Madeinepal

Open Satellite Data for Disasters and Investigative Journalism

2020-08-13T15:32:00.003+09:00

Maxar Tech's DigitalGlobe is part of the disaster charter.

The recent ammonium nitrate explosion in Beirut, bushfires in Australia in early January and the ongoing fight against Covid-19 have all but one thing in common; the need for facts, data and analysis to understand and act responsibly. One of the better ways to mine data is through satellites and while sub meter resolution data might cost thousands of dollars, there are other ways to retrieve meter-level information for free. Today, I will be looking at some of the resources online that brings space right down to your fingertips.

One thing to note is that several people have already compiled such lists. GISGeography has list of 15 free satellite imagery data sources that interested parties can explore. It extends on the article I wrote in 2017 about satellite data for Nepal which also has information on different indices that can be done with band math to classify images. However, with the advancement of Machine Learning (ML), specifically on Deep Learning, we will probably see a lot of band math being used along ML for image classification and segmentation purposes.

GISGeography enlists USGS Earth Explorer, which has data from its long standing LandSat program. I had used it to write my paper back in 2015 after the earthquake in Nepal but the interface is a bit old for 2020. Most interfaces now allow you to process image on the website itself without needing to have an expensive, heavy software like ESRI. Everything is done on the cloud and all you need is to do downlink the results.

Case in point Google's Earth Engine which has datasets from LandSat and the popular Sentinel programs. You will need a google account and some Javascript to code but you will find plenty of tutorials on YouTube to get along with your first project just fine. Here's an excellent article on studying the river path using the Earth Engine platform on medium. A similar powerful tool I have come across that's free (although if you want, you can purchase high resolution data on the spot) is EOS' landviewer application. You can do all sorts of things without leaving the website and is a powerful tool if you want immediate answers to your satellite data questions.

Sentinel Open Access Hub is dedicated to Sentinel data with an interface similar to USGS Earth Explorer. I have noticed Sentinel's EO Browser to be much more powerful. However, you will need to sign in and there's a time limit. A higher resolution data interface is provided by Planet where you can create timescale data such as Nepal's Sisdol landfil site to understand how it's making an impact on the environment. You will receive free two week access to the data.

An excellent article to start understanding how satellite resolution matters, how to program and use it for investigative journalism is written by Techjournalist on medium. The article has a top to bottom guide on forest fire detection, tracking terrorists and finding changes on a water body. All you have to do is learn from the examples provided (Python on Jupyter notebook as I remember) and then apply to your own problems.

It's also worth noting that through the UN SPIDER/UNOSAT program, space agencies who have signed on to the program have an obligation to provide free data. Any national or international organization in Nepal can request by call and form submission to UNOSAT. If the emergency is valid, UNOSAT will then trigger the International Charter Space and Disaster. Once the Charter is triggered, the data will then flow back to the organization that requested it. Companies like Planet and Digital Globe are also part of the charter so you can expect higher resolution data support.

You can watch my full talk on using Satellites for Disaster Prevention and Response below: (edit: looks like you will have to go to YouTube to watch it as third party website viewing is disabled)

Pandemic Micro Blabbering

2020-08-07T19:28:00.001+09:00

As humans and inhabitants of this beautiful planet for millions of years, we -humanity as a whole- never had had such a time when all of us cumulatively spent time sitting inside. On pre-pandemic times, I was at the office at 9 and all I could think was getting back home. When I got home, all I could think was getting out and about. A tiny minuscle never-seen-before virus later, we are all stuck inside waiting for the breakthrough herd immunity that the bio-science community keeps referring to. At this point, I am used to the social distancing rules, habits on OCD cleanliness but I do forget, for some reason, to wear the mask when I go out. I then have to walk back up, open the door, take my shoe out, wear my mask, wear my shoe again, lock the door, place the key at "you didn't see this" location and walk out.

Saving humanity isn't easy.

Exploring Okinawa's Craft Beer Scene

2020-08-06T18:11:00.000+09:00

Okinawa has a bustling - sometimes over-the-top - craft beer scene.

Little known fact about Okinawa, and even my Japanese friends from Kyushu didn't seem to be aware of, is that the island has...bull fighting. According to this website [HERE], there's about 20 fights taking place each year. Travel TV host, writer and former chef Late Anthony Bourdain actually goes to one of those fights; yakisoba in one hand and illicit gambling money on the other. Someone has uploaded the short content on YouTube [HERE] but I am sure you have your own ways of finding legal/illegal links online. The full show is a lot of fun. The only downside is that you see Tony. People taking their own lives is something I will never understand.

Another little known fact? The island is ripe with craft beer breweries. The smallest Japanese island packs a punch when it comes to numbers. There's actually more breweries than Kitakyushu (the place I currently reside) and Fukuoka (biggest city in Kyushu) combined. I know this because I actually sat down and did the math with the craft beer map that the boys have collected [HERE]. While the map has a few pubs missing here and there, it paints a fairly accurate picture of the brewing scene not just in Okinwawa but in Japan as well.

Perhaps the most bizzare location for a craft brewery had to be right above the most beautiful cave that I have ever been to. Usually caves are notoriously slippery, clumsy, tight-y affair. Gyokusendo [HERE] had proper, well lit pathways and I digged the way the cave used lights to accentuate the natural beauty. So it was a big surprise when I walk out of the cave and find a brewery staring right at me. Okinawa Sango Beer by Nanto Brewery had the usual suspects of stouts, pales and other usuals but was fairly pleased to see inclusion of Saison. The Belgian style is hardly explored here in Kyushu. For some reason though, I saw the island's scene embracing the style in a consistent manner. Everwhere you go, you had at least a Saison on the menu.

Okinawa Sango by Nanto Brewery

Ukishima Brewery, on the other hand, was a no-nonsense place. Everything kept simple, the location and settings felt familiar and the brewery had clear german influences. Reminded me of the time in Korea when you looked at the menu and you saw Golden, Weizen and Pale Ale perfectly lined up in every bar that you knocked on. I picked up the IPA, chatted a bit with the bartender and off I headed to the next brewery. A brewery that is actually run by a German.

Ukishima Brewery

Wolfbräu is both a coffee roaster and an on-site brewery serving authentic, handcrafted German brews. The place is run by a Japanese-German couple into their retirement age but you could see that they were still going strong. I got to speak with both of them and frankly, found their story more intriguing than their beers (named with an assortment of Wolf names I can't remember. I didn't even know there were that many types to be honest). Would love to go drop by and make small chat again.

Wolfbrau

Handpumps are not something you get to see in Japan. In fact, in all my years travelling around the Asian region, I have strangely never come across them. Not in fashion in Asia as I understood until I heard about this place near the American Village that still had old fashioned pumps serving beer and my heart, mind, body and spirit had to go to pay homage. I's Public Ale House proudly displayed the pumps and the owner was more than willing to explain how they work while he poured me a glass of Oyster Stout. I mean, the beer's literally used oysters to brew.

I's Public Ale House

A modern approach to serving beer would be at Okinawa Brewing Mihama Cafe. The place had 24 taps with beers ranging from barrel aged, dry hopped, sours, new englands to you name it. Perhaps the perfect one-stop-spot to introduce a lesser beer experienced audience to a newer, more complex world of beer styles. Their house beers included a Wheat Ale, Pale Ale and IPA. While I like to go local, I couldn't resist ordering Epic Brewery's Big Bad Baptist.

Okinawa Brewing

Another apt place for beer tasting would have to be aptly named Taste of Okinawa. The good thing about this place is not just that there's some really good deals during happy hour, but you can actually do a proper beer/food pairing. Beers on bottles are from all over Japan and selections are decent. Tap wise, there's a bit limitation on the styles as they are locally sourced.

Taste of Okinawa

A perfect place to end the day, relax next to the beach and enjoy a wide ranging gourmet meal would have to be at the heart of American Village, at Chatan Harbor Brewery to be precise. The setting reminds me of those big American breweries in California, however, the beers were largely OK. There was this limited edition style where they served more foam than beer. Apparently, the experience is on the foam. In all these years of drinking and tasting good beer, I have actually never come across such a bizzare idea.

Chatan Harbor

As I am writing this, Okinawa is under state of emergency with COVID-19 cases rising exponentially for the first time. If you ever do travel to the place, do take precautionary measures as most people weren't actually wearing masks in and around the American Village.

Stay and drink responsibly.

Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea: FA Cup Final 7 Conclusions

2020-08-05T16:44:00.006+09:00

Look, I am just really glad that this season is over because if you are in Japan and trying to watch the games, it's pretty much sleepwalking through the game. "Project Restart" meant that matches were coming thick and fast, and even before you had the time to contemplate, mourn, complain and all the emotions that comes along by following Arsenal, the next match was upon you..at 4 AM. It's not even 12:00 AM where you are slightly sleep deprived nor is it 7 AM when it's possible to wake up in the morning and watch the game over your morning bathing suit.

Nope. It had to be 4 AM.

How do you even go about planning to watch a game at 4 in the morning? You can't sleep because you will wake up in the morning with google reminding that either Mustafi or Bob Marley had one of those reggae defensive days. You can't keep waking up either because by the time the clock hits 1 AM, you are physically, mentally and spiritually dead.

So yes, I am glad the season is over and I am glad that Arsenal, despite coming 8th in the league (place your insider jokes here), still managed to scrap out a silverware when you least expected them to. A rookie manager given a team of what looked like misfits under Unai. But that's the beauty of it: A rookie manager with a team of misfits beating the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, and eventually Chelsea.

Game ON.

THE CUP FINAL

When Arsenal reached the semis for FA Cup and you looked at the other teams, your money wouldn't be on Arsenal. The team had to first face Manchester City which scored 3 to nothing in the very first game after the premier league restarted. On the other side, was Manchester United, rich in form after going unbeaten and Chelsea, led by their own legend, had created a team that was fast cementing itself as fast, dynamic and well rounded in attack (although their defense was as shit as Arsenal's). Hope wasn't a word you wanted to use. Arsenal were, in cliched terms, the true underdogs.

