- Abhin Mishra
I got to know about the "Mero Desh Merai Dayitwa- Let's Clean up Kalmochan Temple" campaign nearly about a week ago. Kalmochan- a temple that has been part of our history.A temple whose completion took generations (from bhimsen thapa to jung -bahadur). A temple rumoured to have been the crematory ground to the victims of "Kot massacre" . A temple symbolyzing the hindu God "lord vishnu". An integral part of Nepal's dark period( The Rana Regime). So, it having a huge significance made my presence in the campaign moral.
The state of the temple was really heart-rendering though. A temple that holds so much of importance specially talking in terms of history, lay desserted, unnoticed and to some extent vilified . The walls were discolored. There were spider webs, dirts engraved on the walls , grasses croping out of every nooks and corners. Truly, it was a sight to see! A valuable cultural and historical heritage lay at the center of a commercial city nearly transformed into ruins! Neither the state mechanism , nor the millions of citizens(who walk past the temple everyday) seemed to care. No one seemed to understand that these countless "kalmochan's" are our common prerogative.
Realizing the importance I invited nearly 100 friends personally (who by the way were absolutely free on the particlular day) to the clean-up programme. I was shocked to see that not even one of them showed-up. Some went to beauty parlors, some went to watch "Captain America". And some even managed to take a day long nap ! But none of my 100 friends that I approached, had the time to be a part of a change. Some didn't want to rise ; while some were absorbed in their dreams. God knows when they are going to wake up !
"APATHY" as I see is the biggest hindrance . "why do I care?", "I don't get anything for this" ,"there are plenty other fools who are gonna do it. I will just support verbally.","let's go somewhere else, mall or cinema hall. what do you say? why waste time ?".The ego of "I" is so big, that we tend to forget that we are in fact betraying our family, friends, society and nationality as well.We tend to forget that "I" in fact is a very small part of "we".
However,"APATHY" is seen not just in terms of duties and responsibilities but in terms of rights as well. We face 16 hours of loadshedding per day.We are content saying, "I've got inverter, who cares?" We face acute water shortage but who cares when we are able to buy tanks and tanks of water? Let the average Nepali suffer and below average Nepali perish. We face a rent-hike by 2-3 rs per person if the petrol's price increases by 5rs per litre. We are content saying "I've got private transport, who cares? We close our nose while walking through dirty kathmandu roads. But, we are content in that our house smells of different types of fresheners. 25.4% of total population is under the poverty line. But we are content with our pocket money being more than average nepali's income. Where else can we find such content citizens?
Nepal today is at a very fragile place, more than it has ever been. Surely, there have been lots of transitional phases(wonder when the transition becomes a reality, stability though!) , but the point it stands on presently must be the saturation point. With the nation deciding to embrace republicanism , federalism ; there are lots of prospects for the future Nepal. It could go either way, uphill or downhill!
The country where more than 60 % of the citizens are Youth's , why is youth's voice hard to be heard? "Apathy", as I see it . How long are we gonna embrace this "apathy" instead of "accountability", instead of "responsibility"? How long are we gonna justify our state by swearing our neighbours and grandfathers? When are we gonna realize that, no one is going to change us? How long are we going to ignore the fact that , we need to change, not our nation? How long are we gonna sleep and dream that everything will be changed when we actually wake up. How long are we gonna criticize writers like me writing against "apathy" and turn the criticism towards the selfish individuality instead? How long before we realize that we are as much of our nation as nation is to ours? I don't know , I really don't know. Jay Nepal!
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