Red Nepal

3 Idiots:An Idyllic Film

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:29:00 +0000

Aah…Three Idiots! Not exactly a story of idiots. Raju (Sharman Joshi) and Farhan (R. Madhavan) might look like idiots at the beginning, but the philosophy of Rancho (Amir Khan) give their idiocy a comedic look. The story shows the lives of engineering college students who have been taught by their parents and teachers that life is a race, those who can’t run fast will be trampled by the world. Reminds me of the serpentine lines of “aspiring” students who just get done with their high schools and gear up to get into medical and engineering schools back in Nepal. After nothing else works, a lot of them end up going abroad. Seriously, how many of these students really want to be engineers and doctors?

Rajkumar Hirani, the creator of the much-acclaimed Munna Bhai series, brings this rib-tickling comedy with his own and Abhijat Joshi’s screenplay who also wrote the screenplay for Munna Bhai. Hirani himself couldn’t get into engineering or medical college and ended up listening to his heart-making films. This might have inspired to make this film where he repeatedly gives the message “follow your heart, follow your heart” through shrewd Rancho. The film mixes philosophy and engineering to give a message to the student populace. “Be photographers, filmmakers, politicians, businessmen but be passionate. “ The film also shows how family financial problems can affect the lives of the children who end up taking subjects that don’t interest them at all. Some even quit through suicides. Along with that, the film slams the Nepali and Indian education system for which students are just “machines,” rather than beings. The teachers bestow a lot of lot of stress to students, but no engineer has ever made a machine to gauge this stress. I remember the class requirements of a lot of colleges, especially in liberal arts colleges, which have to be taken by every student in order to graduate. Pity on my biology major college friends for whom politics, ancient Greek history or catholic studies don’t make sense but they are to be taken.

Rancho’s first encounter with Raju and Farhan shows his cunning character while responding the ragging culture of the senior students to the freshman in Indian and Nepali colleges. Then the audience goes on a roller coaster ride of emotions -- at times about to sob and at times praising the shrewdness of Rancho and chortle. The film gets a turn when Rancho turns out to be going to college for someone else not for being graduating but for knowledge. It seems Rancho has been influenced by Socrates’ theory of specialization, but not exactly talking about his ideal society.

The story, told in flashback by Raju and Farhan, has some idiot scenes like the delivery of the baby using the vacuum machine built by Rancho in no time; however, it embraces no boring scenes or dialogues and keeps the audience glued back in their seats. The plot also shows the reality of some teachers whose classes are founded by definitions rather than the applicability of the study material, whose meager salary makes them to ride bike to come to college to teach and who are ill-treated by their students for their nature. Just like the shrewd dialogues of Munna Bhai, Hirani brings yet another heart touching film, this time with another well-known actor Amir Khan, and his evergreen risible plot.

All in all, the movie is Aal Izz Well just like Rancho's mantra. Released on the day of Christmas, the movie has no relationship with that. But I would like to say this loud although I’m not a philosopher--If you don’t listen to your heart now, after decades when you’ll be looking at the stars, you will realize that you did a mistake for you weren’t courageous enough to speak out your heart now. So follow your heart. The world gives no second chance, you know.

Aah... an idyllic film.

To Hell and Back: The Story of Me

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:18:00 +0000

The author is a Princeton University student who went on a leave to Nepal for a year at the beginning of 2009. He is coming back on January 16 to resume his studies.

Ganja. I still remember taking it for the first time. Little did I know at the moment, where it would take me.

My reason for doing it was simple - everyone else was doing it. I was just curious how smoke could make people happier, funnier, and more interesting. And I got the same effect after taking it. My year off before college was the best year of my life, partly because of weed. It made everything funny. I loved being high with friends and laughing at the most random things. I also enjoyed being high and talking about life and its meaning. I felt it opened my "doors of perception". No matter what happened later, I will always thank weed for opening my mind.

After going to Princeton, I started doing a lot more weed than before. It became a part of daily routine. I know a lot of people who do it more than me, but it affected me much more probably because of the way my brain is wired. I started thinking a lot. I even had weird visions at times.

It was still fun at first, but it started getting worse. I became paranoid-schizophrenic. I thought everyone was trying to kill me. I felt everyone was reading my thoughts. I would look at photos in facebook and it seemed like everyone was looking at me. I felt everyone laughing at me. I could hear people talking about me behind my back and even in front of me. I lost my frame of reference completely. When I was talking to people, every subject would somehow relate to me.

And, I started seeing weird connections. I started seeing my thoughts broadcast on the television. Every TV show started seeming like a satire on me. Once I thought I was a part of a huge psychiatric experiment and everyone was reading my thought. It seemed like everyone was part of a group conspiring against me. I felt like I was in a chessboard and every other piece was against me.

I could not handle it anymore. I knew something was wrong with me. I got scared and I decided to take a year off. After I came back to Nepal, I stopped smoking weed and the symptoms started fading away and my reasoning came back. Then I thought to myself "I am not that important. I can't be that important for everyone to be conspiring against me. It is illogical that people more important than me would waste their time reading my thoughts and trying to kill me. I am not that important."

I am not that important. With that single statement, I got out of the hold of paranoid schizophrenia. But, it replaced paranoia with something similar- depression. As I kept saying to myself "I am not important", I started feeling unimportant. I thought about the whole universe and how unimportant I was. I got a hallucinatory vision of the whole universe transforming along the time scale and realized how insignificant my life is. I thought my life is insignificant and it won't matter if i exist or not, so why bother? I thought that in the universal scale of things, my life never existed because of its insignificance. So, why not die?

If I have never existed, I should choose life or death logically. Then, I asked myself why choose life? Is there a reason to exist? I thought and thought and couldn't find one. So, I concluded there is no reason to exist.

This made the choice of life and death equal. There is no reason to live and there is none to die. But, I had to make a decision. Then, I thought in life we are bound by things. Everything is determined. So, we are bound by chain of events. Death is an escape from that. Death seemed like freedom to me.

So, I decided to die. But, I could not bring myself to do it. So, I suffered from depression for almost 3 months constantly thinking about death. Since I was unable to kill myself, I realized there is something in me that wants to live. There is a will to live. And maybe that will (although indescribable) is the reason to exist. Or maybe not? But, I started to favor life a little bit.

I realized, then, that my vision of the universal scale of space and time is just imagination. My life is insignificant in that scale, but I can never really perceive that scale. My perception of space and time will be based on my life. So, for the conscious being that is me, my life is not just significant it is infinitely and the only significant thing.

So, life is significant. But, is there a reason to exist? As for me there is a reason to exist. Even when I thought life and death were equal, I couldn't kill myself, which means my mind thinks there is a reason to exist. Otherwise I would have killed myself. I don't know what that reason to exist is, but the fact that I am not dead means I have a reason to exist. Also, the fact that there is not a single undeniable reason to exist doesn't mean that we can't create our own reasons to exist. As individuals we have the choice to choose our own reasons to exist.

