Returning to Nepal with a US degree, good or a bad idea?

 On a different note, I've got a feeling that our female counterparts would be more reluctant to return back thanks to our great society in Nepal. 

nmaharjan, I'd love to hear your take in a years time. 

becasue of the freedom and opportunities not given to them in nepal, a handful of females would return back. most of them will not be able to live together before marriage in nepal, nor will they be allowed to smoke, drink or wear skimpy clothes in the name of gender oppression.

newstudent, sorry nothing person.. i come here to mingle with other Nepali friends not to make foes. Life's already hard up here.. take care my friend

Chana  said, "
My family still holds top-tier position in Nepal, but do not earn a penny other than sukkhaa government talab. Did not want to join NGO/INGO leaving public service. Still continuing to go to office regularly in public transportation and is determined to serve the same way until the retirement. We refused to follow politicians for opportunity, and to follow unethical businesses. We refused to make unfulfilling claims, and fooling people around.."

Chana if i ever come across to your family i will fully bow my head to your elders with purest respect. just to read something like this from a fellow Nepali brings me to tears. Now a days all we see , hear is Nepali people cheating and lying. Even in tele films like jire khursani and tito satya, all we see is corruption and lawlessness. i came to sajha feeling home sick and i read threads like how to lie on asylum and other immigration stuff etc etc. to know that people like you exist in my country makes me prouder more than anything. i too come from a family like that. my dad returned from usa in 1957 after studying in a ivy league. he did earn a lot of respect and fame but we were always broke and that gave me complexes being around with other rich kids in kathmandu. i was so naive to not realize that i was still from those very few fortunate ones from our country. Eventually politicans playes lots of tricks and my dad had to quit his job. then i got out of Nepal and vowed never to go back. in 12 years i have only one back once to see if i can actually make a difference but because of some family reasons i had to come back. I can totallyl relate to you and again, my sincere respect to you and your family my friend..

राछस,  nmaharjan and others who have decided to return, First, I salute your determination and spirit.

I did not join this thread to encourage or discourage someone who has a plan to return back. I just wanted to share some of my observations and show both sides of a coin so that it would be easier for people getting out of "romanticism" as Agni mentioned somewhere in his post. In the past I encouraged somebody to return, and that worked great for them, but I can not generalize the case.

Kalopani, you have perfectly understood my situation and the experience of my family in our society.  Thank you for sharing your feeling. We are ordinary middle class people. My family has two US returnees, one in 1958 and one in 1984. As newstudent mentioned, the US returnees might have contributed a lot for our country, but those contributions are not counted now. Personally, I thought we deserved better opportunity and life, but I did not have complexities as we had no family connection to elites and we tried staying away from rich kids. All my immediate family members (including myself) are educated in government school. Yet we faced so much within our larger family ties, relative circle and society that it really takes long pages to describe. May be, I will write them in future.

I would be glad to see if there is some data or statistics to show how many % of Nepalese are actually returned from US (scholarship holders, self financed, or government trainees), what they did after returning, and where they stand now. Most people generalize their understanding from a small sample, or from someone they have known. If they see a few successful US returnees or failure cases, they keep arguing about that endlessly.

Every case has a different story. In my limited observation (approximately 25 cases), most US returnees were considered successful while they were active in duty. But they regret for returning back to Nepal after getting retired from their service, particulalry when they see their kids suffering and struggling for maintaining legal status in the country they left years ago. They want their children to settle down in USA/Canada/Australia or European country. Their kids would not have suffered if they did not return. They have seen their friends are living happier and enjoying smoother American life who decided to desert the country by breaking the "bonds" they signed before leaving the country. These US returned Silver generation feel delighted to travel USA/Canada/Australia/EU for babyseating their grand-kids.

Being optimistic is one aspect, but the news and common nepalese attitude is not encouraging for packing up your bag. Nepal has turned to be a place where only "talkers" flourish but "doers" are likely to suffer badly. Examples of Mahabir Pun is just exception. There are many youngsters (actually 25-45 year group people) in Nepal who have made plenty of money in the recent realter-business-bubble. In addition to that NGO/INGO and remittance is also pouring money in Nepalese market, which has elevated all other businesses including consumer-market, domestic tourism, education, service-section etc. Also there are unconfirmed reports that some international-crime-syndicate have used Kathmandu as the hub for converting black-money to white money. Thus the cashflow rate is high in the market, and it is inflated like a bubble economy. Everyone including a Bhariya to small scale business enterprenures, who are economically active, seem making enough money to afford the inflated market price of Kathmandu. This bubble is however not based on substantial economic foundation, and therefore it is sure to burst. So, the current KTM economy and the financial indicators may soon start moving south. There are reports claiming that many banks are at high risk of failure.

For returning people, daily life would definitely be hard, but possible to digest. However, your friends and family in Nepal might have changed now. They may not have time and interest to see, talk or hang out with you because now everyone in Nepal know that America-returned people don't have money. So, the expectation of social life may purely be the romantic expectation only.

IT'S ALL ABOUT DEFINING YOUR LIFE.

the US is not same anymore. the ressession has take a toll out of American, needless to mention Nepali people in the US. JOb market has gone sour and there is no indication that it will recover anytime soon. for nepali student or nepali graduates, it has become impossible to get a real job with grauuate degree. heck it has become too difficult to get a minimum paying job. many nepali are living in a worst living condition, cramping in a small apartment just get by.

should those students or graduates continue to live in such condition hoping that good future is coming. or should those nepali students go to nepal where their house is empty with only mom and pop living together.

for many students, it's no better to live in the US than to return back home. I work in a fortune 500 company in financial sector and personally, i see no sign of recovery in job market in the US any time soon.

if  you talk about no electirity or proper road condition, it no better here for students who are living in 6x6 ft apartment eating ramen noodles.

