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The Everest King & Queen!
This Everest season has been going great so far, with two of our Sherpas breaking their own records. Kami Rita, the 'Pele' of Everest, has now climbed Everest a record 32 times, when some of us still think hiking to Pulchowki is a drag. And we also have our sister, Lhakpa Sherpa, who is now the numero uno woman climber with 11 summits to her name!
I think it's about time our government awarded these two with enough cash prize to be able to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. If the government is short of cash, then we, the people, should start a fund to help these two record-holders! I think both of them deserve some kind of a trust fund where the interest pays for their monthly expenses to live comfortably in Kathmandu.
Let's do some math. I think we need to provide at least a lakh Rupees a month for these two Everest warriors. If we do the 4% interest on our FD for now, we need a cool 3 crore each. And in a land of 30 million folks, we ought to find at least 3 million folks contributing Rs 20 each for the 'Everest Record-Holders Fund'. That's a cup of doodh chiya for most of us at the local chiya pasal!
Lhakpa Sherpa is also known as the "Mountain Queen". She has made us all Nepali women proud with her recent achievement. She is a single mom and a survivor of domestic abuse. She worked as a kitchen helper and porter on her way to becoming the Superwoman of Everest. She has self-funded most of her climbs and lives in the US. We are really proud of you, Lhakpa!
I think Rs 1 lakh a month will not be enough for Lhakpa as she lives in the US. Hope our brothers and sisters in the US start a fund to at least provide US$ 5,000 a month to her for life for making us all proud! Let's do some math. More than 200,000 Nepalis are living in the US. Hope they pitch in ten dollars each for a 'Give Lhaka Some Love' fund. The interest could help her to live a decent life and prepare for more summits in the future!
And we have hundreds of Sherpas who have climbed Everest multiple times. We should also award them. I still think we need to raise the Everest Permit Fee to a million dollars instead of US$ 15,000. And the government can directly give 5% to each Sherpa guide because without them, most of the climbers would not be able to even climb Pulchowki, let alone Everest!
We have the Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA), the Everest Summitters Association (ESA), and many other NGOs claiming to work for the climbers and the mountains. I have no idea what they mostly do, but it's about time they did something for our Sherpas, who have risked their lives so that others can reach the top of the world and brag about it!
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