Congratulations to you all!!

Dear all,
17 September 2004, The day when you have officially graduated from 4 year of college life. I hope many of you have settled into something or other. From this day onwards, you are in a different journey -- a completely different from what you had in last four years. So let me first congratulate you, every one of those who got that beautiful leather covered folder holding a piece of white paper with a few words along with your name printed in it, and bearing a seal of KU. Let me warn you though. that beautiful leather folder won't look as beautiful in a few months' time!!!

You have never stopped amazing me. When I first knew some of you, I thought I had seen some of the most immature, and childish people I had ever seen. I used to wonder, when I was your senior, and not a teacher, and definitely not a friend, what would happen to the those of you. Within four years, you have matured so much that now I am definitely sure you are ready for life. If I had travelled in time from 2000 to today, I am sure I would not recognized any one of you. When I received some unexpected calls particularly in the last months of your study, I did not think I'd be asked about the job market. Many people asked me whether they would be sold in the job market. Many people who hated the very idea of studying, and had the idea that passing was about getting a GPA of 2 with two back-papers for comparts, were found working very hard to get a distinction. There were those who I though would excel in studies, and they did it in levels I had never imagined.

As you moved up your ladder into second year, and I moved into the circle of faculties, I had the opportunity to be your course instructor. That semester, with a course in Data Structures and Algorithm, and later that year for some of you with Hardware and System Installation, I came to know you better. In these two years, I had found many good friends, not to mention good students as well. My experience had always been that good friends make bad students, but you had a surprise in store for me. Never before, and never again, I have found friends who could as easily turn into good student once inside the classroom. And how could I forget 3rd October 2001? I will never forget that day for the rest of my life. That was one of the very few time people other than my immediate family wished me a happy birthday primarily because i celebrate my birthday by lunar calendar, and it happens in dashain. My birthday had always been mostly private -- until then.

At this moment, I must mention one name among you. The rest of you, please don't consider I value you less, but this one event meant a lot to me, particularly in that day. I don't remember the date. All I remember is that it was sometime in October-November 2001. It started as just another day in class until that faithful moment, the moment when I had a familiar chest pain, only that it was big time. I was having trouble breathing, but I knew it was momentary. But when it did not appear to diminish as it happens mostly with me, I asked for a glass of water. I just saw someone sprint from that room, didn't even realize who it was. Only when I got that glass full of water did I realize that it was Arun. I remember i drank that water, thanked Arun and continued in class -- I was so determined in teaching, sometimes I believe the determinations of the likes of mine in those days that led to the invention of the character of Professor Binns in the famous Harry Potter series. Poor Arun thought I had a stroke or something! You must really have been disappointed that I continued the class!!

Around October-November 2002, I had to leave KU. All of you seemed to be happy for me. I received many congratulations -- from almost all of you. Deep down inside, I knew I was killing myself. I had an opportunity to take one more course with you, which happened to be my last course in KU. I had started my teaching carrier with you folks, and it seem I ended it with you! In that period of one year, I saw a lot of changes, the way I had performed in and out of class, the work I had to do for those classes, the reduction in sleep hours when I got home, ever pending homework books. And I saw a lot of changes in you, the ever present full house classroom, ever increasing stack of homework submissions -- unfortunately, the number of unique submission did not increase in the same rate. But anyway everyone of you had worked better than I had thought you would. I started my first DSA class with a vague idea of mostly average with some excellent and a few hopeless students, By the time I finished that SP, I knew how wrong I had been. This group has become, at least for me, mostly excellent with few average students and more important, a whole bunch of good friends. Even after those courses, I remember Bikal getting excited on phone with me one day announcing his best ever GPA. He had gotten better than his own standards, apparently. I was very fortunate to share some of your joys in these four years. I for sure tried my best to help solve some of your fears and worries.

Today, in this very important day of your lives, I had hoped to see all of you once again. I wanted to see you in that black gown. I wanted to congratulate each and every one of you in person. Unfortunately, Nepali Language in Information Technology, Steering Committee thought today and tomorrow as the best days to organize two day seminar on National Standardization Training. Worse still, my office nominated me for the training. Now, with the hindsight, I think I should have left that training for your event, but I was not smart enough. By the time I thought I could leave the program, I knew it was too late. So my one thousand and one apologies to all of you. And Congratulations. Congratulations to all of you for making it up to here.

But please remember, this is not the end. Many of you will go for a job, some for higher education. some may settle somewhere else. I want to emphasize that now, you are no longer pardoned for mistakes, no matter what you do or where you go. Starting today, you are expected to be a responsible person. And it is most important that you become a good human being and serve the community in whatever way you can. Many of you must already have found your way to serve, some may be searching for that way, some may be trying to find a better method to serve. My recommendation is, if you are not more than 30 years of age, If you do not have a responsibility to sustain your family for a long time, and If you are not lazy (which I am sure none of you is), do not go for a government job. A job like mine, no matter how attractive, generally tends to kill your productivity and creativity.

Once again, my congratulations to all of you: Alina (Joshi sir is still in Ministry, right? Pls convey my namaste to him), Alok, Anand, Anish, Anita, Arun, Ashish, Barsha, Barun, Bijay, Bikal, Bikash, Bindu, Birendra, Bishwo, Chaitanya, Dilip, Diwas, Ekta, Gaurav, Himal, Huma, Jagan nath, Jitendra, Karun, Kripa (Pls send my namaste to Bista sir), Manas, Narayan, Naveen, Neema, Nichu, Niraj, Niroj, Nishant, Nishupta, both Nitin's, Pooja, Prajna, Prakash, Pramod, Prasiddhi, both Pujan's, Raju, Ramesh, Rashmi, Robin, Rudhir, Sameep, Sameer, Samir, both Sandeep's, Sanjeet, Sansar, Shikhar, Shishir, Smeeta, Somiya, Sugat, Sujan, Sulav, Suman, Sushil, Suzu, Tri Bikram and Yamuna. Did I forget someone? I no longer have your list, and I operate completely with my failing memory along with some old address book, so if I missed someone, please forward this message to them, with another one thousand and one apologies. At some strange points in time, I hope, we will meet, when I will be able to deliver this congratulatory message in person to all of you, a few people at a time, if not all at once. I have many memories I wanted to share with you, but some may be too personal to you to discuss here, and rest are just too long and will make this mail even longer. Hopefully sometime, we will discuss in person.

I am sorry for this extremely long mail. I think I got carried away in the middle. If I missed someone, those who get it, please refer others to my blog: href=http://saurabhdass.blogspot.com> http://saurabhdass.blogspot.com . i will be more than happy to get some comments, even for my previous blogs.

Until next time,

Saurabh Dass Manandhar