| Username |
Post |
| sumnimaUdas |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 03:53 PM
Bidesh -the very word conjures up visions of countless opportunities, harvests of dollars, and the indispensable Green Card or it is European equivalent. Scores of Nepalese give up their 'Possessions' - wife, children and jobs-merely to acquire that honorable designation "bidesh bata ako"
'Ke garne Nepalma? ' is the usual question. Certainly a point worth considering, but then it also leads one to wonder how it is that so many outsiders manage to find so much to do in this ' scopeless' country. They even call it the land of opportunity, but we Nepalese, the privileged ones, find it hard to accept.
Never mind what living abroad entails or what concomitant sacrifices are needed to get there. But under the delusion that it is as simple as hopping on a plane, spending a year or two aboard, and coming back with bagsful of money, young Nepalese are doing whatever it takes to go abroad and stay there. And that means selling off property, begging, borrowing or going on a world tour to end up at the desired destination.
Once there, they begin their desperate search for jobs even as they try to acclimatise themselves to an alien atmosphere. But things are not so simple and that is when the culture shock sets in. People who never dreamt of picking up their own mess find themselves doing other people's dishes. Those who seldom tolerated a harsh word from their parents now have to put up with much more from any and everybody. A lesson it is, and perhaps that will make them better capable of understanding their wives or mothers or servants who slave away for them. But what a miserable path to enlightenment!
Sure, this exodus of Nepalese to the West has its bright side. People are being exposed to the outside world and learning new ways to help their country (although it has also given them reason to gripe about the situation at home). Most of them fantasize about coming back and making a difference. If only they would.
A few years become a few more years and in due time.... forever. Most of them end up settling there, doing this and that, just existing - which was probably what they were doing in Nepal in the first place.
By no means do I intend to trash everyone for yearning to get out into the wide world. There are the young ones who certainly have valid reasons for seeking a better education in foreign shores.
They leave with hopes of expanding their horizons and becoming somebody. A few lucky do manage to live and not just survive, but for most the part is bad news. Every time I come back to Nepal I meet more and more youngsters trying desperately to flee in the opposite direction. All for the most honorable intentions, but what good does it do for Nepal if they never come back?
Nepal is now facing a critical problem - a deficiency of bright, young people. Perhaps the now-not-so-young students should consider what most of them would have written in their college applications: "I want to come back and help my country….blah... blah... blah..."
They say the youth are our future. Hopefully there will still be enough of the bright ones around to witness a future. And while they're at it, they could even help build a better one-at home, where they are needed most.
Sumnima Udas
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| sumnimaUdas |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 04:10 PM
Resume::
http://home.wlu.edu/~journalism/bridges/resumes/udas.html
Interview::
http://www.wavemag.com.np/issue69/young_achiever.htm
Many guys can't stomach grey cells in a girl.
Those guys can go searching for their popped-out eyeballs after they see and hear this one. Ladies and gentlemen, presenting to you Sumnima Udas, ripping 20, svelte, lithe, beauty-brain, and altogether graceful. Soft is the tongue, intelligent her worldview.
But right now, she has a pretty problem on her hands.
"Shanuj, I have got these two job offers in New York. One as an assistant producer in CNN, and another to work with Vogue (the high-profile fashion magazine). I haven't decided which one," Sumnima says, ever so softly. Woof, that really is a big one for a recent ex-teenager. Now, how many Nepalis have had such "dream" offers at that age? Surely not many.
And she is a true-blue Nepali. Which is a surprise really. You would think that a girl who just spent two years in Nepal apart from the annual holiday visits, would not make it as a Nepali. She used to hate Kathmandu on those vacations, but the two years she spent here as a Lincoln's student, changed all that. "I started loving it, I really love it here," a smile flashes by. When Sumnima talks about her country, you just know that this is always where she wants to be. Being the daughter of a UN diplomat, she has had her fill of places-Peshawar, Quetta, Rome, Geneva, Amman, Paris and Moscow. But Nepal it is, where this global child is going to come back. "After three-four years, I am going to work here. I definitely want to do something here. America is not really the dreamland that it is," another smile. Definitely a message there for so many young Nepalis who are grinding it out overseas never wanting to return - the kind, as Sumnima would have it, "more American than the Americans themselves."
