big blunder from the leading bank: US$ at whopping Rs. 95.35 selling price

"We started banking in Nepal...
still we are leading way"

The slogan at the banner of Nepal Bank Ltd's website is very inspiring, despite the fact that foreign management team of ICC are looking after the bank's management for the past 5 years and God knows at what cost. Now ICC team is withdrawing.

Another interesting happening at the website is the exchange rate of US$ at Rs. 64.35 buying price and whopping Rs. 95.35 selling price. I did not recreate the image below but just took screenshot of the exchange rate page.

I hope the rate is amended by the time you look there. Who's to blame here? The leaving ICC management team or just ignorance from the web people or we take it as a typo or we look 9 upside-down. Big blunder from the so-called banking leaders, starters or whatever...

Mind game with time

Since starting 4 weeks course on Immersion course at Social Science Baha last week, I thought that I wouldn't get time to update my blogs; guess what? I was right. My mind was filled with the no-time trivia. But today I told myself that I would write no matter what and I managed time. Mind game is very interesting to play. Try with yours too but positively; it's not to be messed with.

maoists have become a joke

Everyday I skimmed through online news to find atleast one ridiculous news on maoists. Some of my past posts on them -
How do we define terrorists?
'Crime against Humanity': Are there still humans?
Can I also get nominated for the ambassador?

And another joke of the day: Include YCL in polls security plan: Prachanda - security plan for CA election. Huh!! If that is allowed, then all the parties will also ask for their student league or newly formed league for the security purpose. I wonder if Prachanda means security of their win in CA election.

"[...]The Maoist supremo also claimed that the former US president Jimmy Carter had given a written suggestion to them that the elections was not possible without the coordination between the YCL and the Police administration.[..]"

I am sure coordination doesn't mean including YCL in the security plan, even if Carter had said or written that. Com'on Prachanda, YCL threw stones at US Ambassador's vehicle.

I have no doubt that they did spend their 10 years in the jungle.

How do we define terrorists?

There's a funny opinion from the maoist leader.

"The government should not hold dialogue with parties that want to split the country. They should be termed terrorists and strong action taken against them"

Terai extremists are terrorists: Maoist leader

Terrorists = those who want to split the country

Didn't he mean that?

According to Wikipedia, terroists or terrorism has the following key criteria

• Violence
• Psychological impact and fear
• Perpetrated for a Political Goal
• Unlawfulness or illegitimacy

Following that criteria, can somebody tell me why maoists shouldn't be put in that category? Or else we redefine the terrorist and terrorism, in Nepal's context. Why do people give their opinions without even going through the dictionary? Maybe they were never taught to.

Being sick is sick...

Just got ok from flu. The last three days were passed almost entirely in bed. On Friday, the fever day, I was sleeping entire day except for 4 hours and food-breaks in between. Wow! I never knew I could sleep that long. But got bad back-ache the next day when fever worn out. Man... being sick is sick.

I found this interesting uses of food items (ginger, garlic, onion, honey...) normally would-be-present in kitchen, that would have saved my time from getting bedridden, had I found it before. Nevertheless, its worth a look.
You can be a doctor in your kitchen

No water, no electricity, no fuel and now no banknotes

No water and no electricity has been with us for quite a sometime and has become an integral part of day-to-day lives. We don't talk about water and electricity scarcity any more. Then came another blow - no fuels. Man! that was harsh - I was in a queue for 3 hours to get 3 litres of petrol, under the scorching sun. It's been months since fuel crisis - even government said that scarcity will be over in 2 days almost 4 days back. But still the same.

Banknotes likely to be in short supply after Dashain

Now another crisis is about to be revealed. No more notes. Now people would be queuing up in completely different line to convert their cheques into notes. How's that?

Can money buy money? Cheque is a kind of money. If your cheque is worth Rs. 10000, then black market will pay you Rs. 9000 for your cheque. You have no choice. You can't buy food with cheques.

I am wondering about ATM. Will I have to stay in queue for hours to get money? Here's my money strategy. I am going to cash in all my money from the bank and keep stock at home just like fuels, but with less risk of having my house burned unlike insecure fuels stock at home.

Is there going to be any quota for debit card just like fuels (everyone will get petrol worth Rs 200)? You can't withdraw more than Rs.1000. I can't wait that day. I am sure Nepal is going to put its name in Guinness World Records as the "The Country of extreme quotas".

MS Windows match-boxes... what??

Would you believe if I say Microsoft started a new product - the Windows match boxes. I wouldn't myself but Microsoft Nepal has done that. I wonder when Microsoft established it's office here at Nepal but it sure is a wonder to see Microsoft Windows match boxes in a small restaurant in Kathmandu. Don't believe me - take a look.

Back of Windows matchbox

Front side of Windows matchbox

I don't understand why would people do that? Don't they know that the giant would sue them, causing them billions of rupees, on copyright issues? I doubt that they ever informed Microsoft.

My version of what would happen if Microsoft sees it's new product in the market without it's knowledge let alone approval.

Microsoft would come to Nepal and first see me (they have to - who's going to take them to that shop). Then they would ask for the matchbox - I wonder if the match sticks would still be present in that particular box; chances are they would have another box. Unfortunately there is no mention of where, when and by whom it was manufactured in the box - well I had checked that. It ain't gonna make any difference to the giant Microsoft - they would develop a program,which would allow them to enter ..... ok i am digressing. Let's come to an end ... Finally they would be able to catch the local manufacturer, who couldn't even hire a designer to make a logo let alone billions. The giant's dream would shatter :( but with a new hope that now their reach and name will span to the rural people also - unfortunately not as a OS. Rural people would sure laugh when they would see Windows logo in a computer, "he he... we used them to burn."

ICT opportunites in Nepal

Today my cousin brother, who runs a lucrative jewellery business, asked me about the accounting software, internet presence, how to start a website, online business. I was happy to answer him. A year ago, I remember asking him whether he would like to have a website of his own with some of jewelleries designs, people might contact him through the website and it's high time to start before anyone does. He disapproved the idea saying it's not time yet - maybe hasn't understood the power of internet. Now he came across few people who started websites, got jewellery orders from there; and he got interested in having his online identity - that's business mind.

The power of ICT is yet to be realized in Nepal. Who says there are not opportunities in Nepal?

King's Bday: why so much news?

Our-still King's birthday made lots of news this week - it has to, afterall he is still king. Unfortunately the news are not welcoming. See some of the news made to the headlines...

Palace requests additional security for king’s birthday celebrations

Attending king’s birthday will not be useful: Moriarty

Attending king's b'day bash an individual choice: RPP, RJP

King's birthday proceeds amid protests

Monarchists not to change their party plan [to gather and go to the palace to greet the King]

Another interesting news covered in front page of most daily newspapers last week was rejection of the King's invitation by the various ambassadors including Moriarty of US. That was ok so far, but now another news, quoted Dr. Durga Pokharel, says "Nobody has sent invitations to them".

Does that mean that the shrewd ambassadors were rejecting the invitations they never received?

