As I reflect back on my childhood and glimpse at what I see happening today, I find a world of difference.Unlike most children, I did not have a bus waiting to pick me up for my first day of school. Similarly, there was not a gleaming school full of arts, crafts, supplies and teachers eagerly awaiting our arrival. There was neither a school building nor a modern sanitary system with running water. It is often considered only legend when generations euphemistically recall walking barefoot for miles to arrive at School. This was the reality of my childhood. Lacking a concrete building to call a school our aspiration and dreams of learning began in an open milled field barely 25by 40 ft belonging to village neighbor, Kahare Thokar Tamang. My father and his friend Dambar Bahadur Gole Tamang initiated what eventually became our school.As a retired British Gurkha Soldier my father had only completed the Army’s first class education level, which mean he was able to read and write basic English, Nepali, and basic arithmetic, now he was building his own school. The co founder Dambar Bahadur was the son of our Village chief Talukdar, whom villager use to call him Dware, who had completed fifth grade from Melung Primary School and had no formal education training.
Most of the students were Tamang kids and majority of them were the children of Putraman as I mentioned he was Talukdar. The School finally opened on a cold December day in 1958. Prior to the opening of the school, my father insisted on teaching what he could in math, reading and basic Roman English. Thus I was able to read Ain Shresta ( legal code) recite a few lines of the Ramayana, and Mahabharat however I did not have the faintest idea of their meaning. Due to the advanced home schooling my father had given me, I was enrolled in second grade while most of the kids were enrolled in first grade when the school opened It was not long before I was my teacher’s favorite student. While I enjoyed being a favorite, this also meant I had to do extra duties serving as substituted teacher on Wednesday in the absent of my teacher when he had to go to haat a village weekly market at Melung.
In the haat about 100 to 150 villagers would gather to sell domestic produce like mustard green and corn, soybean and they would also buy essential items such as salt cooking oilr and clothes from Lalit Bahdur Karki’s shop who was also pa tron and founder Tribhuvan Primary School head master was Bhim Dal Rai from Darjeeling west Bengal India. The haat also served entertainment center as well as a meeting place for the villagers youngsters. Unlike many societies there was no differentiation between the week day and the weekend in our village. However, most of the villagers took Wednesday time off from their daily live to come to the haat. Due to the agricultural nature of our village. We were only able to have school during the winter months as the open field where our classes wre held had to be used by the landlord for cultivation of corns during the summer months. As children, we liked how this allowed us to take a long vacation from May to November each year. We had no other option because there was not single primary school in the entire Dolakha district. Parents were not aware of the value of education prior to 1951, only Brahmin boys were allowed to attend a free Sanskrit School at the expense of the Government. Most of the children from various ethnic groups were self taught to be able to read and write letters and review government notice. Many children were deprived of the opportunity of learning to read and write at all.
After the advent of Democracy in 1951, everyone was finally allowed to attend schools. However, due to the lack of mass media communication, many people continued lack of the benefits of an education due to lack of information dissemination about government sponsored schooling. We did not have a radio or a transistor in our entire village. Only those who had visited the capital city, Kathmandu knew about school. It is difficult now to imagine life without a library and newspapers but this is the life we led. A telephone was a distantly strange invention only existing in far away places. Nobody had heard of a Television much less seen one. The government transition from an autocratic regime to a democratized society was a difficult and slow process. Prior to 1951, we did not expect much from the government and the situation continued to be so even in late 1950s
Recently I learned that one of my school friend whose name is Kamal Thokar Tamang, a resident of Pokhari, had taught in the same School for 42 years and 9 months recently he was retired from Teaching Jobs, and he proudly said that his son is carrying out as his predecessor in the same school.
Despite this, there were many beautifully untapped advantages to the simple life we led. The water we drink was unpolluted and it ran straight down from the snow clad mountains just above our village. There were always plenty of vegetables. Festivals and weddings were merry occasions offering much food and entertainment. Dances are part parcel of Taamang culture and so the village was alive with Tamang Selo. Each season saw plentiful amounts of local and wild fruits which we ate freely while breathing in the pure mountain air, As I would put the blanket over my head to sleep at night there was always a simple silence and serenity only disturbed by the sound of roosters crowed waking me up in the early morning to start the day.
As I sit now and watch the stories on the Discovery channel from my TV set in the comfort of my living room, these documentaries speak to my childhood experiences. It reels back the memories of my childhood as if I am back in my village, or as if the world has not changed a bit . It is then that I wonder has the world changed or have I ? In either case, it is difficult to say whether it has been changed for the better or for the worse.
By Dig Bahadur Tamang, Gaithesburg, Maryland
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