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The ‘Que Sera, Sera’ of Life — before and after the Nepal disaster

Kamlesh Tripathi

    Adventure, calamity and song are the pillars of life. Don Quixote, the master adventurer created by Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes, never faced a calamity as sudden and devastating as the recent Himalayan disaster in Nepal. Life surprises us with adventure, devastates us with calamity and lifts our spirits with a song. A song is born out of joy and sorrow. Its melody echoes across great rivers such as the Brahmaputra, the Ganges, the Trishuli or the Bhotekoshi River in Nepal, all eventually meeting the unshakable oceans. Despite calamities, they say, the song of life must go on.

    On 26 August 2026, Nepal witnessed a catastrophic chain of natural events after a massive collapse of rock and glacial ice in the Himalayas that triggered a destructive debris flow and flash flood. The disaster swept through the Nepal-China border and downstream areas. The tragedy reminds us how suddenly the familiar world can disappear.

    Let us juxtapose two iconic songs: Kishore Kumar’s mystifying “Zindagi ka safar hai yeh kaisa safar, koi samjha nahi, koi jana nahi”, and the 1955 classic “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be),” written by Jay Livingston and Ray Evans. The latter was popularised by Doris Day in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 film The Man Who Knew Too Much.       The lyrics follow a narrator’s journey through childhood, youth, love and parenthood, repeatedly asking what the future will bring. The answer is simple: whatever will be, will be.

    The recent Nepal disaster gives those words a haunting resonance. People went about their daily lives, travelling, working and living beside the rivers, unaware that a gigantic mass of rock and ice was about to descend from the Himalayas.

    Did The Man Who Knew Too Much really know too much? Could anyone truly know when nature would unleash its fury? Humanity has accumulated extraordinary scientific knowledge, yet nature continues to remind us of the limits of prediction.

    This recalls Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where Victor Frankenstein’s scientific ambition creates consequences he cannot control. The comparison is not between Frankenstein’s creature and a natural disaster, but between the human desire to understand and control the world and the humbling realisation that some forces remain beyond our command.

    Before calamity, life often appears permanent.  The Nepal disaster has also shown the vulnerability of Himalayan communities and the importance of early warning systems. Reports indicate that the enormous speed of the flood left communities with very little time to react. The catastrophe has consequently renewed discussion about monitoring and warning systems for hazards that can originate in remote mountain regions and cross national boundaries.   Yet even amid destruction, the song of life continues.

    The Sound of Music, with its book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse, similarly continues to remind generations that music can provide courage in difficult times.     And then there is ABBA’s memorable line: “The winner takes it all,
The loser has to fall.”

   But disasters do not necessarily create winners and losers. They create survivors, rescuers, mourners and rebuilders. They reveal the fragility of human existence, but they also reveal extraordinary courage. Rescue workers, security personnel, volunteers and ordinary citizens become part of a collective struggle to save lives and restore communities. And then, slowly, nature begins to heal.

    The rivers continue to flow.  The Ganges does not stop. The Brahmaputra continues its journey. The Trishuli or the Bhotekoshi River will flow as they have for centuries. The mountains remain majestic, even after their slopes have collapsed. The sun rises each morning. Birds return. Children play again. Markets reopen. Homes are rebuilt.

    Life finds its rhythm once more. Perhaps that is the deepest lesson of Que Sera, Sera. The phrase “Whatever will be, will be” suggests acceptance of an uncertain future. But acceptance does not mean surrender. It means recognising the limits of human control while still doing everything within our power to prepare, protect and rebuild.

    The Nepal disaster reminds us of this truth with painful clarity. A landscape that appeared eternal can change within minutes. A river that sustained communities can suddenly become an agent of destruction. A familiar road can disappear beneath mud and debris. A home can vanish, while a simple house key may become the last surviving symbol of a life that once existed there. The calamity may interrupt the song of life, but it cannot silence it forever.

Written and posted by Kamlesh Tripathi

Author, Poet, & Columnist

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https://kamleshsujata.wordpress.com

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