Is that they gave their rejection views considering the fact that they would be invited? Or is that they gave their rejection views out of anger because they were not invited? Or is that the King thought these foreigners are of no use to him at all as he has to do everything by himself? Or is that the King wants to cut off some extra expenses? ........ I wish government formed a committee to solve this issue. We have rights to right information.

'Crime against Humanity': Are there still humans?

The literal meaning of human is
1. of or characteristic of man
2. having or showing the better qualities of man; kind; good;

"Humane", the adjective form of human means having or showing sympathy, kindness, and understanding.

The maoists filed a case against the army officials saying they did the 'Crime against Humanity' to their cadres and that army officials should be punished. Ofcourse they should be, no body is allowed to behave unhumanely to other humans. How of us agree that the moaists are human? Take a second look at the meaning again. Maoist victims have given and will give barbaric account of moaists so called humanity. And still citizens are being victimized now.

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2007/jul/jul03/news11.php

We have lost the value of humanity. The greed for money, power, fame has made us uncivilized, selfish animals. 'Humanity', 'Human rights' don't make any sense in this 21st century unless everyone understands and abides by the meaning of humane.

Those who are ranting 'Crime against Humanity' are doing the same, those who are advocating 'Human rights' are not aware of human rights violence in their home and their neighbourhoods. Don't you think that everything is revolving around money, power and fame? Take a look around the world. And do you still think that we are humans?

SLC results out but ekantipur not working

The SLC results were out at 11:40 at night. I got a call from my cousin sister to help her look up her number in the "Ekantipur" website. I have been awake since half an hour, trying to figure out how to see the results; it's already 1:15AM now. These people have already setup their google adsense in the SLC results page but the results were yet to be displayed. I can't click "find" button. Fortunately "Enter" key works, but again search leads me to nowhere - same page without any results. Com'on kantipur guys - you should have been prepared before. At one point, I even got mysql error. I wonder if they are prepared to get a huge spike in their server.

Should we? Yes! Will we? Not sure!

Just imagine this ...
A woman, left by her husband, works from 6 in the morning then walks for more than an hour to reach her second work-place and then walks back to her rented room, with her two daughters to feed. The same woman fasts twice a week. She faints one day and is taken to her room by her colleagues. The next day, she is diagnosed with jaundice. She still insists on working....

This is not a story but rather life of a cleaner at Tribhuvan International Airport. My mom, who is in-charge of the cleaning project of airport, but also an employee, had to hear such disheartening stories every now and then. Just comparing our day-to-day lives with theirs, we are in heaven - all of you who are reading this blog. Computer/internet is a luxury though we say we can't do anything without computers/internet. The world has become mean - in the road to development, billions of people are neglected and left behind on their own. I asked mom to give her a thousand rupee, from her own pocket, and ask her to take leaves for another two weeks. Jaundice can get very complicated and may even take life if neglected.

The same story may be lived by lots of people all around the world - mostly concentrated in developing countries. Most of us may never come across such stories - I wouldn't myself if my mom didn't tell me. Can we do anything to help them? I hear you saying "Yes we can (if not all) and we should." But will we? I don't know. It's hard because we all have our own problems - and sorting out problems of others, whom we don't know at all - is definitely to be pondered over.

Though our individual effort may not bring drastic change in this selfish world but it definitely helps those who are being helped.

I remember a nice story of a small boy, who is throwing the starfishes to the sea one by one, from the beach where these starfishes are being washed away due to tide. The grown-up person, seeing the futile effort of that boy, approaches him and says, "There are thousands of starfishes here, you are not going to make any difference." The boy picks up a starfish and says "I know, but I made a difference to this one", and throws it back to the sea.

How do people fantasize others garbage?

Can you imagine paying $305 for a used toothpaste, trashed coke can for $51? Some crazy people did that. I forgot to mention that those trash belonged to Paris Hilton.

yahoo news

What are you going to do with someone elses used toothbrush? Yucks! I can't see any use except throw it back to the trash.

Can I also get nominated for the ambassador?

Once I used to hear that to be an ambassador is not an easy job, you need to be qualifed in every way, afterall you will be representing your country. But it doesn't sound that difficult these days. There are 14 vacant ambassadorial posts that haven't been filled for over a year.

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2007/jun/jun28/news14.php

Why is this? It's not because of the lack of qualified people - every political party has tremendously qualified people and they can't reach consensus on who is the most qualified. The most qualified people involved party, the Moaists, are very difficult to convince, they are so qualified that they don't understand anybody else, besides them, can do the job properly. Indeed they have lots of experience - I mean in jungle - and they are demanding the 'A' category nations like India, Russia, US and China. Do they think that it's like hide and seek game? Infact it's nothing like that - but they are built to be rebellious - "Always be negative - no matter how good the result is". Offer them the ambassadorial post in 'A' category nations, I bet they would say "Nah! we won't take, we know why you are giving those nations to us." Afterall they are rebelliously qualified.

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2007/jul/jul02/news12.php

Fuel crisis: who cares?

It's been months since we are facing fuel crisis. And today not a single petrol pump was opened. It's pity to see people queuing up for the fuel outside the closed, fensed bar of the secured pump station. There was even scuffle for a moment by the agitated people, queuing for a line. Who wouldn't? Waiting under
scorching sun - just to find out that there's no more fuel. That's not a new problem. If people get angry, charge on them. If the same thing had happened in King's regime, that would have been suppression; then, no more king, Nepal should be declared republic, the great Prachanda, the president - that scum-bag is somewhere in Switzerland.

I am sure the officials of police, army, government, diplomates have their high fuel quotas, no matter what's happening to the rest of the country. Afterall citizens have never been in their list of agendas. They are just scapegoats - we will do this and that - when it comes to actual problem, not a single so-called leader spoke on this issue and said that this problem should be solved ASAP.

Another funny thing is there's not any coverage in any news site, except that of the small scuffle. It's not news anymore - afterall media needs new stuffs - who will pay to read the stale,stinky news. Let people die, then news comes, let some petrol pump gets burned, then media will cover.

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2007/jul/jul02/news07.php

It's the same old reason "The Indian Oil Corporation has decreased the supply of POL asking the Nepal Oil Corporation to pay the dues."

Why isn't this solved even after months of crisis?

The fate of my internet existence

My internet existence may be known to even hardly 10 people, besides those who already know me personally. I have blogs, have couple of email accounts, have profiles in several social networking sites like hi5, linkedin. Not much of an existence compared to those already established in the internet world. I am just another so and so. If I stop blogging, neglect hi5 comments, requests from friends, stopped checking my gmails, will there be anyone who will query about my status - what happened to me, whether I got lost in the jungle, whether I exist. I doubt that. There are people dying every day and so - of all ages. They sure may have their own existence in the internet. Now what, nobody cares.

Is my blog going to exist 50 years from now? How would I feel when I go through my posts then? I would be laughing at myself. Wow! Sounds pretty exciting!!

