Analysis: Generation Y in Nepal & Ram
Analysis: Generation Y in Nepal and Ram
After reading an article titled “Why Generation Y are Unhappy” it made me think of my own country. As the post describes:
*Happiness = Reality – Expectations*
What are generations?
You can glance through the original post and get a gist of
what most of my writing is going to be about. However this was done from a
western perspective. The parents that were born in the 50’s (Baby Boomers) and
their grandparents (G.I , greatest generations) were not in the category of
this neo “Generation Y” or “Millennials” as most entrepreneurial are calling
this free spirited animals.
Here is the brief timeline:
Lost Generation > …. Baby Boomer Generation… > Generation
Y (The Millennials)
Unlike the western world we were on the backseat of the
Great depression and World Wars (Gurkhas, were proactive. If you need, Google
them). What I mean is that it’s always the older generations that determines
the world we live in. Sometimes it’s not for the best.
Analysis
On the article, it uses Lucy as an example. For this let’s
use Ram. Before we carry out our analysis let’s put a historic context to what
Ram’s father and forefather must have gone through. John Whelpton’s: A History
of Nepal, will be my assistance for this segment.
******** Very Condensed ********
130,000 BC – Axe man in Dang and Satpati
400 BC – Buddha is born in Lumbini
879 AD- Beginning of Nepal era
1743- Prithivi Narayan Shah crowd king of Gorkha, takes over
everything
1914- Around 100,000 Nepalese involved in support of Britain
in First World War
1923- Britain recognises Nepal’s complete independence
1924: Chandra Shamsher Rana calling for abolition of slavery
1934: Major earthquake destroys major building in Kathmandu
Valley
1934-: Country is confused and tries to create an identity
based on other country’s model and ignorance. Mistakes are made and many policy
makes do not learn from them. Many people get arrested and many feel they need
to announce their outdated voices about how the country should be run.
1989: Semi blockade by India in Nepal.
2001: Royal massacre happens, country turns upside down with
the Maoist movement.
2001 – Many prime mister change, Guinness world record
needed.
2004: King Gyanendra doesn’t know what is doing, dismisses
ministers left and right.
2007: Parliament approves abolition of monarchy as part of
peace deal with Maoists, who agree to re-join government.
2015: Earthquake, Constitution, Blockade and mismanagement
from ego-heads.
******** Very Condensed ********
If you were looking at if it were a TV drama show you would
see some similar patterns: reoccurring events, that concerned aunty who’s
always either over caring or under caring, that evil step brother who’s always
out for revenge and finally the newlyweds who won’t get any approval from
anyone. If you are a spectator Nepal is a very interesting football match, but
in reality this has caused many frustration and anger towards policy makers who
are meant to act according to the nations interests.
New Character
Let me introduce you to Ram. Ram was born in a very unsuitable,
corrupt, instable beautiful confused country called Nepal, which he refers to
as “Mero Desh” (my country). He is nested in a nation that has minimal interest
in their own people and a nation where so much festivals are occurring to
distract them form ground reality. When Ram does come to an age where he
realises and starts questioning things around him, he quickly gets verbally
slapped “It is, because it is...” After couple of more years of drilling and similar
stories occurring in his neighbourhood about this drill. He understand. “I must
not question, I must accept”. Ram is now a product of a Nepali youth.
He has been bought up to accept traditions and culture
without knowing the true meaning behind it. When asked about such practices he’s
given a negative look or more food to shut him up. Because actually, no one
knows. They just pretend like they do. Nepali youths now live under strong
dogma.
“Its rules may be
originally based on reasoning by a certain kind of thinker in a
certain set of circumstances, at a time far in the past or a place far away, or
it may be based on no reasoning at all. But that doesn’t matter because you’re
not supposed to dig too deep under the surface anyway—you’re just supposed to
accept it, embrace it, and live by it. No evidence needed. Only strong
reasoning skills can carve a unique life path, and without them, dogma will
quickly have you living someone else’s life. Dogma doesn’t know you or care
about you and is often completely wrong for you—it’ll have a would-be
happy painter spending their life as a lawyer and a would-be happy lawyer
spending their life as a painter. But when you don’t know how to reason,
you don’t know how to evolve or adapt. If the dogma you grew up with isn’t
working for you, you can reject it, but as a reasoning amateur, going it
alone usually ends with you finding another dogma lifeboat to jump
onto—another rulebook to follow and another authority to obey. You don’t know
how to code your own software, so you install someone else’s.”
