Appa Sherpa has scaled the Mt. Everest for more times than any other in the world. He once again made it to the summit in his latest adventure just some weeks ago.
Yeah, it’s a matter of pride to reach up to the highest point of the earth’s landmass. Only few can achieve this feat and so far, Sherpas have excelled on this regard.
Mt. Everest has been hailed as a national pride and Nepalis boast it as their ‘only identity’ to get them known in the outer world. Mt. Everest along with Buddha and once a term ‘Heroic Gorkhali’ has long been a symbol of ‘national identity and pride’. After the so called ‘abolition’ of monarchy, Mt. Everest has even replaced the king in the front face of the currencies.
But, I don’t conform to this idea. I believe, only those things that we (can) create, make, invent are our true pride. We didn’t build Mt. Everest, we didn’t invent it, we didn’t create it, we didn’t make it. It’s a thing the nature gave us gratis. Not a single drop of sweat is shed for it. No labour, no wise minds, no technology, no other forms of human excellencies. It’s given us FREE and we Nepalis are ‘exploiting’ it for our advantage. It’s half-witted to boast a thing that we never laboured for, but got gratis.
France prides itself on Eiffel Tower. Malaysians pride on their economic boom, big cities and structures they constructed in past 20 years, including once the world’s highest twin-tower of Kuala Lumpur. People of Dubai boast ‘Burj Dubai’ and the city itself. America boasts it’s space technology and skyscrapers (most famously decades-old Empire State Building and until 2001, twin WTC towers) in New York. Likewise, Indians see their pride heightened on Taj-Mahal and Bollywood. UK boasts it’s Tower Bridge, Stonehenge and Westminster. Blitzing Bangkok is Thailand’s pride. And so on…
It’s not that they don’t have any such natural wonders that they really could rely upon to be proud of. But, the thing is that it’s ridiculous to boast natural things that we’ve given ‘free’.
What’ve we made so we, as other aforementioned countries, get ourselves proud on? Nothing. Nothing yet. Beautifully crafted temples and other artistic wonders in Kathmandu have now become a history. We could have boasted our ancient artistic treasures, because, so far, I think we’ve not yet excelled in scientific and technological fronts. But, no such treasures are now intact. They have already turned decrepit.
We couldn’t even save the beauty of ancient Kathmandu. Sprawling suburbs have already cast a blight on the beauty of the once beautiful city.
This is worst that we take things, our ancestors left for us, for granted and that’s why our ancient treasures have fallen into a state of dilapidation or devastation.
Let’s achieve a remarkable feat, like those nations did with theirs, so we could exude our pride. Let’s not make Mt. Everest a ”scapegoat” for our pride. Set this poor thing free and let’s go for a hunt for a feat that could represent our pride. Mt. Everest has been so ”easy and free way” to get ourselves known in the outer world. It’s a matter of gross shame to present Mt. Everest forth to veil our notorious poverty and incompetence.
I know, Mt. Everest is one of the greatest natural wonders but linking it to one’s pride is just absurd and I don’t pounce on it.
Moreover, exact location of Mt. Everest is disputed. Both China and Nepal had been claiming Mt. Everest lies in their territory.
So, I don’t preen myself on the Mt. Everest. Until and unless we Nepalis achieve any remarkable feat, it’s just a thick idea to pride ourselves on such poor thing. For me, it’s just a mountain, no such thing of pride.
-Copied from a friends blog without his permission.
It was published in his blog on June 7th. Just wanted to share it. Can’t point you to his blog for some reason.
So, I was wondering what have we really made here of which we can be proud of? Literally nothing? I am not a cynic nor I whine all the time. I always fight people who go abroad and talk there-is-nothing-in-nepal things. I even refused to go abroad when my people suggested. I am actually the one who prefers to say “We are yet to make something of which we can be proud of” rather than to say ” we don’t have anything to be proud of” because the first one sounds less pessimistic. But sometimes I am so hopeless that I can’t take it anymore.
I can no longer be calm saying “we are yet to choose a new prime minister after 5 prime ministerial election” while the fact is “We could not choose the prime minister even after 5 prime ministerial election”. I can not stop laughing at incompetent CPN-UML for their Tatastha drama and I can not stop feeling sorry for Maoist for not being able to win other political parties heart even after being largest party in constitutional assembly with tremendous support from the public. And I can not stop feeling sorry for them for their internal war on the superiority. I am starting to feel that CPN-Maoist is going to be another CPN-UML in next few years.
And above of all, I can not stop feeling sorry for us, Nepalese people, for being fucked up by these so called leaders since last 60 years in the name of democracy. I am not counting thousands of years before that because they never promised anything to the people which is a lot better than not giving anything that is promised.
