Experience at UMISAA, Lahore of a Nepali Student

My Story

by Aneesh P. Lohani, Kathmandu

Acknowledgements:
I would like to extend my gratitude to South Asia Foundation (SAF) for providing me scholarship to pursue higher education at Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore, Pakistan from September 2008 to June 2012.
I am extremely grateful to UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Madanjeet Singh, the Founder of SAF for sponsoring my education at BNU. Amb. Singh’s selfless contribution to human resource development in our region and regional cooperation in South Asia is exemplary, indeed.

I would also like to thank Prof. Salima Hashmi, Dean of the School of Visual Arts, BNU, for her guidance and personal care. It was an honor to study under her able tutelage and leadership in the field of visual arts.

The BNU Experience:
BNU is a renowned and a modern institution that keeps pace with current trends and challenges existing in the field of visual communication.

It has a competent, multinational faculty with renowned professionals in art and design. Daily assessments, workshops, guest lectures and projects - which respond to changing realities and emerging trends, rather than rigid curricula -render BNU a progressive institution of higher learning and a beacon of hope in South Asia.
My stay in Pakistan brought me benignly closer to a neighboring nation; its people and rich culture that I had only heard about. I take this opportunity to thank the Pakistani people for their kindness, thoughtfulness and hospitality. Throughout my 4-year stay in Pakistan, I never felt away from home! I would also like to thank all South Asian students studying at BNU for their friendly company, insightful conversations and memorable moments of levity and laughter. Someone wisely said that travel broadens the mind. It is true!

My study at BNU has developed and refined my artistic, scientific and design knowledge, and allowed me to see the world in a different light. Design professionals and training institutes are scarce in Nepal. My training at BNU will help me raise awareness for design in Nepal and its potential in solving not just industry problems, but also social problems.

Design:
Design is not just limited to producing goods and services and adding value to them, but alsoa quarry of big, hidden ideas; a creative thinking activity; a communication medium and a problem solving activity. Design can be very helpful in, say, creating value from something that is overlooked, and recreating value from something deemed invaluable. Design entrepreneurship can help strengthen the appeal and value of local vocations, products and services in the eyes of the public. This, in turn, would discourage imports and strengthen localindustries.

My Major Work at BNU:
My major work at BNU was my thesis on Nepal’s brain drain problem, which eventually led me to ponder what human and national development meant for Nepal. Do we evaluate the same through GDP and HDI alone, or are we free to rethink value in all its manifestations? Can we rethink life and national development by discovering hidden potential in the nation and its youth? One can argue that the roots of all problems in Nepal, including brain drain, burgeon from its underdevelopment.

To rectify the same, I envisioned the establishment of an organization that employs young professionals from various fields to use their minds and expertise to discover value in the country. The accompanying image is a screenshot of the webpage I designed for the above-mentioned organization. I called it Design Chautari for symbolic value. A Chautari is a Nepali symbol of collaboration, social value and harmony, problem solving and self-management.

Design Chautari would go to villages, towns and small communities; study their social, physical and built environments; and find creative solutions to strengthen local lives, vocations and rural management for sustainable value. I envisioned a new Nepal where youth were engaged in social entrepreneurship and design entrepreneurship to recreate value in their lives and others. The idea was to give the youth the tools and platform to pave a favorable future for them and the country, so that they feel a sense of participation and ownership in the country.

Benefits of Design in Nepal:
Design as a brainstorming and problem solving activity can prompt novelapproachesto problems like load shedding, rural development and national value. It is vital that design and social entrepreneurship be introduced in the Nepali education curricula.

Expectations of high-tech industries and per capita income of USD 5,000 may be farfetched in Nepal’s current context.

Extraction of social and economic value from existing, but largely unused, resources like biodiversity, climatology and social capital, for example, is not farfetched. Nepal can, for instance, lobby the establishment of leading climate research institutes in the country to study the effects of global warming. 
Design as a communication medium is also vitally important in Nepal’s context. One will have noticed the irregular application of Rashwa, Dirghas and Refs when the Nepali language is used on web mediums.

Such continued irregularities will lead to the devaluation of the Nepali language as a communication medium, a cultural artifact and export to the world. The rising number of Nepali youngsters – who use the web as their primary media – may eventually disassociate themselves from the Nepali language altogether. It is vital, therefore, that we understand the role of design in communication and apply the same effectively.

Thinking Locally:
One benefit of having studied at BNU, Pakistan away from my country Nepal is the cultivated tendency of thinking regionally, along with, locally. I’ve often wondered what could be achieved with the mass convergence of human capital made possible by the internet and mobile communications in this global information age.
The immense potential of the internet – which bypasses space, time and their attendant costs – can open big doors in regional cooperation at virtually no cost if all South Asian nations develop their information technology systems for connectivity.

Knowledge, cultural artifacts and information can be freely shared and collaborations formed on not just existing high level multilateral relations and trade, but also on the local, personal, youthful, cultural, professional, entrepreneurial and institutional levels.

How many Sri Lankans know what a typical Afghani home looks like and vice versa, for example? I think virtual tourism! Can there be a South Asian music television? I think preservation of traditions, job security and increased cultural proximity! Can a starting Nepalese small business owner learn from an established Pakistani counterpart? I think small consortiums! Can the subcontinent’s 30% control of global IT exports increase with a full powered South Asia? I think fewer brain drains!

My role as an aspiring social entrepreneur and designer will be to use technology – which is already present, but not properly channeled - and collaborations to introduce South Asia to itself. Once bridges are built, traffic is imminent.

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