selalu cerita siapa mantanmu
yang pernah berikan yang tak ku berikan
aku bukanlah dirinya, dia bukanlah diriku
jangan pernah membandingkan aku dan dia
dan aku akan buktikan ku lebih baik darinya
cobalah untuk lupakan mantanmu
selalu (selalu) cerita (cerita) lebihnya mantanmu
yang pernah berikan yang tak ku berikan
aku bukanlah dirinya, dia bukanlah diriku
jangan pernah membandingkan aku dan dia
dan aku akan buktikan ku lebih baik darinya
cobalah untuk lupakan, lupakan mantanmu
lupakan mantanmu (diriku bukanlah dirinya)
aku bukanlah dirinya, dia bukanlah diriku
jangan pernah membandingkan aku dan dia
oh karena ku akan membuktikan ku lebih baik darinya
cobalah untuk lupakan mantanmu
Nepal’s Young Men, Lost to Migration, Then a Quake
Photo
Many bodies prepared for cremation last week in Kathmandu were of young men from Gongabu, a common stopover for Nepali migrant workers headed overseas.Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times
KATHMANDU, Nepal — When the dense pillar of smoke from cremations by the Bagmati River was thinning late last week, the bodies were all coming from Gongabu, a common stopover for Nepali migrant workers headed overseas, and they were all of young men.
Hindu custom dictates that funeral pyres should be lighted by the oldest son of the deceased, but these men were too young to have sons, so they were burned by their brothers or fathers. Sukla Lal, a maize farmer, made a 14-hour journey by bus to retrieve the body of his 19-year-old son, who had been on his way to the Persian Gulf to work as a laborer.
“He wanted to live in the countryside, but he was compelled to leave by poverty,” Mr. Lal said, gazing ahead steadily as his son’s remains smoldered. “He told me, ‘You can live on your land, and I will come up with money, and we will have a happy family.’ ”
Weeks will pass before the authorities can give a complete accounting of who died in the April 25 earthquake, but it is already clear that Nepal cannot afford the losses. The countryside was largely stripped of its healthy young men even before the quake, as they migrated in great waves — 1,500 a day by some estimates — to work as laborers in India, Malaysia or one of the gulf nations, leaving many small communities populated only by elderly parents, women and children. Economists say that at some times of the year, one-quarter of Nepal’s population is working outside the country.
