Faintness in sunset

twilight over the gigantic mount of Himalayas

facing directly to the great temple of Chokyi

with last veneration until, same time

it glows in faint rosiness, that rang a bell

'A day near to graveyard'

down to the base of mighty mount

the unbroken cries of Himalayan river

descending, steadily through the vales

of beautiful laden branches and fragrance

disappears with the melodic rhythm, nothing is everlasting

Over the ascending peak of mighty mount

the dark dense clustered clouds

transform the blue vast sky into a gloomy

that drizzle down over the hamlet of Dewathang

this altering natural phenomenon, reminds of  uncertainty

A recent news of a woman's death, is an example

to our last entrance through which

no one shall prove supremacy

it was you and me who talked about her death

sooner or later they shall talk about my graveyard.

Moving shadow on the floor

flickering rays through the aperture of leaves and branches

on the ground I shall sway

with rhythm of breeze from the south

I shall continue until you too

Ecology Close to...

As I was walking and enjoying the environment one early morning- a couple of brown feather birds, the size of an average parrot with its sharp yellow beak, often scratches the dried grey ground with its claw and pick for a grain. Through the open space of a court yard, up on a leafless branch of a tall tree, a pigeon perched, scanning its feather with its beak.

Another Pigeon flew through the space of crooked branch and rest near the other. 

Then it takes three to four short steps closer and with swollen feather puts its beak over the neck of other in lovely manner. A pair of little sparrow in a playful manner, from the corner of a red building flew down at an angle of 45 degree on the blue painted wooden railing, that goes higher along the edges of climbing staircase. A squirrel with round bulging eye and a thick bushy tail climbs up the trunk, through the branches and over the leaves. They make sharp cheerful squeak. A lizard crawl down the wall of a building. The other many unrecognisable birds twitter from the corner, top, behind, beside and above. 

At an arm length distance from the wall of class building, from the tall and titling huge rubber tree hangs numerous long roots like silky hair. The early faint light from the sun cast down the dull shadows of leaves and branches on the concrete balcony of class nine. It is an environment that has ecology close to its heart.

Stupa

There is a majestic and inspiring stupa in the middle of the school building surrounded by ashok and rubber trees. The golden prayer wheels are equally framed around the stupa at the height of a metre from the ground and rotate on its axis with carved mantras on it. Positioned on the wooden table adorned with red artificial flowers and green natural flowers, are seven offering bowels and one butter lamp flickering its light in the gentle breeze, lined up in straight is offered as the morning routine of the students who live in the campus. On the other side of the stupa sheltered under the trees and plants, a line of wooden tables with metal legs and benches are arranged for the students to take meal. It's evening 7 o'clock and time for a dinner. Students sit on the bench with steel plate full of white rice and yellow potato curry over it. The metal spoon are dug into the rice and students salivate while waiting for other friends. Once everybody gathered around the meal table, they stand up from the benches, close their eye, fold their hand into lotus shape and began to offer their food to God.

Alice

A story I read in a "Wise Rabbit" book

"In an ancient time, a prince was born to a rich king. Many astrologers forecasted that he would be a great king. The prince grew up. Strangely, one day when the boy was two years old, his maid servants rushed to see something which the prince did not understand. The prince also ran out. He ran and ran. He came to a village of poor peasants.

There, just near a flat land, he fell into a puddle of mud and cow dung and he soiled his clothes. He began to cry. A peasant who was passing by noticed him. He thought he was an abandoned child, so he felt pity on him and decided to take him to his house. The prince's new home was a small shack, located on a farm. The poor peasant did not search for the child's real parents, because he had to toil day and night to maintain his big family. Neither did his family members make any effort to inquire about Ranjeet's origin and they also ignored the king's messenger who informed the people about the missing prince.

Time past and years elapsed. The boy grew up. The boy did not remember his days in the palace. He had adapted himself to the new surrounding and his new parents.

Because his parents were poor on several occasions he had to go hungry and beg. The boy would have grown up without knowing of his Royal origin. He would have lived as the son of a poor peasant, in misery and poverty, begging for food and clothes.

We are like this beggar prince, not knowing our true heritage, we have inadvertently assumed a false-self in a new environment of suffering. The Alice Project, a place nearby beautiful the Buddhist ruin in Sarnath, laden with green trees and plants, provides not only a home for many animals and birds, also a place for young children to discover their royal heritage and to return to the palace of real self."

"Like Alice who embarked on a great adventure and did not lose herself in Wonderland - a place inside-but found an inner guide (in the form of the White Rabbit). In a same way we should guide our students to discover their true self," says Luigina De Biasi, co-founder of Alice Project. "Our students need to be able to find their way in the world around them through understanding their internal world" she added. "Understanding the internal world needs experiences and we are providing those to our children," she added.

