Parmeshwar Devkota

Of four seasons, winter is cruel. Though each season has its own special characteristics and remains more or less the same duration of time every year, winter season forces us to count the days. As aged people, we comparatively find it more difficult in winter every year. But, one of my neighbours has a different view in regard to seasons. He longs for winter in the summer season and the vice versa, and pins much hope even on these perilous days of winter.

I tried to convince him that the winter season is not good. The effect of cold is quite devastating on the daily life of people. If we get up early in the morning and stroll around in light clothes, we start shivering with cold. The winter cold can be harmful and cause common cold, body pain, diseases of the stomach cramping, and problem with nerve system. It may also lead to tuberculosis of various types because of the weak body. It seems that winter season has been created to test strength of living beings.

I talked to him about the suffering of animals and birds alike. The cows and buffaloes lose weight and turn lean and thin in this season. The stray dogs, for example, howl in the middle of the night and tremble in the early morning because of chill. Similarly, birds like sparrows stop chirping in the morning; pigeons have taken break to flirt with their partners and crows are not heard making sonorous sound these days.
I further tried to convince him by showing plants and flowers. The colour of flowers in your flowerpots is withering. So is the condition of plants in the nursery. You will find the vegetation stopping from growing. It seems that the flowers, show plants and vines turn almost lifeless during this season.

Even the forest plants shrivel up owing to the winter cold. It seems that the canopy of trees has forgotten swinging and stopped producing new sprouts and buds. Rather, they shed their leaves because of the wintry impact. Even the arable land has lost its quality these days. If you dig the farm land, you will find neither moister nor fertility in it. The winter hits us in the form of mist, fog, haze and occasional rainfall.
But, my arguments had no impact on my neighbour. He sees positive sides of the chilly winter. His logic is that though our septuagenarian and octogenarian leaders are contesting elections and winning them for their common agenda of Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali, they have not yet achieved their goals. However, the countries in the alpine regions are found easily achieving that goal. For example, most of the areas in Russia, China, and Alaska of the United States of America are much colder than Nepal.

However, they are more prosperous and happier than us. The Korean peninsula remains under the ice almost half of the year, but it is amazingly rich nation. Even Mongolia, a landlocked country of the Northern hemisphere, is prosperous. So, my neighbour puts his logic that the cold season is synonymous with development and prosperity.