Then Arsenal did the unthinkable and beat Manchester City. And then went on to beat Chelsea to qualify for Europa league making Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho a very sad man indeed. Not only did Arsenal win a trophy, get into Europe in the last minute but also made sure Spurs has to play three additional games to qualify for the second tier European championship. Some of that and that and that please, yes.

So without further due, here's some the conclusion from the final

CONCLUSION 1: Pulisic was a BIG Headache

Christian Pulisic reminds me of how Hazard used to tear down Arsenal's meager defenses into shreds. He's fast, technically sound and positions himself extremelly well to connect with players like Giroud. Giroud loves to the hold the ball and play tricky passes and the American knows what to do with it. No surprises when both combined to give Chelsea the lead in 5 minutes. I had excused myself to go to the bathroom for a minute and when I saw the changed score line after coming back, I just couldn't help but think of the 8-2 spanking at Old Trafford. Every time I went to the bathroom, united scored. Rest assured, I stopped going to the bathroom after the first goal.

CONCLUSION II: Auba in Rich Form

If you remember last year at the Europa league final against the same opponent, Auba's form was pretty much down the drain. Both he and Laca didn't physically show up that day and Arsenal lost. Not this time though. Took a cool penalty to get the gunners ahead and then scored an absolute "holy shit" goal with his unnatural foot to give Arsenal the lead that they wanted. It's not the first time Auba bailed the team out but the team did everything they could to support him as well. Well played boys.

CONCLUSION III: Arteta and His Team of "Misfits"

Misfits in quotation marks because he has really turned the culture of the team around. Arsenal were in shambles when he took over. There were members in the squad who were either not invested, just bad or not willing. He came, gave them a clean slate to work on and brought emotional intelligence that was so so badly needed. The team wasn't consistent sure, but Arteta put life back into a team in coma, led it out on crutches and finally let it walk.

And walk it has. You could see the team even running after the winning the title.

CONCLUSION IV: Two Words: Emi Martinez

Emi Martinez has come in and done an equal, if not better job than Arsenal's first choice Leno. He's steady in air, alpha commands his area and is extremely good at short stopping. All in all, excellent performances over the period. There was this one time where shades of Lehmann/Fabianski did come in where he left his usual spot to run and grab the ball just inches inside the box but you can either look at that as incredibly amazing or incredibly stupid. Either way, he did what he had to do and managed to get the job, somehow, done. Let's just say I was sitting flat on the floor and my anxiety levels shot up to miss the Moon and reach all the way to Mars.

CONCLUSION V: Everything That Could Go Wrong Went Wrong For Chelsea

I am so used to looking at Arsenal press the self-destruct button that I forget other teams have access to their own version of "we shall self-destruct more than you" button. I mean losing their captain, giving a penalty away, getting a very harsh red (I still think it's yellow, so yes red it is) and then Pulisic pulling that hammy right before he took a shot was just a few things I can mention top my head. Giroud was non-present throughout and his replacement then went down as well. They were playing with 9 men at some point. Suffice to say, all the bad luck raining down on Chelsea was fun to see for a change. Fun when it happens to other teams, not much when it happens to the team you support. Either ways, Arsenal made the most out of it.

CONCLUSION VI: BBB: Belief is Back Baby!

Look, even though the team went on to win the 14th cup, the league standing still shows there's so much work that needs to be done in the team. The good thing is that Arteta now has the leverage to demand more investment as 1) they won the trophy 2) which means they are in Europe 3) that means the contracts that were on hold can go forward 4) also means there's a new sense of belief. Yes belief, the most underrated word in the universe. You believe you can, you will. Same goes with the team, if the team believes to their core, they can. Funny thing is that there's no right way to earn it.

Whatever the way, when you look at this team now, you can see that this team believes in that the manager has the best interest of the players and that will transcend into better performances because you are not only playing for the club, but for the fans, for the manager and for your teammates. That is a much, much more powerful motivating factor. And it starts out with believing that they can.

CONCLUSION VII: Jose is Unhappy

Makes me laugh out loud quite a lot actually.

Thanks all, check you guys out next time. Perhaps the league? Who knows?

Learning Machine Learning: Process Breakdown

2020-04-20T19:00:00.000+09:00

Two or more models can build one upon other to produce results which could have huge potential
Photo [HERE]

The handy Oxford dictionary (remember those?) describes learning as "acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience or being taught." Humans have, in some ways, learnt the way nature behaves and through years and years and years of painful experience and curiosity, build up a vast array of knowledge that have practical approach to having control over our environment. I see that the overarching goal of learning is learn to control; whether control in form of dams that divert rivers to change one form of energy to the next or predict a weather condition to, again, have control over our time and make decision whether to go forward with that all important BBQ.

The definition of process of learning though, is entirely subjective. People have their own ways, methods, schedules and regimes to build up skills, to study, to gain experience or to look for mentorship. In many cases, the learning could be structured like how a formal class is being taught. But for many others, it's largely ping-pong from one info to the other until one finally does make sense.

My approach to understanding and implementing Machine Learning (ML) in my own work was the latter. It's a massive hit or miss study of incredulous amount of keyword searches in google. That's how I learnt before and that was what I was doing it again. Did it only strike me to sit down and ask myself "I were to do it from the beginning, how would I approach it?" that I really began to deconstruct a process that worked for me. This might work for someone else. Here's my take:

BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF MACHINE LEARNING
A mathematical function (model) that uses statistics and linear algebra to mimic any decision making process (task) that is being replicated. In other words, it's a just a function. That's about it.

The most popular application for ML is an Image Classification problem. The state-of-art way to do that is to use Convolutional Neural Network.

Examples are:

A model that knows how to differentiate between a lion and a tiger

A model that knows how to separate between an orange and lemon

A model that classifies bottles, plastics and paper for waste management

Training in ML is the part where you teach the model how to separate. A trained model can then mimic the decision. In simplest mathematical terms, it's tuning the parameters inside the model.

IF I WERE TO BEGIN LEARNING MACHINE LEARNING, AGAIN

STEP #1
Build a dummy model from top to bottom without understanding what is going on

Free course that helped me do that:
Udacity's Intro to Tensorflow for Deep Learning

How I also learnt to build from scratch:

Medium's CNN scratch build

It helps to start with the most simplest model for the state-of-art ML algorithm. I used Convolutional Neural Network to separate between cat and dog. It's important to create your own dataset. This way you truely go through the entire process. Also, further helps when you use a popular training platform and training library. I used Google Colab and Tensorflow. You dont have to install anything in your computer or need any hardware if you use Colab. Used high level Keras to access Tensorflow API. Tensorflow and Keras are both open source ML libraries. The programming was done in Python.

STEP #2

Read Master's or PhD thesis on the relevant ML topic

Thesis's introduction chapters summarize key concepts and vocabulary neatly. It's less dense than a book and is more detailed than a paper; the exact balance to begin learning words. I would first read the entire introductory and ML explained chapter first. I would then do another reading and mark the vocabulary that I don't understand. What is regularization? What is dropout? What are weights and biasis? What is a Global Average Pooling Layer? Why are there kernels and strides and max pools? What is backpropagation, gradient decent? What is a cost function?

You got the point. This will allow you to build a vocabulary that you can then use to further understand the process in Step #1

STEP #3

Read a book or take a less hands-on, theory intense course:

Book that I am currently using:
MIT Deep Learning Book

Course that I frequent back to understand concepts:
Stanford's Convolutional Neural Networks for Visual Recognition

If you are into maths, the MIT book should suffice.

I personally feel that many people make the mistake of thinking STEP #3 is actually STEP #1 so they start out by reading books or taking heavy courses that ends up making a person more confused than ever. To grasp the knowledge provided by STEP #3, you will need the basic pre-requisite.

STEP #4

Create a dataset

You can find open dataset's for ML training:

Kaggle's dataset database

For me, I had to create from scratch. I used chrome extension's Download All Images extension to search and download all data from a website with one single click. You will have to filter out images. For data conditioning, I used Adobe Lightroom. For data augmentation, I used Augmentor library. You will have to separate the data into training, validation and test. Test dataset has to be completely different from training and validation.

STEP #5

Build the actual model and optimize

Build the ML, train and optimize. The optimization part is the most painful portion. You will select a couple of hyper-parameters, do either a random, grid or genetic search on the right combination.

That should do it. My actual process was much random but if I had to teach someone how to do it, this should allow you to reach a point where you can then start learning and building your own process.

In Times of Corona

2020-03-11T15:04:00.000+09:00

Night falls upon the city of Kitakyushu.

I have still not got over the fact that I had to cancel my extra-long awaited trip to Seoul. I had it all planned down to the minute and all went down the drain the moment Japan decided to place anyone coming from the peninsula in government designated areas for quarantine. I can live with self-quarantine but the images of Diamond Princess horror show is a bit too fresh to ignore.

It's not that nothing positive has come out of all this. Hygene has improved significantly even in a country where everyone was already OCD in the first place. In fact, you would not want to be anywhere else. Japan is the final frontier for Covid-19. The final battle shall take place here...because the whole damn place is just so clean. Although we might have to shed some tears for all the lives lost in the battle of The Toilet Papers.

The place you DONT want to be right now is Italy. 9000+ cases overtaking even all the gallient effort by the shady Shincheonji church in Korea spearhead by their spirited, mask wearing Mr. Kim. I did meet him once when I and a group of other Nepalese were forced into a van, taken to some similarly shady area, had to pretend that we had just arrived from Nepal and further forced to perform for the great leader, the christian savior who led the battle against Covid and...lost. Terribly.

Stupid church.

I find it humbling though, with all that's going on, with all the claims of impending pandemic, people are still finding ways to use humor. My chinese friend remarked that people are so bored in Beijing, so locked up, so isolated into their own apartments that there's a really good chance we will see a spike in babies in next 9 months. There's clearly a limit to how much housework one can possibly do.