Prachanda and Baburam on trip

Prachanda is sure going to enjoy his first trip to Switzerland, not to forget, it's his first trip to Europe. He must be elated and excited to enjoy his holidays there. You know the reasons for his trip. Yeah.. it's about discussing the peace process, constituent assembly, feudalism and so on. Isn't that exciting? Is Prachanda going to obey the outcomes of the discussion, "Prachanda, give up your YCL wings, shake hands with Girisha, don't do any more bandhs, and ...". Prachanda would then come back to Nepal and do whatever the Swiss guys told him. I can't even imagine this in dreams. Then why on world is he going? Oh... it must be a free ticket and we must be paying for his trip, unknowingly and he must have been bored with everyday talkings of the same ol' things. Is there any mention of his comrades accompanying him? I doubt him going alone, and he doesn't have to worry about money. That's life. After all, his years of staying underground has paid off.

http://www.nepalnews.com.np/archive/2007/jun/jun30/news14.php

Baburam is expected to join him. Don't laugh, he is in Norway for conflict resolution conference.
Damn! I should also start getting underground, who knows one day it gets paid off.

According to Prachanda, his visit will be helpful in developing international relations of the Moaists. And what about the national relations? Don't worry, let your guns do the job.

"Once in a blue moon" was here

Blue moon caught my eyes when skimming through the news at the Himalayantimes online. 31st June was the blue moon day and it is watched and loved by the lovers and is taken as a herald of good time - that was really new for me!

I was wondering if the blue moon was really blue. If it were then there would certainly have been lots of talkings. To my amazement, i didn't hear anything. Searching for blue moon reveals some interesting details and why there's a saying "Once in a blue moon". If there's an extra full moon besides 3, in any quarter of a year, then that extra one is considered the blue moon. That's all and is a part of solar system phenomenon.

Somewhere in Bhaktapur

I went to Picnic somewhere in Bhaktapur last Saturday (see i am posting it almost a week later.. i swear i am getting lazy). It was a small religious place with lots of small temples and gods. There is a lord Vishnu lying over water and guarded by snakes - which looks like a tiny replica of Budhanilkantha deity.

The entrance to the religious place - our picnic spot

Lord Garud

Can you see god appearing from fish mouth?

Tiny replica of Budhanilkantha deity

Later in the day we saw lots of farmers working in their fields - planting season just started. I have never seen people working in the fields, in a large number. It was terrific feeling.

I like this photograph

Drupal at YTC

I had a short informal presentation on Drupal to friends at YTC (Sap-falcha) on how Drupal works. Basically it was to give them a rough idea on how CMS should work - I chose Drupal because I know it well and there are other reasons too like active community, popular CMS. They found it worthwhile and even vowed to try it on their own. All the best guys.

ICIMOD seeks ...

We are expecting few major changes at ICIMOD since new DG, Dr. Andreas Schield, took over in April. Now ICIMOD is seeking lots of new professionals - different from what I was used to seeing. I hope to see big positive changes here.

Disaster Risk Reduction Specialist
Environmental Change Specialist
Senior Economist
Information and Knowledge Management Coordinator

links here http://www.icimod.org/home/vacancies/

ICIMOD Books-online: a satisfaction

I have been working on ICIMOD Books-online for the past three/four months plus and yet there are still little issues popping up every now and then. "It's almost complete" is my favorite line and I wonder when I would be in a position to say "It's done now". I can't wait for that day.

In fact I am very much satisfied with this application after more than two years in software development. It uses lots of ajax (I used jquery) and I have tweaked lots of jquery plugins for its purpose. The other interesting feature is that it is maintained at two different servers - local and online. Local server is accessible with in the ICIMOD premises only. That's make data entry job much easy and quick. I don't want people to take two hours to upload files. There are pdf files which are scanned versions of books and can go up to more than 40MB. Local content is synced with online content but there are lots of issues to be taken care of. I don't want all the database tables to be synced - especially downloads statistics table. Thanks to rsync tool - syncing folders is a breeze.

Though searching may not be very powerful, I have heavily tweaked sphider (open source search engine) to index directly from database rather than spidering through web links.

Now we have a plan to provide the application in DVD format - targeting researchers and academicians. Much work has been done - running database and web server from the DVD is not much of a problem - thanks to internet and the contributors.

The environment Minister inaugurated ICIMOD books-online on World Environment day, 5th June. So much publicity. Though I am not excited about minister inaugurating it, I am much elated on seeing my work on stage.

Give a try. See if you can find any books of your interest.

Snake in the workplace: adventurous

A snake was found sleeping under the bag in one of our colleagues room. There was a photo session of snake for several minutes, maybe scaring it. Finally one bold colleague used a long bamboo stick to get the snake out of the room. I was holding another bamboo stick behind him in case it slid away. Fortunately it didn't. I don't know whether it's poisonous or not but I really wanted to touch it and hold it by its tail - which I didn't do. But I would have done if there were some snake experts around.



I was imagining Steve Irwin or some other nat-geo guy carrying that snake by its tail and shouting "beautiful!" and all.

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Whitewater rafting: everyone should go for it once - atleast

I still feel water splashing in our faces at various rapids. Twisting and turning of our raft at these rapids were the most exciting part of entire trip. Many of these rapids even have names - the most dangerous one at Trisuli river is "Upset" and "Surprise", as told by our instructor or life guard or director of our boat. It looked like our boat almost overturned at this rapid but we managed to get through. We were busy shouting rather than paddling - some friends were even paddling in air at these rapids.



We covered 25km of Trishuli river, in the south of Kathmandu. We even dipped in the river - and swam with life jackets though. Later the water turned out to be really cold and had to get back to the boat.



While rafting, we had to follow our instructor, who would say "forward", "backward", "left forward" and so on. His favorite line was "Stop". He had to make sure that we didn't lose our direction and also that we didn't miss those interesting rapids. 3 hours seemed to be too short when we reached our final point. Arms were exhausted with paddling, so were the body and legs, but not our spirits. We wanted more.





Preparing for the show



It's me - showing some excitement



That's the Trisuli river we rafted through - our stop point

yet another doomsday: who benefits?

Some snaps taken during the morning hour of bandh, today. These bandhs (Valley shutdown) seem to be the only way of protest and the only way the government understands. The idea was conceived and brought into action by those people in the government and now others are just following in their footsteps. No one to blame.


Protesters busy carrying nearby objects to block the road. May God give them a little consciousness.



Police van and UN vehicle getting past the blockade at Maharajgung

Nature

Some of the pics that I took on my last visit to ICIMOD Godavari Demonstration and Training Center at Godavari.





A bee and the flower





A staring beetle





A gang of unknown bugs





Leaves from closeup





A pink bug

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USBCell: look around for new ideas

Charging battery via USB never crossed my mind, though I have seen and used MP3 player being charged after plugging into USB. But AA battery (USB Cell) charging with USB is something new for me. You may also charge them with your normal charger, after putting the cap on.

How about this? The world with no battery. The device getting charged from the powerful radio waves, emitting from super powerful transmitter. Seems absurd now. But you never know - some scientists may already be working on this.

The world is indeed full of ideas and these ideas are on an increase with every innovation. Look around us and see if we can conceive anything of our use - or anything that is going to solve a problem to some extent. I bet your life will get transformed that day. Keep exploring.

