Aashwasan Dahal

I recently heard and read somewhere that the government wants to demolish Trichandra College. Source speakers will open up the official thing. Thus, I felt that I had entered into a cyclone. I asked myself, is not the dream of demolishing the building of Trichandra College and its structure and reclaiming the land a sign of the terrible character of Nepal today?

When beliefs are fading, it’s natural to hold on tight to the feeling that anything can happen anything is happening. Another thing struck. Looking back now, it was a blessing in disguise. Ranipokhari was going to be a concrete land. There were sure to be ‘super’ concrete structures. However, it survived due to the united opposition of Newar citizens and others. If the people had elected the leadership of the municipality, now we are sure that the intangible and tangible heritage of this urban environment will be saved, the work would have been completed. Now when I think about the construction of Trichandra College, another painting of the past storm also arises in my imagination. Let’s just say that it is similar to the famous storm painting by the English painter Turner about the Durbar High School. Thanks to those involved in envisioning its creation. All is a fictional picture of land purpose.

Trichandra’s Clock tower echoes the sound of a forgotten time. On 23 Chaitra, 2075 at the Deumai Literature Festival in Ilam, I made Trichand College the center when I presented my key collection entitled Mofasal and Literature. I took the example of a poem written by the poet Bhupi Sherchan, giving the simile of Lahure standing with a badge on the clock tower built by Bir shamsher around the year 1951. Ganesh Sapkota, the shepherd of the time, who oversees this watch, “moves the inner and outer needles with love, repairs them with local skills, and keeps the clock ticking, calm and simple” said Ganesh Sapkota in a tone of awe, “After he retires, this watch will also retire.”

I walked there. The Chinese have done a very good job. I was shocked to see the appearance of Darbar High School. Ranipokhari was crowded with people. I asked a man over there what was going on. He said everything has been done; now the matter of water filling is being discussed. Rainwater harvesting has also been raised. After hearing everything, I went to the Trichandra College campus there, and I was disturbed to hear about the construction. Not only to people like me who have spent my life teaching, but to the generations before me, after and till now, Trichandra College is a metaphor for education, history, politics, a history from dictatorship to the establishment of democracy. The stories of great poets Lakshmi Prasad Devkota, Balakrishna Sam, Rudraraj Pandey, Hrishikesh Shah, Krishnaraj Manandhar and many others are stories of education and perseverance.

This college functioned as a university as it started teaching not only humanities and sociology but also science. Affiliated with Patna University, this college was synonymous with the University of Nepal. I will keep my short experience. After passing BA from Dharan College, I enrolled in Trichandra College and studied only one subject of BA Special English. A structure like Trichandra College is not a bulldozer of planning. As they have become heritage, they cannot be destroyed by the whims of the governments of such and such a time.

Two years ago, in the centenary book published by the college students and teachers, I have come to the following conclusion in the article written by the college, ‘This great structure, which is still standing after the stories of two terrible earthquakes, is still an educational center of attraction for students from all over the country, despite being neglected and generalized, it has a high status in Nepal. The history of education has been carried on. The college is a museum-like institution with a silent but eloquent, complex but strong structure. It was established around the year of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. It says the year of establishment written above it. This history will not repeat itself. …To call Trichandra College a monument …is a reinterpretation of history, and a silent but vocal call for us to learn from its history.’

The greatest need is to rebuild this college by retrofitting it, like the Chinese built Darbar High School. The most important thing to think about is to keep the old structures in a way that preserves and uses the heritage and build small and large modern buildings in the Nepali architectural style on the land and houses around the Science Building. Such buildings can be used as centers of education, culture, science and art. Thematic buildings of Trichandra College can be built in any part of the city. The University of Edinburgh, where I studied, has placed the original ancient spirit in Barclay place bags and is scattered throughout the city. I heard that there is a plan to demolish the original building of Trichandra, demolish the front structures and take out the open land of the old Tundikhel. It is sheer crocodile tears. Tundikhel is a fake concern. At present, the basis of trust in land use is collapsing. The story of Tundikhel destruction is a story of authoritarianism in a subtle way.

Everyone knows that Khari’s plant was a historical stage. King Mahendra gave it another form. They cut down the khari plant, and instead of that natural stage, they created a platform that was forbidden to the public, which was not for the people, but for the soldiers. Our university students use a topic called ‘heterotopia’ in their studies and theses. King Mahendra used ‘heterotopia’ by recalling Khari’s common stage work but creating it additionally as a military stage. At that time, the poet BairagiKainla wrote a poem, ‘Not finding a bullet in Gandhi’s chest / Not finding a khari plant in a stump / Not finding a thorn in the streets of Jerusalem / Wandering again in self-defense / This Takshak.’

Old civil structures are archived. Expanding the city by building on it rather than demolishing it is the ‘ethics’ of architecture and the spirit of conservation. If we do not pay attention to this matter without taking advice from the architects, the Newar-built and some of the Lichchhavikal structures of Nepal Mandal will be gradually destroyed. It is not clear what kind of city and reservation we are envisioning. The open shape of Tundikhel will come out only when the government removes all the military-related ‘heterotopic’ structures, buildings and collapsed ground, assembly hall near Shahidgate and connects it to Dashrath Stadium. It is also impossible to replace all those structures. The idea that only Trichandra College and its premises are the structures that can be demolished is wrong. This land may have been seen as the main star for some work.

It is not considered that the words of us academics who debate on this have much weight. Students and academics are mostly party members. The policies of the opposition parties are not clear. So I see this issue as very complicated. “What do you think the government, which is not happy with books, will build a library on Guthi land used by Jamal University?” a student asked me. I was very happy with the plan to build a national library on that land. There is a hope that the books and manuscripts which are being destroyed due to displaced people and refugees in concern will now get a place. I thought that the ironic history of Nepal, where libraries and book collections were magnificent during the Rana period, but all of them were neglected and not included in the plan during the journey to democracy and republic. I have a feeling that this will do a great job at a time when the culture of reading books is about to die. But I am hearing that that land has also been stopped by the government because it is being revealed that there are land grabs.

Building a smart city outside means preserving the ancient structure and making the character of the city, but now it is seen that our practice is building a smart city, not protecting the cultural lands and settlements, and destroying the old structures inside. It is the reconstruction of Trichandra College that will open up other visions that we need now.

Original by: Prof Dr. AbhiSubedi.

Translated by :AashwasanDahal