इनेप्लिज
२०८१ कार्तिक २८ गते २३:१२ मा प्रकाशित
Ambika P. Adhikari
Biographical notes
My time now is divided between several tasks. The major ones are spending time with family and friends, in professional work, academic pursuits, community service, and pursuing hobbies, holidays and travel. With the advent of the internet and digital technology, it is easy to obtain news, information and entertainment through the computer and even the phone, and thus spending time is easy. I also use social media basically to connect with families and friends and share my own updates and learn about theirs. Often, it can quickly take me into a rabbit hole, and I can easily spend hours there at a time. While I appreciate having so many options under my fingertip, I also sometime feel that I spend too much time on screen.
Born in Yaku, Bhojpur, I completed my high school education from the Public High School, Dharan, and Intermediate of Science degree from Mahendra Morang College, Biratnagar. Subsequently, under the Colombo Plan Scholarship, I went to M. S. University of Baroda in Gujarat, India, where I completed my B. Arch. Degree. Upon return to Nepal, I taught at the Institute of Engineering (IOE) in Pulchowk, Lalitpur. I started my job at the IOE as an Assistant Lecturer, and several years later, became an Associate Professor (Reader). Including my educational leaves from the job, I was employed at the IOE for about 18 years. I taught a generations of students in Architecture and Civil Engineering. Some of my proudest moments are to see so many of the IOE students excel in so many fields in Nepal and globally in professions, academia and business. I feel good that I was able to be a part of their initial engineering and design education.
I earned my M. Arch. degree from the University of Hawaii, and my Doctor of Design (DDes) from Graduate School of Design, Harvard University. Immediately prior to pursing my DDes studies at Harvard. I was a Fellow at the Special Program for Urban and Regional Studies at Massachusetts of Technology (MIT). My professional work experience covers several countries including Nepal, India, USA, Canada, Mexico, Kenya, Tanzania, and Fiji. I returned to Nepal to work on environmental, planning, and conservation programs. I served as the Country Representative of the Switzerland-based global conservation organization IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) in Nepal.
My life had a humble beginning. During my childhood in Bhojpur, my daily routine consisted of quite a bit of menial work including helping in farming, cattle raising, and other day to day work of basic living in the hills of Nepal. Like in almost all rural homes in Nepal those days, we had no electricity, running water, space heating, gas ovens, or any of the several other amenities that many people take for granted these days. Further, there was no vehicular transportation. We all walked everywhere on small and rough trails often barefooted. Food was scarce, and we managed with just one or two pairs of clothing items.
Comparted to such a basic living in my early life, my life now looks comfortable. Luckily, by achieving good educational credentials, and reasonable professional and academic attainments, I feel I have done reasonably well in life. In fact, most of my cohorts in Nepal, who went through a similar life trajectory, have also done well. Success is a relative term, and a personal experience. In my case, I feel good to be where I am at this point even though I am not rich, nor a great achiever in science, technology, humanities or social sciences.
I measure my success as having a comfortable life, cohesive family, a good social life, and an ability to help the community. Relative to these those parameters, I would consider my life to be fine.
This is an area, where I have not focused much and don’t have many skills. I know we need a decent income to be able to live a fulfilling life. Although there is no exact dollar amount that can be assigned for such a life, the ability to have enough resources to eat well, afford a decent place to live, for medical needs and care, and for reasonable entertainment and travels, and to be able to spend on some charities is what I aim for. I think I am in that comfort zone now, and that is the extent of my financial vision and situation.
I feel good to have lived half of my lifetime in Nepal, and have worked professionally and academically in Nepal for many years on the ground. I was also able to go back to Nepal and serve for several years even after settling in a foreign country. I feel good about that history. In addition, even while living in North America, I have served the Nepali community locally and globally, and always supported causes for Nepal. My direct involvement in supporting Nepal’s development is through several means. They include writing and researching about important knowledge gaps in Nepal, mentoring young Nepalis in Nepal and abroad, contributing to charities related to socio-economic development in Nepal, and supporting democracy and development in Nepal. I also contribute time and resources to the Nepali community in the country I live.
