Mahottari

Photos on events related to Genius 2018
by Mr. Saroj Pradhan, Principal, Bardibas Boarding School



Bardibas Boarding School has more than 850 students. Set in the Terai plains, it has an intermix of young people from diverse ethnic groups. 

Nuwakot

Photos on events related to Genius 2018
by Sunita Dangol, teacher, Sikhadevi Prathamik Vidhyala

 

Nuwakot is one of Nepal's less developed districts with mountain and high hill terrain. The children of Sikadevi Prathamik Vidhyalaya shared their thoughts on genius and how it can help the community and world around them. They also present some charming dances. 

Feeding the Tiger

Feeding the Tiger

Today we had a fantastic time feeding the tiger Kancha, watching two
young rhinos fight, listing the common and scientific names of the
mammals, differentiating between different types of deer! 

Dolpo

Photos on events related to Genius 2018
by Lokendra Jaisi, Principal, Dunai Boarding School

More to come...

More to come...

Amazing Friends at Citizen College

Satdobato, Lalitpur

By Dhirendra khadka

I am a student studying BBA 7^th semester at Citizen College. It’s always amazing to be the part of intellectual people. Being the Mr. Citizen 2017 to the president at Leo Club of KTM Star, I always adore to be in connected with people with the potential for genius.

Here at Citizen, I encountered bunches of pretty and good looking faces of diverse caste and culture, religion with sparkling brains and exceptional energy that always energized me to learn more.

I am so pleased to be part of global Genius event 2018. I am involved with more than 300 students including faculty members, staffs and college management who always has been the key factor for the development of my ability, talent and imagination.

 

To contribute to this genius event, I managed to collect 7 potential geniuses which I personally thought would be worth sharing with the global event like this.

I am particularly impressed by Manisha Kunwar who is exceptionally talented in academics. She comes from Gorkha where the history of our country begins. She provides outstanding contribution to improvement of the academics ability of her friends. She was the valuable player of sports week 2018, Citizen College. She takes care of three siblings and assists her mother at her office. She is actively involved in numerous social events as well.

 

Another wonderful friend is Kriti Aryal. I am highly impressed by communication skills. She has been assisting her mother at her fancy stores business and taking care of her younger brother’s studies. She is very good at sports and plays a huge role in helping her team win. Being a resident of Syangja, she proves to her community that a girl can contribute significantly in this male dominated society. She is former treasurer at Leo Club of KTM Star.

Ritesh Raj Karki has been assisting his father at the petrol station. He is a model at the House of Fashion, Nepal, and has participated in numerous events. He was nominated as the face of Nepal Tourism Board to represent the country internationally. Dynamic, versatile, hardworking are the terms that define his personality.

Deepti Dhungana has exceptional energy, a sparkling brain and is a true motivator. She received the Excellence Award for outstanding academic performance. She has always proved herself as an independent, optimistic girl who always visualizes the silver lining in the darkest clouds. She is also good at dancing.

Sailina Kunwar was awarded Miss. Talented Lady 2018 at Citizen College. She is very good at motivating people. She is a terrific dancer and has got a melodious voice that melt people’s emotion. Apart from this she has been the key factor of victory for the sports at the college.

Amrit Nepal is a very good singer, motivator and has exceptional talent in numerous activities.He has been strengthening his father’s business and mother’s law related work. He has sound knowledge of music, art and fiction.

I am honored and privileged to be able to share the talent of my friends. I am thankful to Spiny Babbler and 92Y of New York for allowing me to share the wonderful talents with the rest of the world. I strongly believe these talented people can make a huge difference in wonderful ways to numerous people.

Dreaming in the High Mountains

Teaching in Upper Mustang

by Shankar Gurung

I am a teacher in Mustang. I teach students from grade three to seven. The reason I chose this profession is because I had a great teacher myself who inspired me to follow my dreams. I would like to thank Spiny Babbler and 92Y, New York for organizing this event here in Mustang. I am sure this program will help my students explore their creative side and help them get exposure about the world of literature.

My home Mustang is one of the most remote areas of Nepal. The people of Mustang are mostly Thakali and Bhote or Tibetan Gurung. The upper part of mustang people is Tibetan Gurung while the lower part is Thakali. International visitors pay US$700 extra entry fee just to enter this place for a week or so.

I want to be the person who helps them realize their interest and pursue it. One of my students Sadesh Rai is three time Mustang champion at athletics. He has won the athletics championship held here in Mustang for the past three years. He dreams to be a football player.

