Learning with Enjoyment

It is said that Kinesthetic Learning is the best way to make someone learn quicker, building practical understanding. ENPHO organized retreat from 14th-15th November 2014 for refreshment of its staff where learning with enjoyment and practical knowledgeable games were the key focus.

During the starting of the session, facilitator Mr. Raman Nepali warned everyone that time is very crucial and it flies away just like that when we are having fun. So, he urged  us to capture that time, save it in our minds and souls and utilize it wherever and whenever possible. The time, indeed, flied as a fraction of a second and at the end we were like, "Are we already done?" The sessions were full of energy; lots of mind soothing meditation, soul refreshing meditation & exercises and body/ mind building games. The days were packed with never ending energy and night with never ending party. It looked as if everybody was HIGH and at the TOP OF THE WORLD.

The most amazing thing about this retreat, among all the others we had so far, was the facilitator was being a part of us rather than an alien. And we were made comfortable to be flexible and creative in our own ways. For me, I had a freedom to laugh and relax with no other things to worry about, which I loved the most :)

I think the sessions made everyone realize that 1) "Life Is Beautiful" and 2) never forget to "THANK" everyone, including yourself for this precious life. There are hardship in every step, there are challenges everyone have to face, sadness that no one can run from and partition with the most closest ones at one time of your life (tragedy). And during such times, we break apart. But we forget to understand that such times arrive to teach us the unforgettable lessons; the life long lessons. Running away should never be an option. Take up the challenge, failure does not matter. What matters is you tried.

The games we played were more emphasized on team work, team building, leadership, creativity, 4 levels of trust, communication, strategic planning and more importantly learning/ working with enjoyment. It was a never forgetting experience. Heartily gratitude to ENPHO and Mr. Raman Nepali. *Clap 7 times* YES!!

Students Feel Much Safer at School than at their Homes

According to Forbes Magazine (2008), Kathmandu valley topped the list of 21 cities with 69,000 potential deaths, ahead of Istanbul and New Delhi. However, the communication sets have been brought in use to immediately collect incident details of disaster prone area and reach out relief materials by rescuing possible victims as said by the Nepal Red Cross Society, Bhaktapur.

With the growing concern on earthquake prone disaster and its effect on the most vulnerable population, particularly the school children and girls; schools of Nagarkot have commenced taking tangible actions. Shree Kalika Seconday School located at Nagarkot-6, established in 2017, is one of the 3 public schools of Nagarkot which have successfully implemented earthquake resistant building along with effective trainings on DRR and First Aid without any external social conflict among the total 6 schools within the VDC. 

According to the school principal Mr. Madhu Ram Thapa, “With the growing concern on the effect of Earthquake, the Department of Education (DoE) have been showing strong interest and budget segregation on constructing earthquake resistant infrastructures at the schools. Our school proposed for the same and we got selected in 2071. Financial support of NRs 22 lakhs by the DoE and technical support by the team of engineers from NSET and Nepal Red Cross Society have made it possible on completing the disaster resistant school building. According to the technical engineers, it has been guaranteed that earthquake of even 8 Richter scale can do no harm to the school building.”

Mr. Jaya Ram Dahal, focal person for Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) have been appointed for the overall training on DRR and First Aid for the teachers and students of the schools for 2 years. It has been informed that Mr. Dahal has received 7 days extensive training on DRR planning from Red Cross Nepal and the school have drafted the future plan for the school on handling the unexpected disaster events. The school having 236 students with almost 62% girls are more concerned towards the most vulnerable groups. It has been confirmed that the most vulnerable groups from grade 1-5 feel much safer at schools than at their respective homes.

It has been observed that the school has been equipped with basic DRR tools such as stretchers, safety met and first aid kits. The school has already established Junior Red Cross Circle in 2067 with student rescue committee of 10 members. Each year this committee gets reformed and re-oriented. Almost all the students practice what to be done during the emergency situation for rescue once in every two months; especially the three steps of Duck, Cover and Hold during the earthquake.

