A tale of painful unemployment

Kathmandu, Nepal, October 17 — My friend Bimal is unemployed. As far as possible he confines himself to his house and does not go out. If he has to run errands, he selects the shortest possible route and failing to find one prefers an isolated path even if that requires him to walk long distances.

He has suppressed his desire for walking or rather, his present condition and mental state -- a result to his being unemployed over a long period of time -- has taught him to kill his desire.

When walking the busy streets of Kathmandu, it is easy to meet friends, acquaintances and relatives. In Bimal's small town, where everybody knows each other, it is very difficult to avoid anyone. So, Bimal has virtually imprisoned himself in his house to avoid questions like, "where is your job nowadays and what have you been doing? or why is a highly capable man like you keeping yourself at home? As a result, Bimal has experienced an inferiority complex in a bid to avoid answering questions of a personal nature.

It is true, however, that he is not very intelligent although he was quite brilliant as a student in school and college. Due to his poor financial background, he could not study beyond his bachelor's degree and so, had no option but to go find a job to maintain his family.

His previous jobs were all temporary and as hard as he tried to get a permanent job, he never got one due to the high level of unemployment in the country, political crisis and a bad government.

Due to the political instability that has disrupted economic activities, Nepal's job market has shrunk and a large number of youth have difficulty in landing a good permanent job. Recurring job rejections has dented Bimal's self-confidence. As a result, his talents lie dormant and his mental state has become like a dry log, hopeless and meaningless.

Due to his dejected state, there is not a single field of activity that interests him and the lack of income is a big burden on his household finances, uncontrollable expenses and other needs. The situation is so bad that he has to rely on his old father's pension to sustain his family. Although it is his responsibility to earn and take care of his father, it is his father who is running the household.

Bimal's wife and son also depend on his father's pension. Two years have passed since they got married and yet Bimal is incapable of fending for his wife and son. Infact, he rarely speaks to his family these days.

He regularly subscribes to newspapers and his main interest is the classified section that lists job vacancies. He sees himself a suitable candidate for any posts listed therein but that is as far as he goes. He has no energy and interest left in applying for any jobs and has started believing that he will not be considered because of his qualifications. Also, he thinks attending job interviews will yield no returns.

Bimal thinks he should have been born in a rich noble family that could have taken care of all his problems or in a very poor class wherein he could have sold meat on the roadside and made a decent living. However, born in a middle class family is a curse, he feels, as there is lot of pressure from society to protect the the dignity of forefathers and save his family background from social criticisms.

Today, Bimal is lost in life from where he can neither come out nor push forward towards his goal. Therefore, for the sake of living, although he has talent, he is carrying on a life that has no real existence.

"Thanks to the political instability, bad leaders and growing violence in Nepal." He said to me.