But, death is freedom. How can I choose life? Then I remembered quantum physics, where things have probability of being at infinite states. So, in life we have infinite possibilities and infinite freedom. Death has a unitary state of non existence.

And, the whole question of life and death is bullshit anyways. We all existed during big bang and we will always exist as matter or energy. Let us just enjoy the fact that all of us were one before big bang.

OMG!!! Did you actually read this bullshit?

Story published with the author's permission.

The Buddha Boy

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:23:00 +0000

The Boy with Divine Powers investigates the mythical story of 15-year old Ram Bahadur Bomjon who could be the reincarnation of Lord Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. The documentary released in 2006 questions the legitimacy of Bomjon who has been meditating in the hollow of a tree in dense jungles of Lumbini, just about 150 miles away from the birthplace of Buddha. In the backdrop of the Nepali political turmoil, the documentary questions if the survival of Bomjon without food or water on the sole basis of meditation true or if the boy is being starved in front of millions of eyes for money.

Gautam Buddha, born in Nepal, found enlightenment meditating under a banyan tree in Gaya (India) for many years in around 500 BCE. His life, discourses and teachings were summarized after his death and bequeathed by oral tradition by the followers in the formation of Buddhism, the religion that is considered peaceful and enlightened and that has about 200-500 million devotees who are called Buddhists. Bomjon, who is also called the Buddha boy, could be the next Buddha at a time when the world has seen so much violence and so much turmoil all over and when Nepal and the whole world is in need of peace, of yet another chapter of enlightenment. Bomjon disappeared in 2006. He is said to meditate for six years, so his emergence after six years, which would be 2012, which also happens to be the end of the world according to Mayan belief, would show what the world has yet to see.

Nepal's high-altitude Cabinet meeting on Mt. Everest - Video

noreply@blogger.com (davinci) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Nepal holds historic high-altitude Cabinet meeting in Everest: December 04, 2009 NST

SYANGBOCHE (SOLUKHUMBU), DEC 04 - The much-hyped Cabinet meeting took place in Kalapatthar plateau near Mt. Everest Base Camp at an altitude of 5,242 metres (17,192 feet)on Friday.

Twenty-four Cabinet ministers, including Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal, reached Lukla Airport in Solukhumbu district on Thursday to take part in the historic meeting.

The government will make public the decisions of the Cabinet at a press meet in Syangboche (3,780 m) at 10:30 am . Twenty-three ministers flew to Lukla from the Capital, whereas Prime Minister Nepal arrived here after attending a programme in Ilam.

The ministers had stayed in Lukla on Thursday. They arrived in Syangboche this morning in MI 17 and Shree Air helicopters. Four ministers will be missing the meeting. Defence Minister Bidhya Bhandari and Health Minister Umakanta Chaudhary cant make it due to health reasons whereas Minister for Commerce and Supplies Rajendra Mahato is currently on a foreign visit. Minister of State for Science and Technology Indra Prasad Dhungel will also be absent.

On the eve of the UN climate change summit to be held in Copenhagen, the government decided to hold a Cabinet meeting near the Everest base camp to draw global attention to the threat of climate change in the country.

A large number of national and foreign journalists, doctors and government officials have arrived in Syangboche to cover the event.

The ministerial team flew to Kalapatthar along with 30 mountaineers and six medicos after health check-up in Syangboche this morning. They were taken to the region a day before the meeting for acclimatisation. Today's Cabinet will declare Banke National Park as new national park and Api-Nampa and Gauri-Shankar as conservation areas. Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation Dipak Bohara said the Cabinet would also endorse the agenda prepared for the Copenhagen summit.

Sources: Star News, ekantipur, Nepalnews

Shooting in Narayanhiti Palace

noreply@blogger.com (davinci) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:31:00 +0000

This is a video news story about the shooting of a new Nepali movie in Narayanhiti Palace.

I basically have nothing against this besides this that maybe there should be a procedure for this.

The Seven Wonders of New Nepal

noreply@blogger.com (davinci) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:47:00 +0000

Here is what I feel are the seven wonders of New Nepal.

1). Martyrs -

Probably, we enter the Guinness Book of World Records with this historic achievement. Gone are the days when we would bow to the statues of only four martyrs in Sahid Gate, Martyr's Memorial. One has to keep in mind that it's a feudalistic attitude, we now have moved on to the rule of the "people". From now, almost every Nepali, who dies, will be declared a martyr. Also, gone will be the days in the near future when people would be amazed at hearing that Nepal had more gods than people, for it the gods would be replaced by martyrs, who will be more than the number of people alive.

2). Return to Innocence -

We also return back to innocence with the historic declaration of 12 hours of electricity outage per day, at least for now. Soon, we will have more hours to live without electricity and hence we will get to enjoy nature in its profound glory, and give up using all these electrical appliances that have made us live lives that our ancestors hadn't. We return back to ourselves - we return back to innocence. ( Also this is the title of one of my favorite songs - Return to Innocence - by Enigma.)

3). Revolutions -

Probably, we also have the largest number of "revolutions" that are going on in every part of our country after the historic "revolution" that the Maoists carried out successfully. We also have revolting gangs like "Madhesi Virus Killers" who revolt against the viruses that have been generally known to be harmful to mankind. We had a revolution against the dogmas of religion, especially Hinduism, so we declared our nation to be a secular one. We've made a further revolution by appointing a Nepali priest as the head priest of Pashupatinath, and removing the Indians, who had been assigned this task from time immemorial (at least for me). This was a revolution against the domineering attitude of India. Our culture Minister, Gopal Kirati, also bolstered the spirit of the revolution, when he said that he would not obey the "regressionist" orders of the Supreme Court. This was a revolution against the corrupt judiciary that has plagued our countrymen with grief, and nothing more. Also there are revolutions against the media, the army and about almost everything.

4). Security -

We also must have the largest number of security personnel per capita. The state run police, armed police, and the army had been there for our security from the times of the feudal monarchs. Now, we also have an adequate number of Maoists Commandos, YCL Comrades and Youth Force Comrades, who are sponsored by the government. They are the FBI of our country who are at most times more powerful than the vestiges of monarchy - the police and the Nepal Army. We also have security officers like Matrika Yadav, who vehemently fight for the landless by snatching away land from the "feudals" and distributing them to the "people" of our country.

5). Strikes / Bandhs -

Too many strikes. I just won't write about it. Sometimes the number of strikes reaches two digits in a single day. We had 132 strikes during December, 2008. Check this out, and see more for yourself.

If you can suggest something, please do it here! I still need two more things to add to this list of seven wonders of New Nepal.

Long-distance nationalism

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:31:00 +0000

By Kumud Nepal

A recent report by the Institute of International Education showed that the number of Nepali students enrolled in the United States for higher education has gone up by 29.6 percent this year. While this fact seems innocuous, and maybe even positive on light thinking, it brings concern to one’s mind about where the future of the country is headed. It raises valid questions about whether the nation is benefiting by having an important chunk of the population educated abroad or, on the contrary, losing the most energetic section of its demography in the name of foreign education and better opportunities. It wouldn’t be wrong in forecasting that the latter concern will always outweigh the former.