Apart from students and teachers, school assistants like Mrs. Tirtha Maya Tamang have also been trained about DRR and first aid. Mrs. Tamang says, “I am confident on search and rescue during the disaster events. I have been trained twice and I even know how to use first aid during emergency.” When asked whether she feels burdened after getting an additional task for her apart from her usual job, she replied, “I am blessed to know how to save others’ lives and it is always good to do something for others who are in need.”

The school have been working on finalizing disaster response plan, organizing orientation for implementation of the plan; parents oriented, and fund raising for simple treatment. There are still few areas for improvement which the teachers have already realized and planning to work on. These include earthquake resistant friendly windows and doors; disable friendly infrastructure and community sensitization on DRR.

Justice: As I view It

There are different ways people view me. I meet hundreds of people a day and their perspective towards me is entirely different with one another; sometimes may be an extreme opposite. But the way I portray, according to me, is always the same, the way I am. So, the conclusion that people draw upon you after a brief meeting is their own way of thinking; which have nothing to do with you.

For example, I love laughing - with a huge laugh. Some people find it healthy, some people laugh with me and some laugh at me. It is the way they view the content "Laughing" in their lives. Some people might love laughing themselves and might hate others' doing the same thing. There are infinite people with infinite perspective towards this simple act "Laugh". Then imagine the things and actions you conduct in a single day. Sometimes it is frustrating to make everyone happy and convinced. And during the course of making everyone happy, you tend to forget yourself. You tend to forget your goal and zeal towards life. And this is injustice towards your life that you planted and grew yourself.

According to Amartya Sen (2009), he put his words very clearly in his book "The Idea of Justice" that there is considerable resistance to the idea that it must be patently irrational and stupid to try to do anything for others except to the extent that doing good to others would enhance one's own well-being. If you keep trying and keep doing things for others with no motivation and no self-enhancement; then you need to change your way of showering your kindness towards others and stop upsetting yourself for what you do. Dr. Martin Luther Kind, Jr (1963). once said, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere". And the first place you need to start is within yourself.

There are different ways to respect people and their decisions; but it does not have to be limited towards doing what the "respectable people" say you to do against your own will. Everyone in the universe deserves some respect, regardless of their age, color, caste, occupation, income and social position. The only thing that matters  and important in your life is your own happiness and self-satisfaction. Make a goal to develop yourself in a way that you, when you look back, will be proud of your actions and determinations. 

  

Changing Behavior Vs Changing the Religion

It has been a long time that I wanted to put this up together. I have heard, seen and met people who preach their own religion to increase the followers and sustain their religion. In one way it is perfectly fine. There is no harm in doing it. Taking the other way round, if you look at the humanitarian ground, a person needs to be ethical and this does not have to do anything with religion. Religion, in today's world, have merely been a reason to divide and create boundaries between each individual.

My point here is, no religion have ever said violence is good, no religion have ever tied you up and none of the Gods have ever said that you need to follow Him and none others. I have read books on Buddhism, Hinduism, Quran and Bible and the only thing I have understood from those is that you need to be faithful to yourself and do goodness to others.

The main theme of any religion is to make sure that people get reluctant on doing bad and committing crime. It is to engage their mind and behavior towards developing self-esteem and making oneself dependable. In any religion or culture, if you see when certain festival or occasion is approaching, people get busy on cleaning up and making their surrounding environment look better, serving the poor and needy ones, donating charity and so on. You do things that make you feel satisfied and happy, for your own peace of mind.

I have always preferred learning good from every religion and change my behavior for goodness. And I try to avoid doing things that might cause harm to myself and beings around me whom I care. I try to learn from my mistakes and take oath not to repeat it. To improve oneself, one needs to realize deep down the importance of humanity, ethics and belief.

Gender Equity as I Experience: Can Training Really Change You?

We do a lot of talking when it comes to gender equity. There are a lot of examples for that. I was in one of the training on Gender Equity and Social Inclusion, popularly known as GESI, organized by our organization at New Baneshwor. The training was going very well with lots of motivational songs, videos and policy formulation at the National Level until I heard the most notable word by the trainer himself which ruined the whole day; I would say the whole training.