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French or other languages: gain with pain

I am in the third week of my french class and now can speak few sentences. There's a whole lot of conversion (english-french) and constructions taking place in brain, before words burst out of the mouth. And again most of them would be improperly articulated. It's difficult and yet fun to learn new stuffs. Sometimes it gets really frustrating when I don't understand anything our instructor is saying and i feel that I am the only victim. Later it turns out that most others are also on the same side.



The problem with beginners in any language is vocabulary. There are so many things you want to say but you don't know the words. You go through simple nursery books, comics and couldn't comprehend beyond first few words. Our instructor said that we would be in a position to understand simple comics after third level, which would take six months plus. That's a way too long for me. I am really looking forward to read comics after the first level. That means I give at least an hour to french everyday. Gain and pain are part of learning indeed.

technology vs us: who is using whom

My mobile had crashed two times, leaving me at the mercy of the callers. Technology does paralyse us at times. But still we are dependent upon it. Just to make sure that I don't go through the same agony, I now take monthly backup of my addressbook, transfer to my computer via bluetooth and then safely email to my gmail account. There are cases I have seen, when people totally get lost after losing their mobile. Well I am not preparing to lose my mobile nor crash it again, but just the precaution in case. If you notice, I am still at the mercy of the technology. I sometimes wonder if we are using technology or it is using us. This world has indeed become more and more complicated.

It's upto us!

1960: richest 20% of the world's population had 70% of global income

1991: richest 20% of the world's population had 85% of global income

Courtesy: http://www.iht.com/articles/1996/12/11/edbim.t.php



"A billion customers in the world are waiting for a 2$ pair of eyeglasses, a 10$ solar latern and a 100$ house."



There's a lot of inequalities among the richest and the poorest of this world and yet the cleverest designers are catering to the richest 10%, according to Dr. Polak. True! isn't it?



We can help billions of poor people and yet make money (only if u are money minded - i guess most of us are) or we can help few millions of rich people and again make money. What do we choose? It's upto us whether to bring long-lasting smile to the billion people or an instant joy to the insatiable million people.

For how long??

I stayed in queue for exactly 50 minutes to get fuel for my bike. There were hundreds of people waiting for their turns. How many productive hours of the nepalese citizens been wasted? Who cares? Those who should never get time to think about the citizens and their welfares.



Waiting in queue for 50 minutes with starving stomach. Ohh! Finally I got home, just to find that there's no electricity. It was load-shedding day. Well my would-be-unproductive hours seemed to be productive, though in some way. I must say that "They do think about us - randomly". />

being positive is hard

No matter how much I read about positivity, it's really hard to be positive. I was returning from my french class, there was a jam in New Road. It was not moving at all. I got off my bike and climbed the overhead bridge to see the vehicles, enveloping entire road - as far as my vision allowed - just sitting there without any sign of movement. I asked couple of people standing, "What happened?". Most questioned me back. Some were mentioning that something's to be with whining teachers, they were burning something. I still don't have any idea what might have happened exactly where at 7:30 in the evening today.



Anyways I turned back and came the long road - yeah we still have fuel shortage. On the way back, there was a mid-aged man, with a pot belly, in a scooter honking after almost every 3-4 seconds. I would count 1-2-3-4 and he honked and it continued for quite a long period. I wondered if he is obsessed with horns. So I let him overtook me. And he would still not stop honking, even in an open road. I was so irritated that everytime he honked, I would honk him back. He didn't seem to be affected at all. Finally he took another way. I wonder what's wrong with people here. They don't think or they don't have mind at all.

Runner's high: I felt it before I knew about it

I wrote about happy feelings after running, almost two months back. I have even recommended people to try running rather than consuming alcohol to achieve the same feelings as one would get during alcohol intake. I even derived an empirical equation



Tiredness = hanged - worries = happy feelings



I didn't know that people already knew about such happy feelings and have even given a name "Runner's high". Runner's high involves not only in running but all sort of sports and occurs due to the generation of chemical called endorphine during strenuous exercise. I felt it and now I knew about it.



Today is my probably the 6th run to-fro Budhanilkantha. My wish to run without breaks is finally accomplished today. I am happy about that and ofcourse there's runner's high. The mild rain on the way back added even more excitement and boosted my energy. I guess I experienced "runner's very high" today :)



Scott Dunlap seems to know a lot about runner's high and his feelings are also quite similar to mine - regarding the use of marijuna (in his case) vs running for the euphoric feelings.

'Telecommunications in all villages in a year' huh!

I wonder if Mr. Mahara did any study or consulted with telecommunication people before making statement like 'telecommunication facilities would be expanded at each village across the country in a year's period'. I hope he did. He is information and communication minister after all. I would like to see their work plan not just talking. I wonder if they think construction is as easy as destruction.



If you look at the ekantipur news, the above statement seems to make way for other topics like declaration of republic, constitutent assembly, Moaists People's Liberation Army...



It just seems to be waste of time to go through such news. But the headline caught my eyes. These media people do know how to get their audiences.

A short Shivapuri hike

Though it was a short hike, we had lots of fun talking at the colorful monastery somewhere at top of Shivapuri hill with Anna, Emma and Prajna. The rain was even more exciting, with one umbrella and one raincoat and 4 people with coordinated down hill walk. We didn't get to drench in rain though our pants got dirty and gave the look of the real hike. And I got to know lots of interesting facts on Sweden from Anna and Emma.

Foreigners do have lots of problems here. We have to pay Rs 10 to enter Shivapuri National Park while they have to pay Rs 250. I was surprised to hear that they are constantly approached by drug dealers, asking if they need any, while walking in the city. Interesting.


Kathmandu city as seen on the way


Girls pointing somewhere at the city


Way to Monastery (Yellow Building)


A whole lot of colorful Buddhist flags near Monastery


Emma, Prajna and Anna inside Monastery


A huge colorful drum inside Monastery

Boogie, the bday boy

The Boogie, alias Sugam bhai, was preparing to cut his birthday cake in the third and the last day of his birthday celebration series. I heard it - about the series. Yet to find the truth which I don't care, and also similarly non-important issue is about his name - why he is called "The Boogie".

Updates: Three days bday celebration mystery solved

It's so easy to get depressed here, learn to suppress it

I was just going through the daily online news and felt very bad reading all those bad news, making to the headlines.

Fuel shortage hits valley
[...]The current stock of petrol, diesel, and kerosene in the Kathmandu Valley is hardly adequate for two days,[...]

Patients return from Bir hospital empty-handed
[...]I came from Janakpur for my throat check-up, but they (hospital officials) didn't issue a ticket saying there was no doctor,[...]

Camps: Hell for PLA combatants
[...]They desert their camps and knock at the doors of locals, pleading for
shelter and protection from gales, rain, mosquito bites, and possible
harm from snakes and scorpions during the night.[...]

Ex-soldiers take to the street
[...]We will now hold an indefinite transportation strike in Chitwan,
Bharatpur, Mugling Bazar and Bhaise area of Makawanpur district
beginning Thursday to exert pressure on the government[...]

Besides there's daily traffic jams, water scarcity, terrai conflict... Few days and probably weeks back, I thought I wouldn't see news and read news. I hardly watch News anymore, though I skim through the online news once in a while. And it's enough to get depressed easily.