Having have had done a 14 day self quarantine myself after arriving from Italy last month, I do see the physical and mental limits of staying indoors. That made me re-think, even sympathize and emphathize with my grandpa's perils. He wakes up early, does his prayers, reads the newspapers, walks around the house and quickly runs out of things he can do. I thought he had the best job ever; do nothing. But then, I was doing the same with the added benifit of using the internet and all I wanted to do was to GET OUT.

His sudden dissapearance from home is now justified. If not, even encouraged.

When In Rome, Drink Good Beer

2020-03-10T15:38:00.000+09:00

Open Baladin located at Rome's downtown has the sexiest interiors.

When I told a friend of mine my plan for Rome, she thought I was crazy not to include wine at all. Italy is a wine country. The place oozes wine everywhere you go and its history supports that; their first vineyards and winery date back to the 8th century. You will remember in Ceaser III that wine trade fetched you the best prices. We are, fortunately, in the 21st century and with that, has come a trend in crafty brews. Making beer is the new shiny thing that everyone wants to do. So when the brewing wave came aboard the Mediterranean shores of post-millenia Italy, the centuries worth of craftsmanship took over instead on barley and hops than their usual grapes creating one of the most mature neo craft beer scene in Europe.

Italian Grape Ale (IGA) uses grapes and malt to produce a high ABV brew.

Like how one can't get over their ex, Italians couldn't get over the fact that had to give up grapes. Lo and behold, companies like BB Evo pioneered the use of grapes in their malting process, creating what's now known as the Italian Grape Ale (IGA). Top fermented, sweet on the tone, these brews are delicious if paired correctly. I have had instances where it was tad too sweet for me. But that could easily be because I had a small sample to try out to begin with. I did find dryer IGAs on the menu. Never tried.

There's a lot of styles from choose from.

Quite a break from asian lineups.

What's striking for me is the depth in the menu. Asian lineups typically consist of the usual suspects; so-so stout, so-so pale ale, so-so wiezen. There's also an issue of finding similarly tasting beers everywhere. Italian brewpubs take it to the next level; bavarian lagers, IGAs, belgian lambics, saisons, tripels and most importantly for me, the sours. You should check out Cadel Brado because these guys are as close to Italian Sour Alchemists (ISA) as it gets.

My favorite: Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fà

If I had to really boil it down to one place, it has to be Ma Che Siete Venuti a Fà. The owners opened this some 20 odd years ago, when Italian brewing scene was in its infancy. The story goes that they fell in love with Bavarian Lagers and decided that their country needs to try it as well. I had my first bavarian at this very place and not surprisingly my year's first HOLY SHIT moment. Brewing lagers is one thing. Brewing a complex, delightful lager is entirely another. The people on the counter were kind enough in educating me on Italian beer scene, what they thought about me buying a bottle and taking home (answer was no) and recommending me the next place unheard of during my beer research; Luppolo Station.

Beer place at a the train station?

Interiors atleast say so at Luppolo Station.

Luppolo Station induces images from that train station from Harry Potter books. Only difference is that they had good beer here. The atmosphere is close to how I imagine a craft beer place should be. Well designed, comfy ambience, soft music, brewing conversations and amazing, amazing beer lineup. The kind of lineup that has the right mix of German, Belgian and Neo-styled brews that has practically taken over the whole world.

Look.at.that.lineup.

Staying on the Luppolo theme, Luppolo 12 is located at the lesser busier side of the Roma Termini and is your best place for getting the most out of your money for the beers that they offer. There's a flat rate every Tuesdays, inviting a hoard of semi and very drunk customers in and around the location. Luppolo 12 also owns a bottle shop right next door, so do check that out. Ah right, you can't buy booze after 10, so do stack them up early.

Time to talk to people. Drunk People. Luppolo 12.

Brasserie 4:20 had a similar take to London's Hackney Wick where old abandoned factory spaces are now taken over by a bustling pub. A few of us who had turned up later than usual still had to find solace in empty spaces on the rooftop. Summers would have been great, not much in winters. The heaters helped.

Brasserie 4:20's loft styled pub didn't have that Japanese style claustrophobic interiors

What's abundandly clear to me that Italians see a great deal of money in craft beer. Take for instance, Open Baladin or even more so L'Osteria di Birra del Borgo. A amount of cash they have splashed onto the decorations, table settings and on the equipment is quite telling. I especially liked the wood-light action thing happening from the ceiling at Borgo. Little too much? perhaps. At that point, I was more concerned about what I wanted to try next anyways.

Or drunk. Or both.

L'Osteria di Birra del Borgo is high end.

All explorations have, in their own ways, limits. The only brewery that was located in Rome called Stavio had apparently shut down and is now a fine cocktail bar. Les Vignerons bottle shop was supposed to be THE place there to shop for bottles. However, after walking an hour to the location, I realized the information in google was opposite to what it should have been: closed. Bir & Fud was another miss. I did step in Brewdog's pub near the Colosseum. Nothing much to write there.

Les Vignerons closes on Mondays.

I did get my supplies from Luppolo 12 Bottle Shop though.

Tattoo game strong

Italy was a pleasant surprise. I liked the fact that beers were 1/2 cheaper than what you pay here in Japan or London. There's also clear Belgian and German influences along with using domestic techniques by using wine-barrel aging and grapes in brewing. In a way, I got to see what mature craft beer scene could look like in the future.

A future, which perhaps some day, will be closer to home.

Japan Time is "Always On Time." Literally.

2019-12-27T14:55:00.000+09:00

Zen Time.

I had an order coming in from Amazon and I had specifically asked them to place the package in front of my door. I come home expecting a package only to see a leaflet saying "Jesus Loves You." I love you too Jesus Christ, but I wanted my package thank you. Japan Post has this system where they leave a piece of paper with their tracking ID. You can place the numbers on their page, click on the when you will be home the next day and you will have your package delivered to you. In Nepal, you would get love letters from the post office saying "we won't know what will happen to your package if you don't come by tomorrow," so it's a nice change. I set the 12-2 PM delivery for next day and went about my usual training.

The next day, I left the lab at 11:55 AM thinking that I would most definitely be getting my stuff today. A tinge of excitement hit me as I made my final zebra cross to my home. I take the stairs, get in at 12:05 PM, put an apron, make myself a nice curry taco and drink that leftover whiskey. And I wait. And I wait some more and some some more. It's 1:45 PM at this point and I am thinking that the bell should ring at any moment. I need to go to the loo but I hold it in. I know AT ANY MOMENT, the delivery guy is going to barge through that door bringing eternal Amazon shopping bliss right to my footsteps.

Just then my phone rings.

I get a notification from Amazon. Must be something to do with "I am late, sorry, will be right there" but what I see makes no sense. Delivery Not Successful, says the phone. At that point I am thinking how on earth that could happen. I was here the WHOLE time.

Only that I wasn't. They made the delivery at 12:00 PM. At 12:00 PM. Would you believe that? 12 f**king o clock, exactly. I have to give credits to these delivery people because they take their jobs a lot seriously. And I was here thinking 12:05 was early, making me some nice taco and waiting was an excellent idea. I pull up my phone, set the delivery time to 8-10PM for the next day. They came at 8:01 PM.

This time, I was on Japan Time.

The Top 5: Best Pub/Brewery in 2019

2019-12-24T18:10:00.000+09:00

Tokyo Kanda's Devil Craft hit home, hard.

The best and the worst thing that has happened to me this year is Netflix. I can see why people pay for a streaming service like this. And it's not because it has an amazing content base either; places like fmovies have the same stuff AND better. It's also not because you have a better quality resolution-wise; I watch it on my phone on a screen that looks like an elephant stamped on it on it's way to the charpi. It's because the experience is lightning fast. The time from opening netflix to watching something is incredibly quick. No Ads, no nothing, no bullshit, straight to content. It's even quicker when you shut the app and open it up. You are back to watching whatever you were watching in nano-seconds.

Fortunately, netflix wasn't the only thing I discovered this year (albeit late, admitedly). I was able to get out beyond the realms of my lab-table-life to travel, to see how other people live, act and behave, and most importantly, got to see how people brew. In a way, I am happy how 2019 panned out. 2018 was more about a certain project, the team and getting work done. The year before that was more about getting that certain project to run from scratch and getting it funded. This year was more about sustaining the culture that was set before and let it run in automode. That opened up some time for exploration, indulgence and hedonism.

Stats are looking pretty good; 4 different countries, 5 beer festivals, 30+ breweries and 50+ pubs and 100+ brews. For a student, I realized I do seem to spend an incredible amount of my money on good beer but hey, there's no free lunch. You want experience? you bloody pay for it.

So without further ado and without talking too much about bank statements, let's begin with the one and only:

5. Russian River Brewing Company (Cali, USA)

The Russian River Brewing Company's logo

There's no denying that ever since I got into craft beer in 2012, I wanted to be able to go to Russian River. They changed the story of IPA, put it back on the map and here I was, going back to where it all started. I feel extremely fortunate not only to have stepped into their original brewpub, but also to be with someone I looked up to my whole was pretty special. I don't know if it was the ambience, the beers or just the walk back to the hotel -I can't really point the finger at any particular aspect...the whole experience is now firmly etched on my head. Not to mention their tasting set was insane; all of their 18 regulars lined up one big platter. A couple of bathroom runs later, I was done.

Where's the bathroom?

4. Strong Ale Works (Qingdao, China)

Stong Ale Works tasting lineup wasn't as intense, thankfully.

You would never place China as one of the places to visit for good beer. Qingdao's Strong Ale Works is challenging that narrative and making the breweries one of THE places to visit if you are ever, ever there. Strong line up, easy on the wallet and absolutely fantastic atmosphere of expats and locals mingling together and having a great evening. I had such a good time there, talking to random people with random tattoos in their faces. Honestly, I got to see a side of China I would have never expected to observe.

3. Devil Craft (Tokyo, Japan)

They have Chicago style pizza....in Japanese size.

