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Whether you are a citizen of a developed nation or one like Nepal, repatriation after spending significant amount of time abroad as a professional comes with its own woes, I am sure. While some of the woes are likely shared by many — or even all — returnees regardless of the country, I am also sure many woes are specific to a country because of the particular or peculiar professional and general culture and peculiar traits of the society and people.

Repatriation to Nepal comes with a host of woes. I know because I have faced many of them in the years I have been here since 2013! Sources and kind of woes a Nepali suffers from upon repatriation varies from one person to another, of course, for a number of reasons, some very obvious others not so obvious.

The level to which Nepali people and society are closed and inward-looking can come as a shock to many returning from professional experiences in a developed nation, for example.

The kind of society and the kind of people we are — influenced as heavily as we are by the foundation of our social system and structure, that most corrupt caste system — the number and of level of repatriation woes a Nepali faces upon their return depends also on the caste one belongs to, which many either don’t seem to be aware of or, if they are, they are in denial of. About that alone could be a whole blog post.

What I want to share in this blog post however, is a reproduction of a discovery shared — on Twitter — by a recent returnee and many of the responses agreeing with and/or affirming it. The returnee is a female and appears to me to be a young adult.

So fed up is she that she says “I was better off struggling abroad.”

apsster not worth working as off in Kathmandu

Living and working here for most of the last 8 years following about 25 years in 9 countries abroad — pretty much my entire adult life until I returned — I concur. And I am NOT one of a handful of geniuses who has “discovered” this. Many others, not surprisingly, have as well.

Here are the tweets that agree with her and/or affirm her sentiment.

sabanchapagain agreeing with apsster better off struggling abroad
swwwwwapnil agreeing with apsster lacks vision
sumanpok agreeing with apsster felt same 20 yrs ago

The following user feels that his decision to return to Nepal “to study high school […] to know more abt my country[,] [t]urned out to be the worst decision of my life.”

NaturealR agreeing with apsster returning to Norway

The following user says “Except for a few, the rest do not value your worth.” I wholeheartedly agree with that.

SanjeetaSharmaP agreeing with apsster totally agree

User below points out how one needs to know “the art of ass licking” or rather ass kissing.

SurjaKarki agreeing with apsster what scares me
nepalicitizen11 agreeing with apsster noth worth it
two agreeing with apsster

User says, returning “after working abroad for 20 yrs-unfortunately nobody wanted me or what I had to give.”

krishna joshi01 agreeing with apsster nobody wanted me

The returnee responds to the above tweet saying, “I wanted to grow within this sphere because I wanted to learn more but there’s no space for people like me. Period.”

apsster response to krishna joshi

More users who agree with her.

RazzSheldon agreeing with apsster second your point
iamNibedan agreeing with apsster face unnecessary obstacles

Returnee responds to above tweet adding, “because the culture itself is so f*cked up.”

apsster response to iamNibedan culture fucked up

iamNibedan hits the nail in the head responding to the returnee’s tweet above: “Many responsible people […] concerned for their immediate monetary & non monetary benefits only.”

iamNibedan response to apsster only monetary benefits

More users agreeing with the returnee’s sentiments.

hawaghar 01 sharmaNeu I know the feeling
kishorkg29 agreeing with apsster been there

Here, in response to another user, the returnee says “I give up, Aalok. The effort – it’s not worth it.” That’s also the conclusion I have also come to.

apsster to thektmduke effort not worth it

A user tells the returnee, “Last thing you should do tho is give up.” In response she writes, “I came back […] [n]ot to be ranting on my social on a Saturday morning that this culture isn’t right.”

apsster to ShauryaCFC this culture isnt right

A few more.

ChitrakarSanam apsster SudeepPandey18 system sucks

Another user who believes “It’s not worth returning[.]”

sworupsth agreeing with apsster not worth returning
nasablues1905 agreeing with apsster trueshit
bhattarai76 agreeing with apsster truth yesterday today
shahpankaj981 agreeing with apsster 5 yrs later same conclusion
dilak shakya agreeging with apsster left after 3 yrs
freakamu agreeing with apsster agree
ghimiresansar agreeing with apsster telling since 2001

Even I got on the bandwagon…as it were! On September 1, I had made this tweet.

When came across the tweet by the returnee, I added this to the above tweet.

The returnee responded to the tweet above saying how, “It took me a lot of courage last night to tweet that.” She added, “They want managers and experts without any effort of grooming them and it takes a of effort for an individual to explore and grow[.] Where’s career counseling? They say they need better candidate and they don’t respect.”

apsster took lot of courage to tweet that

I responded saying how “The concepts of providing GUIDANCE to or MENTORING the young (whether students or off-springs or young adult professional working under you) do NOT seem to exist in #Nepal.” I added, “Our culture (whether educational, social, professional, political etc.) is all about DIRECTING & ORDERING.”

I added two more tweets to the above.

She responded by saying “People really need to start saying NO. I’ve said NO so many times in the last 2 weeks and I still don’t think I can go on like this. This is ridiculous.”

To which I responded, “I hear you. I really do.”

Having shared all that, I must also add that we don’t have a dearth of people in Nepal who think and believe that change is taking place in Nepal. My sense is that those who truly believe that ACTUAL and TANGIBLE change is taking place at a pace worth labeling as such either are benefiting from the highly corrupt and exploitative systems and structures, or are completely aware the crippling and debilitating systemic issues the country is suffering from but are in complete denial, or are just completely ignorant of the issues.

I tell such people that many — if NOT most — of the changes taking place in Nepal has been for the worse. Even in this story of the highly successful entrepreneur Biswas Dhakal through hard work and dogged perseverance, it’s clear that he is supremely aware of the kind of environment he is working in and has an exit strategy. His success story, by the way — yeah, BY THE WAY — is an exception! Reading between the lines, Dhakal essentially said, “F*ck the country when I get a really good price for my product and can retire at a beach resort somewhere!”

Can you blame him?! If you know Nepal you couldn’t or wouldn’t, but do you? And he is a Khas-arya man, a hill so-called high caste Hindu man!

I have come to the conclusion that, unless you are a Khas-arya man like him, or wealthy and connected, returning to Nepal for any emotional, “noble,” or idealistic reason, abandoning a decent professional life abroad in a developed nation, is NOT worth it. The highly corrupt culture, systems, practices, and attitudes, directly or indirectly founded on the caste system, will make sure of that.

What do you think?

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  1. Karla Schmidt

    I definitely see your point. Time to leave again?

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