The exodus of youth is certainly an issue that cannot be shrugged off as something trivial. It has been said and well-proven that the youth is the driving force of any community, country or a system. Youth is the force of change. This makes even more sense at trying times such as the one we are faced today in Nepal. This transformation of the country calls for a larger involvement of the youth in the formulation of its new policies and in the grooming of a new system. It calls for a unified sense of nationalism from people of all age groups, social classes, religion and backgrounds. However, with the facts thrown at us about the exodus of its youth, it can be argued that Nepal is losing what could be a very necessary element indispensable to its development.

The field of academia in the US and the avenues of opportunities that it opens up for the young are very lucrative. And that is where exactly the danger is. As much as the young generation who comes here wants to go back to Nepal eventually and do something for it, there is an equal chance that they would get trapped in a black hole of job security, freedom and a decent lifestyle. It is equally likely that the generation feels overqualified to go back. These obvious points aside, another danger as a result of migration is long-distance nationalism. A young population segregated from the banalities of its native country, the problems it is going through and its changes, also remains distant from the important feeling of true nationalism.

It can be said with confidence that most of the youth who have come to the US for higher education feel very highly of their country. Hence, the consequential problem with brain drain is not so much the youth’s suspected lack of concern for their country as it is the danger of long-distance nationalism. I myself have stayed here in the US for four years now in the pursuit of an advanced degree in engineering. My commitment towards Nepal over these four years has not waned one bit. However, at times, I do feel that the prospect of me going back with this expertise and actually being able to use it for the betterment of the country is bleak. That has led me to be satisfied with what I can do to my country from a distance and, accordingly, I have made myself resort to long-distance nationalism. I care a lot about my country. I take part in political discussions here in the US, I read about the politics and the economy, the lifestyle and the sports. However, I know what I am doing, at best, is borrowing information from an indirect source. I hear and examine things remotely. I do not SEE things. I do not get opportunities to DO things that directly impact my country. It just never feels as fresh as doing all the things firsthand by being physically THERE.

One of my biggest grievances of being abroad is that I could not vote in the historical elections last year. Along with me, a horde of young minds abroad, who are supposed to be the representatives of the country’s future, missed it too. I sometimes try to convince myself that with the increasing trend of globalization, nationality has redefined itself too – that one can still be a part of the nation from a distance. However, with things like the election, I have time and again failed to feel the way I would have if I were back in my country. It is just not the same. Part of the reason why I am writing this article is my own subconscious guilt about not being able to be there when my country most needs me or not being able to escape this repressing constraint imposed by long-distance nationalism. It is also one of my inner fears that with increasing dependency on a made-up nationalism, I might someday mix up my identity between who I am now and who I was earlier and develop overly ambitious dreams or sometimes undeniably unrealistic judgments about the country – dreams and judgments devoid of the actual truth that underlines the country.

The bigger picture that needs to be understood here is that abstracted nationalism rarely juxtaposes with basic reality and the needs of a country. Long-distance nationalists tend to be, more often than not, nostalgic of the times that prevailed when they were back in their country and hence can become very resistant to change. They could be opposed to favoring what could now be essential political compromises or cultural overhauls demanded and needed by the times in the country. From the safety of their exile, these people can often come to unrealistic and unfavorable conclusions and decisions about their countries.

This becomes a bigger problem when this group happens to be the youth – the building blocks of the nation. During an important time of a historical political and cultural metamorphosis, we need all the youth power to stabilize the country and steer it to a new direction. We need the youth to have a firsthand sense of nationalism devoid of any long-distance romanticism for the country. We need the youth to work on the problems at site and not just decry them from a distance. A draining young population certainly does not help the case. This increasing trend of migration may not yet seem malignant to the future of the country but clearly poses certain questions. Should we motivate the young generation to stay in the country? Do we have enough resources to make the youth turn their backs towards foreign prospects? Have we done enough to think about this as an ensuing problem? Until all these questions are fully addressed, the young population will keep seeking shelter outside of the country; brains will keep draining into lands of opportunities and the inevitable frontier of distant nationalism will keep strengthening itself.

Nepal is a PhD student of Electrical Engineering at Brown University

Originally published here.

Maoists' conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 07:45:00 +0000

by Bijaya Babu Shiwakoti

Maoist ideologue Dr Baburam Bhattarai, on the eve of the People’s Movement of 2006, had argued through an article in a national daily that any movement should have a specific goal and an action plan to achieve that goal. He was hinting at the lack of a specific goal and preparation on the part of the then mainstream parties and the impact it would have on the protest program. Three years down the line, the Maoists are now in the political mainstream and are trying to use peaceful means for their protest program. But it is quite clear that the Maoists do not have a specific objective for their protest program.

The protest program the mainstream parties were launching before the People’s Movement was ritualistic. They used to gather several thousands of their cadres and make rounds in the city center. They used to throw stones at police and shake hands with them in the evening promising to meet for the next round the other day. Fast forward from then to now, the Maoists are now performing ritual protests similar to that one. They are now singing and dancing during their protest program and it seems that the cadre level is not overly enthusiastic about the ongoing program as they used to be in the previous ones.

It seems that the Maoists are under tremendous pressure from many quarters regarding this agitation. The Indians and the 22-party coalition want them to call off their strikes. The pressure from the Indians is probably a little too much for the Maoists to be able to withstand. The Maoists know that the Indian security campaign against the Naxalites and the possible association of the Naxalites with the Nepali Maoists as suggested by the Indian establishment and its repercussions might be damaging for them.

The Maoists who wanted to play China against India probably got the message that the Chinese are not interested in that game – they have their own considerations, although not always harmonious, in relation with India. The Western powers do not want to go against the wishes of the Indians vis-à-vis the Maoists. So, it is not a surprise that if the Maoists are given an option to save their face, they will end their protests and be a part of some sort of power structure – with or without them being on top of the power structure.

Whatever happens to the Maoists is not of much importance to the nation. The Maoists have shown brinkmanship during the time they led the government. All they want is power, whatever the cost. Whatever may be their rhetoric about ‘civilian supremacy’, ‘imperialism’ and ‘expansionism’, they are just interested in state power even if that means taking orders from the ‘imperialists’ and the ‘expansionists’.

All said, the Maoists’ protest program are damaging to the nation and it is high time that all concerned in this political impasse take a handful of country’s soil and think about the country and its people, as BP Koirala used to prescribe to address any dilemma facing the country. The parties should refrain from political one-upmanship and chalk out a solution that is sustainable at least until the time the constitution is written.

Originally published here.

The wall that fell

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:45:00 +0000

Rajendra Thakurathi

A country infected by years of repression of communism and a crumbled democracy after losing two “world wars” in the span of 25 years. A wall as long as 100 miles, its only purpose to prevent the exodus of the skilled people from the east side to the west side at the sake of their freedom. How long could the wall stand robust?