It is said that whatever is in our mind, will manifest. We are very prone to negativity. Negative thoughts are very very health hazardous as explained by Guru Michael Anthony in his freely downloadable howtobehappy book. Read how to be happy and may you help yourself and your surrounding in getting happiness despite the looming depression.

"I am always truthful, positive and helping others" is the mantra to bliss.

Wired Kathmandu

I still remember an ICIMOD colleague, a finnish lady, once mentioned to me, "I wonder why do people need to hang all those wires around the city". I looked around and wondered "Wow! she's right!". I have never realized that. After 25 years of staying here at Kathmandu, I saw that there's not a street, alley that don't have wires hanging in air. We are so much used to hanging wires, our eyes filter them unconsciously. We have to be reminded that it's there. Among those wires are electricity wires, telephone, channels cables, and now internet cables. I bet people would also hang wireless cables, if only they could.

From the visible perspective, Kathmandu should be one of the most wired city. What do you say, folks?

If you look down from my home veranda, there's a bunch of wires running across the alley towards my home and few of them are actually for my home - telephone, channel cable, internet cable and electricity. The white box in the dirty looking pole is actually the world link internet cable box. You can imagine how easy it was to get internet for me. Don't ever think of stealing internet from there.

Hail wired Kathmandu!! Now I see wires everyday ;)

Ugh! Worldlink

It's been few days that blogger.com is not working from home, the result is none of the xyz.blogspot.com are working. I called Worldlink, the Great ISP, to inform them about this. They told me that they have blocked blogger.com to prevent massive spamming to their email accounts. How could they do that to such popular blogging site just because they can't control spamming? I was asked to talk with some other person tomorrow. Let's see what he'll say to me.

Strange - French or English?

Learning French is fun and strange, especially when we are much used to English, which is even much strange when we really ponder on it.



Pronounce Put and Hut

Similarly Go and Do



We pronounce them correctly because we are used to it. Such type of mis-pronunciation rarely occur in French, our instructor at Alliance Francaise told us. I have yet to find that out by myself. So far I learned speaking 4 sentences, which I don't remember at all. I don't need to - that's what our instructor told us. And I obey him :)

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Kathmandu jams

If you ever been stuck in Kathmandu jams, you will know how suffocating it can be with smokes, dust, horns, ever-increasing vehicles and mindless people. Vehicles are increasing in a daily basis and it is said that if all the vehicle are being lined up, then the entire Kathmandu road will be found shorter. I don't know how much facts support that said statement. But whenever you get stuck in jams which don't seem to move for almost half-an-hour, you feel that all the Kathmandu dwellers are on the street in their vehicles at the same time - atleast I feel that way. If people are little calm, then we don't ever need to get stuck in jams. Everyone is in a hurry and as a result everyone gets stuck. We should abide by the rule - first-in-first-out but here people try to follow last-in-first-out rule. Usually people take up the wrong lane in order to leave the jam behind and in a matter of seconds, two-way lane gets filled with unidirectional vehicles. You don't want to be there.


Yesterday I got stuck in a not-would-be-but-people-caused jam. A taxi tried to change the lane to move in other direction. It's quite common in Kathmandu. You back the vehicle and change the lane and direction. You may see the traffic policeman approaching a taxi (see image above), which hit the micro-bus during backing process. The other side is blocked up by the micro-bus, driving in the wrong lane (see below), trying to overtake, God knows who. This is called bottle-neck and it happens almost everyday. If only people have mind, they would never hurry to drive, change lane and would never get stuck in jams.

Artifact to be preserved or replaced?

Can you see what exactly it is? Looks like some sort of artifact.



Take a close look.



More close. Maybe you want to take a sit now.



I hope you can see that it's a bus stand (5 minutes walk from Narayan Gopal Chowk). It has been there for more than a year in such condition. It's obvious that some reckless driver had hit on it and I still wonder from which side. Isn't that something to be preserved for future generation to see? Maybe it is otherwise it doesn't make sense to have it lying there for more than a year. I propose that it be fenced to protect it from amendments.

10 free softwares without which i can't think of my computer

Some of the free softwares which get opened in my computer frequently. Besides I use other propriety softwares also, microsoft office, photoshop, adobe acrobat to name a few, which are not included in this list below.

Firefox Browser
I can't live without firefox - my window to the internet world. There are plenty of extensions/plugins that enhance the functionality of firefox. Let's see whether you imagination can beat it.

Notepad++
I accidentally used Notepad++ for the first time and now this is my standard editor. I use it for normal editing and even for programming php, python. This light-weight notepad++ has tabbed interface, syntax folding, line numbering,... features. I use its regular expression a lot when I need to manipulate data, extract information from raw data.

7-zip
7-zip is open source counterpart of winzip, winrar or whatever you are using for compression. So far 7-zip can open any compression file type. It's been more than a year that I have been using this and haven't regretted since.

M-player/VLC
VLC is a fork of M-player. You can play almost any media (video/audio) in these players. How many times your window media player wouldn't play some video and shows you some nasty message. I bet you will never get such message from either m-player or VLC. It's default installation contains most plugins for many media types. I like controlling volume, forwarding using keys functionality of m-player.

Fox-it reader
This is a light-weight counter part of memory gobbler and slow starter adobe reader. These days whenever anyone comes to me for help in opening pdf files, they get free fox-it reader installed in their computer and without a charge.

Process explorer
This is another freeware, highly advanced counterpart to the windows task manager. Have you ever realized that your windows computer wouldn't let delete some file or folder, saying used by some other program, and you won't see any program running. Huh! crazy Microsoft. Now you have to restart your comuter just to delete that file. But not anymore with process explorer. You can search for that file from it and choose to close the handle that is using that particular file or folder. No more restart. Really useful and attractive GUI.

Wordweb
You are reading in your computer. You come across some unfamiliar words. You turn your dictionary. No way. You can setup a hot-key to open freeware wordweb after selecting some unknown word. If I come across some unknown words, i will select it and press CTRL+ALT+W to see the meaning in wordweb. Really handy if you do lots of reading in your computer. So far there are 2/3 instances where wordweb couldn't find the searched word but provides a link to search in the internet.

Winamp (lite version)
Lite version of winamp is free and consumes very little memory and also installer is pretty much small. Unfortunately it doesn't play wma file in its default installation.

Xnview
This is editor, image viewer, screenshot capturer and free of course but for non-commercial use. I like its batch transforming features. You select a bunch of images and choose to resize to some standard size, in just one click. This is very handy when you have downloaded large images from your digital camera and your friend asks you to email photos of him only. Capturing screenshots with xnview is also very very useful and easy and time saver.

Thunderbird
I use Thunderbird to get mail for my office mail only. Otherwise I prefer web interface for others.

Some salesperson are just too great

When you are buying any stuff, you will immediately know that, "yes, this is the person I will buy from". They explain the things, even without being asked, and so nicely put that you can't resist buying from him. Similarly you know when you are not buying from some sales-person when he/she speaks his/her first sentence.



