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I came back to Kathmandu last week after completing my two year tenure in Delhi. “Welcome back to darkness,” some of my friends said. Load shedding is not a new phenomenon in Kathmandu. But the continued and unacceptably long hours of power cuts have fueled further frustration. Not to mention the ‘deadlocked’ politics and lack of developmental activities. I was mildly surprised to learn that some of my friends preferred to see me in Delhi (meaning anywhere out of Nepal) than in Kathmandu. Kathmandu Post 13.02.11 This familiar love-hate relationship with the homeland—can’t live with it, can’t live without it. You may run away from home to escape problems but you cannot live away from it for long. You may want to earn a degree or work abroad for a few years but you do not want to die there. The desire to return becomes so strong that at one point it overwhelms you. You will start feeling uncomfortable even with the relatively comfortable life there. People want to share their happiness with their own. In a foreign land, however many good friends they may have, they can’t communicate their excitement with foreigners as easily as they can with their friends, relatives and neighbours back home. Even if they do, foreigners won’t understand them. They also want to show off their progress—not to their newly acquired foreign friends but to their folks back home. “A Nepali won’t feel validated without showing off his colour television set to his neighbour in Nepal despite earning millions of rupees in Japan,” a senior journalist colleague once told me. That’s true because there are many other millionaires in developed societies where personal achievements aren’t taken as the significant step they would be considered in Nepal. This is true with any other nationality too. For some it could be the other way around. I have come across many Westerners who have decided to spend their life in third world countries like Nepal and India because they get ‘royal treatment’ and ‘attention’ here. They can’t get the same level of importance in their native society because there are so many other people just like them. Another very important reason for people to return to their homelands is their desire to do something for their society. After gaining knowledge or amassing wealth, they want to come back to serve their motherland. My case is slightly different. I do have a strong desire to serve my society and uplift the quality of my profession, but I didn’t go out of Nepal to study or seek employment. And I didn’t come back to show off or share my happiness and progress with my family. In fact, my significant other is still in Delhi studying, among others, econometrics. While in Delhi I was working for a Kathmandu-based company, this newspaper and its Nepali-language sister publication, as fulltime staff. Very few Nepalis work for Nepali companies from outside of Nepal because of the nation’s frail economy. But Delhi is no New York or Tokyo. This is the capital city of a country where tens of thousands of unfortunate Nepalis toil day and night for meagre earnings. During my stay in the city and trips to other parts of India, I didn’t meet a single Nepali who was very happy or proud to be where he was. And Nepalis are everywhere. From Jammu to Kanyakumari, Mumbai to Shillong, Lucknow to Hyderabad. In all these places I saw Nepalis working at dhabas and shops. Not a good sight. I overheard them talking loudly in Nepali about their difficult life. Not a good sound. All of my attempts to track a Nepali who has done a great deal of ‘progress’ (apart from Udit Narayan and Manisha Koirala) resulted in encounters with momo sellers or small-time liquor sellers in Delhi. I have realised that Nepalis do not go to India to seek success. They go there to sustain their lives. India is not a land of opportunity for us, but a temporary escape from our reality. But India is not to be blamed for our misfortune. The problem lies with us, not with them. If you are poor and divided, others will look down upon you. Instead, I feel, India is doing us a favour by allowing us to enter its boundaries without asking. Of course, it does so because of its own compulsions and to safeguard its own strategic interests. Despite all the hype and hoopla about India being a constitutionally secular country, in my understanding, this is not the case. India can’t become a secular country because it is not just a country. It’s a continent in itself and, more than that, it’s a civilisation. This civilisation is different from that of, say, the Chinese or the West or Muslims. It’s the Hindu civilisation. You don’t have to be a Huntington to understand why a nation that has the second largest Muslim population in the world fought twice with Pakistan and is fencing its frontiers with Bangladesh with barbed wires but is so keen on keeping the border with Nepal open. Jawaharlal Nehru once said something about the Himalayas being India’s final frontier and Hindu nationalists in India continue to believe even today that Nepal is part of what they call the Bharat Barsha. My understanding is that India has no problem with Nepal as long as it remains a predominantly Hindu society. All the rhetoric that comes out of Delhi that Nepal is ‘tilting’ towards China or becoming ‘a hotbed for anti-India activities’ is lame. This happens despite knowing that Nepal can never be as close to China as it is with India because of civilisational differences with its northern neighbour. This article was first published in today’s Kathmandu Post. Nepali version of the same was published in the Saturday (12 Feb) edition of Kantipur. Like this: Like Loading...
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दिनेश वाग्ले वाग्ले स्ट्रिट जर्नल दिल्लीमा दुई वर्षको कार्यकाल सिध्याएर गतसाता काठमान्डु फर्किंदा केही साथीहरूले भने- ‘अँध्यारोमा स्वागत छ ।’ बिजुलीको अभाव काठमान्डुमा नौलो होइन । तर निरन्तरको र अस्वीकार्य रूपमा लामो लोडसेडिङले जनतामा निराशा बढाएको छ । ‘अनिर्णयको बन्दी’ राजनीति र विकास निर्माणको अभावको कुरै नगरौं । नेपाल आउनु साटो बाहिरै बसेको राम्रो भन्ने केही साथीहरूको टिप्पणीले म हल्का चकित भएँ । दिल्ली न्युयोर्क या टोकियो होइन । दिल्ली त्यो देशको राजधानी सहर हो, जहाँ स्वाभिमान गुमाएर अत्यन्त थोरै आम्दानीका लागि दसौं हज्जार नेपालीहरू रातदिन खट्छन् । त्यहाँ बस्दा र भारत घुम्दा मैले एउटा नेपाली भेटिन, जो त्यहाँ भएकोमा खुसी या गौरवान्वित होस् । भारतमा नेपालीहरू जहींतहीं छन् । जम्मुदेखि कन्याकुमारीसम्म । मुम्बईदेखि शिलाङसम्म । लखनऊदेखि हैदरावादसम्म । ती सबै ठाउँमा मैले ढावा र पसलहरूमा काम गरिरहेका नेपाली देखेँ । त्यो दर्शनीय थिएन । त्यहाँ उनीहरूले दुःख साटिरहेको मैले सुनेँ । त्यो श्रवणीय थिएन । उदीतनारायण र मनिषा कोइरालाबाहेक भारतमा उल्लेख्य प्रगति गर्ने कोही नेपाली छन् भनेर खोज्ने मेरा सबै प्रयासहरू दिल्लीमा मम बेच्ने या ह्विस्कीको ससानो कारोबार गर्ने व्यक्तिहरूमा पुगेर सकिए । मैले के थाहा पाएँ भने नेपालीहरू कुनै सफलता हासिल गर्न भारत जाँदैनन् । जिन्दगीलाई जसोतसो निरन्तरता दिन उनीहरू त्यता हानिन्छन् । भारत हाम्रालागि ‘मौकाको भूमि’ होइन, दुःखपूर्ण वास्तविकताबाट अस्थायी रूपमा उम्किने ठाउँ हो । मातृभूमिसँगको प्रेम र घृणाको सम्बन्ध पनि गज्जबकै छ ! यहाँ बस्न नसकिने, यो बिना पनि टिक्न नसकिने । समस्याहरूबाट भाग्न केही समय देशबाहिर रहन सकिएला, तर धेरै समय बस्न सकिँदैन । अध्ययन या केही वर्ष काम गर्न विदेशिए पनि मानिसहरू त्यहीं मर्न चाहँदैनन् । कुनै एउटा विन्दुमा पुगेपछि घर फर्किने चाहना यति बलियो हुन्छ, त्यसले मानिसहरूलाई पूरै थिच्छ । अनि तुलनात्मक सुविधा पनि असुविधापूर्ण लाग्न थाल्छ । मानिसहरू खुसी आफन्तसँग बाँड्न चाहन्छन् । विदेशमा जतिसुकै राम्रा साथी बनाए पनि उनीहरूले आफ्ना उत्तेजनाहरू विदेशीहरूसँग त्यति सहजै साझेदारी गर्न सक्दैनन्, जति स्वदेशी साथी, आफन्त र छिमेकीसँग सक्छन् । उनीहरू विदेशमा गरेको प्रगति विदेशीलाई भन्दा बढी स्वदेशकै आफ्नालाई देखाउन चाहन्छन् । ‘गोर्खेलाई जापानमा लाखौं कमाए पनि छिमेकीलाई घरमा बोलाएर रंगिन टीभी नदेखाएसम्म प्रगति गरेको छु भन्ने लाग्दैन’, कुनै जमानामा एकजना अग्रज पत्रकार मित्रले भनेका थिए । त्यसमा सत्यता किन छ भने विकसित समाजमा एउटा नेपालीले जतिसुकै कमाए त्यो उपलब्धिलाई नेपालमा जति महत्त्वसाथ त्यो समाजमा लिइँदैन । त्यहाँ त्यति प्रगति गर्ने कति हुन्छन् कति । यो कुरा नेपालीमै मात्र लागू हुने पनि होइन । केही राष्ट्रियताका लागि त्यो उल्टो हुन्छ । मैले थुप्रै पश्चिमाहरूलाई देखेको छु, जसले नेपाल या भारतजस्ता तेस्रो विश्वका समाजमा बाँकी जीवन बिताउने निर्णय गरेका छन् । किनकि उनीहरूलाई यी समाजमा लगभग ‘राजकीय सम्मान’ मिल्छ । सबैले महत्त्व दिन्छन् । उनीहरूले आफ्नो देशमा त्यस्तो सम्मान र महत्त्व पाउँदैनन्, किनकि ती समाजमा उनीहरूजस्ता थुप्रै हुन्छन् । मातृभूमिमा फर्किने अर्को महत्त्वपूर्ण कारण समाजमा केही योगदान दिन्छु भन्ने दृढता पनि हो । ज्ञान या पैसा कमाएर केही मानिस जन्मभूमिमा ‘केही गर्ने’ उद्देश्यले फर्किन्छन् । मेरो सन्दर्भ हल्का फरक छ । समाज सेवा गर्ने र आफ्नो पेसाको गुणस्तर बढाउने मेरो बलियो चाहना छ, तर म पढ्न या जागिर खोज्न नेपाल बाहिर गएको थिइन । र म मेरो खुसी/उपलब्धि परिवारसँग साझेदारी गर्न आएको फर्केको पनि होइन । खासमा मेरी जीवनसाथी दिल्लीमै छिन्, अन्य विषयबाहेक इकोनोमेटि्रक्स पढ्दै । दिल्लीमा रहँदा म नेपालकै कम्पनी- यो पत्रिका र यसको अंग्रेजीभाषी सहप्रकाशन-का लागि पूर्णकालीन पत्रकार भएर काम गरेको थिएँ, जो अहिले पनि जारी छ । नेपालमा आधारित कम्पनीका लागि देशबाहिर गएर काम गर्ने नेपालीको संख्या निकै थोरै छ । त्यस्तो हुनुमा हाम्रो बिगि्रएको आर्थिक अवस्था जिम्मेवार छ । अनेकौं कारणले हामी भारतप्रति रिस पोख्छौं । तर समस्या हामीसँगै छ । गरिब र विभाजित भएपछि विदेशीले नहेपे के गर्छन् ? भारत जान नपाए दसौं हज्जार नेपाली डाँडामा के गरेर बस्थे होलान् ? सीमा बन्द भयो भने के होला ? नसोधिकनै उसको सीमा छिर्न दिएर भारतले हामीलाई गुन लगाएको हो ? त्यसो पनि नभनौं, किनकि भारतले सीमा खुला राख्नु पछाडि उसका आफ्नै बाध्यता र रणनीतिक स्वार्थ छन् । भारत संवैधानिक रूपमा धर्मनिरपेक्ष राष्ट्र हो । मलाई त्यस्तो लाग्दैन । भारत धर्मनिरपेक्ष देश हुनै सक्दैन, किनकि त्यो एउटा देशमात्र होइन । त्यो आफैंमा एउटा महादेश हो । अझ भनौं एउटा सभ्यता हो । त्यो सभ्यता जो चिनियाँ, पश्चिमा र मुस्लिमभन्दा फरक छ । भारत हिन्दु सम्भता हो । विश्वकै दोस्रो ठूलो मुस्लिम जनसंख्या भइकन पनि आफैंबाट छुट्टएिको मुस्लिम पाकिस्तानसँग दुईपटक लड्ने, अर्को मुस्लिम बंगलादेशसँगको सिमानालाई तार बेरेर बन्द गर्ने भारतले नेपालसँगको सिमानालाई चाहिँ खुलै राखिराख्न चाहनु पछाडिको उद्देश्य बुझ्न कसैले पनि सभ्यताहरूको संघर्षबारे किताब लेखेका अमेरिकी राजनीतिशात्री स्याम्युअल हन्टिङ्टन भइहरनु पर्दैन । जवाहरलाल नेहरुले कुनै जमानामा भारतको उत्तर सिमाना हिमालय हुन् भनेका थिए । भारतका हिन्दु कट्टरपन्थीहरू अझै पनि नेपाल उनीहरूको कल्पनाको ‘भारतवर्ष’भित्रै पर्छ भन्ठान्छन् । नेपालको बहुमत समाज हिन्दु होउन्जेल भारतको टाउको नदुख्ने मेरो बुझाइ छ । नास्तिक माओवादी उसलाई चाहिएन । ‘चिनियाँ प्रभाव बढ्यो’ या नेपाल ‘भारत विरोधी गतिविधिको केन्द्र बन्दैछ’ भनी उताबाट आउने दाबीहरू दिल्लीका हस्तक्ष्ाेपकारीहरूका सतही बहानामात्रै हुन् । सभ्यताको फरकले गर्दा भारतसँग जति नजिक चीनसँग नेपाल कहिल्यै हुन सक्दैन भन्ने बुझेर पनि उनीहरू त्यस्तो हल्ला फैलाउँछन् । हो, नेपालका केही मुस्लिमहरूसँग भारतको समस्या छ र उनीहरूलाई भारतले आफ्नो जासुसी संयन्त्रमार्फत सोझै नियालिरहेको छ । यो लेख आजको कान्तिपुरमा प्रकाशित भएको हो ।