The bus left Butwal at around 9 am on a clear and sunny summer day for Tansen, Palpa. I made this trip from Butwal to Palpa four years back, and it was one of the most exciting trips I have ever made by myself. Along the way I realized even more why Nepal was known for its natural beauty, beauty that is rivaled by few other places. One particular image is still stuck in my mind even today.Almost halfway through the journey, I saw a rope bridge (jhulunge pool) across the untamed river that was at its full potential. On the bridge was an older-looking man trying to get to the other side of the bridge, most likely going to another village or nearby market, carrying a load (doko) on his back. It looked beautiful at the time. The image of the old man walking across the suspension bridge with a load on his back and the fierce river along with the hills in the background looked like eternal bliss to me. This image looked so beautiful that I talked about it for a long time. When my parents asked what I say, that was the first things I described. I proudly proclaimed how beautiful Nepal was, and so on.
Suspension Bridge Connecting Village
I saw similar images on some postcards that I had brought from Nepal. And yesterday when I was going through them, I asked myself: is this really beautiful? My mind immediately recalled the image that I mentioned above; it just did not leave me. Yes, I see what most would see: the beautiful hills, the amazing rivers etc. But I also see the underdevelopment, poverty, and difficulty in the villagers’ life that is so conspicuous in the image. The old man that I saw walking across the bridge will probably have to walk, sometimes uphill, for a long time to reach his destination; similarly, when he needs to get essential supplies he will have to make the same trek again, and again. That is a lot of trouble. The houses on the hill slopes look beautiful no doubt, but it is probably a pain to live there. The village houses that are usually made of mud, wood, straw, and other non-durable materials are probably always threatened by natural disasters. There is a chance that even sustained heavy rainfall will destroy the house, and this happens all the time.
On a broader level, the suspension bridge has still not been substituted by a stronger, bigger, and better bridge because of underdevelopment and poverty. It is a clear sign indicating a lack of infrastructural development. The untamed river is possibly a signal that there are no dams to control the river, which in turn indicates that the strength of this river is not being utilized for much-needed electricity generation. Again, the hills are beautiful but they also suggest our geographical disadvantage in term of facilitating trade and hence raising the living standards for all.
So is it time for us to challenge our conception of beauty? I think so. We should change the way we define beauty, and remember—what is beautiful to many of us could be the symbol of difficulty for others. So does our conception of beauty have anything to do with underdevelopment in the rural parts of Nepal, in comparison to the urban areas? The money and political power is in the urban areas, so are the city-dwellers hampering development in the name of saving Nepal’s beauty and/or environment. Will Nepal still be beautiful when modern infrastructure replaces the old? Or will Nepal change beyond recognition? I think these are questions that only time can answer; But what we can answer today is whether we want to continue describing beauty as someone else’s misery and difficulty, or are we going to redefine beauty where it will primarly be seen as the rising living standards and decreasing difficulties for the people of rural Nepal.
