Dr. Sanduk Ruit

 

 

Dr. Sanduk Ruit, he is simply a great person. To  know more, watch this video.

Buddha land: Near and dear losing their life in Gulf countires

 

Silence ? and Buddha in Nepal is begging

si·lence (slns)

noun

1. The condition or quality of being or keeping still and silent.

2. The absence of sound; stillness.

3. A period of time without speech or noise.

4. Refusal or failure to speak out.

 

v.tr.si·lenced, si·lenc·ing, si·lenc·es

1. To make silent or bring to silence: silenced the crowd with a gesture.

2. To curtail the expression of; suppress: silencing all criticism; silenced their opponents.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin silentium, from silns, silent-, present participle of silre, to be silent.]

 

The word "silence" has multi dimenstional meaning. In philosophical term, the word "silence" in awakened mind reflects a higher state of mind. However, when we use the same word in its verb form, then it can have a powerful meaning in its negative form. Like " to curtail the expression of; suppress: silencing all criticism; silence opposition", this can be either through the use of state mechanism (policing - hook and crook !!) or even without use of state force, "can it be just by neglect / avoidance or double standard or double talk", which we can see in the case of recent Kakre Bihar incident in Surkhet and " Lord Budhha was born in Nepal" kind of double standard double speak by some element of our society. I finding this trend in Nepal mischivious and like an act of proverbial "sly fox". By the way, who is that fox, this we have to figure out and act on it, through an academic exercise and through non violence means of dialogue.

 

Listen to this dialogue: Himalayan Talk with Dr. Kavita Ram Shrestha in London about new Zee TV Serial - "The Buddha" and his birth place controversy. He is very critical of Nepal Government's indifference towards, Lumbini, the birth place of the Buddha.

 

 

 

On Ram Bomjon: Kishore Sherchan with Himalayan Talk

 

Dr. Kishore Sherchan having dialogue with Himalayan Talk on Ram Bomjan and his teaching.

• Who?
• Why?
• Where?
• What?
• When?
• How?

If you want to know more, listen to this talk. Believe me, you will get refreshed !!

My Child hood and Intro - Inspection into Education

Let me start with my personal story.

From where should I to start? Should I stick to rules of essay writing or just write? Just forget it, let me just write whatever comes in my mind.

My parents, friends and villagers call me “Babu”. The word “Babu” can be called a nickname that we call to a boy with love. Actually my name is ABC, which means a younger brother in Sanskrit. Though, our mother tongue is Thakali language which is of Tibeto – burman root. Nowadays, everything we talk and think is being influenced by Nepali language, which has Sankrit origin. This process of Sanskritization has affected our language and culture. Now, our language is at the verse of extinction. Me, i do not know my language. Sucha a pity !!

Our village is far away from Kathmandu, a capital city of Nepal. Remembering childhood. The nearest city that we could reach after 3 / 4 days walk from morning to evening was Pokhara, which was the place; we had to depend for everything. For good education, it was Pokhara. When you become sick, you had to be carried all the way to Pokhara. Everything from sugar to salt and rice used to be transported all the way from Pokhara in mule or by porter. Only fortunate and well to do family were able to afford their children in a better private boarding schoo in Pokhara. Rest of us had to study in government school, which used to be always sort of teachers and sometime, pens, papers and books were scarcity. Some of our friends, I remember, had to rely to small wooden plank, which were blackened with charcoal and write on it with “stone” chalk that we used to find in hills for free. Some of them had to walk for 1 to 2 hours to attend school downhill all the way from their village and uphill while returning back in the evening. On top of this, it used to be a daily routine to collect grass for cattle and woods for kitchen. For girls, it was even tougher to attend school and also assist family in daily household chores.

I remember those days in primary school - golden period of my life as for any other child. More than study, it used to be playing, fighting and sometime getting severe punishment. Our outdoor activities used to go for fishing, catching birds and chasing monkeys in the wild. Musical classes, gymnasium, swimming and other extracurricular activities were absent. In this climate, library (Nepali word: Pustakalaya) was only a word, we could hear in books or somebody talking about it, while "real" library that is required in any school, college, university and community was non - existent in its physical form even till now.  I heard then that there is an old box with books in a dilapidated house near a school. Some of us looked for it and found it, which was an attempt to open a library but later abandoned. Why was it abandoned? I can guess those who were trying to establish library tried their best but had other priorities; this initiative may have been found waste of time (?) or question of funding, ownership and sustainability. Since then, somewhere in my subconscious mind, I have always felt the need of library in our village. During this search, I do not know exactly, what was the deeper call within me; I began to look for book. At that time, I also heard of my uncle who died at tender age. My family member used to tell me his stories and love for books and learning.

I started my education with texts that was strictly based on curriculum. There was no consideration for what each of us (students) from different background has to say. Name it: language barrier, no positive environment for learning, too much of punishments and so on. Now, after 2 decades, I am reviewing what have I learnt and now, I feel I need to contribute tour school in whatsoever capacity. So library is an area, I am very interested to work and invest on. The library can be a magical place of learning and exploring the world of books, through which children can think, question and get answer for their inquiries. And, children's world of learning should not be limited to books. Instead, they should be given every opportunity for artistic expression and hidden talent. Who knows next Einstein or Leo Tolstoy may be there in a poor community looking for a right opportunity to learn and for your contribution.

