Disturbing flashbacks

You spot a poor little girl probably in her early teenage, wearing shabby clothes and lying motionless on a busy road with lots of vehicles driving by. Living in a metropolis, you too are always doing something important, too busy to even convince yourself that you have actually seen something requiring your attention, let alone ooze out any emotions or spare your unquestionably precious time to stop by and see what you can do about her.


Let’s change the scene for a moment, shall we? You are measurably successful and have achieved almost everything you once dreamt of. Push the ‘how you achieved all those things’ story aside and think of what your next move should be. All of a sudden your conscience comes into play up and tells you to start some charitable work or at least ‘lend’ your support to some organizations helping the helpless. Believe me, sooner or later you begin to follow the same pattern as most of the high class figures do. You start delivering touchy speeches, posing photographs with the hungry, shaking hands with the poor or donating or raising funds (or doing both) for some noble causes. In the glimmer of your success and with a more polished societal figure, it’s so easy to forget a simple fact -- even when you were an ordinary person, you could have done something (though at a much smaller scale) that could have saved someone from the misery they would have to wait unbearably long to end.

I know I’m going nowhere with this argument at this late hour. Why did I even choose to write something which most of you will find too boring to continue reading beyond the first few lines? Well, it’s not for you that I’m doing this. It’s because I was damn right about one thing earlier today –that getting sleep wasn’t going to be easy tonight. So bear with my clumsy narration (that is, if you continue further).

It was about eleven o’ clock when I was riding my bike with my mother on our way to a hospital in Bhaktapur to get her medical report and to follow up with her surgeon that we happened to spot that girl. Let me correct myself. I was overtaking a few vehicles and hence speeding. Without anything particular in mind, I stopped my bike about 10 meters farther, then told my mother we were going back to see that girl. The place I’m referring to is part of Nagadesh or Sanothimi, in Bhaktapur District.

When we arrived at the scene, she was no longer on the road but pulled over to the footpath by someone in the neighborhood. We asked some kids who were staring at her what just had happened. We tried to get the girl’s attention by asking her if she was okay, but she didn’t respond. A ten rupee note slipped out of her grip that was still holding two or three other notes. Clearly, she had been sympathized by some commuters. The kids also told us that she was mute and probably not in stable mental condition.

I asked my mother to get some packaged juice and biscuits and try to feed her, while I quickly took directions to the hospital and went inside of what I found to be the Korea-Nepal Friendship Hospital in Thimi. My inquiry revealed that three days ago, the girl had been brought in by the police for treatment and left there for observation. Two days later, she was released by the hospital stating she was physically fine, but not mentally so. What happened to her later was nor in their records or none of their business.

Fair enough, I thought and went back to the scene. My mother told me that the girl couldn’t be fed, as she wasn’t responding at all. A bystander told me that two cops were on the scene a little while ago and pointed me to their direction. I approached them and asked them how she landed on the road after being ‘rescued’ by the police. The constables indifferently said they had no idea and that I’d better go to the local police station (about a kilometer farther) and speak to the DSP (a lady) herself. Seeing no progress talking to them, I asked my mother to accompany me on what was about to turn into a pointless mission afterwards.

The DSP wasn’t in, so we were taken to the inspectors-on-duty’s room. There were two of them inside, along with three or four other people. Without any proper introduction, I quickly greeted the officers and told them about the girl’s condition. I then demanded an explanation of how she was in such a terrible condition and not at some rehab. They proudly stressed on the fact that their senior lady officer was the one who had done everything in her capacity to help the poor girl. Details included giving the child a bath, some clothes and food. Then, she was said to have been taken by the police to several rehabs, only to find out that none of those would take custody of mentally unstable persons. Finally, the officers decided that there was nothing that they could do about it and let her go.

Just like that? I asked. They told me they respected my sentiments, but there was nothing anyone could have done anything about it. They were trying to convince me that they had done everything in their capacity, adding that after all, she was not their only headache. They had a lot of other things to worry about in order to ensure peace and security for the public, made only busier due to the long festival of Dashain in proximity. They counter-questioned us by saying, “These matters essentially are the state’s concerns. If the state isn’t doing what they should for such forsaken kids, who else can?”

I then made a few phone calls, trying to extract information about any organizations where the helpless child could be reestablished. Since getting my mother’s report was still pending, I decided to use the period of time we would have to wait for any replies to go to her hospital.

On our way back, I received a call and was advised of the government run mental hospital in Patan. I was also told that should that hospital refuse to take the kid in, there was no alternative. Then came an unexpected suggestion – I was only getting myself into needless troubles – troubling myself with my unpractical principles. Really?

Well, we went back to the officers and humbly requested them to prepare the necessary documents and to take her to the mental hospital as soon as possible. They assured (in a lack-of-willingness-revealing way ) us that they would do so and thanked us for our time and effort. As deep in my heart I knew that we hadn’t done anything effective to even address the seriousness of the matter in concern, I told him how I felt. “What we witnessed back there tells us that nobody deserves to suffer the way that girl's doing. Is the simple fact that it’s not us who are handicapped but that poor girl, enough to make us really try helping her? We’re not here to discuss whose reponsibility it is officially to relocate her. It's a real human life we're talking about. If we just walk away pretending not having seen anything disturbing, how can we manage to sleep at the end of the day when all those images start flashing back?”

When we reached the place where we had last seen the girl, she was no longer there. A local man told us that a police van had picked her up while we were away. “May she find a better refuge and treatment,” we wished, and continued toward home. I won’t be surprised if you say we did try our best today. Personally, I can never be sure of that. What’s bothering me is the question I’ve been asking all day long. Are the resounding words ‘humanity,’ ‘human rights,’ etc. so pointless and good only in books or public speeches?

