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Back in school wearing a smile and a kira

23 May 2008

Observer’s Jurmi Chhowing follows up on the Geisha of Purple Lounge and finds a transformed young student who wants to continue her education.

dechen-seldon-at-her-new-school.jpgIt’s been about two weeks since Dechen Seldon, “The Geisha of Purple Lounge,” was reinstated back in school. She now attends Shari HSS, in a kira. I’m back in Paro looking for her. I hear good things about her, that she stopped being the “geisha” and doesn’t lounge around anymore. I go to her school at Shari. It’s a day- school. The premises are deserted; it’s a holiday. Some day-scholars staying in rented houses around the school say she’s gone home to Shaba. There’s a nice little cottage overlooking several other beautiful ottages that make up Shari HSS. It’s the principal’s house. He’s younger than I expected; polite and approachable. He says it’s too early to comment on Dechen’s adjustment, progress and overall circumstance in her new environs. He does stress the point that she’s been well received and welcomed by the school community.

He’s personally happy Dechen’s chosen to continue her studies. He said, “As a teacher, I was really thinking of helping her.” He’s glad the opportunity resented itself. He’s even happier talking about how she has brought about a sense of “joy,” since she joined the school. The principal’s a man of principles; his thoughts about how such unconventional misfits could be transformed into good students and decent human beings, with the right counselling, are reassuring
and inspiring. He talks about Dechen in the warmest of tones, admires how she managed to get herself acquainted with the students in such a short span of time; though the fact that he prepared the school for Dechen’s arrival did help.
It’s been three weeks since she joined school. Dechen stays in a house next to the school. She shares the house with three other students. They pay a rent of Nu 200 a month. The principal says he arranged the accommodation so that she could resist the temptations of her brief stint as an entertainer in town.

There’s a lot the principal would like to improve; not only academically but through other creative and holistic means. Unconventional students might present obstacles but as he says, “the obstacles are a challenge,” in changing the mindsets of students, teachers and parents, toward how education should be viewed; an institution that not only teaches and preaches but one that builds knowledgeable and compassionate beings.

He gives me directions to Dechen’s house. I’ve a spring in my steps as I head towards the house. The principal is just the kind of people we need in schools, I’m thinking.

Dechen is not home. She’s gone to her parents’ army quarters in Shaba. Her flatmates are a bunch of giggly students. They are happy Dechen’s in school. One of the flatmates was a childhood friend from Wangduephodrang.

He’s particularly glad she’s decided to continue her studies. He says she was always a girl since they were little kids. The others like her company. I ask them if I can take a look at Dechen’s room. They open the doors to her dwelling. It’s a little room. There are the bare essentials; a thin mattress on the floor, an old black suitcase, a little rice and curry cooker and a hole in the wall she’s converted into a Choesum. There are also lesson charts and other text books.

On my way to Shaba, the sentry at the gates gives me directions. Everyone knows her. Some folks are a bit dismissive about the boy/girl. I carry on. The encampment is a typical army housing. There’s a boy lying in a bed outside a door. He’s got a stomach problem. He says Dechen’s his sister. I knock on the door. A woman opens it timidly. She’s Dechen mother. And there’s Dechen. It’s good to see her.

The feeling is mutual. I tell her about the meeting I had with her principal, and how lucky she is to have someone like that. It suddenly strikes me that she’s still a young girl. She looks more natural without the wig and the make-up. The family is preparing for a Rimdo tomorrow. The mother is worried about everything. Her husband had been sick. Her younger son has a perpetual stomach ache. The eldest daughter has two children from a former husband. They all live in the little quarter. She says though it’s a hard life, she has reasonable expectations from Dechen. She’s very thankful to the school for taking her in and giving her good guidance.

It’s a small flat. Dechen ushers me in to another room. She seems happier and more at peace with herself. The entertainer is replaced by a young girl who wants to excel in whatever she does. She says she loves the school and everything
about it. Its tough trying to catch up on the three and half a months’ syllabus she missed out on. She does a lot of homework. The principal also mentioned the need for extra-tutoring for her to catch up on the subjects. Dechen doesn’t seem deterred. She says she can do it, and move onto college and graduate. We wager on that.

I tell her the temptations might sway her back to her neon life. She says she’s determined to finish her education.

I leave her hoping I lose the bet.

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Comments

2 Responses to “Back in school wearing a smile and a kira”

  1. dil maya rai on May 24th, 2008 2:08 pm

    Good effort on the head teacher’s side and a noble one on the sponsor’s. When such cases are not big deals in other countries, ours still seem to have stigma…Well, since the first step is already taken, lets hope that we become tolerant to emerging identities and give way to people’s expression!!

    Anyways, isn’t Amarty Sen known for his book “Freedom as Development?”

    3 cheers to the Shari Principal…

  2. akoo on May 25th, 2008 12:01 am

    I am really happy that with the way this was handled. Kudoes to the the department of education all those who assisted in making sure that Dechen Seldon gets an education. It makes me proud to be from a place where people where people are pragmatic and compassionate.

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