One of the conversation started with: What we actually do at home and office to make GESI more practical? We were divided into groups for the group work. We tried to classify the work that the society still thinks what men should do and what women should. We explored nitty-gritty stuff. At the end we found that women were overloaded with work.

In the modern society, women want to be independent and want their right to work even outside the four walls of home. The result of the group work was shocking yet true. When summarized it was found that the work of men was to wake up, have tea, have breakfast, take kids to school, go to office, come back, have tea, meet friends at the colony, watch TV, eat dinner and sleep. In the case of women it was: wake up, prepare tea and breakfast, feed the family, eat breakfast, prepare kids for schools, go to office, pick up kids from school, back home, prepare tea, serve tea, help kids on homework, prepare dinner, serve dinner, eat dinner, clean up all the mess in the kitchen, watch TV and sleep. During weekends, it is worse for women - completely busy on cleaning, washing, bathing, cooking.

We had a huge discussion over it and were talking about making the most out of it. The men in the training committed on supporting their better half and the women committed on not being shy to ask for help. The trainer then said, "This is not going to last longer." We asked why? and his reply was, "I tried supporting my wife in household chores and my society did not let me to. I felt too embarrassed." This came as a shock to us.

I mean how on Earth can you be embarrassed for helping you mother, wife and sisters. They did not feel the same while cooking, cleaning your dishes and clothes. We blame the society and government for any thing. But we forget that it is us who build them. We are a part of it. It does not matter what others say. If you are doing good and it feels good inside, there should not be any stopping.

It is all about how you think and perceive. I would like to put this as a joint responsibility. It is huge concern that everyone should be involved because it is not a particular person's cup of tea. If you put on the glasses of equity, the whole world looks much better, with every person having their right to do what they put 100% for. The change should come from inside; after inner realization. Be brave enough to be the change so that you can share it with much pride.

Let us make this place a wonderful one with no discrimination, let us be Human, live the life the fullest and make others live in harmony too. 

Why A Fresh Blog?

I started blogging since 2009 and had 4 blogging sites on my name. One for entertainment purpose, the other for financial resolutions, another for my passion towards environment and the final one was towards my drive on Buddhism. I thank my brother Prajwal Shakya for helping me through all the jargon and having patience while teaching me then :) Good Job BRO ;)

I simultaneously posted on each blog, with complete concentration till 2012. And then with the increasing time consumption on personal and professional life, the updates on the blog dropped to "ZERO" in 2013. The year 2013 had been a complete turnover for my life; struggling to cope and get adapted in our new home in my new life and deadlines of 8 projects to be completed.

I would say, 2013 has turned my life into 360 degrees. Made me realize the true meaning of life and made me understand a diverse nature of different people. I found great leaders- the Lions, great visionary people - the Eagles, bunch of great hard working team - the Bees, Rabbits and Squirrels. I got the chance to meet even the clan of hyena -  the Nightmare of my Life. Firstly, I wished I did not meet them but later I was grateful (honestly) to have known varied nature of individuals.

To be honest, life is a tough teaching ground. The lessons and assessments in classroom and punishment from the teachers are mere pebbles in front of the mountains of tough situation. Thank God, that phase of my life is through and I suppose I learnt more patience, concentration and self-control throughout the turmoil. And I am still on to learn more.

After getting settled with all the projects and personal life, I got few days off recently just to get through all my previous posts on the blogs and, oh boy, how I missed those moments when I used to pour my heart out on them to share what I felt, what I learnt and what I understood.

Today, with the word "ECSTASY" I want to merge all the four blogs in one and may be, who knows, I will find few new interests, new me. Life is a wonder wall and I love painting beautiful colors on them; colors of JOY, LAUGHTER, HOPE, LOVE, ACCOMPLISHMENT. And I wish, at the end of the day, when some one views and touches the wall, it can reflect the colors in their life too.

Wish Me Luck :) and Have a Very Beautiful Day!!

PurNima