Today, I often think in hindsight as to what made me remark so starkly about something I had very little knowledge about and, further, what impressed that person so much? In retrospection, now I believe that whatever I said was not merely a whimsical outburst but sedimentation of subtle experiences. They, if I may, are the outcrops of time on society.
I went to visit my maternal grandmother after a long time in one of the harvest seasons revitalizing my jubilant memories. A small village in mid-western Nepal used to be laden with festive air in this season. The mature paddy sways the landscape in a golden hue and the houses are prepared for storing rice. ‘Dain’, a special ritual cum seasonal chore, like any other occasion related to life cycle of rice crop, is celebrated joyously. My childhood memories of ‘dain’ were of nothing less than a festival. Eight to nine oxen would revolve in unison the whole day muddling the straw into circular clouds and we, the children, enjoyed our freefall. Around 15 to 20 men and women, called ‘daeraa’, would work the whole day. Jokes, laughter and light mood used to swirl in the air of the moment along with the aroma of the feast marking the celebration of a good harvest.
The significance of remittance as a contributor to economic development is an issue of strictly economic debate but signs of socio-cultural degradation in a society dispossessed of its youth are visible in day-to-day lives of people everywhere. The youth today are completely disconnected from their roots.
But, this time, the different landscape made me realize that times have really changed. Uncultivated fields smirked at me in derision when I was welcomed by the old and the unwell of the village. My grandmother was staying with one of my aunts. Her four sons (my uncles) were working abroad who came home once in three to four years for two to three months. This was the harvest season and so the time for ‘dain’. I decided to help with whatever I could, cursing some unknown force that is responsible for such condition of the villages. Whatever the two ladies had been able to cultivate was very less so we did not have to look for too many oxen. Men, I realized, were hard to be found now days in villages of Nepal. So, this time, it was me, my aunt and two demoralized oxen to commemorate the end of the season. Honestly speaking, I enjoyed it thoroughly but it also left me with many questions. Many recurring queries were answered but as many new uncertainties emerged.
We did not know how to make bundles of straw. There was nothing technical in the process but I realized then that it was an expertise developed with time and tradition. The straw is carried in large bundles tied with improvised ropes made of the straw itself. We tried our best in applying our mind and were somehow able to figure out a way but we missed the elegance of experience and practice. This was a moment of realization for me, a moment of awakening. When we were jostling with our newly re-invented wheel, grandmother was laughing at our ignorance.
Two hundred years back, some soldiers of the ‘Gorkhali Army’, exhausted and dissatisfied by the endless campaign, deserted and joined the Punjab Army in Lahore as mercenaries. Later, the British Indian Army officially started recruiting Nepali subjects as the ‘Gurkhas’ after the treaty of Sugauli. These ‘Lahures’ started a trend that later became a business for the state. Today, the business of exporting men and women contributes around 20 percent to the GDP of the nation under the head of remittance.
Lack of employment opportunity in the country has forced the people to follow self-imposed exile on a huge scale. Recently, due to the war or struggle or the political turmoil, it has become severer. Fields remain untilled, villages are empty of festivities and newly-married men and women often are separated for many years. “Men are away and women have forgotten their dharma”, my grandmother leaves me pondering deep with this remark.
The significance of remittance as a contributor to economic development is an issue of strictly economic debate but signs of socio-cultural degradation in a society dispossessed of its youth are visible in day-to-day lives of people everywhere. The youth today are completely disconnected from their roots. Some of us are completely unaware of this slow but steady deracination. Some are aware but helpless to do anything. Some are shamelessly boastful of the same. Breakups in families are common, respect for the older generation has disappeared and extra-marital affairs, sexual deprivations and disorders are rampant.
Because labor is exported everyday on a huge scale, commodities, services and labor back home is getting costlier. Recent news of the shortage of labor in the construction industry is one example of this. It has made life unsustainable for people with normal income who want to work and live in the country. The shortsightedness of our policymakers and increasing dependency on remittance has trapped the country in a vicious circle and is forcing people to be exiled in large volumes every day.
When the grandchildren look at their grandparents with pity because they cannot even operate computers, our grandparents laugh at us because we do not know even the basics of our heritage and culture. Probably this is a gap that can never be completely bridged and this is a change that could never have been stopped, but had the politics of the country taken a sensible direction early on, things wouldn’t have been this bad. The onus now is on us to find a way out for our future generations.
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