It is immense pleasure to be part of sorrow and joys of the motherland: Dr. Rabindra Pandey

Kathmandu / It will be injustice if we look at only one perspective of Dr. Rabindra Pandey. He has been excelling in all three areas he has been involved in. At a time when most of the organizations were busy writing proposals for supporting the earthquake affected people of Nepal, Dr. Pandey together with his wife were busy conducting health camps in earthquake affected areas. He conducted many health camps. The couple served thousands of earthquake affected people. He was also involved in collecting and distributing warm clothes. He is not only a good medical practitioner but also a good writer. He has penned many best-selling books and many articles in different newspapers. Currently, he is mulling to support Nepali foreign job seekers as he believes that remittance sent by these foreign jobseekers is giving life to the national economy. At a time when most of the people are busy blaming the current political stalemate, Dr. Pandey has been devoted towards making a difference on his own and has been running various philanthropic works which the government and big donor agencies have not been able to do. He is devoted to just cause rather than cheap popularity. Although it is very hard to capture all his good work in some questions, we have tried to capture some of what he has been doing and what motivates him. Here are excerpts:

You have been involved in so many sectors, so how do you introduce yourself? (As a litterateur, as a philanthropist or a medical doctor?)

Health Service, Literature and Philanthropy are three pillars of my life and I have given equal priority to all of them in the past. However after the devastating earthquake of April 2015, philanthropy became the major priority for me and the other two have been put on backburner for the past year. I do not feel any difficulty in doing hard work as I was brought up in a normal family in a village. I am very simple person.

At a time when doctors are solely motivated from profit, what motivated you to engage in philanthropic work?

From the beginning of my career, I used to provide free service to persons who could not afford medical treatment. I used to run one health camp every month as I am of the view that we should not forget our social responsibility. It’s true that we need to have money and profit in our life but we don’t need the quantity we are looking for. If we have sufficient money for our livelihoods, for the education of our children and for treatment while we became sick, rest of the money is just our greed and we don’t use it. When we are born as a civilized human being we need to see ourselves in others and others in ourselves and this is the crux of my social journey.

You have worked a lot on your personal initiative after the massive earthquake of 2015, what has motivated you to be involved in this mission?

Nearly ten thousand people lost their lives, thousands were injured and hundreds of thousands became displaced. Similarly, many people faced the loss of their loved ones and I could also have been one of them, but was spared, which became the major issue. After the tragedy, I realized that we were alive to support the injured, mourning and the displaced persons. I could not remain idle after observing and listening to the heart rendering situation and became fully devoted to provide support to the earthquake victims. When I visited villages for providing medical services, I saw and observed the heart rendering scenes and I felt the responsibility of reaching even more remote villages and areas to serve the people there.

I was of the view that we should reach the places where other organizations had not reached for organizing health camps so that we can support the real victims. We ran many health camps from early in the morning to almost 12 pm midnight without even eating anything.

You have been doing a lot on the individual level; how do you view the fact that a lot of money brought in the name of victims is being spent in personal luxuries rather than providing direct service to the people and sometimes limited to the state coffer?

Immediately after the earthquake, the donations received from various countries, organizations and non-residential Nepalese was more than expected. Many Nepalese spent the money through international non-governmental organizations rather than the government channels. However the money was spend on administrative, procedural and personal expenses rather than reaching the real victims. I became very sad after realizing the fact. From the very beginning, I have appealed to all to support the government as I realized that if the government is not strong, the country will become weak and the victims will not get long term assistance. Ultimately, the very same thing happened. The main point why most of the victims are in the same condition is the result of not trusting the state.

Most of the people run for publicity and they pay more attention to publicity than real service, but you don’t publicize your work. Don’t you think if your work was properly publicized it will motivate others to follow your footsteps?

I started the work of serving earthquake affected people in my own expenditure immediately after the earthquake. The major issue at that time was to save the injured people, to check spread of epidemic of communicable diseases and improve the health of people who faced health related problems due to communal living mechanism, hunger and consumption of fast food, as the health institutions of the rural areas had collapsed and there were no medical supplies. I became very busy improving the health condition of earthquake affected people and at the same time providing consolation to the victims.

I provided support on site to over six dozen villages of different districts amidst the aftershocks of the earthquake. I had to borrow medicines and also take some loan for serving the people who were in dire need of support. I have been able to serve more people due to support extended by some of my friends. They appeared as gods in these areas as people got real support. Immediately after I completed one health camp, I used to worry about how to generate resources for next health camp as I did not have any organization, funds or government or foreign assistance. However all these became possible due to my passion of treating the earthquake affected people and strong determination in my heart. I have stayed in the debris for two months and served nine thousand patients. We were just three persons in my team i.e.; my wife and our driver. Our mission was only to save lives and I refused many media when they requested for interview as my mission was to save the victims as I was not running for any award, getting vote or any post in exchange of the service I provided to the victims. However, I posted brief messages in Facebook with the view of encouraging others to support similar initiatives. The other issue was that I could have served many people of a remote village during the time spent talking with the media as I was running for results, not for the fame or publicity.

Dr. Pandey organizing health camp in earthquake affected rural area.

Don’t you think your effort needs to be institutionalized for making synergy?

I did not have time to discuss and hold meeting when the incident occurred and I worked round the clock serving the victims. I was planning to publish a book about this journey but I realized another responsibility after people faced problems due to blockade and cold wave. We have distributed warm clothes to nearly 15,000 victims of the cold wave in two and half months from the second week of November. Similarly, I have worked to send basic and lifesaving medicines to those villages that were running out of basic medicines due to the blockade.

