Fortunate to be an NPI alumni

OVER thirty years ago, I was an undergraduate student of journalism at Ratna Rajya (RR) College in Kathmandu when I saw an advertisement for applications for a ten-month-long training program on journalism by newly-established Nepal Press Institute (NPI).

Fortunately for me, its office were to be in a small room at the RR College itself and the classes were supposed take place in the same room where we used to study journalism. I submitted an application and took the test. Now I feel amused to remember that I couldn’t translate the Nepali word Rajashwa (राजश्व) into English at that time and had to ask another applicant, Upendra Aryal, for help! I must have done the test okay since I got a place for the training.

I studied journalism for four years at RR College and for two years at Punjab University, Pakistan, where I did my Masters’. Looking back, I feel that my 10 months’ diploma course in journalism at NPI was of a standard equal to other full-length academic courses.

The teachers were highly trained and knowledgeable practitioners, some of whom went into full time academia later. Their greater focus on ‘practice’ rather than ‘theory’ left a long-lasting influence in shaping my journalistic career in all three platforms – radio, television and print.

Subsequently, I went on to work in various capacities at various times in all those platforms. Nepal Press Institute and its brilliant gurus have made an invaluable contribution to the person I am today and will be forever in their debt.