By Nipun Amatya
A man only sees a future in the country that plays a bewitching lyre. That is what he has been
told. A country with the sounds of bells and temples has no future. That is what he has been told.
The sirens attract the man with their soft, melodious tune, to the point that the man jumps off his
boat, his home. He swims toward the sounds, the sweet sounds of the lyre promising him the
beauty of this otherworldly music. As the man gets close to these heavenly figures singing this
fine tune, he realizes the ugly nature of these sirens, the wickedness hidden behind the music
they play, and the flimsiness of the sirens’ facades. It’s all a facade, the man realizes, as he
drowns in the bottomless pit of the ocean.
The man is just an analogy for the millions who leave this country for better opportunities
elsewhere (abroad), only to drown in the sad reality of the dream. Families spend all their life
savings to send their children abroad, but alas, they drown in debt, carrying their children’s future
on their backs until finally they can no longer roll the big boulder of debt, leading them to be
crushed by bankruptcy or, even worse, death. People go to other countries to earn money through
hard labour for their families, to provide for them, but alas, they drown in their work. This is
what the man, or us as individuals in Nepali society, have been told to do: send children abroad,
have an easy life; go abroad, and life will be set. The radio, the news, schools, everybody and
everything make children listen to the lyre played by the sirens, the dream of going abroad, the
bright side. Everybody sees the bright side of success, yet no one sees the true ugly nature of the
dream abroad, the failure of the dream abroad.
They say, replace the sounds of pastures and grazing cows with the roaring engines of a car.
Replace the chatter of traditional vendors selling vegetables with the clicks and clacks of a
keyboard and mouse in a safe corporate job. Replace the sounds of temples and prayers with the
sounds of traffic abroad. The media molds our ideologies, idealizing the dream of flying abroad,
and tells us stories that keep our heads in the clouds, making us forget about our roots, about the
ground we took off from. Eventually, we fly too close to the sun, which slowly melts these
ideologies until we fall.
We do not have to replace these sounds or the situation we currently live in; we can simply work
with them. Transform our small dairy farms into full agricultural businesses, producing local
dairy products such as cheese, creating more job opportunities. Develop local businesses and
support them so that the local market is promoted and small industries can be formed. The bells
and temples ring out their own tune, grounding us in reality. The bells do not give false promises,
as they are our culture, our home, our boat.
To leave all this simply out of temptation may benefit us in the short term, but eventually it will
affect us in the long run and affect our independence as a nation. However, if enough of us
choose to strengthen our communities, support local industries, and create opportunities within
our own borders, then the bells will ring louder than the lyre. And when they do, we will no
longer be a nation searching for a future across the seas. We will be a nation creating one here,
on the very ground from which we once dreamt of going abroad.
