Fascination with scraps at 90

KATHMANDU, Sept 14: A bespectacled man who looked very tentative about his bodily movements was ransacking a heap of scraps strewn all over the attic of his Tripureswar residence at 2 pm Monday when two visitors arrived.

From the attic, he led the visitors down a narrow stairway that led to his workshop and a classroom where he hopes to teach people how to compost kitchen waste, apart from recycle metal and wooden scraps that we throw away as useless, thereby stretching to its limits the city´s overburdened and obstruction-prone garbage disposal machinery. [break]

Ninety-year-old Hutaram Baidya, whose thick glasses make his eyeballs look like enormous anatomy-hall specimens, then carefully explained how he composts kitchen waste, before demonstrating the workings of a smokeless stove, a tap built with scraps, little boxes he has fashioned out of scrap wood, and a guide to help livestock farmers determine the age of goats.

“To beget a healthy baby goat, it is important that the mother goat is of right age,” said the agricultural engineer and conservation activist, demonstrating a concern for goat farming that some might find difficult to understand in these times of nationwide political angst.

But for Baidya, agriculture, environment, and politics are areas of equal concern.

Descendent of Nanyadev

Baidya was born in July, 1920. His father Ratna Raj was the first allopathic doctor of the country and the personal physician of Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shumsher. For centuries since settling in Nepal, these descendants of Karnataka´s king Nanyadev, who is believed to have invaded Kathmandu in the 11th century AD, followed the family trade of working as Baidyas, or physicians trained in the Vedic tradition.

Baidya received formal education at Durbar High School, and Trichandra College before studying agricultural engineering in Allahabad, India.

After completing his studies, Baidya worked for two decades at the Department of Agriculture (DoA), before his bosses did not agree with his approach to work. This made it impossible for him to continue, and eventually forced him to resign. These developments happened soon after King Mahendra dismissed an elected government and declared a party-less Panchayat system.

“I have always believed in developing technologies that poor people can afford and learn to use,” said Baidya, adding, “They apparently had different ideas.”

The resignation was the end of government service for him, and the beginning of a career as a consultant that eventually transformed him into the country´s best known spokesperson for the protection of river systems.

Gradual Demise of Bagmati River

Baidya woefully remembers the introduction of cement technology in the country.

“The Siddhi Bhawan in Kathmandu was the first structure built in the country using cement technology. The second was Soaltee Hotel,” said Baidya.

“The cement technology gained popularity as it is quick to build and stronger than mud structure. Dasarath stadium was built using the same technology, as were a majority of new houses built in the capital thereafter,” he added.

While newer and newer cement structures took shape in Kathmandu, Baidya observed that sand, an integral component of cement technology, was excavated from the rivers, including the Bagmati.

The trucks that took away sand came back with debris of the mud-built houses that were demolished to erect cement structures. The debris was dumped in the rivers.

“This was the beginning of the destruction of our river systems that has continued till today,” he said.

In 1990, Baidya started the ´Save Bagmati Campaign´ to protect the country´s river systems. In the years that followed, he read in newspapers promises made by businessmen and politicians to protect the Bagmati River and waited endlessly for the words to be translated into action.

“I don´t believe that development is possible with the destruction of nature,” said Baidya, noting with displeasure the latest attack on nature by stone miners, apart from plans to build roads that would constrict the rivers.

Hard Work

Baidya, who doesn´t have any major health issue despite having seen 90 autumns, believes that like our river systems that are being emptied of sand thanks to a wrong approach to development, our country is being emptied of youth by a wrong approach to education.

“I am disheartened to hear youths complain that they don´t find anything worthwhile to do in Nepal. It´s not their fault. They were and are being prepared to go abroad, earn a living there, and, if possible, remit something to Nepal for their parents´ upkeep. This is a very sad approach to raising and educating kids,” said the engineer who has plans that could keep him occupied for many more decades, life permitting.

“With hard work, one can employ oneself and even create jobs for others. Send youths to me. I´ll teach them skills. I won´t charge anything,” said the nonagenarian, adding on a cheerful note, “I have very high hopes on the young Nepalis. My only concern is that they might have run out of people to guide them along the right path.”