Nepal, the real plight!
The only difference that climate change would make in my city lifestyle is my luxury pattern. When I had gone to my village, for a day or two, I felt pathetic not having luxuries to ward off the heat or deal with the incessant rains. Then I saw or rather experienced how superficial I was being. Because I saw firsthand the plight of my villagers, who were in far seriously pathetic condition than mine. Those people who toil from dawn till dusk in their fields, who have no idea what global warming is, those people who have learned to sweat in their fields from childhood and who die sweating over their land. Those people were being hit hardest by this change, by climate change.
As I learned from my Grandma, because no rain fell during maize plantation or wheat harvesting season (Magh/Falgun), their fields became almost barren. The wheat was all but destroyed by diseases. The maize seedlings hardly sprouted. Potato seeds rotted in the field itself. Land which ought to have been green and smiling was all yellow and crumpling. When the surviving plants were raising their heads, somehow came the belated rain. The rain was a relief at first. The long awaited rain, the savior, finally! I remember some of the farmers there, slaughtering chicken as a celebration. But the celebrating air didn't last long. The rain was there to stay and pour on. It poured on with unwanted support of hailstones. The result, whatever crop was standing in the farmers' field was all but damaged. I saw these damages and the sadness writ large on people's face! And I saw my villagers being bowled over by all these abnormal changes in season which was beyond their comprehension.
I am sure they are still pretty bowled over by these more and more frequent abnormal changes in season. Even this year was no exception. The experts forecasted a quicker monsoon and it seemed like monsoon was really coming quick to us this year. But no, it was just toying! After pouring on for a few days, the rain rested and only now it seems that the real monsoon has set. We are now no strangers to this phenomenon called climate change. But the big question is, who will repay the damages that occur, each season, each year? My village folks are people who depend solely upon their farm's product for day-to-day survival. I was thinking how they would cope with their food problem that year since a part of their yearly crop had been lost. I was thinking of only a season's harvest then. But now, the damage is in every season, every harvest! What must they be going through?
I think about this and I panic. This is only the beginning of climate change. What will happen when every year's schedule goes topsy turvy? Scientists from developed countries are predicting famine. Our experts are already calculating the price hikes and food deficiency amounts. What is it to them? These developed countries or those experts clad in their suit presenting these figures in posh meetings? What is it even to us, the city dwellers? We can always enjoy cold drinks and savor hot soups, we can always produce money to buy food, maintain our AC, to buy medicines and injections so that no new diseases may infect us. The portion of people who are the causes of this monstrous phenomenon called global warming, are in my opinion, the least affected ones. On the other hand, people like my villagers are the most severely affected ones. They never rode smoke generating vehicles, they do not consume multinational companies' products, and they have nothing to do with nuclear reactors. They are the least Green House Gas (GHG) emission producers (leave their firewood stove, what does it produce compared to a petroleum vehicle that we each ride?). Climate Change is already hitting hard on them, the least responsible ones. Most of them are/were never able to buy goods for their requirement. Money is just a sweet dream for them. And the story is the same in all the villages of Nepal.
I woke up from my fairy tale imaginations that year when I was hit by the cruelty of nature and the helplessness of my villagers. I wonder, as that is the only thing I can do, if the ending ever will be a happily ever after for them?
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