Bipin Joshi's lamp, which was lit with the hope of returning alive, finally went out. After two years, a week and countless nights of pain-filled waiting, tears and silent prayers, this news dimmed not just the world of one family, but the light of all humanity. Vipin, an agricultural student who came to Israel from a village in the far west, was one of the typical Nepali youths in the "Earn and Learn" program.

But he showed extraordinary courage on the morning of October 7, 2023, when Hamas fighters lobbed grenades into the bunker where they were hiding. Vipin grabbed the grenade with his hand and threw it out saving the lives of his friends. But after that bravery he was captured by the fighters. 

Al Sifa Hospital's CCTV footage of him being taken away with a cloth wrapped around his head still gives us unstoppable pain. Bipin's story is not just the story of a person or a nation. This is the common fate of countless youths from small countries, who sweat abroad and lose their existence in the political games of powerful nations.

For two years, Vipin's family hoped that his mother Padma, sister Pushpa and the villagers would bring him back. But the great nations of the world, who hold the buttons of both war and peace, were not ready to listen to their voices. Thailand rescued 29 civilians, Japan returned its hostages, but Nepal just waited.

As the US veto stalled the UN resolution, thousands of innocent children along with youths like Bipin were sacrificed in the name of 'collateral damage×'. Humanity always loses in the war of the powerful. America and Israel drop bombs in the name of their security policy, Iran and Qatar raise the flag of retaliation. But the children of Gaza who died in this conflict, the Israeli hostages and the Nepali Vipin, all belong to the same class of innocents.

The world's double standards are so bare that, when Ukraine is attacked, human rights are in shambles. But the world remains silent as thousands of people die in Gaza. Because there are the poor who suffer, whose price is cheap in the politics of the powerful. The name of a country like Nepal is rarely heard in the forums of the United Nations, because our voice does not reach their microphones. Even if our citizens die, the 'diplomatic balance' of world leaders will not be shaken.

But today we must say that it is not just Vipin's death, it is the moral defeat of the entire world. Vipin's lamp has gone out, but its light has given the world a serious question.

How cheap is the price of humanity? We have to ensure security in foreign employment, we have to bring the voice of our citizens to the international stage. Small nations have to fight each other, so that we are not always victims of the strategic games of the powerful.

May Vipin's soul rest in peace. But his sacrifice should not be limited to grief. Let it be a new awakening, which will give small nations the courage to speak out, remind humanity of conscience, and warn the powerful.