Namrata Sharma

The learning curve should never end. During the pandemic, the virtual reality has indeed become an active platform for people of all wakes of life to come together and continue their learning process. For me it has become a good medium for sharing my work and experience and learning a lot on various issues. There have been various conferences and educational activities targeted at the youth which are actually organised by the youth themselves. I have been invited to make presentations and give talk programmes in several such events and I have been pleasantly surprised at how efficient these youth are.
I was particularly impressed with a recent youth conference termed Gantavya: Changing Passion into Career organised by Interact District Committee 3292-Nepal and Bhutan. This group included more than 300 participants ranging from 12 to 18 years old from Nepal and Bhutan who were virtually connected. What impressed me was the efficient way in which they selected the speakers and the panel facilitator, made a clip on the work background of each panelist and then anchored the whole conference as well as the panel session in a very professional manner. The speakers in my panel included the famous Nepali actor Rajesh Hamal, the young and dynamic CEO of Jyoti group of Industries Saurabh Jyoti and me.

Youth energy
Our session was moderated by Nigam Humagain, president of Nagarik Samuha. But the overall conference was actually anchored and hosted by the12-18 years old youth themselves. The lesson from this experience for me was it was possible to channel and harness the organised youth energy for a productive and positive outcome for them to achieve their life goals.
The youth of this age group have information and education at the tips of their fingers. They also have parents and an education system that equip them with technology and knowledge which the past generation did not have easy access to. In South Asian countries like Nepal, the children from most middle class and wealthier families are usually provided all that they require by their parents as soon as demands are made. On the other hand, in these countries there is a large segment of the population that is struggling to feed themselves with two meals a day!
When my generation grew up, and to some extent now too, the education system mainly focused on rote learning, memorising the contents of the text books, and putting them down in exam answer sheets to get awards. That still happens but the children now are exposed to a lot of project works and are keeping themselves busy with activities beyond the school curriculum. This gives them ample opportunities to think and plan more than what we may have been exposed to. One thing that I have observed which is still common since several decades in the upbringing of the children, be it in our generation, our parents’ generation or the current generation is the fact that children are not taught either at home or at school to first respect themselves and then respect others as human beings in spite of a person’s gender, colour, caste, class and religion.
A lot of rights issues are now being shared outright with children, which were not shared with us. In fact, during our growing-up period, the children were told not to question but just to follow. Thus children then were more submissive. Nowadays the children are encouraged to ask, but they are not questioned or challenged. This could make them more aggressive to get what they want rather than what all may require.
While interacting with this wonderful group of children I shared that when I was growing up although I may not have had information at the tips of my fingers and access to entertainment activities, I searched and read every book I could lay my hands on and then I looked up at the movement and the pattern of the clouds from my terrace. As the clouds moved, I actually wrote stories in my mind looking at the different shapes they made as they moved around. Then as I grew up I also observed the tension between the absolute monarchy that the country had then and the people who were fighting for the rights of the Nepali people.
Therefore, the need to raise issues for the rights of all was ingrained in my mind. Since then and now Nepal has changed a lot and rights issues are now talked about everywhere and by everyone. However, how have these been understood and what impacts have they had on peoples’ lives? Has the education also progressed with teaching that with every right there is a responsibility attached and all need to take up the responsibilities seriously, too?

Harmony
It was a pleasure interacting with the youth, listening to them, and sharing my experiences. The key message that I wanted to pass on was that each individual should take care of their mind, body, and soul and then move on in life by respecting others. This will create harmony in the society and pave the paths for all to pursue their goals. On converting passion into career, my learning experience is that the passion children should develop is the love for life and happiness.
To achieve that, if one does whatever comes their way to make their livelihood which could include technical expertise, farming, homemaking, teaching, singing or whatever else, at the end of their life-cycle, all will have achieved their goals. So, whether you weave dreams in the clouds or tap away at your mobile and computers make sure your goal in life is to be happy and then make others happy, too. That way you will work with passion and your careers will be fun.

(Namrata Sharma is a senior journalist and women rights activist and can be reached atnamrata1964@yahoo.comTwitter handle: NamrataSharmaP)