Friday, September 28, 2018

Umanga Babu, My Little Bestie from the Himalayas

Umanga and me holding the Philippine Flag in the Himalayas of Nepal
I am locked inside the comfort room! Umanga babu, locked it from outside so that his Ammi baba (good father), cannot go far from away from him. He was told and knew that   I am going home and leaving Nepal soon, he do not want me to go away.
Not every placement is heaven, and the people you expect highly to support you are the same people who will disappoint you and worse make your life miserable so that you cannot integrate in the community and makes  it difficult adjusting to a new environment. This was my situation in Besishahar, Lamjung, Nepal in 2015 when I was there for  the post recovery effort project and the height of the economic blockage. Frustrated, feeling hopeless and ready to give up my placement and go back to  my home country.
My foster hajur bhaa (father)  Raghunath and Umanga babu 
On that same day, the Ghimire family, a very kind Brahmin family which is very usual for these priestly caste to invite a bedhesi (foreigner) brought me to their humble and modest home where I meet an angel that inspires me to stay and never lost hope to be in Nepal. 
Umanga was excited to go the Lamjung Mela (festival)

I was introduced to a sleeping cute baby in a traditional bamboo hammock who opened his twinkling eyes and smiled mischievously back at me, the newly awake baby that I meet for the first time seems he knows me very well that he embrace me tightly and played with me when I hold him.   From that day onwards, the family always brings me to their home, so that Umanga babu and I can play. Almost every weekend, he sits on my shoulders and his father Binod or any family members walked around the family farm, enjoying the scenery of the snow-capped mountains of the Himalayas and overlooking the green fields and pristine Marshyandi River. As we walked along, Umanga who was learning how to speak, teaches me the local language too by pointing the things around us. My first Nepali word I learned from him was putali which means butterfly. Like a butterfly our fondness to each other metamorphosis every day. I was there for his father during his hair cutting ceremony, celebrate Christmas, and he had his first Christmas tree and enjoyed his first Santa sock filled with sweets and apples,   we cry together when his cute little fingers accidentally burned when he played with the match sticks, I had my first dashai, tihar, pooja and attended all the family celebrations.  He loves to visit me too in my house and always wanted his house “tent” that I have to set up for him.  When he with his father Binod and mother Shova go home, they always stop on the top of the hill terraces under the banyan tree to wave goodbye as I wave back down in the village.
Enjoying our dashai holidays in the terraces

Then, I did not  realized that I already extended my one year contract for almost two years, fully immersed in my project and now well integrated in the community, and often mistaken as a local, a  Bhahun with a Gurung nose!  I proudly wear my Nepali topi ,  nepali clothes gifted by my Nepali family and the identical “bond” bracelet that Umanga and I had as a gift from the family.
Goofing around at home with hajur Amaa


Tears shed from eyes, and as I travel back to Kathmandu on a VSO car for my flight home, forever grateful I met Umanga, my little Himalayan bestie and his family, they are the ones who help and inspires me to do my best in my placement, helping the under privilege girls of Nepal and together with the Ghimires, we help in our own little ways the less fortunate in the community,  especially the dalits. As the snow-capped mountains starts to fade from the distance as the car snakes  to the Kathmandu valley, I prayed to Bhagwan, thank you and promise that I will be back in my life time in a place I called home in Nepal and uttered, mero Lamjung ma ra mero Ghimire phariwarma, dherai malai man parcha. (My Lamjung and my Ghimire family, I love you very much).
Umanga and his parents Binod and Shova

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Practical Guide in Establishing Parents Reading Club




Reading Clubs is a significant in introducing the reading culture in the community, it is also a catalyst in developing the reading interest of the children during formative years. The parents are first contact of the children at home and plays an integral part in the children reading appetite. Here are the practical guides of forming reading clubs in in our schools or in our community initiated by parents.

1.     Introduce  the  importance of the  Reading Club
2.     Motivate the parents of  having  a Reading Club
3.     Let the parents decide for themselves to form a  Reading Club
4.     If the parents decided, guide and facilitate   to organize a Reading Club that is growing and sustainable by answering the following questions?
·        Who   will lead the group of parents
·        When, where  and how often they will meet
·        Where they will get the books
·        What steps they are going to follow in borrowing books.
5.     Trained and coach the parents where to get resources aside from books provide by Itegure Gusoma, like they can obtain and collect books.
6.     Train and guide the parents on how to  manage the  Reading Club   resources by preparing  the following
·        Road map of  the Reading Club  activities
·        Guide to successful reading club sessions
·        A  planning checklist of the Reading Club
 If you gave completed the six steps, then   the Reading Club is on the way!

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Ten Commandments of Managing Large Classes




Large classes is always a  challenge, it is every one dreams   to delivery quality education  especially in the  formative  level of education.  However,   being selective of who will attend the class we deprive the  children of their right  for education. In some society,  the salary  amount  of the teachers depend on the number of students because the state or maybe the institution cannot provide them with salary but I will  help you based on experience how to  handle large classes in a very simple way and these are my Ten Commandments in handling large  classes.


