COMMITTED TO LIVE IN VILLAGE

Durga Bahadur Gurung is happy in his village with his goat farming. Photo: LB Thapa

I earn more in village than my friends who sweat in foreign soil and get no respect

Whether you are domestic tourists or foreign visitors to Pokhara, if you want to experience adventure, excitement and pristine nature all at the same time then waste no time. Go to Lakeside, pick up mountain bikes and set out for Antighar.

Antighar is a typical Gurung village, where live Gurung people since time immemorial. Though most local villagers of Antighar have already migrated to Pokhara city and some even immigrated abroad, still the village has maintained its tradition and culture intact.

In the recent past, Babu Ram Gurung, a local resident of Antighar, who at present lives in London, the UK, funded to make a beautiful video song ‘RAMAILO ANTIGHAR’. This video song is all about the Antighar village.

I recommend you to watch this video song before setting out for Antighar. The video song will help you to understand its culture, tradition and some beautiful places.

Actually, about a year ago, I did convince five of my cyclist friends to go to Antighar, they agreed immediately. It was an exciting experience to paddle all the way from Pokhara downtown and meandering through hills, forests, rivers, villages, and finally reaching to the village.

In this article, I have focused a young man who preferred to live in the village to make a living rather than toiling in the Gulf nations.

So, are you ready to explore more? Let’s begin… 

By LB THAPA

At a time when many youths leave their villages and move for the greener pasture, there are still some people who are not tempted to go abroad and decide to live in their villages and do something meaningful.

He is Durga Bahadur Gurung, 32, is a local resident of Antighar Mauja ward no.4. Many youths of his village have already migrated to nearby towns or left abroad. However, Durga Bahadur Gurung remained in his village and decided to use local resources to the hilt.

“I love my village. This is the place of my ancestors and I was also born here. I cannot leave my village for some silver coins. This soil has much more than it meets the eyes. I want to prove those people wrong who think that there is nothing in the villages.

“Almighty god has given every necessary resource to survive in village. It gives me immense pain when I see local residents migrating to cities and youths leave abroad. Over the years, I have seen some of my friends died in foreign soil and a few others met accidents while working in hazardous conditions. What a tragedy!

“In contrary to this I work in my village like a boss. I have also given employment for some. I feel myself proud and satisfied” said Durga Bahadur Gurung proudly.

For some time Durga Bahadur Guurng worked as a fulltime farmer in his land thereafter, he decided to do something different. He started goat farming some five years ago.

When he started goat farming, he had only a paltry sum of money in his pocket. Despite that, he dared to start goat farm. In the beginning, he had only five goats but he was confident about the success of his new venture.  

“In the beginning I was nervous because I was the first person to begin the goat farming and people around me were very skeptic about my success. In the initial stage, I had no capital to invest and this was eating my vitals.

“I had only five goats but I worked hard and began collecting as many goats as possible and today I have over 200 goats. My goat farming is the largest in the area. I raise them in a most modern way possible. I have separate chambers for the goats as per their requirement.

 All photos by LB Thapa

Durga is waiting to get served a lunch from his wife. 

A beautiful view of the Pokhara valley from Durga's house.

“In the meantime, I am always grateful to my wife Saraswati Gurung for her assistance. Had she not helped me in the project, I would have not reached to this stage of success. My son Ashok Gurung 17, daughter Ashika Gurung 12 years old also want to help me but I refuse to take their services, because I ask them to pay more attention to their studies,” said Durga Bahadur Gurung.

Durga Bahadur Gurung has not only started goat farming and making a decent income but also helped the youths of his village to get involved in the goat farming business.

It was due to his effort in 2010 Durga Bahadur Gurung united all goat farmers of his area and formed “Sri Mauja Bakhra Palan Krishi Sahakari Sansthan. When this cooperative organization came into existence, there were only seven enthusiastic members. Today its numbers have increased to 40”

This cooperative organization helps its members to make necessary purchase. Other villagers can also receive loan for agriculture purposes. Over the last five years, this cooperative organization has been doing exceptionally brilliant work.

All of the members of goat farmers of Mauja village development committee are very happy, as they are being able to make a decent livelihood by goat farming.

In the past when there was no access of motorable road to Antighar, local farmers had hard times to find a market for their produce. But today things have changed. A motorable road has connected Antighar to the nearby villages and Pokhara city.

Now the villagers have two options. First, they may take little less profit and sell all their produce at their doorsteps, or load all their produce in a jeep and go to Pokhara city and get more profit. But many farmers prefer to sell all their produce from their homes.

“Normally we don’t go to Pokhara city to sell our goats. The meat sellers come to our farms and buy goats,” said Durga Bahadur Gurung.

Durga Bahadur Gurung annually earns over five lakhs rupees without much difficulty. Sometimes he does even earn more than that. He is very satisfied with his enterprise and wants to give advice to young men for doing something in their villages rather than working abroad. Durga Bahadur Gurung says that those people who want to work hard should not go abroad.

“There is more in the villages to do than toiling in foreign land for a few bucks,” says Durga Bahadur Gurung proudly.

Thank you very much for reading this article. I hope you liked this article. I will be glad if you take little time and make a comment about this article. Your comment is highly appreciated.

The author poses a photo with the kids of the village.

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