Devil Craft takes encroachment of personal space to a whole new level by squeezing in more chairs than what's possible but if you have lived in Japan long enough, you will learn to sit down shoulder to shoulder and mind your own business. Except that, in this pub, you don't. Strike up a conversation with the person next to you, no problemo. The place is lively as hell, no pun intended. I have always had a skeptical look on "award winning" brews, yet theirs seem to be genuinely awarded by good competitions because they had some of the best lineup of beers I have seen in Japan. Try out their Mojotropic Milkshake NE IPA first. Thank me later.

2. Beer Merchants Tap (London, UK)

Beer Merchants Tap in Hackney Wick, London

When my friend suggested that we go to part of town in London that has a great craft scene but was shaddy enough for people to get stabbed, I was in. I think I can talk a knife or two in exchange for really, really good beers. Looking back now, it was the correct choice because I had never seen a scene like this anywhere before. The craft breweries around Hackney Wick were edgy, loud and a completely drunk affair. People also loved drinking outside in the cold for some reason. There was, however, one civilized place you could sit down and have this amazing quadruple (very long name) barrel aged black Barley Wine which absolutely BLEW.MY.MIND. That's still an understatement. It's difficult to put in words what Omnipollo has done with their collaborative Omnipolloscope #2. Do check the beer out and of course, the place.

1. Kyoto Beer Lab (Kyoto, Japan)

Kyoto Beer Lab is Japan's Sour King

If you like sour, this is it. This is your ultimate destination in Japan. Try out thier Wasabi Salt Gose and then their Sucker Punch. Correct that, try every beer in their line of eight. Hands down the best bar in 1) ambience 2) in location 3) in beer lineup. If you are in Kyoto, you like craft beer and you DON'T go here, it's a shame. Really is. Trip to Osaka? Make sure to go there, it's close.

There you go, in a decade that I discovered good beer, 2019 finished out strong. Happy beer year 2020.

From WeWork to WeDontWork

2019-11-17T11:37:00.000+09:00

WeWork Gangnam had Brookyln Brewery beer event. Which was always welcome.

The recent news on WeWork and how Softbank had to bail out the company just to keep it afloat is, in many ways, sad to hear. I loved my time at WeWork's office space at Gangnam. It was smack middle of one of the THE most difficult places to have an office space in Seoul and here we were, this five-strong 20 something kids, with literally no money in our pockets and a company that was figuring out how to sell a product- enjoying the Gangnam way of work life.

If that was a thing.

Peter Thiel's Zero to One outlines a basic strategy for startup to become successful. One, aim providing 10x value to either your nearest competitor or the money that your customer pays. Once you do that, aim at monopoly. Think of all the companies that you use in your everyday life, the Googles, the Facebooks, the Costcos that provide immense value back for the money you do invest in them (for the cost of privacy, sure but you are not THAT important, yet). WeWork was, in many ways, a company that provided extraordinarily huge value for a startup that was just trying to make its way towards the shore of an gigantic, endless body of water that could swallow and drown the shite out of you anytime.

You get my point.

I absolutely loved working there. The interiors were beautiful, they had craft beer on tap (need I say more?), had plenty of opportunities to hang out and talk to entrepreneurs and self employed individuals. Nothing spoke more to me than the aesthetics, even though I got to see other WeWork office spaces that were well lit, minimalist and super good looking than the one I was at later. The work environment hit home to facebook's Seoul office, without, in anyways, having to go through the strenuous process of competing with very smart people. Obviously, you had to have a company to begin with but there you go.

What I am really trying to say is that WeWork as a co-working space was fantastic. Its rapid expansion and invest diversifying and embezzlement from the top hierarchy (I mean wtf?) coupled with lower rent outs (offices took 18 months to fill. They opening offices every two days) meant that the only way the company was growing was through investments. And Softbank had to dig and is still digging deep to salvage what's left.

WeWork could have been WeStillWork. Unfortunately, tides have seriously turned, finances look bad. WeHope is the only thing that's remaining.

On Role Models

2019-10-30T13:58:00.000+09:00

Interaction Program for NepaliSat-1 in Kathmandu.

One of things I was looking forward to back home was to interact and hear out what the younger generation had to say about the work we were doing here in Japan. It's incredible to think what a kilo in space can genuinely do to motivate, generate curiosity and build connection with people who didn't give a shit a year ago.

What was even more shocking was kids coming upto me and saying that I am their role model. Given that I know myself extremely well, of all the misery and pain and failures and more misery I have gone through, I just wanted to say "Hey kid, that's probably a bad idea." But then I decided to simply smile, nod and thank them.

If I hadn't felt the pressure before, I was feeling it now.

That also makes me think, how many of my role models did the same? The world as we know it is a brutal place. The appearance of effortlessness that we see in bond movies are work of fiction and that casts serious doubts on people who appear to have solved their and the world's problem aren't as invulnerable as they seem. They are as frustrated, insecure, lost, misdirected and misconstrued. They also went on to do great things anyhow.

Maybe that's the thing. To feel afraid, to feel lost, to feel abandoned and still go plough through ahead and do it against all odds. It's not about being fearless, it's about feeling the fear and achieving the things you and I want to achieve. That's what our role models did and that's exactly what we need to do.

Opinion: Brain Gain for Nepal?

2019-05-14T13:53:00.000+09:00

The gen-next is in a precarious position
Photo [HERE]

Having stayed away from home for nearly a decade and lived in countries where work-a-holism and alcoholism is the norm and not exception, where systems are flawed yet surprisingly functional, where daily living maintenance is exponentially and exceptionally easier, I can't help but compare the difference in standards that Nepal and these countries have. I really can't help it. I don't want to, but it's so, so eye popping-ly apparent that the elephant in the room can hardly be disguised into a gazelle.

That's why when people discuss the ever dreaded question having to back to the country of origin, a worrying storm of doubt rushes through the conscious backdoor. Do we really have to discuss this right now? Can't we wait for a later time? Can't we simply live in the present moment like how all those half naked, balls-showing, meditation gurus teach us? I wish we could. In fact, I wish we never have had to talk about this in any shape or form.

Unfortunately, at least for me, it's time. It's time to think. It's time to talk. The question now is, why all that doubt in the very first place. Especially for me.

I am, without sounding like a dick, much better off than my fellow countrymen. I don't know why I am so incredibly fortunate to have been born into a family that's doing extremely well. I don't know why I was able to get the very best education that Nepal had to offer. I don't even know why I had the chance to do what I am doing right at this very moment. If you happen to stream through the pages of Stories of Nepal [HERE], you will know that other Nepalese aren't so lucky. While they struggle to keep food on the table, I am busy snorting and gulping very expensive crafty brews city to city, halfway across the world.

I am not complaining.

My point here is, on paper, I should feel very comfortable to return back because there's a strong base in place. I should feel at home... at home. I should feel excited. So this nagging, insecure background noise of feeling pressured, cajoled, almost punished for apparent return is something that needs a bit of exploration and thought.

"This nagging, insecure background noise of feeling pressured, cajoled, ALMOST punished for apparent return is something that needs a bit of exploration and thought"

Interestingly, I am not the only one that thinks that way. The problem of not just labor export, but of young, educated youths leaving the country to study then never returning back is so apparent, so bad, that the Government of Nepal literally has had to establish a "Brain Gain Center" to find ways to appeal to the community at large. My understanding is that the government is currently undertaking a genuine step to create a database of individuals living, studying and working in various capacities outside the country and leverage that to do something useful back home.

Let's discuss that for a moment shall we?

The Stop Gap Solution

My opinion, and this just my opinion, is that the government is simply missing the point here. While everyone back is racking their brains to find ways to bring people back home, they are placing a blind eye on a blindingly obvious solution. It's not about looking outward and trying to convince Nepalese that Nepal needs them, it's actually about looking inward. It's about building the infrastructure needed to attract people back home.

And let me tell you, the bar is PRETTY low. I am talking about bare basics here. Basics that support life. I am not talking about Nepal having to build luxuries. I just meant these support for people:

Basics of the basic:

1) Proper supply of water
2) Stable electricity
3) Point A to B logistics

And would be nice to have:

4) Reliable postal service

5) Breathable air

6) Waste Management

Why? because who wants to really live in a country where 80% of time is being spent on trying to create a base for the remaining 20% of the work to be done. It's reversed here. I spend 20% of my time on day to day maintenance and 80% on work that I need and want to do. Extrapolating that linearly in macro, a sample project that takes a year here will take five in Nepal. Five, without considering that I could go through a mental meltdown by then.

The Real Issue

I still strongly believe the government has more than enough resources and brains to reverse the situation. Case in point, Nepal Electricity Authority's apparent god-like turn around by proper management from top-down. How is it even remotely possible that in a nation's capital can go from 16 hours of power cut to practically zero in a span of a year or two? The production never increased tandem with the load. Mr. Ghising wasn't being modest when he said it was simple load distribution management and nothing else.

"Mr. Ghising wasn't being modest when he said it was simple load distribution management and nothing else"

A reverse case can be looked at our national carrier. The spectacular fall from grace of Nepal Airlines, previously known as Royal Nepal Airlines, as one of the country's biggest employer to reaching a point of bankruptcy in a span of few decades is simply saddening to see. The fact that the ailing airlines generates most of its revenue from ground services at the Tribhuvan International Airport says a lot about their current business model.

What makes this even worse is that private airline companies, in the meantime, are expanding and churning out flights internationally. This makes no sense to me at all. How can private companies strive in the same market while the Nepal's flagship carrier operates in loses?

Management.

That's a simple way of putting all the problems but it has to be that simple. Every public (or partnered) sector organization that's trying to provide the basics to it's citizens; whether that's water, transport or post cannot provide the bare minimum amount of service that allows people to do their job. People have to wait for the water supply to supply water twice a week. People have to cram into a defunct, non functional, completely not-on-time, unscheduled privately run transport system to get them to places and oh, while also having to go all the way to the post office just to get that parcel because the office refuses to deliver it to them. All this by breathing in dusts from cow dung, tires and millions of other suspended particles in air because no body gives a shit about the waste that's thrown around. That happened ten years ago and it's still happening now.