I consider myself to be reasonably lucky in life. Although my life journey has not been always smooth, I also did not have to face seriously difficult situations considering the odds. All things being equal, life in Nepal perhaps could have been more impactful to the society there, and more satisfying to me. But that is also a hypothetical scenario, and a counterfactual proposition. I left Nepal to support my desire for professional and academic pursuits, and to better support my family. I think this is the story of many people who leave Nepal for better opportunities abroad.
I am also aware that humans have always moved to new places for better life, and the recent movements creating diasporas groups are not new.
I think I have achieved some success in my professional and academic life, and have earned some social prestige too. My leaving Nepal had some opportunity costs. I had to forgo the potential of doing something important in Nepal, and be in the midst of many relatives and friends, and being in my own culture. Perhaps, the fact that my children are now a removed from the Nepali culture is also perhaps a bit of loss. However, the brief story I mentioned on Question no 3, has a list of some of things I have gained.
My priorities have shifted with my age. I had focused on education and professional accomplishment while I was young. Now, I would like to mostly relax, read, listen to audios, and travel, and wind down. I also want to mentor young people, and give some time and resources to the non-profit community organizations. Of course, taking care of the routine businesses of life, family, and finances is always necessary.
Life is a journey of events, happiness, sorrows, successes, disappointments, and many things in between. It is hard to pick up only a few of those events, as they happen each day. I list some events below only as examples.
Some happy moments:
• Learning about the successful results of examinations, and academic efforts, such as finding about passing the SLC examination in the first division, passing the I. Sc. exam on the top rank in the country, passing B. Arch. in first class, and successfully graduating with M. Arch. and DDes. degrees.
• Receiving the letters, phone calls and messages related to admissions and scholarships to MS University of Baroda, University of Hawaii, MIT, and Harvard.
• Learning that we were having a child, and seeing the children after they were born. And later, having grandchildren.
• Moving into the house we built in Nepal, and getting the keys to the first house we purchased in North America.
• The first time I landed in Hawaii, USA to study.
Some sad moments:
• Death of my father
• After learning for the first time, I have some common but still chronic health issues.
• When discovering some diseases that impart pain, and that there will be no permanent cure, and that I have to live with them.
• News about the death of close relatives and close friends.
• News of the death of some people that I greatly admire and wished they had remained alive longer. Examples are Carl Sagan, Hans Rosling, Narayan Gopal, Lata Mangeshkar, BP Koirala, KP Bhattarai, Man Mohan Adhikari, and King Birendra.
We had a very strict teacher when I was a student at Dharan Public High School. As I could not control some of my behaviors in his class, he had me stand up on the classroom bench, and sometimes do sit up holding my ears. At Mahendra Morang College, we had a professor, for whom Nepali was a second language. Some remarks he would make about everyday events were very funny to native Nepali speakers.
In course of studies and professional life, I also had friends with a keen sense of humor. Some of the encounters and stories with them are very funny, and sometimes even silly. Here is one incident while me and my friend were travelling from Baroda to Jogbani while a student in Baroda. We tried to board a bus from Katihar to Purnia in Bihar. As usual, the bus was over-crowded, with people hanging from the door, and many sitting on the bus roof. The driver spotted us and assumed we were Russians, then close friends of India. The driver let us through the driver’s door saying we were Russians and needed help. We were overjoyed, but were also bewildered by our fake identity. Once inside the bus, my friend and I whispered in Nepali on how funny the whole situation was, and we benefitted from our mistaken identity. Someone heard our whisper and recognizing that we spoke in a language similar to Hindi, he declared that we should be let off the bus as we were not Russians!
As I was born in Nepal and spent half of my lifetime there. Now I live in the US. In both places, I try to be a good citizen of the country and society. My efforts are to be able to stand on my own feet, and lead a decent life. In addition, I try to give back to my community through charity, volunteerism, and mentoring the younger generation. I try to live by these goals.
