It may sound incredible, but a decade ago, I was even afraid to talk on the phone. My hands shivered and my voice didn’t come out right. Once, I and my friend Subash had gone to Rampur in Udayapur district to call my brother in Kathmandu. Rampur was 1.5 hours away on foot from our home at Lalbazar.
At the Katuwal Communication Centre, I passed on my brother’s number to the operator who dialed it. After a few trials, the call connected and the telephone owner passed the receiver over to me. I could feel my hands shake. I was confused, and with difficulty I put the phone to my ear. I could hear my brother say “Hello, Hello,” but I was numb. I passed the phone to Subash in a rush. He was the one who spoke to my brother that day. I felt sad. But what could I do? I was so helpless. Even my brother became angry at me. Later at home, he complained to father “Your younger son didn’t talk to me!” [break]
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A lot of changes have taken place in the last decade of my life. When I first arrived in Katmandu in 2001 after completing my SLC, I saw a computer for the very first time. Before that, I had only heard of it. Some people even said that computers have viruses and those who don’t know how to use them would vanish and die. It feels so stupid now. It was not easy for me to learn how to use a computer. Initially, a teacher yelled at me for not being able to handle a mouse properly: “Are you catching a fish? You don’t even know this much?” Everyone in the class looked at me and laughed. Those old days now feel surreal.
Recently, when I was back in my village, I had a Skype session with my brother and sister-in-law of America. My parents were happy as well as amazed to see and talk to them from such a great distance.
The changes in the past decade have been remarkable. Back then, if we wanted to make a phone call, we had to travel for an hour and a half and cross rivers to reach Rampur. Most of the times there were connection problems and we would return home dejected. At that time, even imagining something like internet was out of question. Half a decade ago, I used letters to communicate with my parents—letters which would arrive after I had reached the village months later!
But today, there are mobiles everywhere, even in villages. From the rich to the poor, there is hardly any home without a mobile. A recently published report indicated that a Nepali home may lack a toilet, but will definitely have a mobile. The picture fit my village perfectly. There are still people in the village with no toilet at home, but they do have mobiles. It is fascinating to see children playing with their cell phones. There is neither electricity nor a library in the village and yet, they are so intensely engaged in mobiles, listening to music and playing games. A friend of mine has opened a mobile repair shop in the village. He transfers Hindi and Nepali movie songs to mobiles for five to ten rupees, which is just perfect for kids with no access to other forms of entertainment.
It is quite amazing to find the youngsters of my village involved in various social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Mig, etc. Indeed, technology has resulted in a paradigm shift in my village, and I assume, across Nepal.
Even though it is situated at the edge of a forest, many houses of my village are attached to solar panels, yet another remarkable change. With this, there is also increment in the number of color TVs in the village, to such an extent that most local and international channels are available in the village through the DTH network. Last year, I watched Euro Cup in my village via a projector.
Gone are the days when people didn’t know about Hari Khadka and Dev Narayan Chaudhary. Now, there are hardly any youth who do not know Messi or Christiano Ronaldo. Similarly, with the rise of Hollywood and Bollywood stars, songs of Avril and Shakira are popular. Earlier Nepali film songs and folk songs used to be played in cultural programs, but now songs of Rihanna and Shakira are preferred. This is definitely the outcome of technological development.
I still remember those days before the advent of technology. During my school days, we paid Rs 2 to watch a serial on a B/W TV. Back then, there was only one TV in the whole village. It took me around 15 minutes to get to that house. From Nepali to Indian serials, we watched them all, be it Chandrakanta or Mahabharata or Mukti or Jivan Yatra. The daytime movie on Saturday was a must; we paid up to Rs 5 for a blockbuster. The owners of the TV had a different status in our village. We had to obey whatever they said.
Today, those days seem like a dream.
My professional experience parallels this change. Sometime in 2008, I visited Thakalmath, a remote village in Bhaktapur district just 50 miles from the capital. I was shocked when I discovered it was only in 2007 that students in the area became familiar with computers. Interestingly, one of the teachers shared that students were afraid to touch a computer, afraid that a virus in the computer would kill them. After two years I went to a remote village in Kaski district and was stunned to see students using Internet and video-chatting.
A lot has changed in the last decade. Gadgets available in the international market are available locally at the same time. Today, I use an Apple MacbookPro and Ipad2 along with an android phone. This would have been impossible 10 years ago, when I could not even place a call to my brother!
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