An undergrad from "white white" Washington and Lee College (Virginia) with a major in Art History and Broadcast Journalism, Sumnima is your passionate art lover ("Gauguin, all kinds of modern art"), the one who loves exploring the how and why of the beauty of beautiful things. So when it came to a topic for her undergrad thesis, she chose one of the most beautiful art forms of all - the ancient Newari art of Poubha; "The Power of Newari Poubha Paintings" was Sumnima's tribute to a meticulous genre, and in many ways, her way of saying hello to her roots. And now she's on to something equally unique - Sumnima will play the chaperone early next year when the bronze Buddhas of Nepal meet the Gandhara Buddhas of Pakistan. So while one thought she was out here to enjoy a well-deserved break after the maddening undergrad schedule, much of her time has been consumed by research on the Buddhas.
Not that she hasn't been partying; of course she has been giving herself a good time, wining and dancing into the monsoon dawn. "Some of the parties I have been here have been crazier than America." Cheers, one more toast for Party Kathmandu.
The image that first struck me when I met Sumnima was of this Oriental Danseuse. Then as you talk to her you realise that she's a combination of the East and the West, a person of many parts and roots…the volleyball freak who can talk six tongues - Nepali, Urdu, Hindi, English, French and Italian.
Now finally to the big one: who's the Lucky Man in her life? Hush hush, she will only tell me it's going to be a Nepali husband for her. But before that decision about a mate for life, she has got a career decision to make. And whether it's CNN or Vogue, a Nepali girl is set to make history.
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| Euta Thita |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 04:41 PM
Cool. Got more pictures?
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| nepali kanchi |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 06:40 PM
more pics....
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| sumnimaUdas |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 06:42 PM
one more
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| ema |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 10:34 PM
Hi, you seem great! wow, can't believe your photo"foreign standerd" and your essay is like that of gerogre bernard shaw's. wow! keep up
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| DWI |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 10:41 PM
At first I mistook you with the tech reporter, Sumi Daas from Tech TV.
If you, the poster, are real Sumnima..then as they say in Brooklyn, " U go sister."
Otherwise the poster is imposter :)
In either case, we're proud of u...just cut a little on male bashing.
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| kag furta |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 11:01 PM
good advertise. Are you still single? I got couple of black male friends in your area. Interested?
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| czar |
Posted
on 13-Sep-02 11:13 PM
Made sense what you said about nepalis heading over seas.
Missed the point to your second posting focusing on yourself.
Miss Udhas, methinks you ought to have a word with one of our resident intellectuals, one Parmendra .
Bon chance !
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| oys_chill |
Posted
on 14-Sep-02 02:14 AM
Hahaha...talk bout hypocrisy!!
very enlightening ARTICLE INDEED SUMNIMA JI!!! but u know like everyone in sajha knows bout my enlightenment LORD BUDDHA HAS SHED ON ME ;) ( jus commenting on the first part!!)
just can't resist this brain drain syndrome can we? why??? damn...i hate repeating myself....brain drain started from the ERA OF LORD BUDDHA! jeez, hope this is the last time i am emphasizing this........there are many divine followers of buddha in a nepali community ;) ehehe go in search of enlightenment..but something that transpires once they get their desires, that they decide to make it a permanent destination..our LORD HAS SO CleARLY set the path for us :)
NO offences meant whatsoever, all in good faith!! and seventh sense!
TRASH OYS
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| ebony_firefly |
Posted
on 14-Sep-02 11:29 AM
hmmmmmmmmm! first part sure was a kind of "bhasan" in the sense that it kind of aroused some patrotic feelings somewhere down the national self..
As far as your "Most of them fantasize about coming back and making a difference. If only they would. A few years become a few more years and in due time" is concerned..
LIKE YOURSELF THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO WILL ONE DAY RETURN BACK TO THE COUNTRY TO MAKE THE DIFFERENCE..
buddha?hell! when will this brain drain end....researching about buddha and talking about helping nepal?ummmm! i dont think that goes hand in hand...NEPAL IS NOT A ENTITY IN ITSELF...IT IS PEOPLE IT ACCOMODATES... ummmm! instead of journalism and buddhism !ENOUGH OF POLITICIANS AND journalists and preachers..".too many cooks spoil ....."interested about helping the country?
it could have been socialogy..for a change!
reseaching on buddhism:
BUDDHA_ AS THE MASTER came on his time, enlightened people who were alive then and left..like KABIR,NANAK,KRISHNA,JESUS,MIRA,RUMI,MUHAMMAD...PHU! the name goes on and on....
furore for nothing!:D:D
if we are on the quest of life what about knowing or RESEARHING about the one who is alive !as u seemto be interested in researching;)
blac_
ps#anyways nice snap...nepali j lo?;)
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