Miami beckons Siliguri boy

Sagar Thapa. 

Mrinalini Sharma, TT: Sagar Thapa had given up college to care for his ailing father but he got a second chance to study in the US.

Sagar, 21, is one of eight students from eastern India who will study in community colleges as part of an exchange programme.

The fee will be paid by the bureau of educational and cultural affairs of the US department of state.

Sagar, who was studying a general arts course in City College in Calcutta before he quit studies, will do a one-year course in tourism at the Miami Dade College in Miami, Florida.

Sagar, who lives in Kalabari on the outskirts of Siliguri, will be flying to the US next month.

The boy was selected for the Community College Initiative Program (CCIP) after a written test.

Students from several countries — Turkey, Egypt, Costa Rica, Bangladesh, Brazil and Colombia to name a few — are part of the programme.

Like any youth his age, the plan of staying in the US got Sagar talking about Hollywood.

“I am a huge movie buff, especially Hollywood movies,” Sagar said.

He said he came across the term community college in films. “It had never occurred to me that I would be studying in such a college one day. I have got into the Miami Dade College and I am looking forward to do the course that is different from the ones we have in our country. I will probably be leaving for the US in the first week of August,” Sagar told The Telegraph from Calcutta.

Community colleges in the US provide skill-based courses to students who want to work after high school without undergoing a four-year bachelor degree course. The courses are generally of one or two years and participants are awarded diplomas on completion of the course.

Sagar passed ICSE from Lincolns High School in Siliguri and his Plus-II from New Light Academy in Namchi, south Sikkim.

The boy’s father passed away after Sagar left college, he now works in a Calcutta BPO doing night shifts.

“I had to leave college last year to take care of my father. After his death in July last year, I joined a private institute for a diploma in hospitality and travel and tourism. It was through the proprietor of the institute, Rajiv Sinha, that I got to know about the CCIP and decided to appear for the selection test in December last year,” he said.

Asked why he opted to study tourism, Sagar said the course would provide a viable career option to him in north Bengal.

“Darjeeling and the Dooars are international tourism destinations. This is a good opportunity for me as I will get a chance to exchange ideas with students from all over the world. I will get exposure to international standards of tourism, which I will be able to implement, when I start my own travel and tour agency in future,” he said.

Sagar said his BPO job and habit of watching English movies helped him clear the selection test.

“The selection test was basically to test our English speaking and writing ability. For instance, we were made to listen to a recorded dialogue in US English for around 45 minutes after which we were asked to answer questions based on what we had heard. It was easy for me to grasp the content of the recorded dialogue, thanks to my BPO job and my interest in Hollywood flicks,” he said.

Asked what else he planned to do in the US apart from completing the course, he said: “Networking. I will make new friends and contacts who may want to visit India in future and I can provide them travel and tourism services.”(Photo: Kundan Yolmo)