Of course, people don't want to go back.

All Is Not Lost

What I really intend on drilling home the point is that Nepalese are already hacking their ways into the system to live and work in Nepal. Imagine what would happen if the basics are provided. What would happen if the right critical environment is set for these enterprising brains. It's boundless. It's limitless. It's beyond anything anyone could possibly dream of.

"Imagine what would happen if the basics are provided"

But that's not just it. This will generate genuine interest and enthusiasm from Nepalese expats, students and people abroad to seek opportunities in Nepal. Sure, making a database of experts could support policy building and planning. Sure, we might be able to gain certain knowledge but if the foundations of the country is weak -the foundation through the same basics for life- it's pointless because application will only be as strong as the base.

Back to basics is all that's needed. Nothing more, nothing less.

Stay Strong Sri Lanka

2019-04-24T10:14:00.000+09:00

The man lost all of his family.
Photo Credit [HERE]

Look, it's difficult to write anything about what happened in Sri Lanka. Even if Nepal is stretched far up north, the events in the island nation hits closer to home. Not just because I spent most of my time with the Lankans for the past one and half year. Not just because my family has friends there. No.

It's because such acts could, in fact, occur in Nepal too.

PRI reports that 7% of Sri Lankans are Christians with a majority of 70% Buddhists. A country that had had a history of ethnic tensions and years and years of civil war, has now to deal with religious tension that had been brewing under the radar; under the radar of just about everyone. Reports that their anti-terrorist agency had placed a warning before but nobody exactly knows whom to blame says a lot how such tensions weren't taken into priority. What's utterly heartbreaking is the loss of children. Innocent Sri Lankan kids who were caught in the middle.

A quick google search shows 1.3% of Nepalese are Christians. As the fastest growing religion in this tiny Himalayan nation, and with the way it's been aggressively adopted, the percentage will increase over time. If we are to learn from what's happening anywhere in the world -and not just in Sri Lanka- fundamental religious differences being pushed by people with even fundamental, adamant views could create unseen problems in the future. I am not saying this will happen in Nepal, I am merely stating that we need to keep an eye on earlier, smaller tensions that could be taking place right now. I strongly believe that the seeds of such vicious acts are sowed at a time when everybody believes everything is OK.

I don't know what else to write besides this to be honest. I feel for the families who lost their loved once needlessly. I feel for those parents who lost their kids. I feel for the husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles from Lanka who are mourning the death of their loved once. Stripping away from all our identities, from all our ethnic and religious affiliations, and from what we believe and what we don't, purely through the lens of being a human, it's difficult to fathom the pain that comes from the needless loss of 300+ lives.

The only thing I can do is to send my prayers down south, to believe that common sense will prevail and that people can just live and let live.

Craft Beer Festivals in Japan for Spring 2019

2019-03-28T13:31:00.000+09:00

Kyushu Beer Festival is back, again.

My hedonistic tendencies have exacerbated with the discovery of good beer and so has led me to this semi-drunk, dopamine induced path of un-quenching, un-unnerving, un-dying quest for better and better and better brew every time. It's a vicious loop in a non-vicious, beer loving way.

I have, over the years, covered Japanese beer festivals to some extent [Belgian Beer Week 2015 [HERE], Kyushu Beer Festival 2017 [HERE], 2018 [HERE]]. While I would have liked to cover more, logistics is still a major issue in this island country. Going from one place to another is unlike in Korea. You do have to plan out trips to get better deals otherwise it does take a heavy toll on your wallet. And it's not as if the beer itself is already doing that.

Since it's clearly spring (my laundry are drying up in a day), or does feel like spring, I guess it's time to sit down and go over spring's festivals, specifically on, well.....

Craft Beer.

We will start out close with:

1) Kyushu Beer Festival 2019 (Fukuoka, Oita)

Kyushu's flagship craft beer festival

The organizers seem to be trying out a new format of organizing two festivals simultaneously with the Fukuoka event [HERE] starting out a day before the Oita event [HERE].

Fukuoka Castle Venue from 26th April, 2019 to 5th May, 2019

Brewery to lookout for: Matsue Beer. I did check out their brewery recently and their seasonal Hazy IPA wasn't all that bad.

Website [HERE]

JR Oita Station Venue from 27th April, 2019 to 6th May, 2019

Brewery to lookout for: Kakuida Brewery. I'm kidding. There doesn't seem to be a standout one although I did like Brewmaster back in 2017.

Website [HERE]

2) Belgian Beer Weekend 2019 (Nagoya, Yokohama)

Sadly they stopped doing it in Fukuoka. This is one back from 2015.

Apparently 50 (!!) breweries from the beer capital (country) of the world -Belgium (mind you, not US)- will be taking part in the multi-city, multi-venue, muti-date, multi-ton belgian fries affair. I had had the chance to take a closer look in 2015, and man, it's good. It's very, very good. I could just drown in all those sour and barrel aged shit they throw at you. I'm imagining drinking a single sip from all the breweries and I'm 100% certain that I will be pretty badly shitfaced by the time I reach no. 49.

Hisaya Odari Park, Hisaya Plaza- Angel Plaza from April 24, 2019 to May 5, 2019

Website (beer line up) [HERE]. Beer to try? Obviously Trappist Rochefort 10. That will be the first thing and the last one for sure. Lindeman's Blossom Gueuze is tried and tested.

Yamashita Park, Yokohama from May 9, 2019 to May 12, 2019

Website (beer line up) [HERE]. Beer to try? Obviously Duchesse De Bourgogne.

3) Craft Beer Live 2019 (Osaka)

Craft Beer Live is going to celebrate it's 10th Anniversary this year.

The website claims that it's going to have 44 (!!) breweries from Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Nara, Wakayama, Shiga (!!). I guess that also means one thing and one thing only; Shiga Kogen is going to take part. I mean, I am just getting super excited writing this, imagine going to the actual event.

Minatomachi River Place, Plaza 3 Open Space, 1-3-1 Minatomachi from May 25-26, 2019

Brewery to look out for: As I mentioned before, it has to be Shiga Kogen Brewery. It's the best in the Japanese craft beer scene.

Website [HERE]

4) Keyaki Beer Festival Spring 2019 (Saitama Shintoshin)

Apparently this one is a big deal

With over fifty (!!) breweries to take part include, this festival looks like it's even bigger than the Craft Beer Live 2019. It does make sense since the location is near Tokyo, home to 20 million (!!). That's more than half the population of Nepal, mind boggling.

I have had to use exclamation marks a lot on this blog post.

Keyaki Hiroba from May 29, 2019 to June 2, 2019

Breweries to watch? I would say, in general, Baird, Shiga Kogen and Be Easy Brewing do a great job. Any beer from them is worth the shot. They are consistently good at every style, which says a lot of their craft.

Website [HERE]

BONUS

BeerSonic x Far Yeast Brewing Westbound 3rd Party (Fukuoka)

Westbound 3rd Session IPA release party

Friends at Fukuoka's only bottle shop, BeerSonic, is going to organize a beer release party for their collaborated brew with Far Yeast Brewing from Tokyo. Westbound 3rd Session IPA is their third batch brew and is expected to be an improvement on their 2nd which was released in 2018.

Beersonic Bottle Shop, Tenjin on April 4, 2019 from 1pm onwards.

Directions [HERE]

Why Caste System Was A Good System

2019-03-09T13:52:00.000+09:00

Nepal's agriculture is still heavily reliant on human power.

Why and how exactly the caste system (social hierarchy) in Nepal (and India) went on to be interlinked to Hinduism and religion is anyone's guess but if one had to seriously put logic to paper, it makes little sense that the religion, as the popular belief is, was the one which imposed such social strata in the society.

What makes sense though, is the other way round. A proper functioning society requires labor force in each level. We need people who clean the streets, who do agriculture, who do business, who mend shoes and do administration. We cannot have a Robin Crusoe like state where everyone does everything. It's highly inefficient so it's best that a person focuses and fulfills a particular task that benefits the society as a whole and the rest of the people take care of the other aspects that need attention. It's a good, working system.

The kings of the past understood this.

They understood that a society needs a diverse spectrum of occupation to keep the wheels rolling. Since society is formed by families, a micro level work division led to woman taking care of the household and men doing a very specific, specialized, highly skilled (even cleaning the bathroom properly requires certain skills, I argue) work outside the boundaries of home. Trading that skill would earn currency and access to other people's work and so forth, can compensate one another.

Kathmandu. This is exactly how gas is supplied to homes.

The kings also understood that labor force depletion at one end would affect the other. A natural method of keeping the "supply" would be train the next generation. Sons of the families would follow their fathers around, looking at what they do and learning the trade from a very young age. By the time they hit puberty, they are as skilled as their papa bear.

The king had to find a way to keep tab on the people, a way of statistics, to know how many people work in a specific area. The best way at that time was to assign a second name to the person as a family name that showed what work the person did. Chitrakars would draw pictures, Maskeys would guard the royals, Tamrakars would work with metals, Pradhans would do administration. And that's how, a spectrum of family names appeared which, even in an age of machine learning and 5G, we tend to know where a person belongs on the social strata by looking at their name.

Things turned ugly and Kings beat the shite out of other Kings, and Prithivi Narayan Shah took the helm of a country called Nepal. Ethnically diverse, with over 100 different unique languages, the system turned from a sub-cultured system to a multi-layered full-cultured system. By that I mean, the society was divided into "bigger castes" and each castes then had their own "sub-castes". This led to the modern four layered, highly simplified division of work:

Brahmins: Priests, educated through Sanskrit, Nepali as their mother tongue.

Chettriyas: Administrators, Warriors. shrewed on politics and leadership

Vaishyas: Blue collor workers . Agriculturists, Businessmen, Metalworkers, Traders.

