When I heard something about the movie ‘Gaon Igai Bato’, I wanted to say, is it just a story of Jabo reaching a path? But a long time ago, when the car reached the village where Vijayakumar had reached a road, I remembered that a woman hung an old saree and made a gate at the reception. If you search on YouTube, you will find that video even today. Heck, wherever the road leads, not only the road leads to it, but also to strange emotions.
I thought that the villagers would show the same emotion in the environment. Apart from that, I was interested in what kind of story Naveen Subba would tell in ‘Gaon Igai Bato’. Watch the movie.
Even after a long time after returning from watching the movie, ‘The Road to the Village’ is still playing in my mind. Mainly one complaint is with the director. I will write about that at the end. And, I want to talk about raising social and political issues. I will write about that in the beginning.
‘Village came to the village’ not only tells the story of a village. Nepali films have raised the story of human civilization that has never been thought of. It has also clearly indicated that the state should prioritize for the future, and that every generation should be prepared. Using the scene before our eyes for those cues made it more real and effective.
I have already written a story above. The event of the reception of the vehicle shown by Vijayakumar in the guidelines. A car arrived in my village when I was very young. It was an old car. 95 used to say. After a long time, I understood that the number of the vehicle was there. The driver of that car seemed like a special guest to our area. I used to see that kind of respect. Later other vehicles were added. Kushal Travels, Vinita Travels etc. Reaching the road, reaching the car became normal for me. Vijayakumar’s video made that commonplace subject special. His eyes were wet while watching the video with satisfaction, love and happiness.
It seemed, now I got used to it again. But the road to the village broke the illusion. When the road reaches the village, the car is not enough. The emotional emotion of welcoming the vehicle is not visible. The way to the village does not only bring development. It is also displacing traditional skills and dreams.
The country is living a story of strange excuses. Here in one of the villages, a man leaves the village to buy a TV in lieu of watching TV with his family. A person who can watch TV with his family at home leaves the village and goes abroad to earn more wealth. A person who is living a good and comfortable life also leaves the village because others are going abroad. It seems that people are finding excuses to leave the country. The rampage of excuses is going on. I will leave the country on your pretext and you will leave the country on my pretext. Without comparison, the way to the village has shown the story that the country is living.
Does the person, family, society, state pay attention to these stories or not? A very optimistic answer will hardly come. The state has not decided its priority. Even if it has been decided, it has not been communicated to the citizens. There is some mistake, that the state does not understand the citizens, that the citizens do not understand the state.
The political parties who claim to lead the state have not followed the path they promised. I remember the days when I wrote the manifesto in the parliamentary elections. I was also involved in writing the manifesto of the National Independent Party. We were working day and night. We had the courage to write a manifesto that was different from the previous party and took the ground. For that, we were writing the things that others missed but had to do.
We must have heard thousands of times about increasing the road network. About bringing a new road to a new village. If you look at it, there are a lot of small and big accidents. The cause of the accident is not only technical. There are more cases due to lack of road discipline. Even more on the new road. Accidents happen because the locals and drivers are not aware of how to use the new road. That’s why we wrote in the manifesto, ‘People who are directly connected to the road will be made to take compulsory classes on road utility and discipline.’
Where did the things written in the manifesto reach the target group, will be a separate topic of discussion. But a political party, after discussing with an expert, after a long study, has written this issue in its manifesto, ‘the way to the village’ and told it with heartache.
The most important thing is that the road to the village has paved the way for the changes brought by development. Development has forced the state to find out whether it makes it easier or harder for the poor. After reaching the road and selling the bamboo image, Nami Rai Maila becomes unprofitable. By reaching the road, it will create an opportunity for people like Lahure to earn more. The state has not thought about this. The change is having a huge impact on employment. We are not ready for that.
World famous historian and author Yuval Noah Harari writes in his book Sapiens, ‘No one can say what the job market will need in the next 20 or 30 years? For the first time in human civilization, a situation has arisen where it is impossible to predict what kind of skills and abilities people will have in the next few years. This means, we do not know anything about what to teach and what to teach our children.’
Similarly, in the book ‘The Age of AI and Our Human Future’, Henry A. Kissinger and other authors write, ‘Until now, human invention has only made alternative devices for working with the left side of the human brain. Through artificial intelligence (AI), humans have now advanced the right side of the brain by producing alternatives. For example – ChatGPT, AI that makes songs from words, AI that makes pictures from words etc.’
Many countries in the world have started years in advance to ease the difficulty of adapting to change. But in our villages, where the road has not yet arrived, after they started getting plastic tripals, there is no preparation for what the people who make bamboo choya pictures will do. Those who are ready are only those who are sitting counting that they have flown so much and those who are sitting counting the numbers that so many boxes have landed at the airport.
If you look at it from the eyes of the above-mentioned writers, what does the road to the village look like? Perhaps the state of Nepal and its citizens seem to have gone into the process of extinction due to not being able to adapt to the development of an animal species.
Naveen Subba has shown the development that has come along the way through the ‘Village Way’. They have shown the changes in traditional skills and desires that have come along with development. Villagers who don’t know how to use the road have just started driving. And, he has asked the question to the state, ‘Where are you in all this? How much do you understand the change and how much are you preparing your citizens?’
While asking these questions, Subba himself got confused! Otherwise, what would have prevented the song from being placed at the end of the two-hour movie? As I was leaving the hall, the story of the film, the topics raised by it, the questions asked made me sensitive, as much as the song Rai Maila left the village was shaken. My complaint is why that song was not included at the end of the film.
There are many examples of how a song sums up the entire film, or let’s say, sits on the tip of an arrow and shoots people into the brain. Even watching ‘Bida Karo’ from the recently released Bollywood film ‘Chamkila’ was enough.
Complaints aside, this film is a course book for students of sociology, anthropology, and development studies. A policy is a guideline for making rules. People who understand society and time must watch it. Thanks to Naveen Subba for showing such a great view from a window.
