Rabindra Raja Shahi
During the days of my student life at campus and university, never had I thought even in my wildest of the wildest dream that I would be a teacher, for, my sweet dream was rather to be an officer under civil service as a section officer somewhere at an administration office or land revenue office – but by strange quirk of fate, I ended up being an English lecturer at a college located in the headquarters of Udayapur district, the college being Triyuga Janata Multiple Campus which is but a community based college, not a government one, nor a private one, either.
Triyuga Janata Multiple Campus, where I have been teaching for a whopping twenty-eight years since 2053 BS, has now crossed 36 years of its age through twists and turns, rises and falls, highs and lows, and its topsy-turvy vicissitudes in its life and history. Now, it is already a well-grown up, all matured, sturdy educational institution. In fact, it is a grand old institution in Udayapur district in its entirety and a one of the fastest progressing academies in Koshi Province. Whenever I catch sight of my college basking in the sunshine of its confident glory and glamour, a sense of towering pride instantly surges up and swirls forthwith in my heart, my eyes going moist with tears thanks to sheer delight and happiness! I have my blood relation with it- it is my life-blood, my lifeline, my destiny builder!
When I first joined the college way back in 2053 BS as a lecturer in English, it was still in its all too infantile stage with barely 80 or 90 students in total attending their classes on a regular basis. The campus was housed in zinc-roofed sheds and manned with just 12 of the teachers out there working as full timers. We used to teach with chuck and duster on the black board. These students were hard-working and would pay attention to the teachers’ instructions with undivided attention.
We teachers used to teach 5 periods with no over time remunerations. Duty was back-breaking but the salary on the other hand was hardly enough to keep body and soul together. Nevertheless, we didn’t ever complain, grouse and grumble at our being exploited of our labor and work; slowly but surely things started showing better prospect and students from Udayapur and its neighboring districts began, to our quite happiness and pleasure, pouring in droves of hundreds and hundreds.
The rapid flow of and increase in the number of students joining the campus contributed to robust economic growth of the campus. During this span of campus life, state of the art buildings were constructed, library modernized being equipped with no less than 21 thousands of books excluding literary magazines, journals, periodicals, other magazines, classrooms got furnished with stylish furniture in sufficient quantity and playgrounds made bigger and more spacious for the very purpose of organizing different inter and intra campus level games and sports. Traditional teaching with chuck and duster now has been replaced by power point and overhead projector resulting in the fact that almost all teachers, barring one or two like me, have taken to computer aided teaching or digital technology driven pedagogy for the matter. What is more, the college has been publishing its research and academic journals at least two times a year – a sign that it is growing from strength to strength!
This is how the campus has transformed itself completely in line with ultra-modern teaching approach-a conspicuous paradigm shift! Most of the lecturers are bona fide and qualified in their subject mastery and content delivery in the class, filled with unflagging vigor and undying enthusiasm for carrying out their respective duties of their teaching. Despite the bright scenario of the campus, the number of students coming to the campus for admission these days is, however, on the wane thanks in the large part to the current trend of going abroad en masse for higher study right after finishing their plus two level studies, and the high school graduates getting retained in their own schools which were once our catchment areas.
My survival and my status rest on the campus. My life would have been nonentity, nondescript, dreary had it not been kindled by the flambeau of college teaching:” no knowledge without college”, so goes a long-standing, age-old maxim. College teaching is the bedrock of an academic pursuit and upliftment broadening the horizons of understanding of men and manners, our outlook towards life and the world, and being involved in scholarly academic and research activities. The largest chunk of my life is used up in the college and my hair has all turned grey, aging further and further with health, too, deteriorating year by year. In this arduous process, we faculties struggled to make a better life for ourselves, elevating the college to a well- recognized, even nationally reputed, QAA certified status from its anonymous, negligible state.
A negative teacher I am for certain not, but between positive and neutral teacher which I am – I don’t know. As an educator, I have always been interested in my subject and in my students, allowing for questions and discussions in class and never ever minding if a student disagreed with me. Moreover, I always try my best to inspire hope and confidence in the students by firing and sparking the love of learning in them. And now, notwithstanding my naive and half- baked academic background at the outset, and my early teaching inexperience with its lost- in- the – mist- of- time Thakuri background as majority of Thakuries were in the past indisposed and disinclined to educational pursuit, and in spite of the fact that it is not feasible in the teaching job to pile a fortune I don’t care a straw about, it is my sheer privilege to get to work in this top-notch college, and that is why, I am personally happy with the college as it has given me a fair share of fame and fortune. It’s for this reason exclusively that I admit, my campus is my identity, my pride!
Fondly I wish, the college became a constituent campus of Tribhuvan University!
(Rabindra Raja Shahi is an Associate Professor at Triyuga Janata Multiple Campus, Gaighat, Udayapur)
