Cool Island Breeze

By: Manita

Maldives is a cluster of 1200 coral islands strewn like a string of pearls over the deep blue Indian Ocean. 200 of these are inhabited by the locals and 90 others are tourist resorts. Maldives is the country with the most beautiful islands of the world. It is the holiday destination for the rich. The clientele of this high end resorts are royal families, celebrities and industrialist from around the globe. The economy of the country is based on Tourism and Fishery. It is the member country of South Asian Association for Regional Corporation. Among all other SAARC member country Maldives has highest per capita income of USD 1200, high literacy rate and is most developed among the SAARC countries.

I’ve been working and living in the Maldives since February 2007. I never knew I’ll be working this long because my initial plan was to work here for two years and go back home and implement the skills, knowledge and experiences which I have earned and help in one of the socio-economic sector of the country but in no avail. In this period I’ve visited my homeland twice but both visits were kind of disappointment. On my first visit I was sandwiched between the “Bandh” called by Terai Mukti Morcha and the curfew imposed by the government. The journey from Biratnagar airport to my home town Itahari was dreadful. We were traveling in an ambulance with my sick aunt and we were stopped by army and the protestor. Our ambulance was hit by stones. The hand that threw the stones were of ages 8 – 10. Poor little guys instead of going to school they are compelled to come on the roads. I feel sorry for the children back home for their mental growth and personality development; they are being trained with protests, bandhs, violences, killings etc. The things, from which kids should be kept far away.

Second visit was also no different than the first one. The workers of one of the industry were on the street. And we had to take the longest route to Itahari from Biratnagar airport. Plus the load shedding, shortage of fuel, no drinking water, sky rocketing price, strikes, and most of all – unemployments. The life seems miserable back home. It has been difficult for me to imagine living my life in my own country which I am so proud of. It’s because of the life I am living here in the alien land, yet still so much of comfort. So, my country has now become only my holiday destination where I could spend my month’s time visiting family, friends and relatives as well as experiencing Nepali life. I salute the people living back home with dignity & pride but I myself do not want to live the same life.

I’ve planned so many times to quit and pack my bag and go back home. But every time I give a second thought on my plan. I must consider the current situation back home. Nothing is stable, economic situation is worsening day by day, political environment sucks life of people. See we are afraid to live in our own nation. Satirical but true. But yet, we are proud to be Nepalis.

Once I shared with my colleagues at work that we do not have lights for 16 hours a day and we have shortage of drinking water in the capital city, Kathmandu. They stared at me with amazement. They asked "Does those horrible things really happen in your country?” Yes everything that doesn’t happen in elsewhere happens in our mother land. That’s our speciality. We do have collections of rare happenings that doesn’t happen elsewhere. But here, despite the lands are surrounded by salt water, the tap water never runs out. See the irony we are the world’s second richest country in drinking water.

This foreign land is so organized, so developed and so civilized yet not ours. Life here is so simple. Our heart desires to be home. We do crave for our food, we so want to be with our people and we miss our place but we cannot ignore the current affairs of the country. And the life back home is too complicated. We are ought to live and work abroad. We hope for better tomorrow, dream of peaceful Nepal. And, still I hope our Nepal will be well organized in everything in coming days, and our comming generation need not leave Nepal, except for the vacations.

Always, hoping for New Nepal – a better Nepal.