“Hello, Babu, do you teach computer at your institute?” Bisworaj Pokharel from Kirtipur Municipality-13 was asking a computer institute owner in Kirtipur. The owner nodded indicating that they offered basic computer courses. Bisworaj inquired about the time and fee with the owner and expressed his desire to join. Most of the staff at the institute burst into laughter. The owner inquired if the old man was mistaken. Hadn’t he instead been trying to admit his son or grandchildren? Bisworaj said, “I want to learn computer myself.” But still, no one in the institute believed a 65-year-old man could learn anything, let alone computer. The owner said, “No, no, I don’t believe you! You are here to admit your son, aren’t you?”
Bisworaj was completely baffled. However, in the end, he somehow managed to get himself admitted for a computer course. The callous remarks of the institute owner had pained him no end. He had felt humiliated. He later said, “I thought about my humiliation seriously. What a sorrow! A so-called civilised place like Kathmandu laughs at old people who want to do something. If you have courage and determination, age really does not matter.” A few days later Bisworaj changed his mind and decided he would not, after all, go to the institute. He had already paid half the course fee. “Where people laugh at my enthusiasm to learn and have no respect for me, why should I go there? I would forgo computer literacy rather than compromise my honour.”
I later learned that he wanted to learn computer because his sons and daughters were abroad. He has computer at home. But it remains dysfunctional. He wanted to learn computer “so that I could email my children. I have internet service at my home.”
We make much noise about equality and freedom in modern Nepal. But a society which cannot honour its elderly, someone rightly said, cannot boast of any achievement. Like the old man in this story, many people his age are discouraged and humiliated when they try to learn something new. Other old folks are looked down upon as feeble and good for nothing fellows.
What more do the elderly have save a little self-respect? Is it too much to ask for the elderly that the young generation recognise their contribution and offer them due recognition? After toiling all their lives for their family and society, it hurts when at the fag end their contributions are forgotten and they are looked upon as burdens. Everyone has to get old one day. This is no rocket science! The way we treat our elders today, so will our children treat us when we get old.
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