The value of ignorance and simple living

A recent chat with a Nepali friend put some things into perspective for me. For all my complaints about the amount of work I have to do here, I am reminded how lucky I am to be having work to do at all. Many Nepalese want to study or find work to do, but they simply cannot for various reasons. I always say that I am broke, but no matter what I know I have some puny savings in my bank that I can count on for emergency use. Or at worst, I can ask my parents for some loan to tide me through. While in Nepal, I have seen friends who are broke to the last rupee. And their parents are either nowhere near them or equally broke. And I'm not talking about the extreme poor who are born into begging for survival. I'm talking about fellow middle-class folks like me who can speak pretty good English and have a house to stay in.

On one hand, I bristle at the way they seem to be unable to save and just spend what they have. On the other, I think I can see their perspective of living by the day as anything can happen tomorrow so why not just spend it all? Their lives are revolved around acquiring material things; a bike to get around the chaotic city of Kathmandu, a laptop so that they are less vulnerable to sudden power cuts, a pair of good walking shoes that will last the rocky roads of Nepal, or even a good mobile phone that has better network connectivity. But who can blame them for pursuing these material things? To me, their lives seems pretty narrow yet blissfully ignorant. They will never understand the stress of having to do well in a final year project, complicated novel-like BGR problems (their parents just push a photo of a potential spouse to them and within one month they are married), and the stress of finding a good job that allows one to "grow". Their concerns are so starkly different from us in Singapore that I sometimes wonder if it's better to just worry about food and lodgings. Yes they have to stay hungry at times but they don't lie awake for 7 hours unable to sleep for reasons unknown even to themselves.

So when my Nepali friends ask me how's my life here, I really don't know how to put it in a way for them to understand and to make it seem less trivial than having to worry about surviving the next day. No wonder I've seen many people from developed countries moving to Nepal even though they can have it so much better in their own countries. One even hears of people from these rich countries who gave up everything they had to go live in a remote mountain high up in the Himalayas. After awhile, all the search for the perfect life and happiness comes full circle - finding the meaning in living simply, for the day and not worrying too much about the future.

There is a small group of Singaporeans in Nepal who have lived there for more than a decade, with some even setting up their families there. They tend to complain alot about the corrupt and inefficient Nepali government, the sad state of affairs in the Himalayan country. But for all their complaints, they would rather rough it out there than come back to Singapore. Why is that, I asked. They replied that they are just tired of everything in Singapore. I really don't think they should be labelled as quitters, just because they do not enjoy running the rat race anymore and living the luxurious life. In fact, I think these people are much more brave in taking that step to pursue a more meaningful life.

I just feel that I was much more alive in Nepal than in Singapore, and that idea scares me because I don't want to feel dead ironically when I have so much more to do and at stake here than in Nepal.

PS: They have cheap and good milkshakes in Nepal, and I miss having cheap and good food.