Sudras: Also blue collor workers but on maintenance side: Cobblers, Hairdressers

Inter-caste marriage didn't make sense for a couple of reasons; the bride had to go live with an extended family of the groom. Each caste, sub caste, ethnic group had their own lifestyle, own language, own way of going about doing things. Marriage from the same caste made the transition for the girl easier. She knew what traditions and cultures to hold. Turn the table around, inter-caste marriages brought about multiple culture shock to both parties. We have this problem even today and that's why inter-caste marriages are still a debatable factor in marriages.

All in all, at least on paper, the caste system was a Win-Win for all parties involved in the society. However, as we all know, things are far from ideal. Over time a couple of things started to appear:

1) Sons received preferential treatment because they would keep the family name going, keep the tradition going. Women would have to adopt someone else's family name and work in their culture. Also economic wise, giving birth to a girl made little sense.

2) Educated upper circles leveraged religious texts that lower castes did not understand to manipulate and place them under certain control.

3) Nature of the work also meant that the currency of trade that Sudras were earning were less than that of the upper levels. They also had to do "dirtier" work which brings us to the point of untouchables.

"Untouchable" Case Study: My Three Week Stay at a Tamang Village

Seoul National University was part of Solar Volunteer Corps

To really understand the nature of caste system today and how it is still implemented, I shipped myself to Nepal along with Seoul National University's Solar Volunteer Corps. The idea there was to implement of Solar-Hydro-Wind hybrid rural electrification program funded by Koreans. I was assigned to the building and overseeing the penstock from the forebay. But it was also a fantastic opportunity for me to see villages in Nepal from close.

Having stayed their for three weeks and lived and worked with fellow Nepalese from Tamang community, I was able to at least hypothesize the root cause of un-touchability. They were just down right dirty. Their sanitation levels were appalling, concept of washing hands with soap was non existent AND they were touching my food.

In sharp contrast though, the Tamang community also had a few Brahmin households which were kept relatively clean. Their sanitation levels were factor times better and that specific purpose, a Brahmin was hired to cook our food in the makeshift cafeteria which was also our sleeping space.

At that point, what was clear for me was that if I was trouble handshaking Tamangs, of course, the Brahmins who think themselves as holy would find ways to impose religious excuses to avoid them all together. So for me at least, I can see that it's actually not our religion that enforces caste hierarchy, it's just that the religion has been abused to make life convenient for the people who are at the "upper" class of the strata.

Conclusion:

Caste system might seem rather archaic, but there was extremely good logic and thinking to it in the formulation. And because people in Nepal are highly superstitious, religion made it easier to implement rules and regulations of caste system onto the society without having the need explain that very same logic. In a previous era where a few on the top could read and write, this was accepted.

But in an era where citizens are starting to read and understand and make logic, the connection between caste and religion makes no sense at all. It also brings us to the question if we really need the caste system now. That's a debate for later.

Madeinepal Turns 7. Holy Shit.

2019-02-02T10:01:00.000+09:00

La Seine, Paris.

Exactly seven years ago, I decided to sit down and write my first blog post. The whole idea of the website was simple; document products in Nepal. The only problem was that I wasn't in Nepal. So things slowly changed from actually covering and writing about things Nepali to my actual life. Which obviously only my parents really took deep interest in.

As years went ahead, I used this very website to do loads of things. Get myself into concerts saying that I was this journalist from so and so website, get interviews in a similar way, express my opinion on craft beer culture in Korea, write about music, write about stuff and write about more stuff that nobody really cared.

But what was most important was that I was able to find my voice; a voice that accurately documents what's in my head in the most natural, unadulterated, unfiltered way possible. It's unique in a way that I couldn't possibly have fathomed seven years ago when I sat down to write that very first post. My writing -while has changed- has been pointed, honest and experimental. Perhaps that's why the whole existence feels very authentic. And I think that's what people come back to read.

My advanced prose class Professor once wrote to me after I completed to his class. It read, "I will kill you if you stop writing." I guess I am not ready to die, yet.

Thank you for reading, supporting the blog and writing to me. I have had so much excitement to take on a writing project, do the actual publishing and let it sail into the vast expanse of the internet universe.

I will leave you this very excellent live recording of Tank and The Bangas. Love the energy.

The Onsen Experience in Japan

2019-01-20T12:56:00.000+09:00

Heat stress on body is known to extend life, endurance and stimulate body repair.

My grandpa is now over ninety years old. He wakes up at 4-ish everyday, does his usual thing in the bathroom, washes, prays to his favorite Shiva and then does a bit of meditation. He has his usual breakfast at 8am, lunch at 11, tea/snack break at 3pm and dinner at 7. He walks everywhere he goes. He sleeps whenever he can. He used to have the odd rum and coke once in a while but I hear he's done with that. Mo:Mos? nah, he's still bat-shit crazy about it. He still makes his grandsons drive him to the nearest Mo:Mo bhattis.

And he has been doing the same thing for the past 50 years.

A lot of people seem to discount the fact that who we are, what we do on a daily basis, forms the foundation for our health. If you think about it, not brushing a day won't make much difference to your oral hygiene. Likewise, going to the gym for a single day doesn't make any difference either. But do that over and over again for a month, and the results start being visible, tangible.

Now extrapolate that to a year, two years, three, decade and so on. Whats my point? well what you do on a daily basis - your daily habits- is what you are and sets the tone of your existence on this planet. The idea of eternity, the idea of good health, the idea of longevity all but starts with a single day, in a single hour, in a single minute, and...with a single action.

Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world. So what are they doing right?

Perhaps that brings me closer to the actual topic of the blog. People have been trying to wreck their brains on why Japanese live longer. Why there's an aging but able population. Why the hell do Japanese live so long. As someone who's had the chance to observe for a year or so, the answer is very obvious.

A lot of things.

First stop, external, environmental induced stress level is pretty darn low. The police have absolutely nothing to do, the whole country is OCD when it comes to cleanliness and everyone tries extremely hard to fit in, that also means they avoid conflict like oil is to water. Japanese also have a tendency of not to overeat. Nepalese have tendency to eat like there's no tomorrow. The portions are humongous and I am always left aghast at looking at all my relatives, dad and mom and all my other million family members eat their meals. Japanese have smaller, initially very disappointing, portions. They seem to eat just enough.

There's also a long list of so-and-so to why-and-why of longevity but I won't touch on them now.

What I really want to touch on though, is this particular habit that perhaps was near to non-existent in Nepal; the habit of going to the onsen. Onsen is the local term used to describe hot spring and locals, from a very young age, have had a routine of going to the local spa/sauna/spring every week. Fathers take their sons and daughters. Friends go with their close friends. It's like any hangout places but with super hot water and literally no clothes on.

I cannot imagine going with my dad to an Onsen. Although, now that I think about it, might have to do it in the near future. You know what, no, that's not going to happen.

Back to my point.

Dr. Rhonda Patrick is someone I have been following since she appeared in Tim Ferris Show podcast. The PhD. scholar interviews the top people in psychiatry, health, nutrition, fasting, longevity and so on, cross checks with volumes and volumes of papers and books on the topic and like Tim, distills what we need to know so that we can apply that to our daily lives. Her discussion on Onsen is worth reading/listening and I have a link [HERE] if you are interested. Her point basically is that heat and cold stress exposure, like that once you get by going to a sauna, can extend life, improve recovery, bump up endurance, help form new neurons in brains, induce fake fever and activate anti-bodies and so on. I think it's worth every bit of time.

Since it was abundantly clear to me that going to the Onsen has to be part of my routine, I have basically taken a membership to a local hot spring place and make it a point to go there every week. So here's my documented experience of Japanese sauna.

Naked Men

I was well aware of that I to had cross this line anyways. I had, in some measure, done that in Korea. All I had to do now was to do it routinely. This is perhaps the only one time I am very glad that I am very short sighted and everything blurs out the moment I take my glasses off. Censorship at it's best.

This one time, after what was two or three outings to the onsen, I made my way as usual to the changing room. For some reason, I was desperately thirsty and was looking at the vending machine which was located at the interior half of the room's entrance. I was minding my own business, trying to very hard to select what was a myriad of local drinks, when I noticed something. I noticed that some people where staring at me from the corner of my own eyes. I looked around and to my horror, I saw four completely naked women all with their mouths open.

I had entered the wrong chamber. omg.

I must have bowed at least a million times from the changing room entrance back to the lobby. You should have seen the face of the staff when I appeared from the women's section. I nonchalantly pointed at the men's section, she nodded vigorously and I made my way into that room as if nothing happened.

Little did I know that they switched rooms every now and then because the architecture of the saunas were different. In my defense, I have now learned that blue is for men and red for women. Wait.... is it?

First Conversation

When my male Japanese friends ask me to go to sauna with them, I say that they can go to hell. Onsen, for me, is only for me and for me only. I talk to myself (which actually sounds horribly lonesome), I think about about all sort of things in my head (you will be surprised how talkative it can be) and I mind my own f**king business. I am not there to chitty chat.

This one time, after heading to the "salt spa" section, I heard a voice. The voice was in english. "Hey" someone said from somewhere. I said "Me?", it was just way to foggy and blurry for me to see any face. "Yeah" he said. He asked me all sorts of questions and we actually got along quite well. He showed how to use the onsen properly (all this time, I hadn't). Also bought me a towel, because, well in Japan, unlike Korea, don't provide you with one. I thanked him. We had a great time. I could see why you can go there with friends.

The Smuggle

If you are still reading at this point, you must have clearly seen my distaste in going to the sauna with my friends. And if you there just lying down for two or three hours, it can get incredibly boring at times. Not that I don't like to do anything. I love it. I love doing nothing. But, you know, I feel that I could be doing onsen and doing something at the same time.

Like drinking beer. or reading a book.

And so I got myself a bigger towel, wrapped a book around it and went to a segregated corner of the facility, and started reading. I think it's THE best place to read a book. Not the coffee shop, or pub or the library or the office. It's the sauna.

This one time, I was reading the autobiography of Richard Feynman in one of the tubs outside (they have this garden where you can dip in pools). He had this chapter about how he made ants not go to his jam by rerouting the ant's trail to a small but significant supply of sugar in his room. Just then, I realized there was this ant going around my body. Because the context matched, I was busy looking at what the ant would do. So busy that I didn't realize that my other hand was involuntarily dipping inside the water.