Like today, I was buying a battery for my bike, to replace the worn-out one. The person, behind the counter, probably at this sixties, explained to me so nicely about the battery world that I couldn't get out of there without buying one. Though I was looking for some recommended brand, I got some other "If you are not careful enough, any battery will drain out no matter how expensive it is or of whatever successful brand it is. If you are careful, the battery will last for atleast 4/5 years, no matter how cheap it is." There may be some exaggeration, but he was very persuasive, with reasoning ofcourse.

think before you leap

Sometimes I wonder why I do something without thinking. Today at office I suddenly stopped the database server; I was testing something. I forgot for a moment that lots of applications are being served from that server. It took me more than an hour to get it started - just to start the database server. Can you imagine that? I was so tensed. Sometimes linux machine gives me a lot of headache. Now I know the problem and the solution. There's always learning from ones' mistakes. But again I haven't documented anywhere about that scenario. Ugh!

Socialize

"I have been drinking lots of water these days."

"You better leave Nepal soon. Maybe water scarcity will get minimized to some extent."

You bet I would, if only I did that.



In almost every get-together with friends, there would be jokes. Some jokes get really creative, like the one above. Laughing and mocking never gets done before the party gets over. This is very important for everyone of us to get refreshed from our daily work. Socializing every once in a while is a boost to the productivity.



How long have you not been out with your friends? Have you realized how much dull your life has become? Get your feet running.

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addictive downloads: threat to memory

My hard drive is almost full with loads of downloads that begin once my night-surfing internet goes online. Downloading is like addiction, the more you download, the more you want to. The worst thing about any download is you don't want to erase them - though you won't know whether you are going to use it or it. I am a follower of "When in doubt, throw it out" philosophy, but still i find it hard to apply to the virtual stuffs; it's ok with tangible stuffs, though. Primarily it's because I am in Nepal, bandwidth is a valued resource. It takes time, a lot, to download and even more patience. A lot of time mean lots of - sometimes it can take days or even month.



I bought an external hard drive case for my 20GB disk, to keep backups of my precious downloaded files. Now 3GB left. Download addiction is indeed threat to beloved memory.

Alcohol: you haven't tried, well you don't need to now!

You have not tasted alcohol once? You have never been drunk? You feel that you should experience it once. Thanks to Brad Paisley, you don't need to anymore. This great country singer knows alcohol much better. It's got both good and bad consequences. It seems that bad (13) outruns good (9). And it's upto you whether you taste it or just listen to it.

Alcohol

- Brad Paisley



I can make anybody pretty.

I can make you believe any lie.

I can make you pick a fight with somebody twice your size.

Well, I've been known to cause a few break-ups,

An' I've been known to cause a few births.

Well, I can make you new friends, or get you fired from work.



And since the day I left Milwaukee,

Lynchburg an' Bordeaux, France,

Been making the bars lots of big money,

An' helpin' white people dance.

I got you in trouble in High School,

But College, now that was a ball.

You had some of the best times you'll never remember with me:

Alcohol; Alcohol.



I got blamed at your wedding reception,

For your best man's embarrassing speech.

And also for those naked pictures of you at the beach.

I've influenced Kings and world leaders,

I helped Hemingway write like he did.

And I'll bet you a drink or two, that I can make you put that lampshade on your head.



'Cause since the day I left Milwaukee,

Lynchburg and Bordeaux, France,

I been making a fool out of folks just like you,

An' helping white people dance.

I am medicine and I am poison,

I can help you up or make you fall.

You had some of the best times you'll never remember with me:

Alcohol.



Yeah, since the day I left Milwaukee,

Lynchburg an' Bordeaux, France,

Been making the bars lots of big money,

(Helpin' white people dance.)

Yeah, I got you in trouble in High School,

But College, now that was a ball.

You had some of the best times you'll never remember with me:

Alcohol; Alcohol.

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Unpredictable life

I was startled to see a group of people with red bands on their heads, blocking the road at Lazimpat. I turned my bike - I had no choice. Upon reaching Kamaladi, there was another blockade and similarly at Durbar Marg. If you ask any pedestrian, "Don't know" is the first response you would hear the most. We are so much used to this life, we don't care anymore. "Used to" doesn't mean we look forward to but we adapt ourselves when such situation arises and curse them and then ignore. Then I reached Samakhusi and saw people burning tires. One guy, a frail looking, approached and asked me to give him a lift to Lazimpat. He explained that he walked all the way from Soyambhu ( a long way from Samakhusi) and he works in a hotel and that he's getting very late. At first I thought I should give him a lift, but I was waiting for a friend. "Sorry bro!". Also I feel that people are not to be trusted especially in such situations. That guy may not have any bad intention as such but I didn't feel secure; and I didn't have any good reason to give him a ride too. There may be hundreds or even thousands of people,who are directly or indirectly affected by such unpredictable situations. May god give consciousness to those who lack.

An attempt to organize life

It's been few weeks that I find myself cluttered. I have several things in my mind that I would like to do, write in papers or spiral copy, sometimes I would write in a text file in my computer. Often I would lose the paper or I would forget to turn the pages. Result is I would do nothing that I would consider productive, just surf the internet, listen to music, watch movies, send SMS, and time to sleep.



In an attempt to make my life a little organized, I bought a white board today. I have already written my todos, and I wait for the day to get them crossed one-by-one.



Can you read my todos?

Coincidently there's also a post "Why paper to-do lists work better?" at lifehacker, which says paper-todos lists are better than e-todos lists. I would say white boards even outrun the paper-todos, atleast for my case. There are pros-cons in each of those cases though.

Friendship: a new defintion

I never knew friendship may also be defined like this. A witty and offensive one. But please don't be offended. You will always be my friend - oh! not that one.





Courtesy: ComedyPlus

The Nagarkot suns

I reached Nagarkot just in time get a glimpse of the setting sun. The morning rising sun was almost blocked by dark clouds but finally managed to escape the evil.





Wavering Buddhist flags at the Nagarkot Tower







The setting sun







Waiting for the sun rise







Finally the beautiful rising sun

Dhulikhel vs Kathmandu

The differences between Dhulikhel and Kathmandu were based on my 3 days stay only, with the entire day being spent at the training hall. So you may expect some misjudgements. We went out only in the evening. But I have a habit of running in the morning so I happened to know a little more than other trainees.

Dhulikhel	Kathmandu
Clean city. You can feel the clean, fresh air.	Your nose gets irritated instantly.
Small, beautiful city.	Beautiful is myth now.
Less vehicles.	You won't see anything but vehicles and lots of them. You curse them everytime you are in the street.

If you think I am against Kathmandu, then you are wrong. I also found some positives in living in Kathmandu.

Dhulikhel	Kathmandu
Dogs are stupid. They can't differentiate jogging people from running thieves. I was chased at several places.	Dogs are intelligent. They are indifferent to running people. I am sure they can locate running thieves also.
Cyber cafes are almost nil. We didn't find one, though I was told there are two.	You will find cyber cafes almost evey corner.

First aid can save lives

I have never realized the importance of first aid training. Despite a little busy schedule at office, I gave my name for the training, organized by DPNet (Disaster Preparedness Network). The most exciting part was the training was to be held at Dhulikhel (30+ km from Kathmandu) for 3 days. It was like a vacation (a short one though) or a break from office. That vacation short-lived, when we were told that we had to give exams at the end of the training to get certified as a first-aider, besides we were also given home-works (I would say hotel-works).  We also were evaluated after each session, which made most of us nervous. Evaluations, exams were, are still frightening.