This 11/9 (not 9/11) represents the 20th anniversary of that shiny day in history that culminated the long-awaited hope of Germans to bring down the wall. No longer was there an East and West Germany, and Berliners from both sides were reunited. On Nov. 9, 1989, hours before midnight, the mob on the east side stormed the border crossing called “Checkpoint Charlie” in Berlin, yelling out to the border guards: “Open up.” The crowd on the West answered “Come over, come over!” The gates eventually swung open, and many German clambered atop the Berlin Wall and yelled “Die Mauer ist Weg!” (the Wall is gone).

For 28 years, the wall built by the Eastern Communistic Germany prevented people from crossing the border between East and West Berlin. Tanks and uniformed soldiers guarded the border. Soldiers were given orders to shoot those spotted crossing the border. While the Western Allied Powers (the U.S., Great Britain and France) occupied West Germany in the cloak of democracy, the trampled East was ruled by fanatic advocates of communism. People’s voices were unheard, and East Germans were banned to travel beyond the Iron Curtain, a physical and ideological boundary that kept Europe divided from the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War. Those longing to escape to the West tried going from neighboring Hungary or Czechoslovakia and from there over the mountains to West Germany. One-hundred-ninety two people lost their lives while trying to escape to the West between 1961 and 1989.

Germany had been locked behind the Iron Curtain since the early 1960s. One of the hardest-hit areas in Europe, Germany had both the threat of a second Great Depression and, on the other, the rise of communism. The Western Allies’ Marshall Plan was committed to rebuild Europe as soon as possible, but Communist Soviet Union had other intentions in mind. The barbed wires that merely shone as the demarcation of the East and the West were changed into huge concrete walls overnight while the Berliners were sleeping in 1961. East Berliners found themselves as prisoners in their own country. The border was sealed and the makeshift barbed-wire barrier was transformed into the Berlin Wall. Walter Ulbricht, the communist party leader, thought it was the solution to losing skilled people from the East to the West. Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, who had wooed new Third World states to embrace communism and spoke to recognizing the two German states, stood up and ordered Bauen Sie die Mauer, “Build the wall!” Death Strip, a no-man’s land was soon created.

The demarcation not just divided the Berliners and the Germans, but also aggravated Cold War tensions. At one point, world leaders feared a nuclear war. The 1963 Berlin speech of U.S. President John F. Kennedy fell on deaf ears. But in 1987, President Reagen’s call to “Bring down this wall!” prompted Soviet Union Prime Minister Mikael Gorbachev to show signs of willingness to tear down the wall. Then on Nov. 9, 1989, the Checkpoint Charlie border guards shrugged and threw open the gates on that freezing night.

Today, no line remains to show the border. Where the barbed wires, watchtowers and the wall showed their grim faces, the skyscrapers smile at the sky to tell about the glorious years Germany has come to. At present, just two kilometers of the wall remain of the 43 kilometers that once ran through the center of Berlin. However, the people who saw the wall fall often will sing “Wind of Change” — just as they sang for the world 20 years ago. Freiheit!

Rajendra believes a wind of change comes every now and often.

Getting off in tangents

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:51:00 +0000

by Sanjit Pradhananga

If a Hindu priest bore witness to how the Nepalese Diaspora celebrated this year’s Dashain festivities, he would be aghast to say the least. We’d congregated at a Chapel under one skinny foreigner nailed to a cross, while another blessed us by evoking the Gods of our forefathers. To be honest, I don’t even know if the prayer we sent out to heavens that day was accurate, for it was in a tongue I’ve long forgotten. But surely the all-loving G will absolve the audacity of a people, self-exiled from their traditions, trying to cling on to whatever little they remember. Surely the all-compassionate G will empathize with the end, if not our means. I have been told that She holds the ones who’ve been lost, closest to her breast.

I confess I’ve been lost for a while. For four years I have scoured through empty isles in the library, climbed jagged bluffs by the Mississippi, wandered lonely on mirthless nights through virgin snow, lamenting all that has slipped from my memory. It happened very suddenly, I remember. One July, I had swum in the Atlantic during a storm, thinking of my mother’s soft hands. In my mind, I could see it, the texture, the scar, the yellow turmeric tan. But I’d forgotten how it smelt. It was completely gone. I hurried out of the choppy waters, with a tempest stirring within my head. Gone! That first smell, I learned to recognize. That odor of selfless love, that’s a tantalizing mix of curry and lavender. All Gone.

It has been all downhill since then.
Phone numbers, places, voices then faces.
All lost.
Uncle Sam taketh a lot of things.
Uncle Sam taketh my money, my youth, my sweat, my dreams and my innocence.

But Uncle Sam also hoodwinked a veil I had over my eyes, all the years I’d lived in Nepal. So many things were taken for granted back then, the odors, the voices, the faces, the traditions. Dashain, which we try now so desperately to recreate, was a big nuisance to me while growing up. The family gatherings were long and painful, the blessings were phony, and the animal sacrifices inhumane and illogical.

I like to think of my self-exile as a big storm that has blown away all my dying leaves. Now in this winter of discontent, I see the tree that gave life to me for what it really is. I see the sturdy branches of tradition I’d nested in. I see my roots, strong, interwoven and grounded solid. I don’t take anything for granted anymore.

Everything I go through takes me past these rain drenched streets, to back home where my heart lies. I see big cars zooming by and miss those noisy streets back home, the horns, the commotion, and those cows that wandered into the streets. I see nice houses and lavish lawns and remember those huts, those slums where people lived in utter poverty but love. I hear church bells toll and remember those frantic chimes of temple bells, the elderly worshiping at dawn, their purity which I(until now) had always scorned and questioned. I walk into the ARC and find my self back to my high school library, but a couple of isolated racks holding Nepali literature books (that I never bothered venturing into) are gone. Yet my eyes still search for that isolated corner. The prosperity that seethes through everything here, resounds with the echo of the woes my ailing nation. The cry of a mother land whose sons and daughters choose to abandon her in their yearning for prosperity.Being an alien, reminds me of the profoundness of my own culture. It is funny that I had to travel half way around the world into a foreign land to realize it. My family often jokes about how I’ve become an American, how my accent has changed, how I don’t remember phone numbers, and names, and places. I listen and smile, because they get a great kick out of it. But if they only knew! The irony.

For I have transitioned not into an American but more into a Nepali.
“Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home.” –
J.J.

Sanjit is a gadfly. He runs the The Gadfly Rises. Click here.

10 tips for your own venture in Nepal

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:48:00 +0000

ENTREPRENEURS OF NEPAL is an open network forum for young Nepalis. It holds various programs like interactions with Nepali entrepreneurs every month.