Nepal youths live under strong dogma. When I walk around the
capital, hear the “grownups” and analyse my own family. I am told that many
things are done because it’s always been the way it’s done. No rational for
such practices or adaptation to this new age.
Just like how the western fathers and forefathers went
through the Great Depression and World Wars. Nepal did similar. If you analyse
Nepal, you see so much green and lush valleys. This is because we are mostly
dominated by the agricultural industry. We were, we are and we will always be. As the 70s, 80s, and 90s rolled along, the
world entered a time of unprecedented economic prosperity, while Nepal
stood still. Nepal was faced by its own internal problems and its own geopolitical
problems. Where at time the Western family saw the economic prosperity as an opportunity,
Nepal stood still and did nothing. Ego- driven maniacs and politicians of self-interest
took over the nation and followed political agenda written in the 18th century
and use the same manifesto to rule the 21st century.
So how does Ram
feel?
Coming back to Ram, his parents hears things about the glory
of the city life and how economic prosperity is happening at the capital. They were
doing very well in the village, but village life is hard and no one wants that.
Therefore when he was nine his family forcefully move into the capital. He used
to live in a lush green valley and see the mountains each morning. But now:
Sight: Pollution
and many people heads moving at a very fast pace, going somewhere.
Smell: Smell of
tires burning and pollution from the “holiest” rivers.
Hear: Constant
sound of horns and people yelling the best deals.
Taste: “What did
I eat last night..?”
Touch: I don’t
think Ram should touch anything.
Ram is now confused, he is placed in the country which seems very unfamiliar
to him. He is scared to go outside. Contrast to his village life he does not
know what is going on. His parents are gone off to find “Mr. Economic Prosperity”
while he’s left at home given the responsibly to look after his siblings. His parents
are filled with optimism and enthusiasm, but when they do return to sleep on
their make shift bed on the floor, the optimism and enthusiasm slowly diminishes.
Ram is more confused but he knows not to ask any questions.
Ram’s parents are trying to raise him with a sense of optimism and
unbounded possibility. And they weren’t alone. Every window in the capital that
you see is filled with this story. Baby
Boomers all around the country and world told their Gen Y kids that they could
be whatever they wanted to be, instilling the special protagonist identity deep
within their psyches. But this anything has to be “Doctor, Engineer,
Pilot or Government officials”
Characteristic of
Ram
Ram is now old enough to analyse things, so let’s analyse him.
He wakes up every morning, half asleep. Its 4:30AM, he must
get to his morning tuition class. Everyone is doing it, and Ram has also been
slipping behind on his work, therefore he must catch up. He gets to school by
5:30 AM, still half asleep, hungry and frustrated because the bus journey to
his school is very bumpy. He sits down and listens to the lecture given by the
teacher in front of him. No question is allowed “The world is flat, because I
said so....” He tries his best to stay awake because last time he dozed off the
teacher humiliated him in front of his peers with a stick. I’ll leave the psychological
distress that Ram felt for your own mind. Just twenty minutes to go, the bell
rings and it’s now 06:00AM, morning tuition class has finished but Ram day is just
beginning. After a quick lunch at an overly packed dining hall where food hygiene
is the least concerned criteria. He proceeds to eat, the lunch money given to
him by his parents, who are still half asleep from their night shift duty.
Feeling a little bit sick, he returns home. He dozes off on
the bus. Misses his drop off point, he has to spend more of his parents money
to get inside the sardine canned microbus full of more sleepy heads. He
presents his student cards to get a student discount. The conductor who seems
like his same age shouts random names of places that he’s unfamiliar with. He’s
determined not to fall asleep. He gets home by 7:00AM, to finish more of his
homework that needed to be finish the day before. It’s not he’s fault, the
education institution has not revised anything since 2003, today that makes it
13 years. Everyone is on the same boat.
This is just a glimpse of what Ram faces every day. Saturday,
he’s just catching up on work from last Monday. So what am I trying to say?
