The world is one big choutari.
Yesterday I received a few emails from fellow editors and a revised article from a contributor for Choutari July issue, which I am assigned to put together, with support from my colleague Sajan Karn. My bus was leaving for Boston at 4pm, so I replied to the emails and left New York. On my way to Boston–where Ganga Sir is wrapping up his one year visit as a Humphrey scholar and where I am joining him and Hemanta Sir, who happens to be here at this time, for dinner–I was able to return the article with some minor editorial comments with a 24 hour turnaround time. On my way, I was also able to read about the training in Majuwa, Gulmi (which is my old home town) that Gopal Sir gave and also shared the update with us via Yahoo mailing list. It’s just amazing how much communication technologies have advanced around the world. But–
Originally published on NELTA Choutari here.
But when I write about the connection that some of us happen to have among the Nepalese ELT community at home and abroad, some of us more reliably and permanently than others, I think about the colleagues across Nepal who do not have (reliable) connection for joining the professional networking that others do. As I write this, I imagine that I could have been one of those teachers in Majuwa who requested Gopal Sir to please return for another training. It could be years from now when we hear from or about Majuwa. Or–
Or, it could be not that long, if we make the best of use of what is available, if those of us who are connected help make more connections . Choutari editors have talked about this. In our attempt to promote professional networking through online forums like this, we might sound to some readers that we are oblivious of the reality on the ground. We are not. We just want to make platforms, practices, and resources available to our colleagues who are increasingly able to connect to the web AS AND WHEN they are able to do so. We don’t want to wait until everybody is connected. Therefore–
Therefore, our request to you as someone who has already some level of access is this: please do one small thing to increase access, participation, contribution for or by a colleague or two. Please print an article that you like and provide it to someone who doesn’t have the access. Please collect something from someone who doesn’t have access and type it up and email it to us. Even for those who are already connected, please “share” entries here on your Facebook, please “like” articles, please “subscribe” to the blog as a whole (link on right), and please write and send a longer, independent entry/article for the coming months. If you need some guidelines, please either see this page or email us at neltachoutari @gmail.com.
Thank you for reading this issue of Nelta Choutari!
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Shyam Sharma, University Doctoral Fellow
English Department, University of Louisville,
Louisville, Kentucky, USA
