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Articles
A visit to Mahendranagar - Novela Acharya
2010-04-28-------
Last year during the month of April, a group of team members of MIREST Nepal headed for the journey towards the Far-Western Development Region. The group comprised of 21 people who included the reporters, officers, TV crew, managing director and the president himself.
21 people were divided into 3 groups, each group in a jeep. I was one of them. Around 12 in the afternoon, we started off from Kathmandu.
The journey was getting more exciting as the time was passing by. Since 2 hrs had already passed, everyone thought of getting fresh for sometime so we stopped at Malekhu. We stayed there for 20 minutes or so and again headed towards our destination. We were supposed to go through Chitwan but due to the strike called in by the Tharuhat, we moved towards Pokhara.
On the way, we could see very little number of people walking on the highway and the number of vehicles plying was very less. Only some ambulances were allowed to move, as I was told. We were the only ones who attempted to go there in such a risky and awful situation. As the strike was called in by the Tharuhat, many strikers stopped us many times on our way. They were very dangerous and it was quite difficult for the team members to explain our purpose for going there during the strike. Such a situation also occurred where the team leaders themselves had to get outside of the jeep and deal with the strikers. They seem to be very good at dealing with those strikers. Because of that reason, we were allowed to move ahead each and every time we came across those people. We were eagerly waiting to reach Mahendranagar as earliest as possible but our destination was very far, our wish didn\'t come true so fast. We were on a convoy of three jeeps with fast speed on the deserted highway, but the destination was not anywhere near. We moved on and on. In one of the place in Kapilvastu district, the strikers stopped our jeep and began to watch each and every person in the jeep very carefully. Since, I was the youngest member in the group, those people didn\'t believe that I was a reporter because I looked very young and was only 16 years of age. Finally, our team members were successful to convince them by saying that I was in an internship as a reporter and was new to the organization. After hearing everything, those people allowed us to move ahead.
After that incident, we were going very smoothly without any disturbance in the road. Suddenly our driver saw that the road was blocked for construction. So we thought of going via a diversion made in the highway crossing through deep inside the jungle. It was in the Bardia National Park area. We went on and on, after going little far way, we realized that we were on the wrong dusty track. Everyone was very afraid as it was already 1 o\'clock at night. We were puzzled at that moment. The drivers couldn\'t identify the right track to go, because there were several track roads in the jungle. Suddenly we saw a group of 15 people coming towards us. They had covered their face with mask. Everyone in the jeep closed their windows and locked the doors of vehicles as soon as they approached our vehicles. Those unknown people came closer to our jeep and asked the driver to open the window. They started asking different sort of questions to the driver. The driver got nervous and couldn\'t utter a single word. Three of the group members Gaurab Pudasaini, Siddharth Narsingh Sharma and Kumar Yatru courageously got down the jeep to converse with those people almost lasted for an hour or so.
After hearing everything from those three gentlemen, the group allowed us to move. We were out of the diversion onto the highway again almost after one and half hours after we entered into the dense tropical forest. It was one of the most memorable moments of my life. After that, we headed towards our final destination- Mahendranagar. It was already very late. One another thing that surprised me was that, the villagers were walking on the street even around 2:30 at night without having any fear of the wild animals. It was near the Bardia National Park. I was awake the whole night so I noticed each and everything very clearly. Finally around 3 o\'clock in the morning we reached Hotel Opera in Mahendranagar.
Next day, everyone woke up early and started to work, as usual. But, their face showed that they were tired of the continuous travelling for almost 18 hours from Pokhara. Everyone was very busy in their own work since the next day was the program. In the evening press meet was called in. Next day, the interactive television debate called Samayojan was conducted amongst about 3500 local people at the main thoroughfare of Mahendranagar town. One thing I realized there was that, the women in Mahendranagar are very active and smart in comparison to the women in other areas of Nepal, and they were found learned through experience rather than educational attainment. If they would have higher education and exposure to public affairs what would have been the status of women in the Far West, I pondered myself in deep thoughts. They clearly mentioned each and every problem they had faced. The program held in Mahendranagar was a great success.
Since it was my first visit to Mahendranagar and the Far West region, I learnt a lot of things especially from the women out there. In spite of being uneducated, they were able to present all their problems which they have been facing very clearly in the program. They were confident while speaking in front of the great mass, which was not at all expected by us. The visit to the Far-West was once in a life time experience for me. I\'m not sure whether I would again get a chance to visit that place but I\'m eagerly waiting for that opportunity to come.
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