If only my wishes came true…

Translated by Rabindra Mishra, BBC Nepali service and published in BBC world Service Website.

Ankalal Chalaune, 16, had not left his remote village in north-west Nepal until a recent essay won a prize in a competition organised by the BBC Nepali service.

He had not seen a bicycle, a car or a telephone until he travelled to the region’s main town, Nepalgunj, to record the essay below for radio.

 

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From the pleasant surroundings of my school in Nepal’s very remote district of Dolpa, I have been trying to develop myself for nearly 10 years, constantly dreaming of doing something good for my society and country.

But however hard I try, neither progress nor prosperity is in sight.

From junior classes, I used to weave a lot of dreams.

I was enchanted by all those descriptions of high-rise buildings, hospitals, telephones, computers, buses and railways in the textbooks.

“Why doesn’t our village and school have those facilities?” I used to ask my teacher.

“One day your dream will come true,” he would say with a smile. “All these things are, after all, the creation of human beings.”

The assurance that these basic human necessities in other parts of the world would one day reach my remote locality was uplifting.

Dreams

However, I somehow feel that the wait is going to be far too long.

Therefore, I begin to think again. “If only my wishes came true, how nice it would be!”

Sometimes, I reach the capital – Kathmandu – in my dream – sometimes I travel in the bus and sometimes in an aeroplane.

I also dream of using the computer and the internet, and sometimes I even find myself having a stroll on the Moon.

But when I wake up in the morning and find myself in bed, I feel sad.

Will all those modern amenities remain only in the books for me? No, it does not have to be that way.

Like the world’s scientists and scholars, I, too, want to create.

More so because Graham Bell’s telephone, James Watt’s railway, the Wright Brothers’ aeroplane and all those other modern creations could never ever become the whole world’s.

Yet at a time when we need to compete with the world in such constructive areas, we are unwittingly engaged in violence and confrontation.

End the violence

If only my wishes came true, I would uproot the entire cause of violence and consign it to death forever.

Then joining our hands in friendship and unity, we would proceed ahead in the path of equitable development.

The cars monopolised by the streets of Kathmandu and Pokhara would then start running on smooth roads in Dolpa.

Why only helicopters and Twin Otters? Avros [local name for a kind of medium-sized aircraft] and jets would then land on the beautiful fields of my village.

And then in internet chats, I would describe Dolpa to my friend, Mr Jones, studying in some college in Britain.

Anyone living in any corner of the world should be able to experience the beauty of Caravan [a film featuring Dolpa, which was nominated for an Oscar in 2000].

These hills and peaks, river banks and plains should be connected with cable cars and contain modern facilities.

The Edmund Hillaries and Sherpa Tenzings would then travel through the fields of Dolpa and its underground rail before climbing Everest.

If my wishes were to come true, my country should truly be known as “Shangri-La”.