The digester complete destroy our country, not only the country it destroy our heart as well as the soul. Our small nation, already crippled by poverty, dirty politics, corruption and what not, got struck by the biggest earthquake in 80 years that severely damaged not just the monuments, houses and buildings but also the hearts and emotions of millions of Nepalese both in and out of the country. There is sadness, there are tears, there is despair, and everything looks black and bleak. There are dark clouds over our skies, even literally! And no one knows what’s going to happen next.
The answer, though, is pretty simple. Only two things can happen next. Things can go worse or better. The earthquake’s aftershocks might continue for a while but it won’t be as large as the main quake. So, things will not go worse through nature; where it can go wrong, however, is through us, human beings. Taking advantage of this panic situation, some people with no empathy for sufferers or gratitude for being alive themselves, could loot, rob, rape, burgle and I don’t know what!! I already heard about a few shopkeepers hiking the price of daily necessities. According to a facebook friend, the price of a packet of milk was hiked by more than 400%. And there are a few frauds collecting donations to feed themselves!
But this scenario of things getting worse seems very unlikely. The number of people with such inhuman character is pretty low. Police are working hard. Youths are working hard. But most importantly, common people in such a state of grief are very powerful and ruthless. They could punish any wrongdoers so severely that it defies belief. All the sadness and anger against nature and suffering could be outpoured over you, if you are the wrongdoer! So people with intention of wrongdoing, be aware! Everyone just needs an excuse at the moment to outpour their pent up emotions of sadness, suffering and resentment. You do one stupid thing and you will face the severest punishment at the hands of people! No chances for wrongdoing here mate! People might be sad and weak but they have their blood boiling!!
The second scenario is things getting better, which is the most likely scenario to happen. Yes, it has been a terrible experience. Yes, we all feel sad and hopeless. But there are a lot of positives to be derived from this seemingly bleak tragedy.
This tragedy has filled me with rays of hope and optimism. It is very difficult for people who have lost their near and dear ones, and people who have suffered a heavy damage to bear this unfortunate catastrophe. It breaks our hearts to watch just the videos staying abroad and be able to do nothing except donate and collect donations. But still, despite all these, I see some rays of optimism which I want to share.
Changes never happen easy. It always takes a huge disaster to bring out the change, be it at personal or national level. We have heard of people changing the course of lives at moments of great tragedy. People assuming greatness after their heart has so severely damaged that nobody else could seen anything good coming out of it. But people seem to perform best at such tragic moments. When everything is lost, when there is nothing left to cling for, you either perish or rise like a phoenix. We haven’t perished. So we will rise. That’s for sure. It’s all dark and black at the moment. There are a lot of dark clouds hovering Nepalese sky at the moment, even literally on top of the quakes. But if we can be certain of anything, it’s only that there will be sunrise tomorrow. Maybe not tomorrow, but definitely the day after. It may take time but the sun will definitely rise. Clouds cannot remain forever. But the sun is always there.
Why am I so hopeful? What are the signs of optimism that I noticed?
This earthquake has brought all us Nepalese together. Nepalese all over the world have joined hands to support at this time of crisis. We did not discriminate based on location, gender, caste and creed. Everybody is joining hands and doing everything they can to support and protect their fellow citizens. Not just their loved ones!! All Nepalese have become one single family. My friends who never prepared a cup of tea for himself is now distributing foods for people he never saw before. People who used to fight over hundred rupees are now donating hundreds of dollars for earthquake victims. Nepalese living abroad have raised unbelievably significant amount of donations. Students on loan, daily workers who are working abroad to free their mortgage back home, have contributed unbelievable sum. They have cried together. This unity, this compassion, frankly I had never noticed before among ourselves.
We are taking responsibilities on our own shoulders!! It’s very surprising that our so called great political leaders are silent at such moments. I might be mistaken but I didn’t hear any party announcing any financial donations. I am sure all three major parties have millions in their account, which they could have used at this moment. But they never see an opportunity to serve! It could have been a wonderful opportunity for any political party to assume leadership and win hearts! But the leaders are themselves hiding, I guess. Nevertheless, people are assuming their own responsibilities. We didn’t wait for a leader. Everyone, in fact, has become a leader, a hero of their own! Isn’t it a very pleasing thing that we Nepalese had already collected significant donations even before the PM fund was announced? We didn’t wait for any instructions. Everyone did what they could from where they could. This unity, this sense of assuming responsibilities is laudable and inspiring. Youths in Nepal have always had a tainted image from their elder counterparts, with their reputation ranging from unstudious, irresponsible, bike-fanatic, insincere, womanizer to even drug addicts , collectively referred to as Nalayaks and tyabes in Nepali. But at this time of crisis, these youths are the one that came to rescue everyone. So-called studious persons like me and others are out in foreign countries!! The sons and daughters that you dismissed of, you see, they are the ones carrying you on stretchers, distributing food for you, donating blood and time and lives!! Salute to all of you out there working on the field!! Wish I were a tyabe like you out there!! I’m sure this earthquake will lift the image of all the youths in Nepal.
