Travel and Photography | Life Must Go On

© 2014 Wazari Wazir | Life Must Go On | Pokhara | Nepal

“The battle of life is, in most cases, fought uphill; and to win it without a struggle were perhaps to win it without honour.  If there were no difficulties there would be no success; if there were nothing to struggle for, there would be nothing to be achieved.”

– Samuel Smiles –

Sometimes, I was struggling through life but then, traveling change me  to a better person, especially when traveling to India and Nepal. My work as a photographer wasn’t hard enough compared to some of the people living in less develop country. Take a look at Sherpa who live at Khumbu Region,  on the south side of Everest. Most of them work as porters carrying trekkers or climbers heavy backpack or work as a guide. I don’t think it is an easy work, going up and down the Everest trek, but somehow, that is the only things that they can do, period.

Most of the people in this world have never travel outside their home country, to some of them who have never travel, might think, that life outside their home country is better, people like to said that the grass is always greener on the other side.  People always think they would be happier in a different country, but that not always necessarily true.

From outsiders eye, I see a lot of potential untapped here in Nepal but the truth is, there are thousands of Nepali people working in Malaysia. Same goes to Kashmir, I think they have a beautiful country, I think they can benefit a lot from tourism related business but the truth is, most of them are not very rich and like Nepali people, it is not difficult to find Kashmiri people looking for a job outside their home country.

Wherever we are, life must go on, to the three women in the photograph above, they might think that their work is difficult, nothing to brag about but what they might forget is that, they work in a beautiful environment, people paid thousand of dollars just to get a glimpse of Himalaya but they don’t have to pay a penny, Himalayas Region is just at the back of their house.

Yes, I do know that, those Himalayas Peak will never brings food to their table,  but for me, they were given the best place to live. People like me, even though have a little bit better life, work inside cubicle environment, when I’m not on assignment, always dreaming of getting out of the office, wanted to breath the fresh air of the mountain, wanted to see the Himalayas, and maybe to the people living in this Pokhara Valley, wondering why we like so much to visit their backyard, just to see the mountain.

I hope those people, can stop and smell the roses, I mean despite their unglamorous working condition, they live in one of the beautiful place on earth, yes, life is hard for some of them but at the end of the day, they can sit back, relax and just enjoy  the mountain view, on the other hand, for people like me, at the end of the office hour, I always dreaming to get here once more, up in the mountain.

They might think that I’ve a better life than theirs, but I think they have a great life. Life must go on…