Shri H. B. Chhetri - My Nepali Teacher !

Really saddened to hear the passing away of Shri H. B. Chhetri, our famous Nepali teacher from St. Joseph's School, North Point, Darjeeling. He was definitely a favourite amongst all students. The kindest heart. I still cannot speak in Nepali so you must be wondering why I am writing about my Nepali teacher. Nepali was a third language in school, the first being English. Third for those who preferred Nepali to French or some other foreign language. Many of us hindiwallahs opted for the easy Nepali because of its Devanagri script which is like Hindi. But what we were not prepared for is Mr Chhetri's style of teaching. He would enter the classroom, always smartly dressed in a coat and trousers with his Nepali topi in the right tilt. As the door would shut we would be all ears. And then he would begin his ghost stories. We would be mesmerised and simply did not want his class to end. And the expressions he would make... it was better than anything on television these days. And another thing in the Nepali tests I always came first. It was like a handwriting test and Hindi and Nepali being the same script I scored. But till date I feel I did not deserve the certificates. Since I still cannot speak Nepali. Even after school and college I thought of him and why he chose to tell us stories instead of the books. And I think he left a most important message for all, children should be treated and loved as children. And now that he is among the spirits wonder how many more ghost stories he must be collecting for us...