I am a 19-year-old Nepali girl, currently frustrated at the state of affairs we happen to witness in this land of ours; however, I am determined that at some point of time I can contribute to make my country better—a prosperous, united and corruption-free land.

Before the blockade started, I would go to college every morning riding my scooter, but now my scooter is locked up in the garage. These days,I tend to walk about 30-45 minutes every morning to college—I am getting myself acclimatised to this new reality. I come back home, go to the kitchen aiming to serve myself a cup of tea but since I see that there is no electricity and that my induction heater won’t work, I cannot get to drink even a cup of tea. There is not even a cylinder of gas at my home, either. I just drink a cup of hot water that my Mother keeps in a thermos flask after boiling it on an electric heater whenever there is electricity.

I wonder how people are coping with the situation in the country every single day. At least I live in the city, do have a home, have access to food, go to college and have an inverter. The reality for people living in other parts of our country is terrible. People are struggling for shelter, for food and for their life. Our daily life has been facing a blow since the blockade.

This unofficial Indian blockade is what I call the death of humanity. Public personalities fight over social networking sites, candle marches will take place, rallies will be held, ministers will give interviews giving false hopes. As rude and bad as it sounds, the reality is much worse. While the blockade has deprived us of many things, I believe it has also taught us some very important lessons.

We learnt that we need to be stronger. We need to stop relying on others. We were dependent on every little item, from flowers to vegetables to oil to almost everything you see. We are an agricultural country, but we’d been so lazy that we have stopped investing on agriculture. Once we start producing our own goods, we can thrive with our trade relations with other countries. I think it’s time we show the world that we are resilient people and that we can stand on our own.

I read news of people fighting at the borders and I feel sorry for all the lost souls. We’re fighting among ourselves. One party provokes its people and these misguided people engage in disputes. Amid all this, we all Nepalis should unite to bring about a change. We belong to a single country and it is all of our duty to work for our nation. We should follow our laws and contribute to peace and security. We should develop harmony and unity among people. We should practice religious tolerance. Unity in diversity is our specialty and we should be committed to keep this feature intact.

Our ancestors are an example of courage, bravery and dedication. Nepal has always been an sovereign country. We have to learn lessons from the brave Gorkhalis and follow their footsteps.

We blame the government for all our problems, but aren’t we the ones who elected them? Sadly that is where our biggest mistake lies. We’ve been repeating this mistake during every election. So before you blame the government, blame yourself for voting these corrupts. Everyone will try their best to win your votes by giving you false hopes and plenty of lies. We need to be careful while voting. Voting is our right and it is equally powerful. So if you are given the power you need to be careful to use it well. Let’s realise our mistake and take it as a lesson so that the next time we vote, we vote for the deserving, educated, intellectual minds on the basis of their good deeds for our nation.

Let us all try to promote goodwill, brotherhood and other humanistic values. The next time we vote, let’s vote for the right person. Let us promote our market. Let’s break this ignorance and emerge as a powerful, resilient, corruption-free nation.

Bhattarai is pursuing a Bachelor’s degree at Kathmandu Medical College