There was a glow on my face today, when I heard there was no bandha in the morning. I bet thousands like me must have been so relieved. The everyday bandha around the valley is getting us nowhere. Agreed that the bandha has been called by the citizens at times for a purpose – for a stabilized government. But most of the times it is “Word of Mouth” like it was suppose to be today and the whole week until the constitution date 27th May 2012. There are so many other things that our country needs to look after. I cannot even count them on my fingers. There is a long list that needs to be addressed. And on top of that so much of trouble for the citizens on everything. We are being deprived of the basic necessities.
These are some of the things which are way more important than the shut downs currently:
The destruction and demolition of buildings in the town for broadening of roads. The streets are in a chaos as there is so much of dust that one can actually feel the sand on the mouth. The roads look wider, no doubt but things need to be done post – destruction too. There are pillars all around and the broken walls and remains have not been cleared. We are talking about flyovers and metros. Like SERIOUSLY. We ought to be realistic.
There are so many tourists who come to visit Nepal for its scenic beauty and seeing a sight like this affects the tourism to a great extent and the short trip of theirs never happens again to the beautiful country.
So much problem of water in most of the areas. It seems that power cut will remain for the whole year. There is not a single day where we will have electricity for the entire day. And the petrol scarcity is yet another problem.
On a very real note, my mind is boggling between numbers and the calculations that I can make. Let’s say out of 365 days on an average a student has 115 days of holiday including Saturdays, Dashain, Tihar and other public holidays .This is when I am taking the winter and session breaks too. So these kids have 250 days of schooling and another 50 days of bandha which is very common in the capital. So children only go to school for half a year and in which they have 3 terms and so many activities happening around the school in those 6 months .It’s like being promoted in 6 months. This is all on the minimum level. There are places outside the capital where the shut downs are happening every alternate day .So, half a year the school is run and out of those 180 days I bet the school runs for 90 days that is 3 months. Is this so fair for the upcoming generation. We say the young are going to be the face of tomorrow. But if the education goes on this way it is going to make our country what we cannot even imagine in a few years.
The bandha not only affects the economy loosing crores of money because of the strike but our day to day schedule is also getting affected. It is a pain for the people who have emergency and the students who have to go walking during exams from one end of the city to another. There is so much going in the mind of the kid and the fear of reaching the exam centre adds on. The shops are closed again depriving us of the smallest things and the rallies that go on after other and the burning of tires and other vehicles is scary. The workers who work on a day to day living cannot even earn a penny on the day of bandha .The transportations are closed, the factories, the banking sector affecting the lives of millions.
And until now we are counting on the constitution and there are small rallies everywhere for making it on time. This issue was going on throughout the year. Why do we act like something can change in a fortnight?? We need results, we need action no doubt but these 14 days will do no good if a bandha is called every day except than causing more difficulty. We have yet another topic where we have protest going on-the division of Nepal in terms of community. What are we doing?? Where are we going?? We as citizens are so helpless and on the other hand we cannot do anything about it. This needs to be changed. Something needs to be done or we might lose what we have as all of us know:”BANDHA IS A VICIOUS CIRCLE”