Terrible state of emergency experienced by the people in Nepal due to the several ups and downs that occurred at the political level post declaring Nepal a secular nation!

According to the new constitution, Nepal was declared a secular nation on 20.9.2015. There have been and still are many ups and downs at the political level since the adoption of the new constitution. From food and medicine to industrial materials, Nepal is dependent on India. The five borders between India and Nepal were closed for five months. This completely disrupted public life in Nepal.

1. Disruption in the public life in Nepal

1A. Difficult situations faced by the public due to shortage of domestic cooking gas

1A 1. The alternative to wood sought by people due to lack of gas cylinders and the decision taken by the government to supply wood

In Nepal, people were not getting domestic gas cylinders for 7 months. Therefore, the locals started using wood from the houses that collapsed in the earthquake as firewood. After a few months of gas shortages, the local government made available the wood used for the funeral at Pashupatinath, to the people as fuel. Price of this wood initially was Rs 20 per kilogram. Later, within 1 month there was a shortage of firewood felt everywhere.

1A 2. Problems faced when using wood for cooking

The lumberjacks used to sell the wood by wetting it to make more money. Since wet wood does not burn, people had to buy wood again and again. Many people did not have a cane to cut wood and some people did not know how to cut wood in small pieces. Therefore, they had to pay to get it cut from others.

1A 3. Landlords would not allow people living in rented houses to cook on the stove in the house.

1A 4. Lack of vehicles making it impossible to carry home the gas cylinder obtained after waiting for several weeks

Few gas cylinders were getting delivered after waiting for several weeks. By their luck, some people got half-filled gas cylinder; but due to fuel shortages vehicles were not available to carry them to the homes. A gas cylinder which is normally priced at Rupees 1500, was selling at Rupees 8000 in the black market.

1B. Black marketeers exploit the situation of scarcity of petrol and diesel!

There were no vehicles on road due to scarcity of petrol and diesel. Schools and businesses were closed. However, the number of cyclists on the road had increased. In this period, even the cost of bicycles shot up to Rupees 10,000! Sometimes fuel was distributed by the government; but for that the people had to wait in a queue for 4 to 5 hours. Many had to wait for several weeks as the fuel used to get over by the time their turn came for fuelling. Since it was not known as to when government would be able to make arrangement for the fuel, people used keep their vehicles lined up on the road for several weeks. Petrol costing at Rs 100 to Rs 130 per litre was available in the black market at Rs 500 per litre and diesel costing at Rs 80 to Rs 100 per litre was sold at Rs 250 to Rs 300 per litre.

1C. Problems caused due to lack of electricity

The power supply in the city of Kathmandu was officially cut off for 14 hours a day. Electric supply was at times only for 2 to 3 hours in a day. People used to turn on the water pump, cook on electrical appliances, etc. while the power supply was available. Therefore, due to excessive use of electricity, transformers used get overloaded and burn. It used to take government employees 4 to 5 days to repair these transformers. Frequent burning of transformers was a common occurrence.

1D. Disruption of internet connectivity

When the power supply was shutdown, generators running on petrol and diesel were put on action for carrying out of work by professionals, as well as in the offices that required internet connectivity. However, due to shortage of fuel during this period, the internet connectivity was also completely shut down for most of the time.

1E. Lack of medicines resulting in death of the patients even in case of mild diseases

Due to non-availability of medicines in the hospital, some patients were dying of mild diseases as well.

1F. Shortage of grocery items

During this period most of the grocery items were not available in the grocery stores. Even the available items had to be purchased at four times the normal price. Groundnut oil required for cooking which is normally priced between Rs 100 to Rs 180 per litre, was selling at Rs 500 per litre.

1G. Schools closed

In the earthquake that occurred in April 2015, many school buildings got destroyed and as a result those schools were closed. Now due to shortage of fuel, there were no vehicles available to travel to the schools and hence even other schools were closed.

1H. Airport activities at standstill

Few planes from other countries used to arrive in Nepal. Nepal’s aviation authority had instructed airlines from other countries to fill aviation fuel before landing in Nepal.

1I. Two thousand businesses were shut!

In this period 2000 businesses were shut and approximately 1 lakh people became jobless.

2. Despite borders being opened,
situation remained status quo due to political disclination

2A. It was portrayed as if there is enough fuel storage
in Nepal, while in reality the 5-6 government owned fuel
distribution centres were operational for only few days in a week

The borders were opened after 5 months of closure however, normalcy was still not restored. It was been depicted in the news that the fuel storage tanks are full up to the capacity and therefore the fuel brought in from external sources could not be transferred to these tanks. However, in the area around Kathmandu, 5 to 6 fuel distribution centres were operational only for a few days in a week.

2B. Careless attitude of the high-ranking
government officials in the state of emergency

Black marketing was rampant all over the place. The new regime did not seem to be making any effort to restore normalcy. In such a state of emergency, the high-ranking government officials were seen traveling in variety of four wheelers. For them there seemed to be no shortage of gas cylinders, hence only in their homes food was cooked on gas stoves, whereas general citizens were cooking food on traditional stoves using firewood.

3. Necessary preparation accomplished
by the grace of God before occurrence of the
adverse situation and solutions undertaken while facing the situation

3A. Thought of storing food items at home being initially
opposed by mother and later she readily accepting to stack essential food items

In the year 2014 when I arrived at my home in Nepal, I discussed with my mother about the need for storing essential food items that would suffice for 3 months. However, she did not agree to it. Around 1 year later she herself started stressing about storing food items. Therefore, we stored items like lentils, salt, groundnut oil, soap, washing soap etc. Later within few days there was a shortage of essential items felt at all the places.

3B. Mother had planted several vegetables in the
backyard of the house due to which there was no need to buy vegetables

By the grace of God, my mother has planted various vegetables in the backyard of our house. Therefore, the vegetables needed for cooking at home are obtained from the garden in the backyard itself. If these vegetables are insufficient only then we buy them from the market.

3C. Minimal use of the mobile phone

There was no electric supply for few days. I used to keep my mobile phone switched off and used to turn it on only when needed for 2-3 times in a day.

3D. Having noted down the home remedies for
common ailments in the past, the information could put in use

I had noted down home remedies for various common ailments in the past and had made copies of this information. This included remedies for common cold, cough, fever, loose motion, toothache, allergy, headache, vomiting, weakness etc. Therefore, whenever needed I used to refer to this information for the remedies.

3E. Utilizing bicycle for outside work

When I had to travel for meeting devout Hindus as part of my seva or for any household work, I used to ride a bicycle.

Miss Sanu Thapa, Nepal (24.4.2016)

Till date many visionary saints have predicted adverse times ahead. We have been experiencing Tsunami, floods, earthquakes intermittently. While we are on the verge of calamitous times, the general public, however, is engrossed in fun and frolic, earning money and spending money for their lifestyle. If one examines the emergency situation that occurred in Nepal, one can imagine the kind of adversities humans will have to face in the near future. In order to face such a situation without losing one’s mental balance, it is necessary to keep complete faith on God. If we have complete faith on God, then as per the rule – God is present where there is spiritual emotion and one who is protected by God cannot be harmed by anyone, God is definitely going to protect us in the state of emergency. For this, one should initiate performing spiritual practice now itself, develop spiritual emotion and experience the support of God – Compiler, Dainik Sanatan Prabhat.

With the help of this article one can imagine how adverse the upcoming times are going to be and to survive each day of this calamitous times the preparedness that is required at material, mental and spiritual level. Preserve this article as it would be useful later – Compiler, Dainik Sanatan Prabhat.