Now I am also realizing the need of institutionalizing the work. It used to be very tiresome and expensive apart from creating a lot of pressure on me while being involved alone in the work. It will be very effective if there is a group of social workers and human souls. If we start looking at personal gain in social work, then we should start doing business rather than social work. I will start working in an institutionalized way when I find the meeting of souls made for social work. The main thing is that we should do work.

You have been making comments about the political situation of the country. How do you see the current situation of the country?

People of Nepal have been facing problems due to lack of visionary leaders despite being very rich in natural resources, being very hard working and honest people, having powerful and emerging neighbors and supporting world environment. As leaders have been using people only as a vote bank and are involved in dirty politics, the people have been following suit and thinking only about politics. The problem will remain till the people take out politics from their minds and put development there and head towards this direction.

Who do you think is responsible for it? And what is your suggestion to the government and agitating parties?

The leaders are responsible for this. They have not been able to work putting national interest in the centre after uniting the country and people. The main crux of the problem is that our leaders are guided, controlled and fed by some sources. There will not be any misunderstandings if all the leaders put national unity, integrity, sovereignty and prosperity of the country in the centre, while holding discussion on any issue.

The country is facing problems after the promulgation of the new constitution and some people are of the view that the issue of federalism should be suspended for the moment to bail the country out from current political turmoil. What is your recommendation for it?

In my personal opinion there is no need of federalism for our very small and poor country. The best option could be decentralization, inclusion and uplifting the oppressed class through the provision of reservations. The leaders pushed the country to federalism to fulfill their vested interests and interests of foreign powers. As they have already decided to go for federalism, it will be scientific to make the current five development regions as five states to save the country from facing more losses from federalism.

The political parties should either suspend the decision of federalism or consider five development regions as five federal states to give safe landing to the current political stalemate and for the stability of the country.

While seeing the country passing through such a mess, don’t you think you made a wrong decision to stay in the country?

I have never had such a thought. I could have got or can get the opportunity to migrate abroad if I wanted to do so. It is natural that we should face the pros and cons of our motherland and it is the same for all countries. Although there could be more materialistic opportunities in other countries, there is no place than the motherland where we can both peace of physical body and mind. It is immense pleasure to be the part of sorrow and joy of our own society.

What has motivated you to be involved in philanthropic work? Similarly, what is your message to the doctors who are running only after money and even do not pay proper attention to their patients?

I have already explained about philanthropic work. Medical service is not only my profession, it is my passion. If you want to earn more money you should start a business as a doctor cannot or should not earn as much money as a businessman. In business you work with commodities but in medical profession you work with the body and mind. There is no value of money in this very sensitive work. Self-satisfaction gained from other’s satisfaction and other’s support is the major earning of this profession. We can fulfill our basic needs while we are involved in professional and philanthropic work.

Dr. Govinda KC has been organizing protest programs for having reforms in medical education, while the proposed medical college operators have been blaming him of acting on the tune of foreigners. In your opinion, who is right?

Theoretically I agree with the issues raised by Dr. KC. He is a devoted, selfless and exemplary doctor, but there is no guarantee that the quality of medical education will increase if we don’t open medical colleges here. Millions of rupees is being taken abroad from Nepal for education. We have also observed the medical products of foreign institutions. If the government supports medical colleges of Nepal to enhance their qualities, we can save millions of rupees flying abroad and many foreigners can also come to Nepal for studies. We all need to understand the same facts. Why is he sitting in hunger strikes? Why is the strike being organized in hospitals every time? Why are there debates for and against his strike? Why is the media focused on it every time? We need to seriously think about many facts like these but the general trend of Nepali people is that we support protests rather than creative works.

What should be done to regularize medical sector of the country and make medical services accessible to all?

For this the government should adopt the policy of health insurance. Unless and until we break the economic relations between the doctor/hospital with the patients, the medical profession will not be service oriented. Health professionals should be produced by giving scholarships with the condition that they will provide health services in rural areas. The appointment letter of health workers and doctors should clearly mention that they should work in all geographic areas and they should get opportunity for further study and career development as per the service they rendered in different geographic areas. Ayurveda and yoga system should be integrated in health system. The state should encourage for protection, research and marketing of invaluable herbs which are found in our country.

As you are divided in three parts – medical professional, literature and philanthropist – which sector gives you the most satisfaction and why?

I can’t get extreme satisfaction from any other work that I get from social work. Only very lucky people can get the opportunity to serve very poor people and victims without knowing and having any relation with them. Most of the people have been spending their lives only for themselves. Literature is also the field of self-satisfaction. Similarly, the satisfaction of the medical field, which is devoted for the people like us, is also not less.

What is your plan in the future? Do you want to take all three issues equally or want to focus in any sector?

I have divided my life into four parts i.e.; i. Social work; ii. Literature; iii. Profession and iv. Rest, recreation and travel. Now, I am focusing on social work and literature.

Do you have any message to the readers of Nepalekhabar?

The backbone of Nepali economy is agriculture, tourism, water resources and remittance. If the Nepali people residing abroad can invest the skills and knowledge they learned abroad and the money they earned and the government can facilitate millions of Nepalese staying abroad and prioritize them, we can contribute for the development of the country from the public level. We can only remember our country, dream of it and express concern about it wherever we go, so, we should support Nepal and Nepalese people from our level best. Let’s join hands together for supporting each other. We were involved in political revolution for years, so let’s unite for economic revolution.

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