Relocation of Thoughtcasts -- Thanks to Brad

Thanks to Brad, I've finally managed to secure this address for blog. At the time I registered this blog first with its old address, I had no idea that one day I would be able to get my desired address, identical with the title of my blog. Why? It was already taken by Brad.

Three days ago, I was (re)activating and updating my Facebook and Twitter accounts. I realized that Thoughtcasts was still available for registration and both of those providers allowed a simple way to adopt that username. After updating both accounts, I checked once again to see if the same was available on Blog*Spot again. It was not.

Then I wanted to see the then Brad's blog. I noticed that he hadn't updated it for over a year. Suddenly I had an idea. I sent him an email requesting him to release that address so that I could use it.

How do you approach someone you do not know, and ask them to transfer the ownership of something (you deperately want) owned by them? Well, I could think of nothing else but honesty as my only way to reach Brad. I wrote to him, explaining that I was on my way to establishing an unified brand for my social networks, and requested him to help me in the process.

To my relief (and surprise), he replied positively and immediately changed the address of his exisiting blog. Till that moment, I had no idea that Blog*Spot would prevent me from capturing this address. I then digged into the corresponding support forum and posted my question there. Within minutes, I received and excellent reply from a top contributor.

Brad then helped me along each and every step, and tonight he made it possible for me to have what I wanted, so selflessly and painlessly that I cannot express in words.

Thank you, Brad! I will never forget your contribution. I'll try my best to keep this blog alive for as long as possible.

Wasted resources, politics, and youth

That Nepal's got a huge potential in terms of hydropower (actually, water resources in general) is not a new fact. The main reason is that our rivers originate from high altitude terrain (the Himalayas in the northern belt) and flow down towards the southern parts through the hilly terrain. Because of the mountainous terrain, the rivers have very high currents, an essential characteristic for generation of hydropower.

Studies suggest that the total hydroelectric potential of Nepal is 83,500 MW (theoretically). It is believed that even after omitting all impractical factors, almost 40%-60% of this potential can be feasibly gained. What is it, if not an irony, that we are suffering from 12 hours (in late 2008 and early 2009, it scaled up to 20 hours) of power outage (not to mention the evergrowing scarcity of drinking water)? Believe it or not, the current total production of hydropower is less than 1% of the said potential.

The hydropower plants in Nepal are categorised as major, small and private (or independent power producers). The 10th National Water Plan - 2005 (a 3-year plan) revealed that approximately 389 MW power is being generated by major plants, 12.8 MW by small plants and 15.2 MW by private plants (IPPs). The same source mentioned that 80% of the nation's water resources can be converted into hydropower. I hope this gives you the idea of what we are dealing with here.

Why are we so much behind from realising our hydropower and other goals to a satisfactory level? I think it's partly due to our shortsighted policy makers and mainly due to the political instability (a crucial factor for development of any country). Another major cause is that we have to rely on other countries for the technologies needed to mobilise our resources, and obviously, the technically strong ones always tend to exploit their weaker counterparts.

I believe that if for once, we have a stable government with truly patriotic politicians, dedicated and transparent bodies and foresightful policy makers, we can accelerate our development process and attain greater heights within a decade or two. Besides, we need to reverse the brain drain this nation is suffering at large. In other words, we somehow need to convince our intellectual, highly educated and talented workforce (especially the youth) to abundantly contribute to the nation's development rather than settle in foreign lands. For this, they need to be positively motivated and given some sort of assurance, right? After all, nation building is not a unilateral task - it requires honest and selfless inputs from every Nepalese citizen.

It is true that being landlocked is a huge bottleneck for us, but there's no denial to the fact that Mother Nature has blessed us in so many other ways. We've talked about water resources. There used to be a time when agriculture did wonders here (not anymore). Tourism, our main source of foreign currency, is yet to flourish. talent our politicians can perhaps win all the world titles, I guess.While having a chat with some youths about two years ago, I got very excited and said that if only we could excel in those three sectors, our economy would automatically boom. Guess what - I saw the Minister of Finance (Dr. Baburam Bhattarai from the Communist Party of Nepal - Maoist) of that time saying exactly the same thing in his budget speech a couple of days later, which was televised throughout the nation. But we Nepalese are used to such speeches; speaking is one

Before we could see or feel any promising changes, the CPN Maoist led government was dissolved after they resigned due to a much debated domestic issue. Now they are demanding the dissolution of the current coalition government (led by CPN United - Marxist & Leninist, Nepalese Congress and 20 other parties) and looking for their re-entry through a nationwide general strike (effective since May 2). With only about 3 weeks to the deadline of our Constituent Assembly for the issuance of a new constitution (an interim one is in effect at present), the nation has been brought to a total halt by force. The leaders of the major parties are having the so-called 'high profile' but inconclusive meetings at venues like Radisson Hotel, etc. almost everyday.

Different speculations are being made about the current crisis. There's a group of intellects who believe that things will continue the way they are, until they cross the limit of tolerance of the general public. I would consider myself lucky to see that happen. I mean, to see some 28 million two legged conscienceless creatures forming a stampede and standing against the comparatively small group of politicians who are raping our motherland for their own petty benefits while the rest of the population (including myself) are silently witnessing all their wrongdoings, I would give everything I have.

I hate myself and my lot for having endured so much for such worthless causes. And I believe that if we ever need a revolution again, it's not the streets or battlefields we should target, but our own conscience. We must revolutionise the way we prioritise or interpret or judge things, and the way we relate ourselves to our motherland. Without any intention of sounding pessimistic, I often ask myself, “Will I live to see that day?”