The Ten Commandments of Teaching Large Classes

  1. Thou shall remember the rights of the child for education
  2. Thou shall  not come to class without lesson plan but prepare also an alternative class ativities
  3. Thou shall keep   your  class  routine
  4. Thou shall be firm  with class disciple and rules without being stric
  5. Thou shall manage your  class time carefully but open a room for flexibility
  6. Thou shall not forget your class seating plan
  7. Thou shall divide your class into groups or teams
  8. Thou shall give every student  the opportunity to be heard and participate
  9. Thou shall not forget to reinforce or review the lessons before and after the class
  10. Thou shall not forget your student name



Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Ordinary, Extraordinary People: PARMEET SINGH WAHI, India's Multi-awarded Model Compassion for the Less Privilege

Parmeet Wahi, 2016 Mr. Universal Ambassador India and  2017  Dada Sahib Phalke National Awardee


Inspired by Sushmita Sen  and believes  that the best thing to change yourself is your attitude and be positive in order to succeed, let us  meet and be inspired by this  6'3"  tall Indian model who loves to steal the runway while contributing to the society and  has the passion  to help the less  fortunate . Here is  the   chat  that I have  with New Delhi based Parmeet Singh Wahi, a multi-awarded professional Indian Model that tucked 2016 Mr. Rubaru Mister Universal Ambassador   India and Mr. International India 2014 titles in his belt. He is a professional model, actor, nutritionist, and fashion consultant. Let’s look why he is such an inspiration to everyone, most specifically to Indian youth and in the world.



·      Namaste and thanks Parmeet, you won several titles and you are a   successful model who has walked for all major Indian designers and you been to different parts of the world, but you always mentioned your mother is your inspiration, why? A mother is a person who cares (s) for you and loves you. She tells you how to fight the difficulties of life, she always nurtures and inspires me as a role model, So I believe my mom her teaching taught me how to be a better human being which makes my mom a true inspiration of my life.

·         Did Mr. India just happen to you along the way – or were you preparing to take part in the pageant from much before.  The credit goes to my mentor (Parvinder Singh) as he knew that I want to do something for my country. He suggested me to participate in pageants, so that’s how my journey was started to be a pageant boy.


·         What is your success mantra and how you live with it? And where your career has taken you? My success mantra is to be positive, forget about luck, accept failures and yoga. Well, it is all in the hand of good but after a few years (s) I will become a successful person so that I can take myself to those people who need my help and support.

·         You have several titles in your belt, is it more of responsibility or prestige?
Every title gives you responsibility which shows how confident you are towards your duties which makes more prestigious towards your title. I believe being a representative with titles shows the trueness behavior individuality as a true human being.


·         What and how it inspires you to join male pageants, and what you can say that other men perceived it as very “unmanly” thing? As I belong to (an) army family and when I was in 1st standard, my grandfather used to tell that our life is for others, so at that time I committed myself to do something for my country but after graduation, I started giving exams, but I failed but after watching an interview of Sushmita Sen, I started to participate in pageants. Well, we people are civilized and the people who perceived male pageants as unmanly is a normal thing because that is the way of living with an expressive thought. It is our duty to awaken our mind and feel the relation of brotherhood.

·         Did you always want to be in the modeling profession? When was the first time you realized you wanted to take it up as a career? Yes, this is my profession and I love that because I believe is good for me but career-wise I want to be an actor.


·         Tell our readers and Mr. India 2014 aspirants about what it takes to be a Mr. India. What are the challenges involved? How was the experience? Any significant incident you can tell us about that taught you something important?  Participants should be humble with positive attributes and he should be a good speaker so that he should convert his message to the masses being.  The first challenge I faced is how can I give a good message to the society and how we going to achieved it. After winning the competition, I started training on youth mentally and how to be to be physically fit, so I participated in  Khalsa Aid Organization.


·        As an Indian, how easy or difficult is it for a model to get international exposure? Are pageants like this an important platform to breakthrough? How has winning the Mr. India pageant affected your modeling career? As a model and working for international brands, I believe that a model should have some X factor. People used to say that height and face matters. Yes, these things matter but apart from this model has the right attitude, confident, potential and punctuality. First, Judges see your confidence, he must be a good speaker, physically fit because there is always a physical round, career-oriented and the experienced which I received (and) it was amazing because you have been chosen among thousands of people. I sued to stammer a lot, and this was my weakness and I have seen a load of failures in life but one thing my grandfather and mom taught me that world needs those people who work smartly and focus.  Be positive and help others who are needy.

·         As a model, you need to be at your physical best. How do you maintain yourself? Tell us something about your diet and exercise regimen and tell us what aspiring male models should never do. Yes, you need to be physically fit, for mental peace, I do yoga thrice a week in the morning and the rest of the days. I do high-intensity workout in the gym and I just want to say to our youth never shortcut especially do not take steroids and have the patience, eat healthily and live a healthy lifestyle.

·         Winning a title also brings the responsibility of being an ambassador of the country and representing the nation. How does this helped you grow?  It effected e to grow in good ways because first you are the brand ambassador of the country and the role model for those people who take wrong path. So, I think being a representative you can give a right message to the society and today our society needs that to vanish the problem which we people are facing. Love everyone without any caste creed, color or sex.


·         What purpose you have added to your title and tell us something about the charity projects you are involved in. I adopted two children so the title which I want to give myself, unmarried single father and my purpose is to live for other.

·         What are your proudest achievements? When I received the Dada Said National Award in 2017 was (the) proudest moment for me.

·         What do you do for fun? Spending time with society children and meet new people to explore more ideas.


·     Few words for the fans and people who look up to you as a source of inspiration. Be with people who inspire you to become better and remember focus with right attitude is the key to success. Be an inspiration for other and I want to be a billionaire to serve for those people who are needy.

Thank you so much for time and for allowing me to have a chat with you Prameet and continue to be a blessing and inspiring others especially young people to be like you, discipline, hardworking and an achiever. As you say in India, namaskar and special dhanyavaad to you.