Home: Waling, syangja, Syangja, Gandaki

Education: B. Sc. (Maths), Loyola College, Madras University, India

I was born in a small village in western Nepal. While studying in Grade 6, there were daily attacks and violence by the Maoists. Plagued by the Maoist insurgencies, my parents decided to take me to India for my further studies. Initially, it was very difficult for me to adjust in the new country, where students were from different backgrounds. I had a tough time with the new language, subjects, friends and teachers. But my mother took care of everything. She used to come to school every day to drop me off and stayed the whole day in school making sure that I felt comfortable and studied properly in class. I could thus slowly adapt to the environment.

I used to go out of the station for inter-school competitions and I always met kids from the far-western part of Nepal working in hotels. They were merely 12 years old. I really wanted to do something for them but I could do nothing.

During my undergrad years in India, I worked with three different clubs. I got an opportunity to go for field work in different slum areas, communicate with them and got to know them more closely. Through that, I was exposed to the ground reality of social and community problems and our responsibility towards it. I had attended an event where I met ex-president of India APJ Abdul Kalam. I was inspired by him as he was like a teacher and always worked for the betterment of students. I’ve also been inspired by Rabindra Mishra who has been working to develop leadership amongst youth of Nepal. Different personalities have made me realize that even a small change from an individual is so important because a thousand mile starts from a single leap. So, inside my mind, I had a plan to start something new in my community. But my father was against it. Keeping that in mind I went for job interviews during my last semester and got placed in an IT company.

After my graduation, I had a six-month time for the acceptance of the job offer letter. So I came back to Nepal. After returning, I started visiting new schools, interacting with people and teachers in different villages. And the problems and difficulties were immense. This lured me to join the fellowship, rejecting my job at the IT company.

I feel that the fellowship will enhance my inner potentials and I will have an opportunity to work closely with the community. And also I can use my knowledge and experiences to teach the children better and bring change in their day to day monotonous learning style. I feel good about the upcoming two years because I know that education is one of the most powerful tools to end social evils.