BIKRAM RAI

As we enter the Dasain holiday season, many in Nepal will be enjoying plentiful feasts. Animals will be slaughtered and the markets will be overflowing with food and people purchasing it.

Bhat Bhateni and other supermarkets will see a frenzy of business and mountains of will be wasted in the Kalimati vegetable market.

This may give an impression that Nepal is a land free of hunger. Sadly the facts tell a different story. Over a third of the country's 75 districts suffer from high food insecurity, with chronic food insecurity affecting up to 80 per cent of the population in heavily-affected areas such as the western Tarai.

The festive season also brings into sharp focus the widening gap between the rich and poor in our country, the way conspicuous consumption and the widespread destitution exist side-by-side.

What keeps Nepal afloat is the individual resilience and the capacity of Nepalis to endure pain and hunger. We have long given up expecting anything from our rulers, and when they don't deliver, we aren't that surprised.

For this Dasain, we can only hope that the private wish for the public good of all Nepalis in Nepal, and across the world, will soon become a reality.