That hand was holding the book. I wish books were water-proof.

The staff soon got a anonymous tip and they came straight at me saying that "I can't read here." I said Ok, and pretended to be the "i-dont-know-the-rules" foreigner. I love playing dumb. I can't do it now because there's no new staff to do role-play.

Anyways,

There's more stories but I am hungry and I need to eat something. Check you out later.

To Have or Not To Have Babies Is The Question

2019-01-15T17:15:00.000+09:00

This week's TIME cover talks about the future of babies and the progress in science of fertility.

In a time and age where traditional heterogeneous, monogamous marriage has come into real scrutiny, talk of having kids seems to be still a far fetched idea. Yet, the earth, the economy, the society so much depends on people having sex and reciprocating their next self onto the world. If you really start bringing Neitzsche into the equation, then you would want to think the whole point of existence, the point of ambition and the point of everything to do is about sex. Which also means a by product of that could be, well, babies.

Japan and Korea will both be facing a serious crisis in manpower in not too far future

Advanced economies are currently in a shit storm when it comes to that. It's expensive to have a kid. It's expensive to live. It's expensive to do anything anyways. They say. In some weird way that's true. Cost of living is high, careers are at top, top priority and social life is based more and more on the internet. Add to the fact that pets have a near baby-like treatment and you will soon see the logic of having to take care of kids is a far more troublesome one.

Reverse that to only 40km away from the capital of Nepal, Kathmandu in the remote village of Amalbesi where I got to join a group of Kathmandu University faculty and students as part of a electrification project [HERE], things are different. Our host had six kids with one on the way. One kid took care of the younger one and the younger one took care of the youngest. They were everywhere, free as can be, without any supervision, education or clothes.

Having seen both end of the spectrum, I am utterly in cultural, then reverse cultural shock. While babies are being concentrated on households that hardly look like they can afford one, they have plentiful. For households that looks as though they can afford a few, they have none. What in the world is happening?

She was pregnant when we were there in Nepal

There are certain things that explain what's going on in that village. Family planning is non existent. Preferential treatment of boys is evident. Women are not respected as they should be. The women who cooked meals for us on a daily basis could hardly do anything but cook meals. Everytime, Every single day for everyone in the family. The women I got to meet and greet in Korea and Japan would have been absolutely aghast at her situation. The "you should treat women equally" types even more so. Furthermore, they get married very young, and so the cycle organically repeats.

There are certain things that explain what's going on in Japan and Korea also. Education levels are at extremes. Cost and development means both sexes have to share equal responsibility even though there's a wage gap. And when I say equal, I mean equal at work. Equal in careers. And when you are young and ambitious and a bit motivated, kids are just something you put off for the future. When the future is present, that shifts into further future. Besides, abortion is always an option worst case.

Progressive, outspoken and highly independent women also want a certain freedom to themselves. As one article on this week's TIME points out, the writer was able to divorce because they didn't have kids. "It was easier," she writes, "the transition was smoother." I guess you can rationalize and explain anything at this point. Without much evidence to prove this, I also think they have a hard time finding of opposite sex because of the standards they impose and the standards that guys show. Obviously there's not going to be much mingling there.

A categorically comical imbalance of surplus on one end and scarcity in other.

That point aside, for all the people I know who have kids, and the once I have talked to say it's the best thing ever (besides having to clean and not get much sleep, they add). This could well be their "bond hormone" oxytocin influenced brains talking. Yet, you can never doubt their affection, care and love. It's genuine; you can see that in their eyes.

What's interesting though is that if they would want kids again, their frank answer is no. It's a small sample size I tested the question on but it was an emphatic no nonetheless.

I guess the debate on the million dollar question continues then. The best I can muster out is that there's doesn't seem to be a right answer.

Changing Perspective from "Problems" to "Constraints"

2018-12-06T11:31:00.000+09:00

Guten Tag

Back in Nepal from 2000-2010, the utilities that drove homes in Kathmandu were getting systematically and not-so-systematically worse. The water supply was erratic, meaning residents had to resort to adding actual pumps to pull water from the supply. That was completely illegal, of course, but so common the government didn't give a rat's tit about it. The power load management was also absolute shite, so that meant when the new decade came along, the residents in the capital city of the country had to bear a full blown 16-18 hr power outage. You had to literally wait, plan ahead and do everything you needed to do with electricity in that 4 hr, double shift window.

While this all stemmed from bad planning, mismanagement and overall horseshit from what was basically a failed state trying to get its act together, I saw these as problems. I saw these as huge, huge problems. So imagine when I left Kathmandu and went straight to Seoul. The whole thing of "free flowing utilities" were an absolute shock for me. I was like "what do you mean you have 24hr uninterrupted power and water?"

Turns out, that's how it should have been in the first place.

Looking back, I do have huge respect for my family who decided to make Nepal their home. Could have gone anywhere else, but no, they wanted to be where their heart was. So much so, that all the problems that I was seeing as "problems" were just physical constraints to my parents. Constraints that were part and parcel of a normal functional life. No water for two days? that's a constraint. You adapt and deal with it. You harvest rain water. No stable electricity? You look alternative sources of energy.

So what's really happening here? By merely shifting our perspective from problem to redefining whatever the "problem" is to being a constraint, things suddenly don't look as holy-shit-the-world-is-going-to-end-crisis as before. And this happens because our brain associates problems with things that are out of our control and negative while constraints as being simply...constraints. It's a positive outlook on the same issue. You internalize and accept that that's how it's going to be and move on. And when I say move on, you make that the baseline and start planning from there up.

It's subtle yet so powerful.

For instance, as a project manager, I have to constantly deal with a number of psychological, relationship-oriented dynamics in the team. One person forms a good partnership with the other but that also means things can go the other direction. Humans are, in fact, primarily emotional creatures, not rationale. So there's no surprises there. Not only that, you have conflicts arising with scheduling, PCBs on arriving on time, people not showing up on time and all these nuts and bolts that supposed to create a basis for a successful project.

One way to approach this is to see it as a problem. Tackle as a problem. That also means using brute force at times to bring back to what I think should be the "normal." For instance, apply stricter rules based on reward/punishment for showing up on time or not. Another approach is to see it as a constraint. So instead of thinking of what an ideal normal should look like, you make the situation THE new normal. Then start ways to sort out the issue. Going back on showing up late thingy, accept that people are going to show up on time but find ways to help them improve on their baseline time that they appear. Ways then could be to ask them if they could go home earlier, or buying them an alarm clock or even appearing in front of their door step like a creepy, stalk-y manager.

It's way, way less stressful when there's just a small switch between seeing the same thing as a problem to a constraint. Because, ultimately, you are responsible for your mental state and no one else is.

Thoughts: Dashain Blues and Wishes

2018-10-21T12:07:00.001+09:00

Eight Years.

Eight years. That's how long it's been the last time I got to celebrate Dashain, the biggest festival for Hindu Nepalese (which basically is everyone), eat slow cooked tender goat meat and play cards over warm sun and very bad beer. The funny thing is, I strangely don't miss it. I don't. I don't miss wearing new clothes, going to relatives, getting their blessings and doing all that. I am numb to those feelings and I also don't feel so good admitting it.

Maybe that's also because I am such a horrible Hindu. I have no interest in the religion - the stories are great though - nor do I pretend that I don't eat beef (which basically is eating your god). My love for good steaks are real. I cook them at home. In fact, I made myself a very nice beef keema curry the other day. That also means I am probably taking the ride to hell the moment I say goodbye. If there is an afterlife. that is.

I don't think I blame the profession that I have taken to display such apathy that even I feel embarrassed -tiny that it is- to say that. It's primarily because of the approach I have taken in recent years, to emotionally not invest so much on anything emotional; whether that's a relationship, friendship or even results. Being detached at an emotional level also makes it less painful but also less fun. You sort of cushion and dampen all those highs and lows in life. I guess that's what Buddhism tries to impart. To make your soul (thoughts, mind) and body (worldly goods) apart.

But probably I am missing the point here. A lot of people make everything about themselves. It's not. Graduation is not about you. It's about how proud you make your family when you get on that podium. Like wise, festivals are not about you. Whether you choose to believe the ideals or not, you celebrate it because the person next to you wants to celebrate it. Wants you to be part of it. Wants you to talk and drink and you know, play cards and lose money and still take it easy.

So pushing all my selfish thoughts aside, pushing all that I believe and don't believe (because it does not matter what I think), I would like to wish all Neplease and Bhutanese and Americans and Armenians and all people who celebrate this huge ten day festival, a very happy, happy Dashain.

Gearing Up For Nagasaki

2018-09-07T10:41:00.000+09:00

Beauty.

After what has been a frantic three months of going to the lab every single day to prepare for the satellite's Critical Design Review [HERE] and then a very eventful Lab Summer Camp [HERE] where I launched a volleyball straight at my unsuspecting advising Le Professori's face, I will be out with the team for a "MT" in Nagasaki which is about worse-case four hour drive from my current city. I have selected a very, very good looking (at least on the site) Airbnb but with all the complaints I listen from my friends about the service, I have my hopes seriously down; down to the very core of the earth.

Nagasaki will be fun, sightseeing wise. Apparently, it was the only city that was open to the west (the dutch specifically) when the country was closed and there seems to be an early foreign influence in the architecture, food and lifestyle. The big, huge, not-so-magnificent white elephant in the room obviously being the small issue of a dropping an atomic bomb by the Americans that practically broke the Japanese into submission ending a prolonged WWII. It will be interesting to see how they bounced back. Bounced back they really did.

Beer-wise, it's a disappointment. No breweries to visit, handful of pubs and a team that has a "meh" attitude to a glass of delicious beer. Last time we ended at a local craft brewery, I was the only one ordering. Yeah. Anyways, as for Japan, I thought it was the craft beer nation of Asia. Or I am probably just at the wrong place at right time.