Another student of mine Ngawang Lhetuk Gurung dreams to be a successful person so that he can make his mother happy. He writes poetry about his mother. Some of my students work as shepherds during their breaks to help their parents pay for their education.

The people of Mustang are mostly involved in agriculture and animal husbandry though the area is very dry and desert like and very cold. My own family is still involved in these occupations. Due to recent surge in tourist arrival in Mustang people have started working in the tourism sector too.

Mustang is a specimen of Tibetan culture and tradition. People here still follow the culture and tradition that was followed thousand of years ago. I was one of the few lucky children from my village that had the opportunity to go to Kathmandu to get education as my father was an educated person.

The teachers there provided me opportunity to see the world through a different perspective. Due to education and guidance of teachers I am able to follow my dreams. I always wanted to return back to my homeland and do something for the community.

After completing my undergraduate degree I decided to return back to Mustang. I decided to open a hostel and teach at a local school here. The major problem with the education system in Mustang is that people think that getting good grades is education. They don’t understand that education means to help children realize their interest and to push them forward to pursue it.

2018 Genius Event in Nepal

92Y of New York holds the Genius Event across the world in 25 nations every year. Nepal is represented and Spiny Babbler has been coordinating the Genius Event in the nation for the past three years.

The first year involved 20 private, development and educational institutions. The event spread over days of workshops and presentations took place in early March in Lalitpur. The second year saw an art exhibition take place at the Patan Museum and the participation of more than 500 young people and national and international visitors.

This year's program is reaching out across the nation, activities have taken place in Banke, Dolpo, Mustang, Lalitpur, Sindhuli, Mahottari, and Dhanusa. Districts such as Gulmi, Jhapa, Ilam, Ramechhap, Bardia, Chitwan, Kalikot, Sindhupalchowk and others are also in the conversation.

As most of the places do not have adequate internet speed and capacity to submit purely video submissions, blogs and still photos of activities and sharing are beginning to come in.

If you wish to be a part of the program, contact Bhagwati Sapkota, Program Manager, at 9751015674 or Kalpana Khadka. You can write to admin@spinybabbler.org for further information.

My Engineer, Marine, and Doctor

Lalitpur, Central Nepal

Genius Event 2018 contribution

by Prajol Ghising

It’s great running an alternative school. My mom started Nirmal School more than 30 years ago and I am glad to keep the candle burning. I thank Sippora, my wife, also for being a part of this life project.

I was 20 when I started working here. I had the opportunity to work with different types of young people. Some could not speak Nepali even because they came from far flung districts like Mustang and Manang. The cultures were very different. Some from the mountains and long lost traditions, some from the plains far away in the Terai.

But consistently, what was there was the brilliance, the heart to do something new, the will to follow their own truths. I meet these diverse young people who have passed out of my school and I hear and interact with these young people, some of whom sing so beautifully, some of them who are so shy but so bright.

Shiva from Gorkha district lived with his family in one room. He finished school, went to the US and joined the US marines. He did best in cadet training and received a medal from the US Vice President. He fought in Afganisthan to protect the innocent and the women and the children there. He has kept the name of the brave Gurkhas alive and shining.

Young Khatri from Godavari used to walk 45 minutes to the bus stop to come to my school. He did so well and went on to become an electronic engineer. He helped take the world to his village: he has opened his own company and provides wireless internet services to the community there. I too come from that village and my 92 year old father and my mother use his services to stay in touch with me and my brothers.

Young miss Lekhak is in Australia today. She innovates in the science field. Her sister who also graduated from my school is a professor of nursing in the US. Their father was a Hindu priest and mother a housewife. They have done their parents and my school proud. All the four children of the family grew up with me. I remember their childhood and growing so vividly.

Bikram came from the indigenous nomadic tribe of the Chepangs. He was the first person from his village to pass the School Leaving Certificate. I feel so humbled that people from such far off places trusted my school and brought their young to grow up with me, my wife, and my team. Things were so hard for Bikram and he was almost on the street by the time they approached me. We were proud to support him. Now he is a culinary arts expert in the tourist valley of Pokhara, maintaining quality and training chefs who serve visitors from all over the world.

Some of my students are now doctors, some are teachers, some are farmers, some are vets, one owns two restaurants in Spain. I am so pleased that I have been able to engage my students in programs with Spiny Babbler over the past 25 years. Nirmal School was a part of the Genius Event in 2016, in 2017 and now in 2018. This is a great platform provided by Spiny Babbler and 92Y of New York.