Now over few years of exploration and self intro inspection, i have a fresh new insight into learning and at the same time has enriched with ideas and methods for innovative learning. The very first idea that struck my intellect was the story of a child approaching her school’s headmaster and bold enough to ask him, “Sir, what have you learn today?” This may seem just a simple anecdote but this is powerful in how I understand. If teachers interact with students sharing positive message utilizing some moment of his time, every week (at least), this has tremendous impact on student’s mind. Similar thing happened to me; a teacher said very nice words in a morning assembly and those words ever since has given me strength. “When going gets tough, only Tougher gets going". Having schooling in Village and then campus / universities, I have learnt an important role of a teacher as an ambassador to students’ world of learning. From the beginning if teacher or paprents can inculcate the culture of learning through "questioning mind" with 5 Ws + H, this will prepare students to face any challenges. I also liked the poem by T. S. Elliot

We shall not cease from exploration
But the end of all our exploring
Shall be to return to where we started
And know it for the first time

 

Somewhere inside me, I have always felt a kind of uneasiness losing childlike innocence. I was searching its meaning. Now, I found answers through T. S. Elliot's poem. The meaning that I got from this poem fits well with a saying, “The more you learn, the more you know, how less you understand !!” so learning is an open sky as there is no limit. Where ever you travel and each person you meet, you tend to learn something new. Another lesson that every child lives through a nested lives would guide me as a teacher. How this would help me? Well, this will definitely help me understand students better and realize how precious every child is. School is a place where children from various background meet and can share culture, language and opinions. My understanding of child will provide me with energy to create our schools be tolerant and open to every ideas and thoughts to flourish. It is only through listening and sharing to each other that we can make our community a better place to live and grow.

The socio - political environment that is looming over us this century has demanded teachers to be a leader of the society, replacing the role politician has played so far. More than ever, teachers have multiple roles to play for community. They need to connect themselves to the academic world so that they can update themselves, facilitate student’s learning and make students understand the key challenges we are facing. On the other side, teachers have to be in touch with family members, community and their leaders and policy makers / planners.  Why is so? This is a pressing question even important now than ever. As it is already said, children live nested lives. In developed countries or elite society in developing countries, it is observed that children have 3 nested worlds - home, school and virtual world. While in rural part of developing world or even in poor families in urban areas, this may not be so. Instead, children may live in home and community or may be even their home or community may have been disrupted.  However, one element is common that is peer effect and another that is also of importance is family effect. Therefore, I agree, teachers has role as a leader of the society to look into this aspect of the family, community and social events affecting them. Another important point that I learnt from this course is that, "every child is special". Only limiting factor is how well we provide them the learning environment that is encouraging and interactive and tries to understand his / her interests and build on it. Now, we are in need of an education system that is open and innovative, not authoritative. I repeat again that every child is special in his or her ability and capacity. I hope, i am not wrong when child’s brain is like a sponge. They can absorb anything. We as a teacher need to facilitate them so they can use different learning and teaching tools to enhance themselves and help each other. In a way, we can use an analogy, let them learn how to fish, what can be done with those fish is another aspect that they will figure out as they progress to explore the world.  

Finally, let me elaborate a little on anomaly that has developed in our society that has misguided in believing that it is only in school where learning and teaching happens as if, “Learning starts only here”. I was also of the same notion that learning happens only in confines of school or university. Now I realize that this is a traditional way of thinking, on whose foundation the whole system of education flourished in the west and spread to other parts of the globe in Africa, Asia and South America. However, the change is a universal fact, be it in nature or society. As we are living in magnificent period of time in history, we are fortunate enough to observe so much technological innovation. The most remarkable innovation of mankind is Information Technology (IT). Based on its flexibility, simplicity and enormous possibility, the very basic principles and methodology of traditional system of education has been challenged by people from various backgrounds: students, teachers, free thinkers, bloggers and activists. The arguments are equal opportunity and education being basic human right. Now, education has no boundary and open to everybody so each of us can personalize as per interest. No state syllabus or board of exam can dictate us, instead we can create a forum where minds from every corner of the globe of any color, creed or religion from college drop out to workers utilizing free time to experts working in Antarctica can learn from each other.

Kakrebihar Controversy, Surkhet, Nepal

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiKMUldkiQQ

"Himalayan Talk with Dr. Kavita Ram Shrestha in London about 'Kakrebihar Controversy' (काक्रेबिहारमा बुद्द मूर्ति स्थापना गर्ने सम्बन्धी विवाद ) in Nepal. We have also heard that District Court Surkhet has ordered the concerned people to not install the graven image of the Buddha. Now, Nepal Government seems not interested to resolve the issue and therefore protests in Kathmandu are being reported in social media almost everyday."