My Technology: My Belief

MAHABIR PUN

Mahabir Pun became a household name in Nepal after he won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2007. He was rewarded for his efforts to link the remote mountain districts, which have no electricity, roads or telephones, with wireless internet service. Today, farmers in Myagdi make business deals for their livestock and crops using the Internet. The 54-year-old Mahabir believes technology eases life.

My Technology: My Belief

I believe that technology eases our life and gives us many conveniences. Technology should be ‘life friendly.’ My success with providing Internet services to remote villages through wireless technology inspired this belief and made my life meaningful.

When I returned to my village many years after attaining an education, skills, and self-confidence, I was for some time in complete shock. While the rest of the world was rising with waves of changes, my little village remained the same. The village school I attented still staggered as a lower secondary school and was not a high school. The number of people abandoning their homes was increasing.

The world landscape was changing, but in my mountainns, which had stood for thousands of years, there was no road, no electricity, and no telephones. But I still saw a sparkle of curiosity and wonder in the eyes of the children – the same curiosity I used to have when I was a boy and wondered what existed beyond the mountains.

Having returned to the village with an American college degree, I decided to confront these mountains of challenges. I chose my own village as my workplace, my laboratory of social engineering. I helped to change the village school into a high school. Then I tackled the lack of communication between the villages. High mountains stood like hurdles between every village, blocking any kind of swift communication. Contact with outside world was almost impossible. I myself had to travel six hours to Pokhara to check my e-mails!

I did not have the strength to challenge the mountains, those citadels of nature. Instead, I had to search for a technology that would transcend these mountains easily. In my search for this technology, I conducted a test transmission to bring the Internet to my village through wireless technology.

I saw sparks of hope despite numerous challenges. I struggled to muster some financial resources. Finally, the test transmission was successful and eventually several neighboring villages were also connected to the Internet by wireless technology. Soon, telephone calls or sending messages became possible with just a click of the finger tips. Gone were the days of traveling to Pokhara to send a message. Thanks to the advancement in technology, life in these rural mountains is much easier. This remains the yardstick by which to measure my belief.

I believe everyone lives by their own standards. But whatever one does should come from deep within the heart and mind. What I am doing is for my own inner self-satisfaction. People may find my life strange. My family lives in the towns of Chitwan and Pokhara, whereas I roam around the remote mountain villages.

        I have neither earned big money nor acquired any prominent social position, but the contribution that wireless Internet technology has made to communication, education, and health is testimony to the meaningfulness of my life. My goal is to extend this technology will give direct benefits to villagers. I believe this technology has eased life and created space for growth through swift communication.