The forum has compiled 10 tips from established entrepreneurs speaking at their forums, that may help you on your goal to start your own venture in Nepal. Here they are:

1. Success takes patience. Min Bahadur Gurung waited almost for a decade before he expanded his one-room cold storage shop to a small department store, which then went on to be today’s Bhat Bhateni Supermarkets at more than one locations.
2. Know yourself. Karna Sakya has devised a test that helps you find out how you work, how you value time, and what your values are. His point is that unless you really know what you are good at, and how you function, you are not likely to be a success.
3. Know the strength of others. You are working with. You can’t do everything by yourself. Icchya Raj Tamang says that working well on a team is a function knowing and using the strengths of other team-mates toward your goals.
4. Honesty is the key. Min Bdr Gurung says that long-term business success is anchored on honesty, and on mutually trustworthy relationships with your financial institutions, creditors, debtors, co-workers, employees and customers.
5. When choosing partners, do your homework well. Mahendra Man Shakya of Momo King says that most mistakes are made in Nepali businesses when people get into business partnerships without doing the necessary background research and without asking themselves some tough questions which need to be answered and understood upfront. There is no fun in quarreling with your business partners when things go wrong, which there surely will be at some point in the business.

6. Aim for precision in communication. Jonas Lindholm says that bad communication lies at the heart of many business failures and misunderstandings. In Nepal, often, people say ‘yes’ too eagerly, without being aware of what they can do and what they cannot do, and that can be a problem when things do not go right. Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
7. Analyze your mistakes to learn from them. Gyanendra Pradhan of HydroSolutions says that a good habit an entrepreneur needs to develop is an ability to reflect upon one’s mistakes, and learn from them without getting stuck in the past. This habit can be cultivated through conscious practice and reflective experiences.
8. Hard work is the only way to success. Mrs. Ambika Shrestha of Dwarika’s Hotel, says that she attributes her success to her ability to work very hard when she was young. No work was beneath her, and she made many, many sales calls and visits to sell her hotel’s and travel agency’s offerings.
9. Persistence is important. Ajay Ghimire, CEO of Vibor Bank, says that he looks for a sense of persistence when dealing with entrepreneurs. Those who are persistent are likely to not get disappointed with failures and setbacks, and have the energy and willpower to push ahead to success.
10. Entrepreneurship is the art of selling. Ajay Ghimire believes that whatever an entrepreneur does, success comes from an ability to sell ideas, concepts, good and services to others. This is why, an ability sell what one knows and makes is a critical skill to have.
hope you enjoyed it !

For Entrepreneurs for Nepal: Ashutosh Tiwari, Jaya Burathoki, Sagar Onta , Ujwal Thapa with Robin Sitoula and Samriddhi: The Prosperity Foundation

The forum can be reached at e4nepal.com

'350' for global action against climate change

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 05:15:00 +0000

Forget Nepali politics for a while.

This Saturday, you might see 350 on media everywhere. It’s the new mantra to stop the global warming and stop the world from further deteriorating the environment through carbon dioxide emission. At this time of wars, unemployment, global economic crash, believe it or not, the alarming climate change is of paramount importance.

On October 24th, 350.org, an organization led by American environmentalist and author Bill McKibben, is marking the International Day of Climate Action with programs all around the globe for the countries and governments to adopt the atmospheric carbon emission to a safe upper limit of 350 parts-per-million (ppm). This movement, aimed at bringing the world people, media and governments together to stop climate change, is also an outcry for the upcoming international treaty at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark where the world delegates are going to meet in December this year.

The 350’s climate-change demonstrations include rallies, walks, bike rallies, sign making, tree plantations and carbon-free dinners, among others. About 3500 demonstrations have been planned for this day in more than 170 countries. So from Kathmandu to Cape Town and from Perth to Paris, the movement is going to be massive. The events also include 350 trees plantation in Bangladesh, 350 scuba divers diving at the Great Barrier Reef and 350 paellas being solar-cooked in a Barcelona square. Thousands of churches are even ringing their bells 350 times during the day. The UN headquarter in New York will have a huge screen to showcase the images uploaded from around the world on the day.

Scientists have become alarmed of the horrifying global warming trend in the last few decades. The earlier assumed earth’s capacity of 450 ppm was dropped to 350 when the situation was closely analyzed in the last few years. James Hansen, the NASA climatologist says we’re already at 380 ppm. The pre-industrial revolution level was 278 ppm.

McKibben has crisscrossed the globe to organize this campaign. He has signed up two Nobel laureates- Al Gore and Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, the 2007 Peace Prize winners for their work on global warming. He's been to Africa, Asia, and the Middle East to make this possible. Young people have been trained and informed to plan events in their countries. Even countries like Turkey and Afghanistan which have had few or no environmental movements are calling for action. Moreover, Friends of Earth, Greenpeace, Oxfam, Christian Aid, the Sierra Club are some of the groups who are making this possible along with 350.org. Last week, Maldives held an underwater cabinet meeting to pass a 350 resolution.

The massive groundswell of citizens of the world demanding solutions on climate change will definitely make the leaders in Denmark to think twice in December about their new treaties in favor of a cleaner environment and a better tomorrow. Moreover, leaders, doers, thinkers, writers, photographers, students are spreading the 350 movement.

So, this Saturday, I’m forgetting my weekend and going to my city hall to hold 350 signs and take part in the global action for climate change. You can be a part too. In order to find an action near you and take part in the climate-change demonstrations, click here.

Reminiscing Tihar

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:22:00 +0000

I opened the door to my room, threw the key on the table and set the alarm for tomorrow on my phone. A miss call “Unknown” made me realize that somebody must have called me from home. Suddenly, I realized it was yet another beautiful festival Tihar.

When I was back home, Tihar was my best festivity, for it was an occasion of light and delight. Although Dashain is considered the greatest festival, I never felt its importance until I came here, away from my family. For me, Dashain was a way for the whole family and kith and kin to come together, to hear some political guffaw of my Dad and his acquaintances. Under the dark blue sky, on the terrace of my house, I would listen closely to my Dad and fall asleep on the side gazing at the stars when my Mom would have gone to her parents along with my brother. However, Tihar was something that filled my whole world with a unique aroma of excitement. Flickering candles, diyo and a bunch of deusi-bhaili groups were so cheerful to me. The gayety was even more with crackers that I would buy with my brother under-the- table, for my Dad never liked it.

Every year, I had been with my brother, who along with me, would light up the candles outside the house on this day. Although the bridge would make the flame dance and blow out, we would spend whole night making sure there was light around our house and that Goddess Laxmi would come to our house. The redolence of shell-roti, gujiya and sweets made by my sister and a smile on everyone’s face in my family would please me. I would watch the deusi-bhaili people going from shop to shop, singing and dancing. Then my Dad would ask me to be in his shop so that he could go and do Laxmi Puja.

But, today I lie down on this bed, all tired and restless from daylong work, I am waiting for a call, just one call, from my brother, my sister, my Mom and my Dad. Just one call, and I swear my whole week would go lucky. I’m waiting. All the festivals come and go, but they don’t matter to anyone here. Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, they don’t interest me at all. During my own festivals, I find myself and Nepali friends soaked in working and finishing assignments and class projects. I can’t complain.

I turn off the light to sleep and my phone rings.

