Backwarded Mentality, Human Progress,
and Dashain
-Krishna Kumar
Yogi
For Dashain and
Tihar celebration, I headed towards my home village Gamaudi, Dailekh from
capital city of Nepal, Kathmandu as I have been lecturing at different colleges
from PCL to master levels English. During my visit, I saw different things,
different happenings, and different people with different mentality of
innumerable nature. These were all about people’s behavior, happiness,
progress, mentality and their ways of dealing and being.
Our travelling tale began from Gangabhu bus stand, Kathmandu. We, two Mukundra Bikram Shah and I myself
got up the bus heading towards Nepalgunj as we set our journey with plannings
for shopping, meeting with relatives, visiting places (Desh Darshan) and observing the pains and perils of people in and
around area as common people.
I especially was vigilant
towards innumerable incidents during my visit which were connected to many
different dimensions of society, its problems and prospects and the adjacent
issues. These phenomena made us to think a lot for the human peace, progress,
prosperity, and pleasure to attain and the consequent reasons behind. I
interrogated myself for different causes and consequences where we can(n’t) do
something for the upliftment of life standard of people.
I encountered people with
different mentality, viewpoints and beliefs which were one way or other linked
with people’s earning of their livelihood. People shared with various
profession, vocation, occupation, background and upbringing so as they have
different mentality. Up to Nepalgunj, I was not that much aware about. During
Nepalgunj visit, I noticed people with backwarded mentality. The deep rooted,
such mentality is the product of what they see, do and perform. Some of the
instances were, people retuning back from India working as labourers. I talked
to some of those who earned their livelihood anyway on the Nepalgunj-Surkhet
and Surkhet-Dandimadi bus. Most of them were drinking alcohol more than what
their body resists. One of them shared, “We finished off our money that we
earned in different parts of India such as Simla, Chandigadh and Almoda. Those
who came from Qatar and Malaysia seemed to be happy.” These people whom I
talked were during my Bardiya visit. I guessed they could have gone with loans
and came with the same or multiplied loan on their head.
Economically, they are
just spending the money. They have done nothing. Neither they have saved nor
invested their money anywhere for the productive work. Even there is no drastic
change in their life style except the time they could have drunk. What to say
it about??? It is what their minds say, they have been doing. They keep
themselves fed and were coming for Dashain festival. It may be taken as one of
the positives among multiple negatives.
One of the incidents at
Tallo Dungeshwore touched me a lot. A woman with bare feet in the scorching sun
waiting for the customers for the selling of her cucumbers, this pathetic
situation made me think about those great planners at National Planning
Commission, the Chamber and Commerce, local NGOs and INGOs who could have
facilitate in her in selling. She was just waiting as if someone is “Waiting
for Goddot.” What she could have done, nobody bought her cucumbers? How she
could have managed to celebrate Dashain?
After encountering all
these, I came to realize that it is the mentality that charatcterizes who you
are. It is the mentality who you will be identified by. It is the mentality
that caused what you are performing. So,
the mentality makes man. Mentality makes a man successful. Mentality makes man
unsuccessful. The success and unsuccess of people, in fact depends wholly on
how people think and how they act or react over things in and around them. The
poverty and richness of an individual greatly relies on the mentality. How s/he
acts is greatly caused by what and how they think, and feel. Those, who work
outside Nepal have to think at least about their family, family’s peace, and
pleasure to achieve and problems to solve. No problem, if they don’t think
about their nation and its development.
Human development
indicators depend on they think and how they act i.e. mentality. How people
think is guided by what is there in mind. Mind is the destiny of man. How one
utilizes or mobilizes the mind characterizes people civilized or barbarous. It
is unfortunate that those working manpower in foreign land as laboueres have
been too much overloaded by their servitude mentality. Most of them were
noticed to be over-drunk. I think there have been lots of hidden realties
behind. Where is the change in their
social behavior? Why are not people aware of their own? Why can’t they think in a positive manner?
Why can’t they think saying, “I can?” Most importantly why can’t they change
their mentality?
According to 21st
century prominent philosopher, Gayatri Chakravarti Spivak, people have to be
trained their imagination. The training to the imagination is a difficult
enterprise. It needs decades to change
their mentality with the campaigns of literacy and such. Until they change
their mentality, they cannot have any progress. Though progress and regress are
not directly related to the mind but it has a lot to do in connection to
people’s peace and progress, pleasure and prosperity. In fact, human prosperity
lies at the heart of their mentality. One must be trained to his/her
imagination to improve the life style one has been earning. Mentality makes the
progress. Mentality derives us towards regress. Problems begin with mentality,
upbringing, social status, intuition, assumptions, beliefs, and viewpoints. Let’s
train our imagination. Let’s change our mentality. Let’s change in our
behavior. Let’s learn the courteous way how we behave. Let’s learn the
socialized way to talk and walk, act and react.
The writer can be reached at: yogijikrishna@gmail.com Or yogi_krishna06@yahoo.co.uk Please follow the blog: www.digitaldisk.blogspot.com where you can find his
creations.