That is a difficult question. Death can happen sooner or later. Yes, I do think about how short life is and one day, I have to leave the world. The best case scenario for me is to remain independent and active until my last days, and depart from the world without being invalid and in pain for a long time. Being dependent for care would be difficult for me, and for family too. However, one can only wish about these things. Death will happen in any possible manner, and it is not under our control.
I do believe in a higher power in the universe. Whether it is God or something else, I don’t know. It maybe that some humans had extraordinary abilities and mind and often assisted by meditation, and we call them God. Such personalities were divine by our definition. For example, Ram, Krishna, Jesus, and Buddha are in those categories.
Scientists have now explained most of the reality on how the world functions. Still, there are many things we do not know. Thus, I will keep an open mind about the existence of God.
I am not sure if there is rebirth. However, if rebirth was true, I would like to be an evolutionary biologist in my next life. I am fascinated by how life evolved on earth, and how evolution has created some 10 million species of plants and animals that have symbiotic relationship with one another. And the fact that within some 300,000 years of the origin of Homo Sapiens, they have visited the moon, constructed manned space station circling the earth, and are flying helicopter on Mars. The James Web telescope is sending us the images of the beginning of the universe. The progress of science technology, engineering, and medicine, and art and culture on earth has been no short of a miracle. The study and understanding of such a wonderful drama of life on the earth fascinates me. It becomes even more interesting because, in the entire universe, only earth has life that we know of.
It is hard to know. I have tried not to make any one unhappy because of me. But things still happen, and people do become unhappy with me. If I have to make a guess, maybe 80% of the people, I have encountered are happy with me. The remainder are perhaps unhappy because of me.
This is a big question, and an issue that is almost impossible to fathom. Having left Nepal two decades ago, it is hard for me to analyze the political landscape in Nepal. My only information is via newspapers, talking to friends, and from my frequent trips to Nepal. Thus, my analysis is mostly out of curiosity and based on some of the things I knew of while I lived in Nepal. I think the democracy has not yet fully delivered on people’s expectation because of corruption and incompetence of some leaders. But there are also many leaders who genuinely want to improve the lives of the Nepalis. Thus, on the whole, the future for the Nepali people should be better. Also, because the whole world is progressing rapidly, and education and technology is spreading easily, Nepal can benefit from this rising tide. In addition, Nepal has many good factors to help in its development. It has a great landscape, natural beauty, biodiversity, plentiful water resources, abundant forest and parklands, and a hard working populace. Nepal’s future looks great to me.
This would be a hypothetical scenario. It is hard to imagine a counter-factual possibility. I might have succeeded, and also have failed in Nepal. However, I think there was a probability of me being a successful academic and professional and establish a reason ably important identity in Nepal. It is hard to prove one way or the other, and this is just a guess. The reality is that I now live in the USA, where my family and life is. However, I remain strongly connected to Nepal, and maintain somewhat of a dual loyalty between the native and adopted country.
Roger Adhikari
Roger Adhikari
First, thank you for approaching me for the “60 over 60” Nepali American biography book. I really appreciate you for considering my name in this list along with the other distinguished people.
Even though I have not started to collect any money, at the moment, I am living a retirement life If you notice, I said “at the moment”, that is because, while I have not done any work to earn any money in the last eight years, I do not know if it will remain this way forever, or I will change my mind, and do something in the future.
If I must write about my past jobs, it will be a very long story, and perhaps, a book. Therefore, I am going to try to explain the jobs I have had in my life by putting into three different buckets; job in Nepal, immigrant struggler in NY, and a professional career in California.
Immediate after graduating from the Thapathali Engineering Campus, I got a job in the Royal Nepal airlines, now NAC, as an aircraft Mechanic.
My first job as an aircraft Mechanic in Nepal lasted for only few years, until I left Nepal for the US. However, those few years with RNAC were the building block for what I became later in life. The first time in my life, I was independent in every sense, and good or bad, I was responsible for my own destiny. While working for the Airlines, I also realized I had a fighter in me, who is not afraid to fight the social injustice.
