Working with the future

Banke, mid-west Nepal

by Babita Mishra

I am a teacher. I love being with children. It is quite amazing to work with young people who are very young. I teach children aged 2 to 6 in mid-west Nepal, Banke district. Banke is in the Terai plains of Nepal. There is a strong Muslim community here, there are also the madhesi people, the Tharu indigenous people, and people who have travelled from different parts of Nepalese hills and mountains and plains.

Nepalgunj, where I live and teach is an important city of Nepal linking the west and the farwest of the nation with the central and the eastern region. Everyone has to go through this area and most air flights first land in Nepalgunj before heading out to the rest of the west. I teach at Kaveri Bidhya Niketan English Medium School in Bhrikuti Nagar, Banke-13 of Nepalgunj.

I am very pleased to be a part of this Genius Event 2018. I am involved with 200 children in my school. I shared with my children the idea of genius and how we can contribute to others with our abilities, talent, and imagination. I and my friends discussed genius and here are a few names and young people we thought would be worth mentioning in a global event such as this.

While all the children are special to me, I am particularly impressed by Radha BK who is brilliant at learning, she is talented, does all her homework, and is great at dancing (which unfortunately her guardians don’t seem to prefer). She comes from the so called lower caste of Nepal and I believe that she will make a different to herself, her family and her community bringing down social barriers and bad traditions.

Another wonderful wonderful child is Samir Khan who belongs to the Muslim community. He is very good at discussions and communication and art. He loves to read, study and shows great promise for the future. Nepal was an officially Hindu nation for a long time. After the advent of the new democracy, it has become secular. Samir represents all that is amazing about children and how they can contribute coming from different economic, religious, and social backgrounds to their people and their country.

Anita Mirya is also a Muslim girl. From every aspect that I look at, I see her doing well in studies, she talks to her friends about what she knows and shares her knowledge. She is a natural born leader even at this early age.

I feel so privileged to be able to share the lives of children and to be a part of their growing. I am thankful to Spiny Babbler and 92Y for allowing me to share the wonderful lives with the rest of the world. I believe that like Shushil Koirala who grew up in my district and led the political world for so many decades and became prime minister, that my children, too, will one day make a huge difference in their own different and wonderful ways.