Lets say, some of us make it big !  We create enough wealth to grab a “bright” future for our family. Our relatives are envious because, we have a nice house in Kathmandu, a guard, cook, helper and enough money in the bank after many hard years of work.
Lets say, weeach have a beautiful small family. with our partner and our cute children.

Every day for the last 20 years, you drive through myriads of problems in Kathmandu. We look around. get angry, become extremely frustrated at the way things are descending. Yet, in the end, we just say, यस्तै हो।  “Yestai ho.” We admit we alone cannot change all this. Instead, we set to do where we can change, which is to help our own family. So we invest all our time, energy, resources onto our family.

As we do this, the Bagmati river which flows through Kathmandu, pretty much and remains the same, extremely toxic. We convince ourselves, repairing her is beyond our job ( it must be the government’s job or some NGO’s job or some environmental person to FIX THAT! )

Coming back to our family; we raise our children in the best possible manner. Put them in Montessori’s, indulge them latest electronic intuitive toys to make them smart. Send them to a lot of summer camps to open their minds up. You and your partner concentrate on making sure your your children (your investments, your future) are taken care of, so that they can help their country when they grow up. This is why you “mind your own business”.

So now imagine this scenario. Lets say because of the increasing toxic nature of the Bagmati (or the polluted environment in Kathmandu),  a new resistant form of  bronchitis or tuberculosis mutates and creeps its way through (in any case this is life threatening). Lets say “unluckily,” one of your children, she gets this from their friends in school or through water or something, somewhere. ( Well you can only protect your family from some things, but not from the whole of Kathmandu).

You rush her to a nearby hospital and put her into a deluxe first class cabin with a private personal doctor to treat her non-stop. The doctor consults with the best practioners around the world. Money is never a problem, but it sure has its limits when the doctor says your daughter cannot be treated here because the disease is new, and she has to be taken abroad. You decide to charter a plane to Delhi (you sure can afford it). You try to leave for Delhi immediately. But you are stopped because your daughter needs to be quarantined, checked etc etc. You plead with them, you lie, you threaten. You use your highest level diplomatic “connections” to get a way out. Finally, after much delay and “changes in the rules”, you succeed. You fly out to save your girl (your investment, your future). But by then, it is too late. She doesn’t make it. Too much time has already been lost.

So now the blame game starts inside your mind. Who do you blame for this mess?

Do you blame the Doctors in Kathmandu for not doing the best job ?
or the hospitals for negligence or exhorting so much money to not able to save her ?
or her friends for transferring that disease ? their responsible dirty parents ?
or the toxic Bagmati River for killing her ?
or Kathmandu for being so evil place to live ?
The government for being so slow ?
Do you blame your neighbors (countries) for their apparent prejudices against Nepalis like you ?
or even Fate (and Gods) for this mess ?
Or would you blame Yourself ?

Never mind all the blame games. Just Answer this!

What would you have changed here, if you could go back to your past?

If we do not choose to make wiser investments now, to safeguard our collective future, they WILL come back to haunt us and our children (our future). So it is in our very selfish interest to form a collective interest today. Because when the future comes, there is no way to change the past. Only, Regrets.