I arrived to New York city in the beginning of the 1981, thinking I am going to be a Pilot. However, I knew the path to become a Pilot is going to be long and arduous for me, as I had come to NY with less than seven hundred dollars, and the gap between the money I had and the money needed to get the commercial Pilot License might as well be as wide and deep as the Grand Canyon, especially, considering no education, lack of transferable skill, and immigration status with no work authorization, in an unknown city known as the capital of the world.
Naturally, I had to work anything I could find under the table (cash). From 1981 through the middle of the 1984, until I formally began my Commercial Pilot training, I worked in a limousine company washing cars, cashiers, waiter, short order cook in a restaurant and dinner, stock boy and sales man in clothing stores, and finally owner of a luncheonette (restaurant/newspaper stand, and stationary). It was a difficult four years with about 16 hours (two jobs) a day job, yet looking back neither I feel bad nor regret for any of the moments of my struggling days.
After working several years as a commercial pilot, flying for a commuter airline, and immediate after finishing my undergraduate in Engineering from a College in New York. I was offered for a job as an engineer by United Airlines. That is how I moved from New York to California, the San Francisco Bay area in 1989.
I worked for United Airlines for about ten Years in different positions, such as, engineering planning, Management instructor, Total quality management facilitator, conflict resolution mediator, financial analyst, and Division controller. While working for United Airlines, I also concurrently owned and operated a flight training School, known as the international aviation school, and taught flying. My Flight School business as well as the career with United Airlines ended in 1999 after I graduated with the MBA degree in finance, and began a new career as a Finance manager for a software startup company in Silicon Valley, known as the Arista Soft. From 1999 until 2013, I worked for many big-name Silicon Valley companies, such as the Cisco System, Hewlett Packard (HP), Coherent Laser, to name a few, in a mid to senior finance management positions. I left the job market in 2015 and have been living a retirement life ever since.
Many people may define the individual success by how much money they make, how big of a house they live in, or what kind of car they drive. While those are important because they make life little easier, they cannot be the only measure of success. If you compare two people, one comes from a very poor family background with uneducated parents, while another rich privileged and educated, each may have a different kind of accomplishments. One may be able to afford a modest house and motorcycle while the other mansion and luxury car, yet both are successful in their own way.
I believe, success is not absolute; it differs from a person to person, and relative (tulnatmak) to own’s personal situation, such as where you come from and what kind of hills you had to climb to reach where you have. I also believe, you are a successful person, if you are in a position to help the next generation, either your own children or society, to become better than you are, through your knowledge, wisdom, and support. If you think about it, that is what mankind has been doing for thousands of years; each generation has been contributing to make the next generation better. In such vein, I am satisfied. I think my children are better off than how started, and even if it is minuscule, I have done my share of social service to move the needle to the right.
We are all different. Each of one us has a different need and drive to make money regardless of age, and how much we already have. Between thirty-five to fifty-four years of age, people generally earn the most money. However, some people keep working until their last days towards growing their wealth, while others slow down after sixty-five, and manage with what they have.
In my opinion, the whole meaning of making money is to meet one’s need and enjoy life. Since each person has a different need and wants, each must determine how much money they require after retirement and work as long as it takes to save it. Having said that, majority of the people stop thinking about making money after seventy, and plan to manage their life with what they have already saved.
I let others judge me what I gave or didn’t give for the country I was born in, and the one I chose to live most part of my life. However, I believe, by engaging in both countries’ affairs, at some level, I tried to do what I could under my circumstances. I wrote and published over a dozen articles in Nepali newspapers on various topics, especially during the Maoist movement period, organized and lead almost half dozen protest rallies in the US, in support of democracy, against the Indian encroachment of Nepali land, and against the Indian blockade . I continue to engage with the Nepali community to this day. I also ran for a political office in the US, and became the first Nepali American, whoever ran for a political office in the US, published a dozen or so articles in the US newspaper, covering various topics, from health care to defense and war to foreign policy. I was also elected as the President of the Tracy Democratic party and board of director of the California democratic party central committee. I hope, my involvement in all of this has made some contribution to the Nepal cause, as well to my adopted country.
My loss in life is not specifically different than the most people, and perhaps no less painful. I lost my father almost seventeen years ago and mother recently. Both events were very painful, along with my divorce, which ended my thirty years long marriage.