(Photo courtesy of Blind Manche on Flickr.com)

Diwali Message From Obama

noreply@blogger.com (davinci) — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 06:31:00 +0000

Here is a Diwali message from Obama to all those who celebrate this festival.

An open letter to Non-Resident Nepalis

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:57:00 +0000

Dear NRNs,

At the outset, this writer wishes to make it clear that this letter is a sincere salutation to those of you who have not only talked about Nepal but have made concrete contributions to this country in various ways. However, this letter could make for uncomfortable reading to the majority of you who come, who talk, who return and do nothing but just talk and find excuses to talk more. There is no point cursing Nepali politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and civil society members when you, with all your expertise, skills and resources, have failed to fulfil your social and patriotic responsibilities.

The Fourth Non-Resident Nepali (NRN) Global Conference is starting tomorrow with huge fanfare. Like in past conferences, there will be an ostentatious inauguration, spirited speeches, erudite paper presentations, heated discussions and profound declarations about how NRNs can contribute to the development of Nepal and how the Nepal government should recognise and encourage the contributions of NRNs towards their motherland. After extensive publicity, several flashy interviews, and the grand conclusion of the conference, you will all disperse and return ‘home’. Before the next global conference takes place in 2011, many of you will engage and participate in several regional NRN conferences in Europe and Asia. Again, you will demonstrate your organisational and leadership skills and possibly impress lots of local NRNs by your seemingly persuasive speeches. You will express serious concern about the deteriorating political, economic and social conditions in Nepal. Some of you will express more concern about the country on various internet-based discussion forums. And, some of you will also go to the extent of submitting memorandums to the Prime Minister and senior politicians urging them to act on various issues. In essence, you will waste your energy and time in activities which are not going to change anything but give you some name and fame because of your engagement in intellectual discourses and managing to convey your concerns to the concerned authorities, who receive several similar petitions all the time but hardly do anything about it.

A word of thanks is in order to Dr Upendra Mahato, who has worked tirelessly for nearly a decade to establish and spread the NRN movement throughout the world. He has led by example and has not just talked but made things happen. Like him, there are a few other prominent NRNs who command the moral high ground to talk about ideals and actions. They have personally and collectively contributed to several good causes in Nepal. Many of you, who talk and do nothing, think they did it because they have the resources. You may not be as resourceful, but you can always do things in whatever small way that you can as hundreds of ordinary NRNs living in different countries do. You can learn from those inspirational ordinary NRNs. The irony is, many of you are seeking a high profile in terms of leading the organisation and talking about NRN’s aims and expectations but are absolutely reluctant in setting examples yourself. This country badly needs examples, not talkers. If only you had the honesty, sense of social responsibility and the commitment, you could have played a hugely catalytic role. You have the knowledge, the exposure and the understanding, but, unfortunately, you lack the wisdom. Hence, you want to take more and give less, you enjoy talking rather than acting and you enjoy blaming rather than reflecting.

Nepal does not need doses of lectures from NRNs. It needs more schools and libraries, health posts and medicines, which many of you can provide at a personal level. Nepal does not need NRNs who bask in the glory of their successes in businesses and other sectors but do nothing for the schools and villages where they spent their childhood. A very simplistic but realistic argument is: if a successful Nepali has benefited the Australians, the Americans or the British through his talent and hard work, let the respective nationals be proud of him. Why should 27 million Nepalis bother about such a person who has been utterly useless for poor communities that he has left behind?

Many successful NRNs are also very passionate about political and human rights issues, which usually provide them a high profile in media and society. We already have more than enough able indigenous activists to talk about those issues. If you still want to talk about it, please complement it with meaningful action. Only the combination of actions and words can bring about changes. Words alone are extremely hollow. For people of your knowledge and exposure, it would just be farcical to continuously talk about politics and human rights but do nothing to mitigate the socio-economic maladies in whatever small way that you can.

Similarly, the issue of dual citizenship, registration of NRN Association in Nepal and the creation of a 100 Million Dollar Nepal Investment Fund have figured high on your objectives. Many of you argue that when those three objectives are met, you can make a significant contribution to Nepal. Those demands are perfectly reasonable for the kind of movement the NRN is. However, it looks very pretentious when you make those demands an excuse for your inaction. It is always nice to talk about big investments and big changes but in poor Nepali villages, small gestures make a huge difference. For example, you claim that there are 2.5 million NRNs spread outside of South Asia. It is possible that out of 2.5 million, 1.5 million NRNs can hardly do anything as they come from an extremely poor background and are virtually illiterate. This writer has been arguing for long that out of the remaining one million NRNs, even if half of them sponsor a child, every year half a million Nepali children will get better education and health facilities. Anyone willing to do so, will not need a dual citizenship, registration of the NRN Association in Nepal or a 100 Million Dollar Investment Fund. You also don’t need any go-between to sponsor a child in a community that you belong to and visit it from to time.

You have fancied talking big all these years. If you go through NRN Association’s website, you will see it for yourself how you have mostly wasted your time in holding meetings, conferences, interaction programmes, issuing statements and declarations. If you go through the declarations of the past three NRN Global conferences, you will see for yourself how most of the declaration-objectives have been virtually forgotten by now. Just calculate the money that you have individually and institutionally spent in global, regional and national activities over the years. If you had limited such events to the absolutely necessary ones, probably you could have built several small schools in Nepali hills and plains. That would have given you greater moral strength and credibility. You have succeeded in institutionalising and expanding the association but have miserably failed in actually helping your motherland, which was and is your core objective. On the fourth conference starting tomorrow, it would be hugely beneficial if you did serious soul searching about your achievements and aspirations, which need a clear focus and commitment to make things happen. Just showing off your strength every two years, presenting the works of a handful of committed NRNs as an example of what NRNs can do in Nepal, boasting about token gestures and the remittances, which is a compulsion rather than a conscious contribution, is neither good for you nor for Nepal. Hope this letter will be taken in a positive vein.

Wishing you a meaningful and productive conference.

(Rabindra Mishra is associated with Help Nepal and can be reached at (rabindra.helpnepal@gmail.com )

Jau Jau Guru Ji

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 07:53:00 +0000

Prime Minister and the cabinet of ministers on a bus. Yes, Wednesday afternoon, rainy day and a bunch of bigwigs of the country. PM Madhav Kumar Nepal went on a small tour around Kathmandu to see the problems of Kathmanduities. The surprising element was everyone was aboard on a tourist bus and there was no ‘big’ security or escort for these leaders.

During the one-and-half-hour excursion, the group went around the Ring Road starting from Singh Durbar. The only intention of the trip was to see how things are going on in the city. Unsurprisingly, the group saw the lax security system, garbage problem, traffic jam, unregulated vendors and jaywalking, among others.

I don’t want to go damning the tour, but isn’t it that these ministers and the Prime Minister already know the problems Kathmandu and the whole country is facing. No doubt, they saw it. But the important part is, what are they going to do about this? PM Nepal directed the cabinet to take necessary steps, but what are these steps, I guess, even PM Nepal doesn’t know.