I say man up and go back and do something. there are lots of opportunities in Nepal right now. now you might ask where but i clearly see many.

Completely agree with Agnibikram. A nepali woman will have harder time re-adjusting back home than a nepali man.
A closed minded, male dominant society that we have back home.

Read this one Chanaa regarding how many people returned and got enlightened thereafter.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/33467040/Entrepreneurs-for-Nepal-handbook

To all of you going back to Nepal: You are the kind of people I always wish I could be.
Once a very wise person told me that you can start over at any stage of your life, hopefully one day i will be as courageous as you guys and follow your lead and start a new chapter in Nepal.

Goodluck to you and where ever the journey takes you. 

chanaa

"I would be glad to see if there is some data or statistics to show how many % of Nepalese are actually returned from US (scholarship holders, self financed, or government trainees), what they did after returning, and where they stand now"

this would really be interesting but our government will again charge some money to be registered as they do when a student has to have no objection letter from the ministry of education. government always tells about the number of people leaving but has never had effort to see if people have come back with education and how that can be utilized.

dolphin

i agree that US is not the same it was before. immigrattion policies are becoming tougher every year. a majority of nepalese students find it hard to land a job after graduation, be it communication barrier or immigration status. only a few make it and are satisfied with their life.the irony is very true about ramen and cramped in an apartment.

nmaharjan

thanks for the link. its great

chaurey

the time is always right to do the right thing!

 
@ Folks,

- me likes this thread / topic ... me following closely .... 

- i liked it because ...

• of the way ... people ... R pouring out their hearts & minds

- Pardon my noise / interruption ... Plz. continue ...

My 2c --

- Preaching about "Rastraprem" after failing to get GC/PR, or have unavoidable reason to return back, then there is no substance in your "Rastraprem" -- me does not like that rastraprem. Many returnees claim "I left this opportunity, that opportunity in the foreign land to come back Nepal", but such claims are generally false, they don't have proof to show if they actually held the position, or got appoinment letter.

- Most people returning back to Nepal are "opportunists or corrupt", because they don't want to pay tax, they want to take advantage of lawlessness, they don't want to contribute correcting the problem of country. E4N picks (from the link of nkmaharjan), politicians - Minendra Rijal, Mahat brothers, Lohani (you add more), businessmen, NGO-INGO samrats,  all enjoy lavish life at the cost of misfortune of the country. A few (like Mahabir Pun) have done good contribution, but most others have contributed only to promote lawlessness in one way or another.

- Whereas, most people staying out of Nepal, despite knowing that they could make a big difference in Nepal are "relatively honest" people of the world. They are law-abiding citizens, pay tax, follow rules, do not get involve in crime or corruption and do their job properly. They have become asset of their adopted homeland, they live there proudly and have happier life.

So the conclusions are --
- Good, honest, capable people leave country.  
- Opportunist, failed, (lato deshma gaado tanneri huna chaahane) people return back.

Ooops!! I think I am at a wrong conclusion.

 if you have enough capital and experience you do not even need to be a US graduate returnee to make it in Nepal, India or other parts of the world. .to be honest the business we learn here and business that works in Nepal are two different beasts. While in US a student crams for test and forgets most of the things after the test. has 20 things in head all the time to worry about and does 6-7 class projects till graduation. How is that going to Help to become a successful businessman. Look at other threads and even this thread by us returnees which do not even demonstrate a proper college level English. yes, read the post by the us returnee guy looking for Hari Acharya and read chana in this thread who claims of going to govt. schools in Nepal. 
I think to be a successful businessman first you need to understand your market , your end consumers, your external and internal business environments and who can understand that better, a native from that market or a US returnee who has spend his 7-10 years of life outside of the country? 

nmaharjan,

Are you pissed of by my conclusion? Why you need to paste the whole content? I would only paste the link. By the way, I have already read them. I am also a member of that network, just FYI.

If you decide to buy a truck of apple believing that the sample provided to you is unbiased, then you know the risk. The leaders of E4N are cream of the cream. Some were born to succeed wherever they step in, some were lucky enough to land on business that boomed, some were extraordinarily smart and well prepared, some are raised up on others' failure, some do have extremely strong background and financial support. Like, every darkcloud has silver lining, a very small group excel even in African desert or warfield of Iraq. Doesn't Afganistan has millionares now?

@zzszz, 

Good point about Nepalese willingness to pay taxes while in the States. But I must admit that if Nepal were to enforce tougher rules and come up with similar laws, its only a matter of time before Nepalese turn into "law abiding citizens". 

One of the biggest problems of Nepal is the system that runs the government. 

 @ agnibikram ,

one quick question, since u r in Nepal

How is the internet in terms of speed, reliability? Heard of broadband wireless, How is it?

What do u do when no electricity?

r u satisfied?

 It all depends on your affordability man. 

I mean, Ncell offers highspeed internet with speeds ranging from 3-12 mbps but the downside is, it costs almost as much as highspeed internet in the U.S. So if you're making 15k to 30k ( 230 - 460 bucks ) per month, how will you be able to afford it? 

My Internet was down for almost a day and a half and the technicians didn't show up for a long time. Not to mention, they don't have a 24-hour tech support. 

During Load-Shedding, I normally read books, magazines and browse the internet ( until the battery lasts ). 

And no, I'm not satisfied.