Reminiscing The Schooldays

• Prof. Dr. Govinda Bahadur Tumbahang 

Damodar secondary school, Sibhuwa celebrated its 68th anniversary on the 2nd of the last month, Magh, when I was invited among some others to be felicitated as its former student. As  I had not been there for several years since I left my village for further study, it was an occasion for me to see the school where I was once a student and later the headmaster.  Therefore, without a second thought, I cancelled my already fixed engagements, and happily accepted the invitation.

This school is situated at Sibhuwa, ward number 3 of Chhathar Jorpati rural municipality in the Dhankuta district. This municipality has been formed by merging three erstwhile village panchayats, later village development committees, Tangkhuwa, Teliya and Parewadin, and two wards of the then Hattikharka village Panchayat, later village development committee. The rural municipality was, then, named Tangkhuwa Panchayat, and the school was in its ward number 2.  It was established in 2013 B.S. as a primary school with classes running up to five. Over the time, it has been upgraded and is, now, running classes up to ten.

When I was a student, the school had only five classes. At the beginning, there were three teachers, but later one of them migrated to Dharan, and only two teachers were left to teach all five classes. During my headmastership, the school was promoted to lower secondary level, and classes six and seven were conducted. Then, the school had many catchment areas as there were pockets of  villages full of people  of different caste and clans, and ethnic communities. Therefore, the number of students, present in the classes, were more than one hundred, which was appreciable if not enough. There was no road for transportation to reach the district center, Dhankuta. It would take two hours for a young man to reach there if  he walked briskly. Then, nobody had ever imagined that someday  motorable blacktopped road would be made, and a motor would pass by the school. Students from different villages used to come to the school walking one way more than one hour.

Then, there was no uncultivated land in the village area. The forests and meadows were full of cattle and herdsmen, and fields and farms were constantly watched by watchmen, who would chase the intruding monkeys. 

Then, almost all people were farmers. They would plough the field and produce maize, pulse, millet, rice, potato, vegetables for food, and grow groundnuts as a cash crop. They used to grow seeds of mango, orange, lemon etc., which would yield fruits. In addition, they would domesticate cows, buffaloes, goats, pigs, chickens and so on. They were, in a way, maintaining their daily life on their own. They required workforce to do farming, and look after the cattle.  However, they managed these things and sent their children to school. Then, there was no uncultivated land in the village area. The forests and meadows were full of cattle and herdsmen, and fields and farms were constantly watched by watchmen, who would chase the intruding monkeys.  Thus, in those days, fields, forests and villages were visited and populated by farmers, watchmen and herdsmen.

Now, the blackcapped road from Dhankuta to Terhathum goes through my village, Banchare which lies just south west from the school, and passes by it. By motorbike one can reach the school within half an hour from Dhankuta. On the morning of the program day, I went to school by riding pillion on a motorbike, got off and went towards my houses, which is only a few meters away from the road. There were two tile-roofed three -storey houses; the smaller one facing toward the north, and the bigger one towards the west almost touching the other's pointed ridge with its sharp extended point. The middle part of the smaller house's roof had collapsed, the side walls had fallen and central walls had dislodged. The bigger house stood with its ridge dripping since the tiles had dislocated. Its tiles of southward roof-end had separated, and its beam had rotten. The planks of the doors and windows had been stolen. The sidewalls were on the verge of collapse. The courtyard was covered with thorny shrubs and wild plants had grown all around the house. There were no traces of cattle-shed, goats-shade, pigsty, and coop as they had fallen down long before;  their beams,  pillars, windows and doors  had been thieved, and their ruins washed away by rain- water . They were overgrown with weeds. Empty spaces within both houses were filled by a farmer with dry straws and groundnut creepers making them vulnerable to wildfire. In the past, these two houses looked beautiful and pleasant. Now they look ugly and dreadful.

Once so beautiful and pleasant villages have now become so dismal and desolate. The fields and farms, which used to yield cereals and vegetables, have now been waste and barren.

Those days, there were pockets of villages inhabited by the community of  Limbu, Newar, Khatiwada, Khadka, Rijal, Mishra, Paudel, Bhattarai, Bhandari, Adhikari and Dhungel . Now, they are almost empty of people, and abandoned houses are seen half-collapsed, totally collapsed or completely ruined. Only a few poor, disable, weak and old people are living here because others have either migrated to foreign countries or relocated elsewhere inside the country. Once so beautiful and pleasant villages have now become so dismal and desolate.  The fields and farms, which used to yield cereals and vegetables, have now been waste and barren. There are no domestic animals or chickens, only a large number of monkeys are seen, which consume and destroy all the harvests of the poor farmers, who are still living there with no other places to go.

The motorcycle driver drove me towards the school.  He stopped the motorcycle some two hundred meters above the school.  I got off the motorbike, and came down. I was warmly welcomed, and taken to the stage by the headmaster and other teachers. The chief guest of the program was the chairman of the rural municipality, and special guest was the former chairman. Also present in the program were people-to-be felicitated and the sponsors of scholarship to the students obtaining highest marks in their classes in the final examination. We were honored with garlands around our necks, red powder over our faces and with felicitation letters read and given to us. The chief guest committed himself to doing everything possible for the development of the school. Other speakers also followed suit. I thanked the headmaster and the staff with words but my mind was occupied by the thought of total 93 students in the school from pre-primary level to class ten, and of empty villages of the catchment areas. One could see that the headmaster and other  teachers were impatiently waiting for their retirement day. The blacktopped road has made easy for them to migrate to better places.

The author is the former Chief of Koshi Province.