On Intellectual Disuse
Some of our undergraduates show remarkable philosophical leaning when they are allowed to discuss life. The discussion sometimes involves such meaningful questions, directed to the teacher like me: “When do…
A Pursuit Never Seriously Tried
I sing at times. I do it as a passion, as a part of my being who I am born to become. Those who have heard me sing ask me…
A Letter from YFU
My Dear Would-be Student: I know you exist somewhere. You just completed your secondary education. You are willing to join a university. You are perhaps thinking of a university never…
Try Not to Solve These
Very simple riddles. Try not to solve these. I myself do not. Things live so far as I live. I believed this when I was a child, or was just…
Wrangling about a Poem
A poem does not necessarily make an appeal to everyone. My task as a teacher is to make students understand a poem in the simplest way possible. But, I face…
Spectacle, Aftermath and Awakening
By luck or chance, I am in a condition to speak of three earthquakes, which Nepalis who lived during the last eighty two years narrate with some familiarity and confidence.…
Three-Scar Memento
I suddenly got tormented by a question when I saw scars in my elder son’s hands: “Do I carry something similar in my body that reminds me of my (grand)parents?”…
Wish for a Bigger, Better Choutari
The following piece was written for Nelta Choutari in January 2013 as a reflection of my four-year engagement in team blogging. I remember seeing Shyam only once in one of…
Growing up As a Generalist
On the occasion of the launching of Six Strings some five years ago, one of my professors satirically but with some hint of admiration remarked : “Hem seems at ease…
Prices and costs…
What is the price of favoring truth? What is the cost of disfavoring chicanery? I am perpetually trying to answer these two questions. Even when people look like creating chasms…
Journey into the Classroom
There is a simple condition for becoming a teacher: that you must be able to teach. It is not the question of having high intelligence, but of being able to…