The detour included Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Physical Planning and Works Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, Home Minister Bhim Rawal, Local Development Minister Purna Kumar Sharma, Labor and Transportation minister Mohammad Aftab Alam along with PM Nepal.

Good luck guys. I hope your tour was not to show off that you care.

The Luxury We Can't Afford

noreply@blogger.com (davinci) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 23:04:00 +0000

An article by Krishna Sharma, former reporter at the Rising Nepal, is associated with the Washington Post in Washington DC, USA. He can be reached at kpsharma1971@yahoo.com . Article originally published at this location. This is an article that a lot of Nepalis have to read and think about! So, I'm reposting it here.

A few months ago in Kathmandu, a Nepali friend I hadn’t seen for a couple of years asked if I had a blue collar job in the USA. Honestly, I couldn’t answer his question in black and white. I had no idea what kind of job I was having in the USA.

For about a year between 2005 and 2006 I had worked as a cashier at the CVS Pharmacy, wearing a sky blue T-shirt. I knew for sure, I was a blue-collar worker then. But then, I changed my career. I no longer have to wear any blue collar or any other garment with specific color, for that matter, in my present job. Part of what I wear while I go to work these days includes a white shirt with a tie and a coat. Still, I can’t figure out if my job falls under blue collar or white collar category. And, truly speaking, I don’t care.

When my old friend’s assessment came afterward that my hands were rough, I immediately sensed the motif of his question and did not consider my options to answer him. I was prompt enough to tell him to his expected satisfaction that I was surely a blue collar worker and that because I worked more hours every day for a few bucks, my hands were rough enough for his smooth moth’s nose like hands.

Later, I realized that he felt bad for I had rightly sensed the motif of his question. I still did not furnish any real reasons for my hands becoming rough for his soft hands. I did not think it necessary to inform him that I had recently bought a townhouse and that I had painted it by myself to save a few hundred bucks for the labor charge; that I had tilled a small land behind the house to grow some vegetables; that I had power-washed and coated the deck by myself; that cooking and dishwashing were one of the regular features of our household, no matter whether you are a bread earner or not. I don’t know why I did not tell him frankly that America was not a bed of roses and that I had not gone to the USA expecting such beds to turn in.

As my date of departure was nearing, another incident of almost the same nature took place. After we were done with the shopping for that day, my brother-in-law asked for a coolie (street worker who lifts the load of the people to their destinations for a meager amount) to carry the goods to the underground parking lot of the supermarket in New Road where we had parked our car. I told him on his face that while we could carry our goods by ourselves, it was not necessary to hire a coolie. So sad that a small number of people with their own means of transportation consider others as their vehicles.

Pardon me if I am wrong. But let me talk about a nation which has earned its notoriety in the international forums as one of the most politically corrupt, socially unequal, geographically inaccessible and demographically hostile places in Asia. Thanks to our politicians, national level lawmakers, bureaucrats and the executives and lately, the Maoists, the so called social levelers, who made us to earn all these bad reputation. We can’t make any sense when our Prime Minister attends the United Nations’ high tea party and returns to tell us that the US visit was a success. I wonder what objectives he had that he had achieved to claim the visit as a success.

While at a meeting with the officials from the World Bank in Washington DC lately, I came across a photographer from National Geographic Society who asked me curiously, upon learning that I was a descendent of the Nepali heritage, if Nepal’s narrow highways were yet to touch Karnali; if Kathmandu was still a Valley of the rich businessmen and corrupt politicians and if the Nepali Maoists had any respect for humanity now that they had come to live with them. The questions took my heart to pieces. But they were all valid questions like my friend’s because he had experienced my rough hands while shaking them.

If it is my turn to ask, let me ask these questions to you my dear fellow citizens: why are we so snobbish about what we are not? Do we deserve not to work and expect a decent life? If we don’t, why do we look down upon others by their looks or by the roughness of their hands or by the way they dress? Why we hire coolies while we can lift our own merchandise to our cars? Why are we so intent about asking what others do while it has nothing to do with what we have been doing? Why we never help our mothers or wives in the kitchen? Why we never worry about how our kids are doing with their studies and hire tutors at home? Why we are renting a flat for NRS 9,000.00 per month while our monthly salary does not exceed that amount. Why we always take the issues to streets in a violent manner while there are other options to demonstrate our dissatisfaction to certain decisions of the government? Why do we keep stretching our hands and accidentally hit on the nose of the person sitting next to us? Why don’t we ask for limitations while we ask for freedom? When are we going to learn that everything comes at a price? Last but not least, what makes our Prime Minister to say that his visit to the USA was successful when he did nothing except addressing an empty UN Hall? Can we afford this luxury of our Prime Minister when he tells a flat lie before millions of us on a broad daylight?

Let us ask ourselves the rest of other compelling questions and try to be realistic. Without being realistic, it is futile to be optimistic.

Revolution is coming!

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:44:00 +0000

Revolution is coming MaKuNe.

(Something I found on a friend's facebook profile.)

What we should expect from MERO EUTA SATHI CHHA

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:19:00 +0000

When I got a DVD for Kagbeni, the first ever Nepali film that I bought, in Baltimore during ANA convention last summer, I didn’t hesitate to pay $10. It was a matter of pride to take a Nepali movie home that supposedly didn’t have stereotype Nepali filmy stories of love, revenge or relationships.

Although my friends, who have grown up watching all these English films with innovative stories and Indian films that have come a long way experimenting on the audience, made a mockery out of some of the scenes in the movie and questioned scenes like the cry of the weird lady in the middle of the film, the film to me had power to transform the Nepali cinema industry. Prashant Rashaily’s screenplay and Bidur Pandey’s cinematography was outstanding although the movie did little too much in showing the panoramic scenes of Kagbeni.

Quest Entertainment’s new camera prototypes and Dolby Digital Surround Sound had worked on the Nepali new generation. The Himalayan Times remarked Kagbeni sets a benchmark for Nepali cinema. Kunda Dixit asserted Nepali movies won’t have to be embarrassed anymore. Now look at the number of High Quality Nepali movies that were in the pipeline- Sano Sansar, Mission Paisa, Mero Euta Sathi Chha, Kathmandu, Goodbye Kathmandu, Acharya and documentaries like Greater Nepal, Das Dhunga and 13246.

Although the promo trailers of movies like Sano Sansar and Mission Paisa were wonderful reminding of some Korean film and Stephen Chow’s film respectively, the flicks didn’t do much magic for the audience. Simosh Sunuwar who has had awesome Nepali music videos like Mt 8848’s Sathi Saal focused too much in impressive fighting scenes and visual effects, which didn’t suit the Nepali viewers very much. Alok Nembang’s debut film “Sano Sansar” seemed rather long and unconvincing with a regular love story and an obvious ending. Namrata Shrestha’s acting was alright, but with a little better script, the film could have been much better. The dance scene was really good, thanks to the music video director Nembang himself. Although both of these movies had better quality with focus more on the new middle class young generation, the filmmakers should know what exactly they want for this new generation.