15 kids are submitting their voices and videos to the 2018 Genius Event. Sumi’s song is already up and its so beautiful, on Facebook, she has already had more than 1500 views. She is entering the Nepal Idol competition where I think she will do well. Thank you Spiny Babbler and 92Y for encouraging her to create! Best of luck to you!

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.

Three years of Adventures

Nepal's Involvement and My Role

by Utkrishta Mulmi

Genius week is a program made by 92Y. It is a week-long event about what genius is or who are geniuses and what they contribute to the world. For example a genius can be a person who can dance beautifully or who knows how to do gardening or read or do any number of other things. This program worldwide and takes place from 4 March to 10 March. For the past three years my school has participated in the Genius Event and we have had lots of fun while learning.

2016

 

This was my first Genius Event and I was dressed up all nice with my friends. The stage was set that we were going to perform on. Huge performance tent was set. We had prepared for a few weeks. The Genius Event would involve more than 20 institutions. Many were schools and many were organizations from the international development sector as well as the private sector. This year's topic was all about presentations.

 

All of us had different presentations and plays about studies or history or religions. My presentation was about the elements in the periodic table. Invited  schools showed the audience their skits, beautiful dances, science and social components. The audience was big but we had to have extra chairs, they were loving the shows and laughing and being impressed. We had a stall where a person would be selling books by Spiny Babbler. 

 

After our presentations were done we rewarded ourselves with some juice and sandwiches. We didn’t take the stage down because we had to do another genius event the next day. I got to present my own learning, I had done a 63 page manual on the periodic table with my friends and I was just 10. 

 

I got to listen to and interact with other young people from so many schools. I got to take part in discussions with professionals and leaders from different fields. Genius Event 2016 was enlightening!

 

2017

This was my second year of genius and this event's topic was art and how geniuses could contribute to the world. We had done art workshops at shelter homes, schools and other locations and talked about untouchables and politics which I didn’t really understand.

 

This was a lot of work and instead of just working on my stuff and with my friends, we had more responsibilities. Many schools, institutions, social organizations were taking part. I and my friends had to prepare material, interact with work groups, explain what we were doing and make sure people were not confused in the build up.

 

After all the workshops we got tons of artwork from other schools. We glued the paintings on cardboard so that they wouldn’t get all crunched up. After we had tons of artwork we took them to where we were going to hold this year's genius week which was at the Patan Museum.

 

Patan Museum is at the 17th century durbar square and is a historically important place. It was a great honor to be allowed to exhibit there. We did our artwork last. And we stayed overnight several days in order to help with preparing all the material. It was a lot of fun doing this. 

 

We put everything on display. Artwork would fall and we had to put them up again and by the time we were finished, we were so tired and our feet hurt but its was thrilling looking at what we had put together. 

 

The next day everyone came! There was lines of over 100 people waiting to get in at times. There were students, teachers, parents, friends, journalists, international visitors and organizers. Some people were looking at the artwork and some were talking with their friends. All the schools made speeches. After the day was over we headed back to our homes. What a satisfactory way to learn about life and genius.

 

2018

Ok. I am now a coordinator of some districts and groups. My mother's side of the family come from Ilam so I have to get entries from there. I know an agricultural college so I have to make sure there is a submission from there. This genius week I am to be more responsible. 

Helping organize the program is a lot more difficult that participating in it or just generally running around getting glue and orienting people! This genius week was about young geniuses. People had to make poems or songs about a child who inspires you or is really good at something.

  

Physical events were to take place in different part of the country. After you record the poem you share it on Facebook to our website and then you have participated. Or you can do an event and share your insights using photos, video or writing. 

 

We are supposed to get other districts, many of which we have never heard of to join the program but since there was only 15 day deadline this was going to be hard work. Am I stressed out? Of course I am. No one seems to listen to me. And explaining things is sooooo hard. I go on and on about things and at the end of it all, they know less than before I started.

 

Now I am writing this blog and by the time March is over, hopefully we will have a lot of the country districts highlighted in green. I am so happy that we already have entries from Sindhuli, Mustang, Banke, and medical students, agriculture students, business students, and others will be involved. 

I compose music. Two samples follow, the first composition I ever made comes first. The more recent one is below. I have done a song on Vidheha for this event. 

I love hiking and camping and I love writing. You can read some of my blogs in the fitness and outdoors as well as science and technology tabs of this blog. 

 

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