Beside the beauty of Nepal; pahad, pakha padhero, I do not feel I lost any thing by migrating to the US, for I believe, I could have never grown as a person and achieve what I did, If I had not left Nepal. I believe, I am very a fortunate person, who was lucky enough to do many things in life, that most people wish and aspire for, such as, good professional career, financial security, social work, involvement in the US politics, article publications, fly plane, and travel the world. Therefore, all in all, I think I have gained much more, especially comparing with the life I had in Nepal; a lower middle class young boy earning, merely three hundred seventy-five rupees per month, to a person who is able to be retired at fifty-five, and do whatever I chose to do through the rest of my life.
My two kids are working adults both are doing very well in their chosen professions, youngest one heading to college with a strong determination to be a medical doctor. My life’s priority at this time is to provide all support I can to my youngest son towards his endeavor, and stay active and productive, as long as my health allows. I also have interest in reading and writing, which will continue till the last day of my life. I hope, someday, I will be able to finish the book I have started to write. Besides that, I hope to keep traveling like I have been doing in the last seven years, and keep visiting more countries and places, learn new things and make new friends. For me, the life priority should begin with self-development and growth in every sense; intellectually, mentally, financially, then spend more time with your family, help your children become how you would want for yourself, help family and friends, and your community, as much as you are able to, and finally live your life with no regret.
I do not believe in “could have should have”. My study of science, including the understanding of the Theory of relativity, which is further enforced by what is written in HINDU Grantha Gita, tells that all the major life changing events are predetermined. I have been greatly influenced from the belief that the Birth, marriage, death, and other important events in life happens because it is meant to be. Prior to leaving the Nepal, I was deeply engaged in politics through the labor movement, and if I had not migrated to the US, I would have been probably put in jail, as I was told, and even possibly tortured and killed.
However, that did not happen because my life was not meant to go in such direction. I had to come to the US, go through the struggles as I did, learn, and grow to be the person I have become, which could have never happened in Nepal. I love Nepal, and I am always ready to do what I can for the country, as I have been doing all these years. However, neither I regret for not living there nor have any desire to go back for good, especially when I do not have any immediate family member living there anymore.
I do not have any funny story from my childhood which is worth mentioning, however, I was a very adventurous and fearless child. I remember, when I was probably six years old, I ran away from my mamaghar, Jaleshwar, and came to Janakpur in a bus alone because my aunt had scolded me for my mischief. I also traveled alone to Darjeeling and went on India tour without telling my parents when I was only fifteen. Even as a child, I was very opinionated and used to fiercely debate with my older cousins, one of whom used to say “Ter oboli ta Banduk ko goli jasto chha”. His comment was reflective of his annoyance with me, rather than a compliment.
I have laid out what I have done in my life by engaging in social and political activism in the earlier questions. It is up to others to judge whether my contributions rise to the level of the national service, and if does to what extent.
I do not think too much about my death, as it is inevitable and timing is unknown. I can only hope, when it happens, I leave the world peacefully and with no pain.
I am an atheist and as an atheist, who is extremely influenced by science and scientist like Steven Hawkins, one of the smartest minds of the twenty first century. Hawkins believed, both, our soul and body, is a part of the particle, which ends in returning as the particle upon our death. Meaning, as Gita tells us, “The soul is neither born, nor does it ever die; nor having once existed, does it ever cease to be”. The only difference between what Gita tells and I believe is – the physical body as well as the consciousness, which we call “atma” (soul), both comes from the particle, yet, becomes sole in a certain circumstance, which returns to its original form after death. Therefore, we can say, soul can neither it is created nor be destroyed. Despite being an atheist, I consider myself spiritually Sanatan Dharmi because it is probably the single most religion that confirms with many scientific findings, and offer messages of peace to the mankind.
