This is all about how I went from thinking of myself as a Tibetan-Buddhist to a humanist, from a Tibeto-Nepalese to a human being first etc., and how and who I have become and where I have gotten to in life -- through my international education, profession, and travels -- was one of the reasons for turning down a job offer in February 2013 to return to Nepal.
A brief history of the tradition of bandh (shut downs) in the country and how this tool employed by everyone from political parties to trade unions to even disgruntled families, along with the politicization of education, have robbed many youths of their potential. The youths, invariably, were always the ones mobilized to enforce them!
Men using their positions of power to thwart women's drive and squash their potential by focusing on her body is a form of violence. This is the story of a young, driven, and talented woman who was a victim of just that!
Development aid industry is a failed industry. Sustainable development rests in the hand of the locals, not the big bilateral and multilateral development aid agencies. To be part of that I decided to turn down the job offer and to return to Nepal.