Last week, I had an opportunity to visit Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal in connection with the DQ Week Solution Provider Summit that was held there by Cybermedia, the leading Media group in the area of IT & high technology. For the last 5 years, every year, DQ week conducts this event in the beginning of the year. Last year, it was held at Andamans & Nicobar. About 100 leading IT solution providers from all over the country partake in the deliberations which in addition to being a knowledge & experience sharing event, is also considered as an annual get together by the fraternity.
Nepal always was considered as an exotic location by many. Lying on the belly of the mighty Himalayas with the planet Earth earth’s tallest peak as its crown, Nepal gave a high to its visitors who took pride in being on the top of the world. However developments of the last few years were not good for the Himalayan Kingdom (?). After the tragic death of King Birendra, who always kept a balance and tried his earnest to bring up the countrymen, the rule of his brother King Gyanendra was such a bad phase that it got together all the left guerilla group to fight the king. After prolonged agitation, people united under the Mao leader ‘Prachanda’ and fought the elections. Combining with the Madhesi (The Indians in Nepal) parties, a coalition Government was formed in Nepal. The traditional politicians of Nepal, coming under the Nepali Congress party was routed in the election. The first thing Prachanda did was to remove the King and declare the nation as a Republic. The Nepali Constituent Assemble is currently on, to frame the constitution, laws and penal codes for the new Republic.
In the process, the nation Nepal had slipped very badly in the economic and development front. To me the place looked pathetically downtrodden indeed. With about 18 hours of power-cut a day, with each of the ruling coalition parties at the throat of each other, the lawlessness, blame game and politicking fully on, the developments of the country took a back seat. I could not see dreams in the eyes of the youth of Nepal. They looked very deadpan and uninterested. The construction activities are unscientific, the roads are narrow and full of potholes and the vehicles, very old and archaic. It will take a long time, strenuous efforts and very good statesmanship from its leaders to bring Nepal forward. At this point in time, I do not see any hope for the ravaged nation.
The Solution Provider Summit too reflected the essence of the times that we are currently undergoing. It was just an event with not much of takeaways. Sadly the summit truly manifested the mood of the host country.
To add to our agony, we guys from Kerala (three of us) missed our connecting flight from Delhi to Cochin due to the delayed take off our flight from Kathmandu. The coordinator and the travel agent from the host side did precious little to help us out. This resulted in us getting stranded at the airports of Delhi and Mumbai for close to 16 hours, most of which formed part of a sleepless night.
The whole experience of the Summit and Nepal was like an eminently forgettable bad dream.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The last the only time so far I was in Nepal was for my honeymoon in 1991 and I must tell you that was a great experience... it appears that the country has gone thru some real bad time in last decade or so.
It also appears that some places in the world have been left behind and need to plan a major turnaround / Nepal has so much to offer ... Good Luck and here is to old times...
Post a Comment