September 8 marked a new phase of frustration, anger, and disillusionment among Nepal’s youth. The anger has not been sudden; it is an anguished reaction against years of political deceit, corruption, and the government’s constant failure to prioritize the future of its youth. The direct provocation on this occasion was the move by the Nepal government to ban social media platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and social apps. To the youths, who access the websites to learn, enjoy, express their voices, and even earn a living, the step appeared to be a conscious effort to silence their voices.
As all this political unrest was brewing on and off the internet, there was a single question that was being posed across tea houses, university campuses, and migrant worker camps: What are Nepali youth cooking on September 8? It is not quite food the mixture of emotions, wants, and frustrations that are bubbling within them, overflowing into a recipe for protest against the state’s duplicity.
The Government’s Move: Banning Social Media
The Nepalese government justified this ban on social media on the grounds such as “apps not registered,” “misinformation,” and “moral protection.” But this was seen by youths as just a clever trick to control narratives and suppress dissent.
For a generation raised on the internet, these tools are not luxuries they are necessities. Young entrepreneurs use Instagram and Facebook to market their businesses, freelancers depend on overseas clients found through LinkedIn and Facebook, and students use YouTube to access tutorials not available in Nepal’s outdated curriculum.
By banning these apps, the government effectively cut off one major window of hope and global connection, isolating the youngsters even more. Instead of empowering them, the act reconfirmed a brutal reality: while sons and daughters of politicians live high-tech lives abroad, Nepali youth are being pushed further into the dark.
The Hypocrisy of the Political Class
The wrath is not only due to the ban it is due to the blatant hypocrisy.
Luxury Abroad for Politicians’ Kids
Party leaders, lawmakers, and ministers typically send their kids to Europe, Australia, the U.K., or the U.S. to study. They proudly earn handsome pay and luxury cars overseas while promoting nationalism in the homeland.
The same politicians who block Facebook in Nepal are the ones whose children are taking Instagram stories on Dubai beaches or New York cafes and posting it in the facebook and Instagram.
Hardships for Common Youth
Alternatively, few Nepali youth are “studying overseas” at Ivy League schools. Instead, they are taking flights to Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, or Malaysia as migrant laborers, working 12-hour shifts in challenging conditions.
Most leave because there is no opportunity at home, no job, no fair wages, no dignity.
This double standard evokes anger. Nepali youth are asking questions: If Nepal is such a heaven under these politicians, then why don’t their kids stay here?
- For the youth, this cycle is suffocating due to the social media banks sparks other problems as well, like:
- Remain in Nepal: Unemployment, low pay, corruption, and censorship.
- Leave for abroad: Remittances, but exploitation and separation from families.
The Psychological Price: Frustration and Anger
On September 8, when youths want to meet together and do the protest, they don’t only want to unban the social media apps, but they are questioning other problems as well, like:
- “They don’t wish for us to speak up. They simply desire us to be submissive slaves.”
- “They’re uploading vlogs of their children in Canada, and we can’t even watch YouTube for free.”
- “Nepal is reserved for the politicians. For us, it’s a waiting lounge for Qatar.”
- This indignation is not baseless; it is multifaceted
- Economic Frustration: No job at home.
- Political Frustration: Corruption and broken promises.
- Social Frustration: No space for free speech and creativity.
- The social media ban became the catch-all phrase for all three.
What the Youth Are Cooking: Resistance and Resilience
So, what are the Nepali youth “cooking” on September 8? The meal is complex:
A Recipe of Resistance: They’re discussing VPNs, other sites, and how to circumvent the ban. They will not be silenced.
A Recipe of Migration: Others are cooking papers, applications, and interviews to immigrate abroad. For them, cooking is preparing to prepare to make it abroad.
A Recipe of Expression: Artists, writers, and musicians are turning anger into rap lyrics, blog posts, and satire targeting politicians.
A Recipe of Dreams: Angered as they are, they still dream of a Nepal where they can speak and opportunities can come at home.
This “cooking” is not just staying alive; it’s reclaiming dignity amidst systemic betrayal.
A Generation in Conflict
Today’s Nepali youth feel a sour irony: they love their nation, its mountains, culture, and bravado, but feel forsaken by the authorities. The more they see politicians leading a double life patriot in Nepal, cosmopolitan elsewhere, the more betrayed they feel.
Thus, September 8 is not just a case of a social media ban. It is a case of the perpetual clash of a generation that seeks freedom, opportunity, and honesty against a politics of control, corruption, and hypocrisy.
The response to the question “What are the Nepali youth cooking on September 8?” is a bitter one: they are boiling a pot of frustration, ire, and aspirations brought into existence by a government that fails to understand them.
While politicians’ kids live the high life abroad, Nepali youth are offered the option of censorship at home or exploitation abroad. But within this frustration lies resilience, the will to resist, to migrate, to speak out, and to dream of a larger Nepal.
Unless political elites correct their hypocrisy and actually invest in the youth of the country, this cauldron of anger will keep on boiling. And when it does explode, it will be about more than social media prohibitions, it will be about reclaiming the future of Nepal itself.