We stayed at the Dhulikhel Resort Hotel. The view from my room was spectacular. Couple of really good friends were made. Three days was not enough for us, passed like 3 seconds - with some exaggeration though.

I learned many things that I would never know, had I not take the training. There are so many basic things that we would normally ignore during wounds, cuts, shocks, burns... At least one person from each family should take this training - DPNet put forth its vision. Really even basic first aid can save lots of lives. The trainer told us a true story of a doctor, who lost his son because he didn't know basic first aid training. In the picnic, chicken bone got stuck in the boy's throat. The parents, both doctors, did their best to save their only son's life but in vain. Just few pats at the back would have helped the boy, there are also few other first aid techniques if that didn't work. That tragic story was presented just to show how important first aid training is. It can and has saved lives.

time 43:09:84 - oops! a time for repair

As I was preparing to go to the office this morning, I was shocked to see the time 43:09:84. It was working fine till last night. I remember pressing small buttons randomly, when the alarm went off. Crazy but good looking watch. And it's still not working :(



I hate to take things - anything - for repair. Once my mobile stopped working, I went for repair and that repair-guy charged 500 bucks for just formatting (i don't know how to then, though i know it now). I tried to bargain but that guy was so annoying that I left the said amount and later I got annoyed with myself - how could I?

my hilarious school project2: I was and am a normal guy

After posting my hilarious school project on 'unicorn', I received lots of comments via blogs, telephone, in person, "What kind of kid was you them?", "A serial killer?", "What were you thinking then?". Well i don't have any answer for any of your queries cause I don't remember what I was thinking then. But I have another humorous project on 'yeti', which was also submitted along with 'unicorn'. This report does show my good and friendly side. By good side I don't mean I also had hostile posture, but to prove that I was just completing my project and nothing to do with my what so ever. Enjoy :)

This villanous guy but a friend of mine, even posted in his blog.

How to get anything i want?

I asked for something

then I imagined

felt the passion

And I left



I knew that

the day would come

the day my wish

would come true



it's just a matter of asking

imagining and feeling it

and leaving the rest

for him to get it for me



finally i got it

the thing that i asked for

the thing i imagined

the thing i felt for



for this universe

never runs out

of my askings

for anything i want



-Anjesh



Note: This poem is inspired from the law of attraction, that law that says you attract anything you wish.

Nagarkot to Sundarijal Trip

7 hours of continuous walk from Nagarkot to Sundarijal, covering a distance of more than 24 km, was indubitably tiresome nonetheless fun. This is the longest hike I have walked so far. Aching back. Exhausted legs. Face covered with dust, touching ones face gives a feeling of sand papers. Cloths and shoes topped with dust. We didn't expect anything else; hike is supposed to be like this. Isn't it?



There were only two of us - Ujol dai and me. Others backed off at the last moment. It was good in some sense cause I don't think the group of more people would be able to cover that distance in time we took. We walked at fair speed, with very very minimal breaks, and that only during ascends. I couldn't imagine reaching home on the same day, had there been ladies. Thank god. The hill was exhaustively steep, I would say almost 60 degree or more. After walking for almost 4 hours, can you imagine climbing that hill? How about with bicycles? Well we met a couple pushing hard in that hill, and with bicycles. Crazy yet passionate people; I respect them.



We passed and walked through lots of villages on the way. I don't remember all of them. Kartike, Manichur, Jhule, Mul khadka... At one point on the way to Jhule, we almost got lost - had to turn back after walking for more than 20 minutes. There were few houses, scary ghostly looking, the environment was also little uncomfortable, with no people at sight. We thought we shouldn't take more chances at unknown places, so finally turned back.



Kartike Village, close to Nagarkot

There are schools built by donors. Kids, we met in village, mentioned about them, though we didn't see. There were two engineers from Netherlands, visiting the village that day, to lay the foundation for the new school - kids said that. Truly amazing and great people.



We saw few rhododendron trees. It seemed that many flowers had been picked by sheepherder, wood collector. We saw one tree filled with red rhododendron. We couldn't resist taking snaps there.



I was shocked to see foreigners walking alone. They must have been walked the distance before. There had been news of missing foreigners, in the past, in the hills of Nepal. It's very risky, without villages and people at a helping distance, should anything happened.



Finally we were pacified to hear the comforting sound of flowing water of Sundarijal - our walk was almost over. Eventually we reached the base at 5:40 PM, having started the walk at 10:30 AM from Nagarkot. A long walk indeed.



A kid carrying a baby goat

Nepal already committed to the earthhour

Today I received an email about the earth hour, the campaign to reduce green house emissions. We are to turn off our lights for one hour once a year, as a sign for our committment to reduce global warming, giving just one hour to our mother earth. That one earth hour is going to make a lots of difference to the climate change, if we really commit ourselves to earth hour.



The funny thing at Nepal is we are compelled to commit to the earth hour. Have you ever heard of load-shedding? Well this load-shedding campaign not only reduces green house emissons, but also reduces lots of our productivity. Because we are having 40 hours power off per week, a week or two back. Though the hours have reduced from last week onwards. Unfortunately Nepal doesn't contribute much to global warming, a small developing country, with not much industries like developed countries and yet are committing to earth hour - though not deliberately but out of necessity.



As far as the people, in general, are concerned, it's going to be a hell difficult task to make the crowd follow, unless we experience 'The Day after Tomorrow'. Rather than requesting people, how about compelling people. We can do anything if we just wish. Otherwise climate change, global warming doesn't make any difference to the lives of common people. Tsunami, earthquakes, tornados, sea-storms come and kill people; only those are affected and it's too late for them. For people living in New York, that doesn't make their single hair move. If tomorrow, San Francisco, Florida, Netherlands... gets submerged under water, as predicted by Al Gore in his award winning documentary 'An Inconvenient Truth', then I think people around the world will eventually start to act. I wonder if that start will be able to stop the end of the world. I just wish.

I almost got promoted by myself

At the end of every month, we have to sign an attendance form. I love this day; our bank account will encounter an increase. I know this attendance system is orthodox; the ICIMOD's way. I signed the form, gave it to the division secretary. Almost immediately I got a call from him "You will be punished!". He's not serious (most of the time) so I went to him with a smile to find out the cause. Well I had signed under progamme manager title rather than mine. And that was unintentional. Some colleagues had already started mocking me "That was a really quick and gigantic promotion". If only ...

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Honey from honeycomb

For the first time, today I tasted fresh honey from the fresh honeycomb, freshly taken from the bee home. The comb was cut into pieces, hexagonal beeswax holding honey intact. It was little difficult to put the tasty piece in your mouth, as you risk dropping sticky honey in your clothings. I did anyway. It was sweet thick and satisfying. First I didn't know whether to suck honey from the comb or put the entire piece into mouth. I just followed the crowd, put the piece in, sucked honey, chewed the wax and threw the wax out.