A visit to Alice Project, Universal Education

The Alice Project, a place nearby beautiful the Buddhist ruin in Sarnath, laden with green trees and plants, provides not only a home for many animals and birds, also a place for young children to discover their inner true self. The following paragraphs are the brief reflection of a weeklong visit to it.  

Chiao Aunty! children in a corridor call out to Luigina- It is an Italian language to say, good morning/evening. Chiao!, she replies immediately. She is like a mother, holding the hands of students in gentle, tugging their uniforms, hugging and kissing. She spends couple of minutes talking with each student despite her busy schedule. She has an inspiring quality as a teacher, that I have discovered while she was interacting with the children. Personally I feel, that the teachers should have these values as a part and parcel. Her love and kindness to all the children with no discrimination has gained the children's love equally in turn and they have in fact strong family relationship rather than a teacher and students. I know during my schooling teacher is teacher and student is student. There was a big gap between teachers and students, which created fear, confusion, unfriendly and lot more. Teachers are viewed as fearsome, that I once vividly remember jumping off the wall to escape their sight. I am sure I learned very important skill from her about how to establish good relationship with children. Yet, I admit there is always a room to grow and learn more.     

Alice project is a non-governmental organization that is formally authorized by the Indian government in 1994. Its purpose is to develop an integrated education through experiences and researches. So two schools were founded: one in Sarnath and another one in Bodhgaya. Today these schools offer education to more the one thousand students. Recently another school had been opened for Chakma children in Arunachal Pradesh. Alice project methodology is based on the concept of unity. There are no division due to different nationality, tradition, religion in a multicultural and pluralistic society. It is not only a social concern but it is also a personal concern of the relation with ourselves. It's here that a  research for psychological unity starts, a unity that goes beyond division created by confusing mind.  

They are following the state government syllabus for the traditional disciplines, which are taught according to western methodologies, plus the curriculum of their special educational programme- Yoga, concentration, art, mythology, comparative religion, moral science and ecology.

"Like Alice who embarked on a great adventure and did not lose herself in Wonderland - a place inside-but found an inner guide (in the form of the White Rabbit). In a same way we should guide our students to discover their true self," says Luigina De Biasi, co-founder of Alice Project. "Our students need to be able to find their way in the world around them through understanding their internal world" she added. "Understanding the internal world needs experiences and we are providing those to our children," she added.

When asked about the inner world Luigina said, 'What is going on in yourself? What can we see? what are our thoughts? our feelings? our emotions? what is our reality? we call all this our internal world, which cannot be separated from external reality.'

Today's education system is built on separation and on classification. In school we tell the children to look at a tree. The tree is divided into three parts - roots, trunks, leaves. Is it really that the trees are divided into three parts or they were long ago, some botanist took a pen and wrote down that the trees are divided into three parts-and the idea came to an existence. Now we tell students, this is a truth, go memorise it, if you don't, you will fail in your exam.

According to Luigina, this kind of knowledge is poison. It is not truth that the trees are divided into three parts. What is true is that we project what is in our mind. Everything we perceive outside comes from our filter- our thoughts, believes, cultures, religion, principles and an environment we are raised.

The first bang of a bell calls their attention to take their seats on the plastic carpet. They take out their shoes and slippers around the rim of plastic carpet and sit in their respective lines. At once, hundreds of heads dressed in sky blue shirts, dark purple pants and skirts, dangling purple ties from the middle of their chests for junior grades. long blue knee length skirt with its two sides tore apart appearing upside down 'V' shape which looks like a night outfit and a white long flat strip of cloth decorated in 'V' shape over the breast and shoulder. The morning breeze from the green tall trees, plants and flowers fill the gathering. A pigeon, on the 'Y' shaped branch listens to the melodies prayer and often in between sparrow chorus their chirps but it was dominated by a tune of hundred below. After the prayer they sit on the plastic carpets cross legged. A teacher stands on the floor in front of the gathering with a small bell on his right hand.  He shakes it vigorously so that the sound of a bell is audible at the rear. He speaks in Hindi language through a microphone held on his left hand ''Students, sit straight, close your eyes, think about an enemy to whom you hurt. Ask yourself why did you hurt him or her. Dissolve their harsh words and pay attention to your breath. Know that you are inhaling when you inhale and exhaling when you exhale. Visualise 'OM' in your mind.'' Then in an ascending tone they chant OM...OM...OM... three times. Thus, a day begins with looking into the Internal world of self.

