[DISCLAIMER: I have originally written this article for www.Murkha.com in hopes of promoting the site. Looking forward to seeing a couple of you there. Aim for the sky, hit the ceiling]
Nepal has always been behind the rest of the world in almost everything. From television to the internet to Kollywood. Along with its obvious disadvantages this has some minor but helpful advantages as well.
Take the example of the TV. People in Western countries had to go through decades to finally get some color in their television sets. Us? We jumped straight onto the bandwagon with our shiny new technology tried-and-tested Sony tri-color television sets. We didn't have to 'wait' for B&W televisions to evolve. In essence, we are free-riders of world technology. Offcourse, thats not a bad thing because that infact is the most desirable position to be in. Risk free, guaranteed to work, state of the art technology at our feet. Who can refuse that cup of tea?
Similar to televisions is the advent of the internet onto the conciousness of the Nepali people. We weren't there when it was invented. I mean yes we were on this planet, but we werent any part of what shaped and revolutionized the internet. We weren't a part of its history.
Military intranet evolved into intranets, which in turn bore more intranets which when connected to each other formed the web. Simliar webs all over the planet mushroomed and when these were interconnected they formed the World Wide Web a.k.a the Internet as we know of it today.
As a toddler the internet was crude and hard to understand by laymen. Once people got educated on how the system worked, their individual thirsts for information unconciously formed an even greater subconcious stream of thought. It bridged gaps between countries and continents. Digital personnas met online, in IRC rooms or through websites/pages, forums and blogs and henceforth started the flow and exchange of information that has snowballed into a sort of collective conciousness that is at the bare essence of the internet, if you look past the wires and routers and computers. We are all digital projections of ourselves, within all these texts and bits and bytes of information.
Anyhow, Nepal has been missing its share of the digital revolution. When I was in Nepal, I was part of the rowdy crowd who cared for little and despised almost everything including the internet. I was a sheep roaming about with other sheep, criticizing without understanding, working without reason, foul mouthed punk. The Nepali punk is part of a self-contained collective conciousness. His world does not extend beyond the thoughts of his similar thinking punk buddies. And with such conviction he believes what he thinks; it is, for him, as crystal as The Universal Truth.
But once our poor disillusioned punk comes into contact with the outside world, his starts crumbling down. It is then that he must chose: to completely restructure his thought, starting from scratch, as theorized by Descartes, OR continue his set of beliefs no matter how much reality contradicts it.
Thankfully, a considerable number of people put in this situation have agreed to go with the Descartan philosophy, thenceforth creating a new subconciousness amongst themselves, or the 'awakened ones'. Gone are the destructive and malignant thoughts that once haunted their souls.
With each passing day, more and more Nepalis are joining the stream of thought of the internet and participating actively. Participation is key! In 2001 I used to force people to join my website and force them to post discussions and take part in them, but to no avail. In vain, I had tried to push a boulder 500 times my size. But today, the boulder moves itself, and once wheels have been set in motion there is no stopping it.
In this new light, under these improved conditions, I welcome you to Nepal's digital subconciousness. Here the heartbeats are measured in Hertz and the temperature is always right.
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