67 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol. 17, 2023, pp. 67-78 Gold Open Access Full contents are available in NepJOL(http://www.nepjol.info/index.php/DSAJ)&DOAJ (https://doaj.org/toc/1994-2672) Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology This work is licensed under the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ © Dilli Ram Dahal Email: dahal.dilliram485@gmail.com Interview with Professor Dilli Ram Dahal Man Bahadur Khattri, Madhusudan Subedi & Rajendra Raj Timilsina DOI: hhttps://doi.org/10.3126/dsaj.v17i01.61148 An eminent anthropologist, Professor Dilli Ram Dahal (10 March, 1946) was born in eastern Nepal. He was educated in Nepal, India, and the USA. He has contributed over 100 national and international journal articles and a dozen books. He has participated in several national and international seminars and conferences and supervised M.A., MPhil, and PhD theses. Prof. David Holmberg, an Anthropologist at Cornell University, had said, "He (Prof. Dahal) speaks English like a fowing stream". Though he has retired from his formal job, he is still an active reader, teacher, and writer. One never gets bored listening to him as he shares his feld experience vividly. It motivates young anthropologists. He has served at the Center for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS), one of the research centers of Tribhuvan University. He never missed opportunities to educate young students at the Central Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Central Department of Anthropology at Tribhuvan University in Kirtipur. He also worked at University of Michigan, USA. He has done feldwork in diferent ecological regions (Mountain, Hill, and Tarai) and among diferent caste and ethnic groups (Rai, Tamang, Byanshi, Dhimal, Madhesi, Dalits, and Brahmin/Chhetris) of Nepal and the USA. We thank Prof. Dahal for sharing his life and some of his anthropological understanding with us without hesitation. Question 1: Please provide us the date of birth, place, parents and family, school life, college, university education, and number of children, etc. Family Life and Education Answer 1: Personal narratives are sometimes easy and sometimes difcult to write because of the inbuilt ethnocentric perspective of a person in a given culture. Sometimes, there is an overemphasis or bias in a subject, and sometimes, important narration of life is missed because of loss and decline of memory in late life. Let me begin with my ethnographic note, which depicts not only my academic journey as an anthropologist but also my childhood, family life, desires and goals, personal well- being, and satisfaction in my everyday life. I was born in a middle-class Brahmin family in Shantinagar, Jhapa, in 1946. My parents were farmers; my mother was illiterate, whereas my father could read and write Nepali. I was the third child, with two elder sisters, one younger brother, and two younger sisters. My parents might have been happy not only because I was born as the male child after the birth of my two elder sisters but also because I was the only white child with grey hair in my family. My village folks used to call me "Gora”