I do not believe in rebirth as believed by Hindus and Buddhists but I believe, in a certain circumstance, the soul that converts into particle can turn into energy again, creating a possibility of a life formation. However, even if does, the characteristics of the energy converted from the particle known as soul, is not the same as before. Therefore, the probability of the same particle turning into a life form by converting once again as energy is very remote. It is like demolishing an old building and building a new one by using the old bricks. While, the Bricks may be the same, it will be a new building with a new character and new utilities.
I never believe in living life to make others happy, as it is not possible to make even some of the people happy all the time, let alone, all the people all the time. I have tried to live my life as honestly as possible and as best of my ability, and being helpful and nice to others. On the other hand, I am an opinionated person on many facets of life. I defend what I believe very strongly, either in social media or in person. While most people agree with me, some do not. I neither think about them disagreeing with me, nor worry about them not liking me because of my position. Having said that, I believe I have done whatever I can to help people, whenever I am able to do so, and never hurt anyone, either human or animal, intentionally. My philosophy on making other people happy resonates with what is written in GITA, which is worth mentioning here; “Karmanye vadhikarasthe maa phaleshu kadachana, Ma karma phalaheturbhuh mateysangahastu akarmani”. I only focus on doing the right thing, do not do my deeds thinking whether I am being liked by someone for what I am doing or not.
Mired with corruptions and incompetency at every level of the government, Nepal is going through a very tumultuous time in its history, so much so that the future is uncertain. The country faces many challenges, however, the most challenging one is in the short term – the looming economic crisis. Almost four decades of mismanagement and corruptions from the highest level, with an ill thought out and unaffordable political system, popularly known as “Gana Tantra”, has caught up with the country and has turned into a curse, instead of the solution people were hoping for. The system, also called Loktantra, has become “nilnu ki okalnu”, a famous Nepali proverb, for the country. Amid the pessimism and uncertainty, Nepali people are seeing a silver lining; the emergence of extremely popular independent leaders, who are young, educated, competent, energetic nationalists, showing their commitment to change the future of the country for good. Only, time will tell, whether their new found popularity is long lasting, or only a one-time fluke, and whether they too become corrupt like the older political parties or remain honest as people hope and expect from them.
I do not believe in “could have should have”. My study of science, including the understanding of the Theory of relativity, which is further enforced by what is written in HINDU Grantha Gita, tells that all the major life changing events are predetermined. I have been greatly influenced from the belief that the Birth, marriage, death, and other important events in life happens because it is meant to be. Prior to leaving the Nepal, I was deeply engaged in politics through the labor movement, and if I had not migrated to the US, I would have been probably put in jail, as I was told, and even possibly tortured and killed. However, that did not happen because my life was not meant to go in such direction. I had to come to the US, go through the struggles as I did, learn, and grow to be the person I have become, which could have never happened in Nepal. I love Nepal, and I am always ready to do what I can for the country, as I have been doing all these years. However, neither I regret for not living there nor have any desire to go back for good, especially when I do not have any immediate family member living there anymore.
Roger Adhikari:
Roger currently lives in Commerce City, Colorado. But he has spent most part of his life in Tracy, California where he was actively involved in the main stream Tracy, and the San Francisco Bay area Nepali community.
He is a former President of the Association of Nepalis in the America (ANA), the oldest Nepali organization in the US, where he still serves as the board of trustee
He was elected to the California Democratic Party (CALDEM) central committee, as an executive board member in 2013. Prior to that, he served as the President of the Tracy Democratic party (Tracy Dem Club), and he is the first Nepali American who ever ran for a political office in the US.
He has written and published over two dozen articles in Nepali, as well as the US newspapers in variety of topics, and has participated as a panelist and moderator in various talk programs, including given interviews in Radio and online media.
Roger had organized and lead mass rallies in 1990 and 2006 in San Francisco Bay area, in support of the democratic movement in Nepal, and had organized two protest rallies in Washington DC in the Lafayette Park, in front of the White House, one in 2015 against the Indian blocked against Nepal, and in 2020, against the Indian encroachment of Nepali territories; Lipulake, Kalapani and Limpuadhura.
He is a retired Finance and management consultant from Silicon Valley, who holds a commercial pilot license with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Technology, and Master’s in Business (MBA) in Finance
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