Forced To Fly Abroad During Dashain Even if it’s only one day, I said that I would take a flight. Even if it’s only one day, I will board the plane with Dashain Tika. The company lender from Malaysia said that I could quit my job instead; I can’t add leave. For me, now my job is dearer than Dashain and family,” said Ajay Mehta of Sarlahi.
On the eve of Dashain, Mehta, who carried some clothes from home and left for foreign employment, was forced to do so.
Leaving home on the eve of Dashain was very difficult for Mehta, who was found in the crowd at the Tribhuvan International Airport terminal before getting his boarding pass on Friday evening. At Sarlahi’s house yesterday, his pregnant wife Chandni Devi and mother Urmiladevi cried and waved goodbye, and his eyes closed when he remembered the moment.
According to Yadav, who went to Saudi Arabia for foreign employment, the company gave him two months’ leave. But even during the two-month-long holiday, Dashain could not fit in one day. “They tried to extend the holiday by calling the company, but it didn’t work; maybe they don’t know the importance of our Dashain,” he said.
The pain of having to leave family and relatives in the middle of the great festival of Dashain is also deeply felt in his heart. Others come home on Dashain; we have to leave home on Dashain. This has become our obligation; I am satisfied that the pain of thousands like me here will be the same,” he said. He said he was working for a repair company in Saudi Arabia.
Arun’s eyes were also filled with tears when his mother, Jadjana Ramtel, bid farewell to her son wearing the flag of Nepal at the airport terminal, wiping away her tears. Ramtel said, “Father is also abroad; I also had to go there for my brother’s education and household expenses. I couldn’t wait for Dashain after the visa and ticket work was done,” he said.
Similarly, Omprakash Choubey from Lumbini was found at the airport terminal before boarding a plane for Dubai for foreign employment. Chaubey, who came home on leave some time ago, was taking not only himself but also his nephew Ajay Chaubey with him on Dashain. Ajay Choubey has left his studies in class 9 incomplete and gone abroad.
24-year-old Rekha Khatri from Nepalganj also got her ticket to Japan the day before Dashain. She said that despite studying in Nepal, she was forced to go abroad after not getting a job. After completing Plus Two, I studied agriculture for four years but did not get any job. Now I have studied the Japanese language for one and a half years and traveled to Japan,” she said.
Indra Ranamgar from Kathmandu Tarakeshwar, who had reached the airport to bid farewell to his sister, who was going to Japan, expressed his sadness that he had to part on the eve of Dashain due to not getting a ticket. “All the members of the family wanted to sit together and celebrate Dashain, but the situation did the same; tickets could not be arranged,” he said.
The scene where most of the people who reached the airport said goodbye to their relatives with wet eyes was awe-inspiring.
