The Guru That Guna Dev Sir Was

School and campus tutors are to be found in all hues. Not all are endowed with abundant knowledge of their subjects and possessing valued approach and skill to teaching their pupils at classrooms or at home. Rarer are the select few who invest decades in sharing their comprehensive knowledge and discussing with their wards issues and events, both past and contemporary. The late Guna Dev Bhattarai was someone who spent all his working life in teaching, from school to campus and at his residence. He gave private tuitions at his residence to students of not only history but also other subjects. His more than two decades of experience at the nation’s first and prestigious Durbar High School, at the heart of Kathmandu, served him well in his subsequent campus career. 

After a notable career at Durbar School from 1946 for 21 years, he joined the History Department at Tri-Chandra College after he topped the Public Service Commission exams. Tri-Chandra, too, stood as Nepal’s first and the most prestigious college even long after its competitors emerged. Retirement on age ground did not mean his campus association was over. Far from so. He was commissioned on contract for nearly a decade more. A prodigious intellect in relentless pursuit of enhancing knowledge, he invested his time reading, tutoring and discoursing with his peers.  Possessing a liberal outlook, he would treat with due respect even individuals less than half his age when deliberating on certain topics, sharing ideas and exchanging interpretations of issues and developments. 

Academic’s versatility

A perceptive mind, Bhattarai the academic’s versatility and range of knowledge amply echoed in the range of more than 25 text books he authored/coauthored in not only in history but also other subjects, including mathematics. This scribe speaks from first-hand experience and close encounters with Bhattarai the tutor at Tri-Chandra and academic mentor at his home. I personally visited his residence for several weeks on the eve of the finals of Intermediate and Bachelor’s exams in the winter of 1972. Although History papers were the prime purpose, ours was dialogic sessions, in which I brought up questions, and he answered them. His interpretation of events and issues in English and Nepali offered insights that were not found in the prescribed textbooks and extra readings. 

He even wrote a lengthy narrative on segments of modern European history, which aided me in improving my writing style. Not only arrangement of facts but also the logic behind specific actions and their interpretations for readable analyses were thus developed. It aided me especially in my Master’s when appearing as a private student, having already joined The Rising Nepal as a full-time journalist.  A versatile academic with pursuits in various subjects, he was an ideal mentor for understanding better topics related to not only pure History but also constitutional development and political thoughts that covered Political Science, my other major subject in B.A.  At times, the sessions covered topics pertaining to the English subject. He was particular about English grammar. 

My learning sessions for the day usually ended in current affairs that also recalled the past. Once, Bhattarai Sir told me he was having afternoon snacks when the massive 1934 Earthquake struck and shook everything violently amid loud cries of people seeking help and asking people to come out of their houses. In no time much was turned into heaps of rubble all over the place within sight. From the house of his birth at Guchchha Tole in the capital, he saw the Bhimsen Tower swirl in circle and break into pieces, as people rushed out of their houses for safety. He himself trembled in enormous anxiety, as houses collapsed.

Quick to appreciate the deserving points raised by others, including students and discussants, Bhattarai Sir was fond of films and sports. He brought up certain story themes, characters, dialogues and lines of lyrics in the course of our non-academic conversation. When engaged in the topic of contemporary life, he cited the Hindi movie Hare Rama Hare Krishna’s song’s line, Duniyane hamko diya kya (What has society given us?), which was picturised at Kasthamandap in Kathmandu for Dev Anand’s directorial feature venture, in which he had a stellar role.   

Having had tutored the then-Crown Princess Aishwarya, Bhattarai Sir was invited to her wedding reception with Crown Prince Birendra at Hotel Soaltee in the spring of 1970. He found Dev Anand, in his late 40s, handsome and energetic though his hand nails looked “dried up”. Known for an evergreen star image, Dev Anand was well acquainted with Nepal’s royal family and hosted dinner receptions whenever prominent royalty, including King Mahendra and Queen Ratna, were in Mumbai. Bhattarai Sir was visibly pleased to hear that I passed with a good grade in BA. Barely two months later, I dashed to his department at Tri-Chandra to obtain a character certificate for my appointment letter at The Rising Nepal in August 1973. He quickly signed the needed certificate for me to submit that very day. 

As a sports reporter, given also the entertainment and education beat, I every now and then met Bhattarai Sir at the western parapet of the Dashrath Stadium in the capital. He was an avid fan of football. Later I came to know that he was addicted to also cricket and collected press clippings of major matches and tournaments, closely monitoring and analysing team and individual performances. In 1974, I had begun writing a weekly commentary for Radio Nepal, broadcast immediately after the evening news bulletin in English. 

Man of exceptional quality

As the chief editor of The Rising Nepal, in the latter half of the 1990s, I asked him to do a fortnightly piece on some notable historical events and suggested the slug for his column “A Page From History”. He continued writing for The Rising Nepal for some time after I quit the job to return to full time university teaching and conducting journalism training programmes in the Asia-Pacific Region. Bhattarai Sir was a man of exceptional quality. He served Tri-Chandra College’s History Department until his retirement in 1988 on grounds of age but was asked to continue for nine more years on contract. 

Once a teacher, always a teacher. He tutored students at his home until his last breath. In short, his was an unbeaten innings. After all, his father Basudev Bhattarai was a prominent figure in Nepali education and literature while his elder brother Keshav Dev Bhattarai taught mathematics at campuses under Tribhuvan University and Kathmandu University for many decades, until the age of 94. He once told me that in his oral interview by the Public Service Commission, he was asked to narrate something on Charlemagne. He asked “which Charlemagne?” The questioner apparently did not know that there were two historical personalities sharing the name. He responded: “Anyone of your choice.”

Bhattarai Sir told me, “I knew which Charlemagne he meant. And I narrated his personality.” 

(Professor P. Kharel specialises in political communication.)