Another positive is the sense of nationality and patriotism that has swept we all Nepalese at the moment. No matter who, where, how, everyone is crying for the nation and citizens and joining hands and doing all they can! No stone unturned! Really, everyone was crying for their country and talking worried about Nepal, even while they were not drunk!( Every Nepalese sounds patriotic when drunk!!) People realized what their country meant after seeing their small nation crumbled into pieces. The “Let Her Go” song by Passenger comes to mind:
Well you only need the light when it’s burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go
Another thing that I understood now is the immense love and support the foreign nations have for us, especially our neighbors India and China. It has always been a love-hate relation with India but they were the first to provide us assistance at this crucial moment. They have fulfilled their role and more as a good neighbor. Many people must have by now realized that the neighbors are not as bad as we always assumed them to be. I saw the facebook comments and many Indian friends are encouraging and supporting their government to support us more and more. This earthquake could be a milestone that changes our relationship to that of mutual friendship. We know who our true supporters and friends and well-wishers are. Despite the entire world supporting us, it’s however very surprising why the European Union and the US are still yet to announce the support. They are the first to deploy armies for any war but why are they silent at such important moment. But I hope they will soon help us so significantly that I will have a full stomach eating my words!
Many for-profit local organizations like NTC, Ncell, Chaudhary group and others are providing all the support for free. Even international for-profit institutions like viber, skype and facebook have lent their support in the way they could. The Melinda-Gates foundation has announced support. Not to mention the always helping non-for-profit organizations like the Red-cross and so many others. Human beings are evil, we fight and kill, but we also have a better humanistic aspect somewhere within that floats to the surface at such hard times.
I was always a bit uneasy about the fact that we never had something disastrous in Nepalese history to bring us together. We never had to chase foreign rulers from our country like our neighbors had to! We never had to face a war! We are poor but never have been so desperately poor, we had many challenges but none very desperate, we were backward but not so desperately backward. There has to be a desperate situation to bring all of us together to reignite our unity and work for building the nation. Japan was completely destroyed at war. That brought these people together and now they are the leaders of Asia! For us, this earthquake could be the disaster that our country needed. This calamity could be the turning point in our history, a turn for positive! The plates had always been beneath us and an imminent big earthquake was always around the corner. We just didn’t know when. If not today, it could have come in another 5 years, or 10. Today my friend died, if it had come after 5 years, I could have died. There would have been severe damage anyway, now or later. There are no good timings for disasters, but still now was the moment we were in stagnation for the lack of motivation, lack of constitution and no idea where to head next. This earthquake has brought us out of stagnation and given us motives. This will bring all of us together. I, in no way, want to say that the earthquake was a good thing and the lost lives don’t matter!! What I am saying is that this disaster, which has already happened and cannot be reverted, should not be allowed to be a disaster. It’s up to us to make use of this chance and make sure the lives that are lost will have a chance to smile form heaven looking at the progress we made in the aftermath. People who lost lives are martyrs who taught us lessons and brought out the real heroes in us. Every person has a chance to be a hero at this moment. Don’t let this chance go. Do whatever you can from wherever you are.
I know everyone is already doing that and I can’t ask anything more from any Nepalese. But the only thing I can ask from my fellow citizens now is not to let this spirit die. It’s very difficult to build such spirit. This earthquake has given us the chance to rebuild the nation. When the paper has already been scribbled, it’s difficult to make a new good drawing but when the paper is blank, you can draw as you want. The earthquake has made our grounds blank. Let’s plan and rebuild a much beautiful Nepal. Who could have thought that the droppings of nuclear bombs were good in Japan!! At that time if anyone had told that the bombs were good and will lead to a better japan, they would have chopped his head off. But now, in hindsight, though many people suffered irreplaceable damage, everyone thinks it’s the bomb that brought the Japanese together. Today’s Japanese youths are grateful for the bomb. It’s up to us to make our future generation thankful for the earthquake. It’s our responsibility that our children should say with pride that thank god we had a big earthquake in 2015 so that our poor nation was rebuilt into a prosperous nation. Earthquake happened, we can do nothing about it, but we can do everything about how to deal with it. The plates are still there below us and will keep moving and we might have to prepare for another quake. But shake our lands, you won’t shake our spirits. Take away our lives, but you won’t take away our confidence! We are the Gurkhas, not by name but by actions! Give us a disaster, some years later we will prove it a blessing in disguise. Show us dark clouds, we will find the silver lining!
Keep Praying, Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.