It’s not that Generation Y is ambitious, their parents and
society are. Nepal is filled with people that are optimistic. Ram is constantly
told by his peers of the opportunity that going abroad can bring him his aunt
is doing the same, the dog who cannot express himself vocally tell him through
eye gestures. Then he starts questioning… “The
first epiphany was about shattering a protective shell of arrogance to lay bare
a starting point of humility. This second epiphany is about confidence- the
confidence to emerge from that humility through a pathway built on first
principles instead of by analogy. It's a confidence that says,
"I may not know much, but no one else does either, so I might as well be
the most knowledgeable person on Earth".
Unlike the western world where Generation Y are told that their
ambition and their interest makes them “Special”, Nepal population are filled
with pessimistic characters. Teachers assign you with your academic ability. Society
assign you with your caste. Society pressure you into conforming to dogmatic
rules and customs, pressure from not being to speak freely, as your actions
will follow you until you are ultimately dead. If you do not speak, you are considered mute,
if you do speak you are considered to have a big mouth. Ram is confused.
So Ram just conducts his daily dues and has his little bit
of fun during multiple festive times. But here comes the next barrier he’s just
completed his first academic barrier. The results came out and now he’s
anticipating on what he’s going to do with his future. His mother light incense
sticks and feeds him the best foods to get him prepared. Forget any moment of self-reflection,
his mother already has pre planned responses for her son on his arrival back
from the school. If he fails, she knows how to punish him, if he passes she
knows how to be optimistic, if he excels... well she’s going to have to buy
more food, for him and the whole neighborhood. Ram returns and here are the scenarios:
- He fails, his mother blames him for everything. The weather, the lack of water and any household errands. He also gets a beating. The society burden is something that they anticipate from now on.
- He passes, his mother carries on like normal and at times she acknowledges his presence. She encourages him to better. Go motivational mother!
- He excels, now it’s time to go abroad.
Let’s carry on with option 3, he excels. Ram’s now extremely
ambition, coupled with the arrogance that comes along with being a bit deluded
about one’s own self-worth, has left him with huge expectations for what is to
come. And his now reality pales in comparison to those expectations, leaving his
reality to be overly optimistic.
Now the third aspect on our grand analysis.
Generation Y are taunted. Many youths in Nepal are
addicted to Facebook live in social media. For Ram social media creates two
worlds, we continue our story. He sees what everyone else is doing.
·
Ram (1),
*aunt is having fun on the Australian beach*, Ram (1), *Ex- girlfriend is having more fun without his presence*…etc.
This therefore present the inflated version of his own existence. Maybe
Ram wants to have fun in the Australian beach, might as well. Nepal provides no
job and no security for him anyway. Maybe he wants to find a foreign love, he
will get permanent residence and well, new feelings. Oh Ram! What Ram naively doesn’t
show is that most people who talk about their careers online or who broadcast
their situation aren’t actually living their live and truly crafting themselves
into a better version. This leaves Ram
feeling, incorrectly, like everyone
else is doing really well, only adding to his misery.
Wait but why, came up with
couple of advice, lets analyse them in this context.
1)
Stay
wildly ambitious. The current world is bubbling with opportunity for
an ambitious person to find flowery, fulfilling success. The specific
direction may be unclear, but it’ll work itself out—just dive in somewhere.
Ram cannot really feel ambitious knowing how much society
put pressure in him, yet he perseveres.
2)
Stop
thinking that you’re special. The fact is, right now, you’re not
special. You’re another completely inexperienced young person who doesn’t
have all that much to offer yet. You can become special by working really
hard for a long time.
Ram has forgotten this for a long time. There is no special
in him anymore. He’s gone abroad and now he’s doing the most demeaning jobs to
just survive. He’s become a product of someone else economic prosperity.
3)
Ignore
everyone else. Other people’s grass seeming greener is no new concept,
but in today’s image crafting world, other people’s grass looks like a glorious
meadow. The truth is that everyone else is just as indecisive, self-doubting,
and frustrated as you are, and if you just do your thing, you’ll never have any
reason to envy others.
Ram should just go on about his passion and make sure he
does it to his best of ability, ignore dogma and ignore conformity. Live life
in the best way possible, contribute and give back. Make your county prosper
and make sure you are prospering in the meantime. By teaching you become the
teacher and the student.
I wish all the best for Ram. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.
