About Me…The 2020 Version
I am a Buddhist/Humanist, one-time International Chemistry/Science teacher as well as a former social worker, with a Jesuit education in a Hindu country (Nepal), an international education in a catholic country (Italy), a liberal arts education in the bastion of freedom and democracy (The US), with teacher-training down under (Australia), but whose choice of musical instrument is Australian (the Didjeridoo), choice of sports is American (Ultimate Frisbee), choice of dance genre is Latin American (Merengue and Salsa), and yet, still has faith in the permanence and power of change!
About seven years ago, I decided to give up my international teaching career and return to Nepal…to change. At the time I was teaching in Doha, Qatar. I had planned to return at the end of my second and final year of my work at Qatar Academy to inspire — and help — children from backgrounds similar to mine to dream BIG and to achieve the kind of success I have. Had things gone according to plan, I would have returned home at the end of June 2013. The return, however, was hastened by my remand in police custody in Doha on May 1 for allegedly insulting Islam and the subsequent release. I ended up flying back to Kathmandu on May 13, 2013.
Once back home, returning after spending most of the preceding 25 years abroad — as a student and international science teacher — I took up social work. I worked as the Co-director of an NGO doing education-related work mostly in Kathmandu and Sindhupalchok.
Just five years into my second career, however, I was ready to change…again! In June 2018, I resigned from my post at COMMITTED. I had a number of reasons for doing so, one of the most important one was the difficulties I had with continuing to peddle and sell pain, misery, and poverty of Nepalis. Since then I have engaged in a lot of soul-searching — struggling as I had been with personal issues for a long time even before Qatar, further complicated and compounded by the traumatic experience of twelve days in police custody, the fallouts from it as well as by the struggles and challenges associated with repatriation after spending more than two decades abroad. All of that resulted in a crises of meaning in my life…about which could be a number of long expositions on their own.
Regardless, after about a year and a half break from everything, one thing that became clear was that I can contribute more to education in the country by speaking directly to students and teachers. So, for now, I am pursuing a new, a third career! I am devoting my time to being an inspirational speaker to students and an educator/trainer to science teachers.
January, 2020
Click here for the first (March 2013) About Me page. Click here for the second (Aug. 2013) About Me page.
Nov. 2024 Update. I was actually held in custody at Al Rayyan Police Station for the entire eleven nights and twelve days. When released, I had NOT been convicted of any crime. So, “incarceration in Doha” has been changed to “remand in police custody” and “traumatic twelve-day experience of incarceration in a Qatari jail” to “traumatic experience of twelve days in police custody”.
You have a very important story to tell. Have you published a book yet?
Dear Arniko,
Thank you for your comment. And to answer your question: no, I haven’t! Maybe one day!