My bags are still half way packed. I need my essential hair gel, of course. A nice, portable deodorant because I don't want to smell and sweat like a pig (pigs don't sweat, I hear) in [horribly] hot, humid japanese summer. The toothbrush and a bag of cumin spice. All set.

Till tomorrow.

That Time When A Certain Volley Ball Hit A Certain Someone's Face

2018-09-06T20:44:00.001+09:00

Summer Camp 2018

I am sitting down, sipping this unsweetened, horribly sour but icy lemonade, trying to think of all the myriad ways I can shove this blog into your thoughts. Writing is such a powerful tool of expression that most people don't even realize that people can change their personalities just by reading something someone, very far, very distant, wrote.

If they are reading, that is.

It's safe to say that the blog has somehow been going through an identity crisis of sort. In seven years that I have been typing shit on this very platform, I have gone on to write reviews, personal anecdotes, breakup and makeup stories, beer guides, game reports, interviews, engineering guides and even about what I think about homosexuals to why Christians should leave me alone. Today though, I will be steering the wave back to my everyday life here as I haven't really got to talk too much about what's it like to be in Japan, doing PhD things and stuff.

My lab has an odd 40 something students from across the globe which makes it very different to the lab I was accustomed to at Seoul National University in Korea. Back then, we had like five people max loitering around, going on dinner lab "dates" all stuffed into our Professors car to get drunk. Summer Camps were called MTs (Membership Training). I don't even understand why they call them MTs. There was nothing about Membership or Training. Training to drink loads of soju, perhaps? but that was it. The whole point was to drink your way through all. f**king. day. long.

Not anymore though.

The lab's summer camp had to somehow transport all those kids to a remote place in Oita Prefecture. That meant rows of those micro-bus styled vehicles without conductors. The nearest 7/11 or combini- as they so conveniently call here- was 30-40 minutes drive away. If you didn't bring your brush, well, you better just not bother to brush.

The days were highly structured with lectures from every Senseis (Professors) and staff. To be fair, they were all light. Maeda Sensei talking about Investment. Kate talking about crypto currency. And yours truly having to present about Nepal's education system. I was perhaps the last person on this planet to know anything about the system. Everything I presented, I learned it from Wiki. Let's just say that there was a lot of "oh really?" "didn't know that" coming from my mouth as I was making that presentation. All went smoothly.

Except this one time when things couldn't have gone any worse. After BBQ, and slightly tipsy on the light adjunct booze, we all followed my advising Prof to the gymnasium where he started teaching some of the kids how to do the tango, or salsa, or whatever the moves are called. A few of us on the side started out a impromptu match of volleyball. I would have loved to have said that my 3x swollen wrists were worst thing that happened that night. But unfortunately, the volleyball I struck so sweetly with my right foot, curled and curled even further, away from the pitch, right onto my Professors unsuspecting face.

Juan's facebook had this

Time, my heart, my odd-looking mix-max volleyball team and every soul in that room seemed to have sit still for what felt like hours. Of all the 1000 people who were moving and walking and dancing, the stupid ball had to fly and hit my advising professor perfectly flat on his face. He seemed to be OK. The whole team bowed in unison to apologize. I was just there with my mouth open while trying to comprehend and decipher what I had just done.

We also went fishing by the way. Here's my Prof. catching a fish before all that unsuspecting thing happened. He looks quite pleased.

All smiles after the catch

Leaving for Nagasaki tomorrow for a real weekend MT, need to get that bag ready and rolling.

7 Conclusions: Arsenal 0 - 2 Man City

2018-08-13T03:29:00.000+09:00

New boss Unai Emery is hands on, quite literally.
Photo Credits [HERE]

The first time Arsene Wenger took his first press conference for Arsenal, I had barely learned the alphabets. In fact, I still relied on my sister lend an extra hand during exams to write down "z" comes after "y." So when new Arsenal boss Unai took showed up in front of the camera with his pointy nose and excessively heavy spanish accent, it felt like a new chapter - the talk of the summer, mind you - had firmly now begun.

Not in a fairy tale, "hey we just beat the champions" kind-of-way though. With Manchester City's Pep doing his Pep thing and Arsenal going one goal down on a very familiar time of the game, there was none. The difference was as clear as any crystal you see in any crystal-ly display; Arsenal under Unai in a transitive stage and City, well, city going about their usual business.

All's not lost though. There's definitely signs of improvement and belief and structure that will take time to bear fruit. So let's sit down, open up that can of crafty booze and talk what just really happened on the pitch.

1. Matteo Geundouzi started and was the good and the bad at the same time

Special Hair Boy's hair looks like an old banyan tree you see monkeys hanging around

The Spaniard left his key signings warming up the bench while handing out starts for Peter Cech and get this, 19 year old Matteo Geundouzi. The latter had a very promising pre-season but his weakness in defense was apparent. Starting him with a Xhaka pairing wasn't exactly what the audience at the Emirates stadium were hoping to see.

About his play though, there were many suspects, and while neat in occasions, did let City a couple of chances that allowed them to dominate. He's someone that Emery clearly trusts and wants to mold him into a first class holding midfield player. Yet, I personally wasn't sure playing him against the champions was the best choice when you had a player like Lucas Torreira as an option. On the flip side, his diagonal long passes were pretty exquisite.

All I can say is that it was a brave choice. Brave in foolish way? I don't know. The results speak for themselves.

2. City's forward flank create ton of problems

Mahrez is now in Citeh

With shining new signing Riyad Mahrez attacking from the right and Sterling starting out from the left, City had two very direct players who could stretch the play or go in on one-on-one with the defenders. There was no surprise that both ends of the pitch saw Arsenal struggle, especially in the opening stages of the game where Sterling was too hot to handle. Reminded me of times when Arsenal had their own Andrey Ashravin who could just weave in through defense and score a goal. Raheem Sterling did just that.

3. Arsenal have defensive issues

Niles had a torrid time defending from speedy Mahrez and Walker

There were a large number of chances where City could have scored and the backline, for now, looks more like a handyplast on a bullet wound than anything else. With our top and second choice left backs injured, Unai started out the with youngster Maitland Niles and he had a torrid time defending Mahrez and Walker. In a typical Arsenal fashion, he then got injured leaving the boss to use of his backup center back into that position. Not ideal. Arsenal need Monreal back and fit again.

4. Arsenal's new pressing is working, somewhat

I shall be the one. And you shall press.

On the other half, City had their own issues with the way the newly implemented press that forward players in men in red were applying. There were times when the opposition did not know what to do and were either playing it long or giving back to their keeper. As the game wore off, Arsenal still pressed and there was a handful of chances - with better finishing- the team could have atleast knocked off that 0 from the scoreline.

5. Cech's foot on the ball is suspect

Cech is now 36

He nearly scored the most ridiculous goal you would have ever witnessed. Reminds of this guy Aviskar in school who basically made a complete shit out of a back pass because he got overly conscious when a bunch of girls were passing by the field.

They weren't even looking.

6. Unai is vocal on the technical area

No zippy problems

Arsene would either be throwing bottles, trying to zip and unzip his coat/jacket/some clothing or just sit there looking absolutely tense. Unai is complete opposite. He's shouting. He's pointing. He's changing stuff and demanding his players to perform. I like that. Players need guidance on and off the pitch and that's what he does.

What I also liked was that the team was still calm after conceding. Calm that the manager had their back, that he had some weird ideas that he's going to throw out to change the game to their favor. Arsene's philosophy was to rely on the player's strength and trust them to come good. The new Arsenal is different. Unai takes full charge till the final whistle.

7. Arsenal need patience

Season is long

If you only look at the game without understanding the background, you could point out to so many things that have gone wrong. The defense looks bad, the forwards aren't on the same wavelength and there's still much work for the goalie to be comfortable on the ball. And yet, I am sitting here feeling very very optimistic of what I have just witnessed. A little more discipline on the ball, a little more gelling on Unai's principles and I think there's a pot of gold waiting at the end of this season. It's going to be very interesting how the next game against Chelsea unfolds but we can worry about that later.

Somethings different about the way they play and I can't wait for that click-idy, click moment.

Astha Tamang Maskey is back with her new single More.

2018-07-07T03:27:00.000+09:00

Astha's Back.
Image Credits [HERE]

Since I don't have any restrictions on promoting sibling's work on this blog, I shall simply take the liberty to go ahead and do so. I had written about her a long time back [HERE] and how she's always been more mature, more understanding, miss smarty pants than the rest of us and I am so very proud of her upcoming Muse EP which hasn't yet gone public. I thought about doing a full review but then nah. I will let people drool about it. There's no way I am going to have an objective look at her work, there's just too much emotion attached already. All I can say is; I am hooked.

Time to warm it up with her new single More. You can watch the official video directly here:

Diwas dai, a Budhanilkantha legend as he is, has this to say:

We are always behind you sis, no matter where we are :)

Underside from Nepal Reaches Heavy Metal World Cup Final

2018-07-06T23:10:00.000+09:00

Neplease band Underside take on Babymetal from Japan in the finals.
Photo Credit [HERE].

New Age Metal outfit Underside has reached the finals of the Heavy Metal World Cup as www.loudersound.com reports [HERE]. To see a Nepalese band compete in international stage is one thing; to beat the likes of Sepultura (!!) and then Rammstein (!!!) to reach the final is quite the other. They will facing Babymetal from Japan in the grand finale.

Having seen Vhumi break into the very tiny metal scene in Kathmandu back in 2008-9 (they actually launched their album, quite unsuccessfully, on one of the gigs we organized) and then witnessed Underside take strength from the core of that band has been absolutely amazing. I don't think they would have been at this stage had ktmrocks.com [HERE], founded by Umesh Shrestha, not given them the platform to perform and really improve over the years. This is without discounting the effort they have put in their craft.

Beating Babymetal, though, will be tough. They are currently the defending champions and have gone on to beat the likes of Within Temptation (!!!!) and Immortal (!!!!!).

Babymetal's Karate:

Underside's Satan in your Stereo:

Let's take that trophy home.