I was born to a wounded Tibet. I have only a foggy memory of my hometown and family. My mother's love alone smiles out from that rusty past. Her warm embraces, her bedroom stories, her occasional beatings, her last parting words and the helpless tears all these I always look back at with an aching heart. Seasons changed and with them, my life.
It was winter in Dharamsala and the year was 1982. Leaves fell from trees and cracked from beneath the feet. I was myself a lost leaf blown away from home by fate. I twisted and turned in the air, but fortune had its rare smile upon me when I fell into the supportive hands of TCV. TCV was more than a school to me. It was my second home, almost a home I could call mine. My mother's love, I thought, had been snubbed off by destiny, for good. TCV had rekindled and replaced that love for me. That's what TCV means to me, a place where love grows in abundance, enough for every student, destitute or otherwise, to have his fill.
Eighteen years back I started with my ABC's from this learning institute. I owe what I am no less to god than to TCV. TCV prepared me for the world outside and the future ahead. It nursed and nurtured me, molded and modeled me into an educated young man and, twice as important, it made me a better human being. The world outside is not easy, though. It is ruthlessly competitive. But with firm roots I had grown while at TCV, I weathered the most monstrous of storms.
Today I am back at the school from where I learned to take the first step of life's quest for knowledge. It's like returning home after a long journey to a distant land. It is a sweet homecoming. The only change, this time, is my place at the other side of the desk. And I must say, the job of a teacher is a joy to the heart and satisfaction to the soul. Sharing with my students the knowledge I've accumulated over the years and seeing them nod in understanding is a joy too large to accommodate in my heart. All of a sudden life seems so beautiful to me and so full of meaning. I see myself swell with happiness and float like a balloon. This has always been one big aim in my life, to come back and say.
Wangchuk Tsering, English Teacher, Dharamsala
