Posted by: chanaa_tarkaari January 20, 2011
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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.
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.