not talking about few urban households here but I am advocating on behalf of majority of Nepal’s 29 million citizens who carry greater burden of poverty and illiteracy. Sadly enough, these practices have tormented many families but also have created an upsurge to the problems. Not only in practice, discriminations and exploitations are institutionalized as our culture now.

Sounds absurd when we think that humans are 99.9% genetically identical yet we are in haste to create a much wider distance between our own species. I may not have personally experienced such social boycotts but I would like to share the burden to abolish such practices which has wreaked the nation’s infrastructures, economy and oppressed many people who suffered from its relegations.

Little has changed since the Rana regime and such practices are still seen so rigidly established in many remote places. It is difficult to change gender roles that have grounded in our traditional beliefs for so many years. Ignorance seems unmanageable. To bridge the gap of equality and gender disparity seem inconceivable. Among the issues Nepal’s faces today are not only the mayhem of discrimination and violence that need immediate intervention, but many others- unemployment, poor healthcare, poverty, corruption and inefficient bureaucracy and a ridiculous politics etcs and etcs all which need equal attentions.

Given the situation and conflicting priorities, our problem seems to be progressing day by day. There is why I say this. We have more colleges and more graduates on our streets now than ever before yet our problems associated with unawareness has not foreshorten. However, every country has its own problems of different kinds and of magnitudes. We have recently witnessed that in Greece, which has remained at the epicenter of the European debt crisis, and much throughout the globe. Recessions have spared few countries, wiping out millions of peoples’ jobs, their hopes and dreams.

It would require a clear long term vision and dynamic thrust not just from our politicians but from all of us, to transcend traditional concepts of politics, security and ideology, to the new democratic realities. Together, we can create unprecedented opportunities that benefit not just the few but the many. In any nascent democracy, the country has to face and solve the attendant problems like ours. The same holds true with the democracy that it does not guarantees a higher standard of living, as demonstrated by the countries like Indonesia and the Philippines. With the proper nurturing of democratic values, the decades old systems and environment will adjust to the new atmosphere in time.

In the meantime if we all demand for a bigger cut and remain less aware of our duties and moralities, soon there will be an outcry of not just the natural resources but of humanity as well. Often we forget, apart from our differences in our perspectives and our world views, we live in the same earth. Let’s the word of awareness be muttering cross our streets. Let’s our conscience be there in the crises and in the peace.