Birth is a beginning...of unrealized, unpredictable, unimaginable potential! But the Hindus will have you believe that it is an end and make many suffer for it, consequently. Of course, that's completely WRONG.
This is another #LifeEh observation but about other people's lives, not mine. The observation comes from the lives of two gay men from my old school of St. Xavier's Jawalakhel in Kathmandu and their very divergent fates.
Raise a child by beating her, the sense of unfairness and the mental agony accompanying it will not only inflict trauma in the child, she'll lose respect for you. Raise a child by showing her respect, by listening to her, she'll grow up learning what respect means and will, in turn, respect you.
Life is amazing in many many ways. One way it's amazing is how when all the trouble you go to to consciously -- and quite possibly even unconsciously -- avoid something, you discover much later that life actually ended up giving it to you, as it were! This is one such observation about an aspect of my life.
An example of a little thing that matters but Nepalis don't care much about and as a consequence of which suffer in big ways!
A blog post about my 7th grade English teacher Bro. Joe Sheehan. The amazing storyteller that he was, he fired my imagination and contributed to my "escape" from Kathmandu to see -- and learn about -- the amazing people and world beyond the borders of Nepal. He had a role to play in who I am today.
A fascinating short account of the circumstances and context around -- and the story behind -- the founding of St. Xavier's Godavari School, my old school in Kathmandu, Nepal by the Jesuit Priest Fr. Marshall Moran. The extract comes from a book about the founder.
I read English books and novel voraciously as a child because, firstly, I loved it and, secondly, I knew it would help me improve my English. Looking back, I think it benefited me in many other ways, ways that I didn't know and anticipate.
So now, back in Nepal, one of the many things I am trying to do is impress upon schools, teachers, and students the value and importance of reading. This blog post reproduces a presentation I made about that to a group of students at Kopila Valley School.
As a child, growing up in Nepal, my ethnicity was a source of shame. Now, as a middle-aged man, I am embarrassed and ashamed by the way us, Nepali men, view and treat our women.
Some of the standard reactions White people have to statements about or discussions on their racists ancestors and conversations about present-day racism, the hill so-called called high caste Hindus in Nepal also have when it comes to their ancestors and casteism. Here are the most common ones and their alternative!