Boarding school days in Kathmandu

Attending village school walking up and down the mountains every day was difficult. Just when my life would turn into a buffalo shepherd, my older brother, Madan, put me in a boarding school in Kathmandu. Never lived in a hostel before, having to follow so many rules; it was a disaster for me towards the beginning. Often our water tank being empty, barely enough water to drink in school, some weekends, we could not even take a bath. And toughest of all was, most subjects in school being in English I had to memorize everything, whether I understood them or not.

Though the bigger challenge stood that second year when I attended Mount Valley, another boarding school. There, rules being very strict; speaking English was part of our daily routines. While not knowing how to make a sentence, I would run around speaking English with everyone. The very same skill that would make me a writer, one day. Though, in that whole valley, lack of water, often times we had to find public places to take a bath. Places being overcrowded, we would run back to school soaps in our ears. From time to time, while students broke school rules, our principal would beat us down, but still, our nature of mischievousness never left us.

The last school I attended was near Swayambhu temple, known as Ananda Kuti Boarding School, where I finished my 10th Grade, the last year of high school in Nepal. That was around the same time when Nepal’s biggest historical moment took place in 1991 when we achieved democracy. One of the things about living in a hostel was that from time to time, love letters floated around our buildings, and we were in trouble. I never forget that. During those times, Kathmandu was still a charming place, way less crowded. I still have many good old days memories. This book is 86 pages long. For now, it’s only available on PDF / E-Book version.