The Price of a Dream: The Long Journey Home for Shyam Gharti

Sabika Shrestha

In 2007, Shyam Kumar Gharti Magar left the hills of Baglung with the same dream that fuels thousands of Nepali youths: to trade his sweat for a better life.

Gharti reached Bahrain ready to build, to raise skyscrapers that would, in turn, lift his family out of poverty.

For 17 years, Gharti was a silent engine of the economy, until a single moment on August 14, 2024.

While working on a construction site, Gharti fell down.

With severe injuries to his head and chest, the once-strong unskilled construction worker was rendered stagnant, trapped in a hospital bed in a foreign land.

The dream of earning was replaced by the nightmare of survival.

For over a year, Gharti’s world was restricted to the sterile walls of Bahraini hospitals.

The young boy from Baglung underwent a tracheostomy to breathe and became dependent on a catheter.

As his body withered, a complex diplomatic and medical machinery began to bring him home.

Dr. Abbas, who traveled from the UAE accompanying Gharti described a grueling process of coordination. He added “I am the one who’s carrying Shyam from Bahrain to Nepal. Shyam was admitted in Bahrain. He has a polytrauma and he went to the hospital; he was admitted there. We did some operation and then admitted him in ICU. I contacted to the embassy then we finally reached to his family then we issued the ticket for him after several time trying because the airlines were not accepting him, finally we bring him with the help of Fly Dubai.”

Back in Baglung, his brother Indra Bahadur Gharti had never lost hope.

Indra tirelessly petitioned the Nepali Embassy in Bahrain to bring his brother back.

The urgency was tripled by the family’s situation at home: Gharti’s father a disabled himself, was waiting for a son who left home on his two feet but returned on a stretcher.

Today, Shyam lies in intensive care unit of Bir Hospital in Kathmandu.

But as the medical battle continues, a social one begins.

Om Pun Magar, a fellow villager, raises the question that haunts the family. He highlighted the issue and added “There is no one else in his family besides a disabled father. It is not possible for brothers and uncles to look after him forever. The problem has become complicated at this point. There is a challenge before us as to how to resolve this, but he has been brought from Bahrain to here through the initiative of the employer. He has also been admitted here in the hospital. But how to overcome the upcoming challenges is a big issue for us. I appeal to every sector and the state to help in facing this challenge.

Behind the billions of rupees in remittance that sustain Nepal’s economy, there are thousands of stories like “Shyams”.

Gharti’s return is a victory of diplomacy, but it is also a somber reminder.

As a nation, are we only interested in the money our migrant workers send home, or are we truly prepared to protect their lives and their dignity?