Ganesh Sapkota: the heart and soul of Ghantaghar

KATHMANDU, Jan 22: He has not even passed SLC (School Leaving Certificate). Nor has he received any kind of formal training. Yet he has been solely entrusted with the responsibility of looking after one of the important historical monuments of the Kathmandu Valley. [break]



Meet Ganesh Sapkota, the self-taught electrician who has been maintaining the Ghantaghar for the last 21 years. The 48-year-old former lab boy at Trichandra College, who later became the college´s electrician, has been deputed at the Ghantaghar by the college owing to its responsibility towards the clock tower inside its premises.



While the Royal regime was preparing to host the Third SAARC Summit in Kathmandu back in November, 1987, a malfunctioning Ghantaghar standing right in front of the then Royal Nepal Academy Hall, the venue for the summit, stood out like a sore thumb.



The clocks would stop many times a day, and there was no-one to fix it or correct the time as no one was employed to do so as Rameshwore Dhakal was sacked after the tower caught fire six years earlier.






"They were looking for someone who could do the job at least during the summit, and I took the challenge as I always had interest in machinery things and had climbed up there a few times," Sapkota says. He was given a radio which was taken back after the summit, and a simple digital Chinese wristwatch with which to check the correct time during the summit, running from November 2-4.



"I stayed in the operating chamber 24-hours a day, from a few days prior to the summit till its completion, correcting the time every now and then through the master clock with the help of the wristwatch," Sapkota reminisces with pride.



The authorities were impressed with his handling of the Ghantaghar during the all-important summit. "Tribhuvan University (TU) created a vacancy for a senior electrician to promote me as was promised by the bosses, but Trichandra College did not immediately promote me from junior electrician," Sapkota adds.



But the college started to give him Rs 358, the difference in monthly salary between a junior and senior electrician, as an additional allowance in compensation until the process of promotion was completed. The promised promotion never came through, but Sapkota is still paid the additional Rs 358, even though he has earned time-bound promotion two times since.






The father of three from Balambu has never taken any formal training to become an electrician, and had never operated clocks before taking the job. “The days and nights I spent here (in the operating chamber) sitting on a chair proved training period for me. I stared at every cog for hours to understand the functioning of the clocks, and by the time the summit finished, I even identified a few defects of the clock and corrected them,” Sapkota recalls.



With experience, he has learned many things about the clock. He says the clock goes faster during winter and slower during summer. “I increase the weight on the pendulum to slow, and decrease the weight to quicken the clock by turning the screws on the pendulum,” Sapkota says.



He says he has not taken any external help to fix any problems which have arisen since taking the job. “One of the springs had snapped in 1990 and I replaced it with a spring from a Chinese measuring tape,” Sapkota says, recollecting a specific incident.



The clock is wound by lifting weights of 250 kgs, the hourly bell by 450 kgs, and the quarterly bell by 650 kgs. “They should be wound once a week, but since lifting such huge weights is tiresome, we wind them twice a week,” Sapkota says, adding that two guards at the college are paid an additional amount for helping him wind the clock.






Sapkota reaches Ghantaghar every day at around seven in the morning to check whether the clock is functioning properly. He is summoned immediately whenever the clock stops, but that, thankfully, has become a rarity these days.



“I was promised utility allowance (an extra payment of 72 days given to government staff which work 365 days a year) from the start, but I have received that from the last two years only,” Sapkota says, adding that he has taken only two days’ leave in his 21 years at the Ghantaghar.



He feels immense pride to have been given the sole responsibility of such an important monument, but expresses a readiness to share his responsibility with others if the government becomes more organized in its handling of the Ghantaghar. “Who will not be happy if they decide to take care of Ghantaghar?” Sapkota asks with a smile. Knowing his attachment and passion towards Ghantaghar, one cannot help but agree.