UML: developers tool or the Nepalese party

After been working in software development for more than two years, I thought I should now dip into UML tools, that would help me in designing softwares efficiently and effectively. I hope that with its use I would be in a better position to explain the application functionality clearly. In the past I had tried to learn UML in much details. But... No comments.



I must have downloaded an e-book "UML2 for Dummies" way back. I am not dummy. I wonder why "... for Dummies" are titled. If you have realized, "... for Dummies" are usually computer related books. Are the publishers/authors trying to be funny or trying to make fun of others. Anyways I was in the "Introducing UML" section - a beginning of the beginning.

[...]

The first thing you need to know is what the initials UML stand for. Don’t laugh—lots of people get it wrong, and nothing brands you as a neophyte faster. It’s not the Universal Modeling Language, as it doesn’t intend to model everything (for example, it’s not very good for modeling the stock market; otherwise we’d be rich by now). It’s also not the Unified Marxist-Leninists, a Nepalese Political party (though we hope you’ll never get that confused). It is the University of Massachusetts Lowell—but not in this context. UML really stands for the Unified Modeling Language.

[...]

I just want to show you the red-colored text above. Nepal is such an unknown small country - though people are generous enough to make it infamous now. But again I am happy to see Nepal in such unexpected ways.

my hilarious school project

I just happened to stumble upon some of my school reports. I was thrilled to see my work, dated almost 10 years back. Some of these are really funny that I couldn't resist laughing. I don't know what I was thinking then. I wondered whether my grade 8 English teacher (Chris Heaton, I still remember him) laughed at my piece or not. Take a look.

Time

Days come and go

Time never waits just so

Respect time of yours

Success arrives at your door



It doesn't hurt trying some poetry at times:)

My queue is the longest one. Oh God!

Have you ever realized that the queue which you belong to is the longest? Then you change the queue thinking that the other one will be shorter but in vain. You will get stuck in the longest one, no matter how much you try. I can't predict about you but it usually happens to me - like today.



I went to pay the monthly bill of telephone at Nepal Telecom counter. At first I just chose one of the two queues randomly. Standing, I counted the number of people in both the queues. It seemed that the one I belonged to had two more than the other one. And the woman at the front of my queue was discussing with the counter person. It's definitely going to take time, I thought for a moment and shifted to the seeminhly-shorter queue. Guess what happened? People who came after me paid their bill and went out one by one and I got stuck in the shorter-yet-longest queue. The person behind the counter was little slow and so was his computer. He would wait for 20 seconds before the bill gets printed. I didn't want to re-shift to the former because the next turn in that queue was mine. And my turn wouldn't come. I didn't count properly but probably 10 or more people who came after me overhauled me. I was so furious. But what? It was my decision to change to the shortest yet longest queue. That's why I hate this orthodox system. I like the queue management system, an electronic system that issues you a number at the time you arrive and your turn will come when that number appears in the scrolling LED screen, attached somewhere around the wall. First come first serve basis. I am really bad at locating the shortest queue. It has happened to me several times in the past. Yet it's happening. Why don't these big corporations implement such an efficient queue management system?

I did it again.

Well I ran to Budhanilkantha again and this time, ran back too, covering a total distance of 10 KM plus. That's a lot. The most amazing thing is I ran back without a single break and that again after devouring a litre of water at Budhanilkantha. At first I was about to take a vehicle back but decided to run some distance and then only ride vehicle. Surprisingly energy came out of nowhere and I felt energised, depleting full day energy ( I am still lethargic, it's night now, with pain in my back, legs).



Today I realized some similarities between being hanged and tiredness. When you are hanged, you give a damn to the people, you are a happy person, smiling, you don't hear or actually see people, you are not conscious about yourself. That's what exactly happened when you are very tired. That's how I felt today.



But there are more advantages of tiredness over being hanged though their immediate effects seem to similar.You won't get to experience horrible hangover after tiredness, which is obviously a good thing. And you won't be destroying your liver during tiredness as during hanged. You won't have to worry about your tummy during tiredness, instead you will be excited about your body. You don't have to worry about your foul breath.

Tiredness = hanged - worries = happy feeling



So the next time you really want to get hanged, just run 10KM plus and you won't regret. Don't believe me? Try it.

Practice! Practice!

After having done the demonstration part of the elibrary presentation at ICIMOD, people started to congratulate me. "It was great! You did a great job!" I was not much prepared and was quite sure that my portion of the presentation did not go well. I underestimated my part, thinking it was just a demo and I can speak anything that comes to my mind. But I prepared a rough outline of what I would be showing to the audiences. That list did come handy. But I felt that I could have done much better if I had practiced at least three or four times. English is not my native language so that also poses a little barrier. I really have to search for words at times. Practice! Practice! Practice! Boy that's what makes you perfect! I know this and yet I overlook.

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Wiki! Wiki!

The first time I was giving training on Wiki at ICIMOD, I was the most excited person. I was thinking of different ways to grab the audiences. I succeeded so far. But now the fourth training and sixth presentation on the same topic within 3 months didn't excite me much. I am always looking for challenges; it was then, but not anymore as it used to. But it's my responsibility, I had to do it, and faked some excitement. I should have done extra work on that to make it even more interesting. The difficult part of huge organization is one has to approve all these materials. Even though it's a learning process, sometimes I really don't want to go through all the hassles and just compromise with what I have, which is bad, I know. And yet, I did!



Long live wiki.

lost in the wind: the voices of the poor and powerless

On Saturday, a school girl was killed in a road mishap in Bungamati of Lalitpur district. She was standing near the bus door and thrown out of the speeding bus, twisted and rolled before getting under the wheels, killing the 16 year old instantly. The agitated crowd went to the police office in Jawalakhel, protesting against the bus driver. No conflict till now. Everything going as expected. One gets killed and people protesting, burning tyres, chanting slogans. Now it happened that that killer bus belonged to some close relatives of maoists. The potent maoists threatened the police that if they didn't suppress the crowd, they would bring their army. The powerless government police had to charge on the crowd. What do one make of so called democracy? Democracy? Not yours, it's theirs, the maoists!!

Questions.. What? Why? How?

Sometimes I question a lot. It just comes naturally like habit. People find it funny. If somebody says something, "why" is the first thing that comes out of me. Does that sound funny? I don't think so. But some people does. In Smriti's party (farewell or bday or probably both), my questions were being counted. And that was funny. This guy has almost developed the habit of counting my questions.



How does this sound? "Yeah! my hobby is to count his questions?". Isn't it funny? No? Well, who cares? ? ?...?

A Budhanilkantha mission accomplished

Finally I made my run to Budhanilkantha today, a 5km ( plus some meters) distance from my home. It took 31 minutes in total, and I ran for 24 minutes 49 seconds and walked the rest. I was expecting worse than that. I was underestimating myself. My next mission would be to run the whole distance without any walks in between and then my another would be to run back and forth home. Well I took a vehicle back home today. I could still run but again I decided "little by little". Now I am liking myself being tired. It's a great feeling - for me though. Upon reaching my destination I drank almost half-a-liter water and left the other half in the vehicle. I forgot it, I was enjoying my tiredness.



I was thinking of this mission few months back and had even put it on my new year resolutions list.