Home: Khundunabari, Jhapa, Mechi

Education: B.Sc. (Physics), Tri Chandra College, Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Why TFN? Two significant incidents in my life made me feel so certain that I should take up the fellowship.

Incident 1 After my SLC, I started giving tuition classes to a neighbor’s son. One evening, when I was teaching him, a small boy (from Dalit community) came with books in his hand and said-“Gyanu dai, ma pani padchhu ni” (Gyanu is my pet name). He sat next to me, opened his books and showed interest in studying. I asked him to come regularly.

In my neighborhood, there are many Dalit families. They are still very poor and earn their living by selling firewood in Bhutanese refugee camp. So I started helping other Dalit children as well. My mother is from typical Bhramin family so she didn’t like what I was doing. Despite this, I helped them for about two months. Many of the parents actually had no money to pay for their children’s education.

Incident 2 After I completed my Bachelor’s level, I was in Jhapa to visit my family. One morning, I was drinking tea with some of my friends in a tea shop. One old man came and started talking to me. Upon hearing my name, he asked me “Tulsi Guru ko nati ho?” (Are you Tulsi Guru’s grandson?). I nodded my head with smile. “K garnu Tulsi guru le tyatro mihenat garera school ta banayeni, aahile ka sir harulai wastai chhaina. SLC ma jamma 2 jana le first division lyaye re, tyatro bidhyarthi ma”.

My grandfather, after completing Acharya from Benaras, had returned to Khudunabari and on his own initiative, started a school. The school has about 500 students now and is the biggest school in terms of number of students in Khudunabari VDC. The old man was talking about how the performance level of students has been deteriorating due to carelessness of teachers.

Besides, to financially support my family, I had started working as a full time teacher in a school after completing my BSc. By then, I had come to know that I loved children and I loved teaching them. I myself had to struggle as a student. In order to make the full utilization of my resources, I used to practice with pencils on the notebooks so that they could be reused. I used a single ball pen for long changing refills. Thus, through fellowship, I want to help children in rural areas who might be facing the same problems like I did as a child.