Being a Buddhist myself, and born and brought up in a society where Gross National Happiness concept gave birth to. To me exploring the nature of a mind and discovering its inner most quality has become basic reliable foundation to qualify my background, while it can be universal path of internalizing into one's own unexplored working of a mind. I realized that simple daily contemplative practices in school are very important from an early age of human race. Because the education we give to our children must benefit throughout the individual's life and even in next life which I think is possible through training our mind-meditation or whatever we call it. If taken into consideration it would provide a unique platform for our young and unspoiled mind to discover the mind system at earliest possible. At times it becomes investigational lab to experiment the mind chemistry of our children to become mind scientists. Production of hundreds and hundreds of mind scientist should begin from schools and one example could be Alice project.

There is always sometime reserved from an assembly hour to sing together in union. Most of the songs are praise to god, value embedded and peace related. One of the songs which was sung in different languages (Hindi, English, Italian, African, Bhutanese etc) goes like this ''We will be in peace...'' followed by rhythmic claps. ''Bless the lord my Soul...'' is another inspiring song amongst many. I learned that singing songs together give opportunities for students to union as one, respect each other, learn and visualize the value images, work out  with tunes and compose their own songs.

I learned, that to cultivate the seed of a pure and good mind one should have an inspiring  environment as a fertile land and that must be constantly encouraged in our children's daily practices. Such a setting was a Tara temple which was dedicated to an universal peace; the long life of H.H. the Dalai Lama; Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Lama Yeshey- holy Gurus who inspired the Alice Project. There the students from the Alice project recite the prayer taking turns. The cosmic female energy is generated constantly by 24 hours uninterrupted recitation of her prayer. Many lamas have blessed the temple.

Yoga is a science of a body and a mind. I learned that there is an important relationship between yoga and meditation. Both the practices basically help in the development of children's concentration, calming the mind, and right growth of the body. To provide with an opportunities for students to practice and learn yoga the school has separate yoga room and made schedule for all the classes.

I observed several yoga classes and every time they begin with motivational prayer and meditation for few minutes. They dedicate their learning and again mediate for few minutes to end the session.

First ever National Seminar on Early Childhood Care and Development

The first ever National Seminar on Early Childhood Care and Development ended on 12^th November, 2012 at Paro College of Education. The focus of the seminar was on Holistic Early Childhood Care and Development: The first step in realizing Gross National Happiness.

     The seminar presented opportunities for participants to exchange constructive dialogues about ECCD knowledge and understanding of an importance of ECCD, it provided an avenue for different stakeholders in ECCD to share their work,  it was to educate an sensitize the policy makers and leaders and legislators in formalizing ECCD as a national education  agenda, and to bring together the local experts and experts in the region on a common plate form for sharing the best practices of ECCD.
      More than 200 participants’ including principals, DEOs, ADEOs from twenty dzongkhag, health workers, early learning centre facilitators from Paro and Thimphu, lecturers from two Education Colleges and student teachers of Paro College, attended the two days Seminar.
     The opening ceremony was graced by His Excellency, the Minister of Education, Lyonpo Thakur Singh Powdyel, on 11^th November, 2012 coinciding with the Birth Anniversary of His Majesty, the Fourth Druk Gyelpo, Jigme Singey Wangchuk and Children’s day. Also present were the Madam, Claire Van der Vaeren Resident coordinator of United Nation Development Programme, Mr. Eric Durpaire, Deputy Representative and the officiating Representative of UNICEF, Mr. Ghalley County Director  of save the children, Mr. Kinley Gyeltshen, Chief programme officer of ECCD and SEN Division, Managing Director of DAHE, and Directors of RIHS, PCE and SCE     His Excellency, in opening speech highlighted that, “The only viable wealth that we have is our people,  it is imperative to build our human capacity at all level, but the best place to begin is early childhood because this is where most mental and physical development takes place”      His Excellency further added that, “Children are our collective responsibility- involving the parents, state institutions, non-governmental and civil society organizations, the media, the judiciary, law enforcement agencies and volunteer groups- given the critical importance of children as the custodians of our future”.           

Mrs. Purushottani Bhanda, one of the participants from Yebilaptsa Hospital said “the seminar enhanced my knowledge on upbringing children from the day of conception to 8 years old”     Another participant, Mr. Kinley Penjor, from Sarpang Hospital said “It was quiet a relevant seminar from my professional perspective, as people like me are in the frontline interacting with children’s health needs, which includes all the aspect of physical, emotional and psychological”. He added “the seminar enhanced my knowledge and understanding on the importance of young child’s need”.  Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) refer to services provided to caregivers as well as children aged 0-8 years old. The services include pre-natal and neonatal health care, organized early stimulation and learning through early childhood care and development centres- private, community and workplace. ECCD is a fairly new concept in Bhutan. It all began when Royal Government of Bhutan allowed private entrepreneurs to establish private primary schools in late 1990’s. These private schools had nursery classes which catered to young children between ages 3-5 years.
     The seminar was organized by Paro College of Education with financial support from UNICEF, save the children, Ministry of Education and Royal University of Bhutan.