The trailer for Mero Euta sathi Chha reminds me of Bollywood flicks that came in the last decade where a rich guy meets a poor girl or vice versa. If this film has a similar ordinary story of family problems, power of love bonds or revenge, this would fail too, no matter it is a HD movie or simple Celluloid movie. Neither copying stories from Bollywood or Hollywood would work, nor the stories about robots or spacecrafts. The audience is done with stories that have Rajesh Hamal screaming and raged and fighting against the evil, glamorous Rekha Thapa half naked for no reason, or love stories with same old plot.

There are so many themes that Nepali filmmakers can make stories on. Stories about unemployment, a student fleeing the country in search of better life, a life that vows to change society along with friends, historical films on legends, royal massacre, Kot Parva, mythological stories, an artist who revolutionizes the music industry, some child who finds life through working in a chiya pasal are the things that come to my mind when I think of writing scripts. Nepali film industry doesn’t need big actors, it needs good actors and creative filmmakers. Theaters like Gurukul could be a good resource.

As for the love story Mero Euta Sathi Chha, I have hope that it will have some good astonishment like in those of films based on Nicholas Sparks’ books. However, I have greater expectations from Manoj Pandit’s Greater Nepal and Das Dhunga, Prashant Rasaily’s Acharya and Nabin Subba’s Goodbye Kathmandu. Not to be forgotten are Nepali films by foreign filmmakers- Julie Bridgham's The Sari Soldiers and Sanjay Srinivas' God Lives in the Himalayas.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announces 12 nominees

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:28:00 +0000

12 nominees have been announced for the 2010 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction that is set for March 15 at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. KISS, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Genesis, the Hollies, LL Cool J and Jimmy Cliff are first-timers while ABBA, the Chantels, Darlene Love, Laura Nyro, the Stooges and Donna Summer are returning candidates for the Hall of Fame, which will mark its 25th anniversary this year.

With 24 gold albums, KISS is famous for its hits like “Rock and Roll All Nite” and “Beth” and Halloween masks during the concerts. Progressive rock band Genesis, Jamaican reggae singer Cliff, Sweden-formed band ABBA, fusion of funk, punk and psychedelia, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and seminal punk band from Michigan The Stooges are some of the remarkable music influences that were chosen to be on the list this year.

Five of these 12 will be taped for induction; the winners will be announced in January.Induction to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is conferred on an act that has released its first single or album at least 25 years prior to the year of the nomination. It started in 1983 when the leaders in the music industry joined together to establish the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation. The Foundation recognizes the contributors who have had a significant impact in shaping the development of rock and roll music.

For the silver jubilee celebration, a two-day blowout concert is scheduled at Madison Square Garden in NYC on Oct 29 and 30, where the alums are set to play one another’s songs. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, HBO will be showing highlights of the concert that will have Bruce Springsteen, U2, Aretha Franklin, Metallica, Eric Clapton, Stevie Wonder and Simon & Garfunkel as some of the big names.

Photo: Genesis in 1974 (source: Time Magazine)

Ending Animal Sacrifice

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 04:09:00 +0000

by Dishebh Raj Shrestha

Okay, straight forward, here's a very valid argument to end animal slaughter in your own household. And this is for those families who carry on with the animal sacrifices during Dashain or any other time of year just because it is a tradition and our culture. Wake up you all!

Get a sound knowledge about your culture and tradition before going and taking lives in the name of it! Animal sacrifice basically means to present the gods all five basic elements - wind, water, land, fire and sky. These are represented by the animal's meat, blood, breath etc. You should take note of this if you fail in stopping animal sacrifices this year so that you can argue well next year.

But these five elements are well taken care of by the 'Shagun' we offer, which includes meat, raksi, egg, bara (wo) and fish. So why make the same symbolic offerings twice?

Are we so dumb that we follow whatever others do or continue the same mistaken traditions our predecessors have made? Do we not have minds of our own to try and learn what each symbolic tradition is all about before we go and spend huge amounts of cash as if we were the richest country in the world? If you want to eat meat, eat it. I am not arguing that animals should not me killed or eaten. All I am saying is, don't make God an excuse to do so.

What it took me, personally, to end animal sacrifices at home was going vegetarian and giving my Dad a day of great headache. But it worked because killing all those ducks would be wasting their lives and wasting money as nobody in the house except my mom was a true non-vegetarian. I never fancied the taste of meat and my father's been a vegetarian for almost two decades and still he did all the killing because it was tradition. But my stance compelled him to think about the whole 'tradition' issue over.

Three years back, my instincts told me that animal sacrifices were wrong but I didn't know such a valid argument about the five elements involved in the animal sacrifices existed. But now, you do. You don't have to become vegetarian, but you can at least pretend to do so for a while. When eating stops, the killing will too. Besides, it’s a smaller sacrifice!

Photo Courtesy: nagariknews.com

Madhav Kumar Nepal meets Obama

noreply@blogger.com (davinci) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:25:00 +0000

There is little to expect from Madhav Kumar Nepal's meeting with Obama. Like a lot of leaders we've had for quite some time now, these leaders, when they're abroad do not represent Nepal, but usually just the partisan interests of their groups.

The most interesting thing for me was this image. Not trying to say anything, but kind of correlates to the statuses of Nepal and the US. Kinda.

Nepal Featured on the Front Page of New York Times - Today

noreply@blogger.com (davinci) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 08:31:00 +0000

In an article titled "In Nepal, a Long, Cold Climb to Inspiration, Gbenga Akinnagbe, writes about his recent trip to Nepal in the New York Times. I have a screenshot from the homepage of Nytimes alongside. Made me feel proud of my country.

He had already traveled to Nepal a year before, and had gone to trek in the Annapurna Circuit. This year too, he visited that place again. Only difference being - this time he was with 15 other trekkers as compared to his friend, who trekked with him last year. Their mission this time around was to climb across the Thorung-La pass. And they did it.

The article is special to me because it features my home country on the front page of one of the most popular newspapers in the world. Even more satisfactory reason is that the article features our country in good light in times when there are terrible things happening almost everywhere in our country.

I would like to thank the writer, and Nytimes for putting Nepal up in the frontpage. Maybe this might be something that would be a free advertisement to the Visit Nepal, 2011 thing. Hope more people visit Nepal this year.

Click here to read this article. And here to go to the homepage of New York Times.

Jupiter Dreams

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:32:00 +0000

In Homer's epic poem Iliad, after Achilles, the Greek hero of the Trojan war and the son of Peleus, loses his war gift and love Briseis to Agamemnon, the son of King Atreus, he wails in front his mother Thetis and asks her to appeal to god Jupiter (Jove) to help him. Jove is reluctant to help the Trojans, for his wife, Juno, favors the Greeks, but he finally agrees. Jove, in order for the Greeks to lose the war and help Achilles, then sends a false dream to Agamemnon in which a figure in the form of old counselor Nestor persuades Agamemnon that he can take Troy if he launches a full-scale assault on the city’s walls.

Jupiter, as a planet, has a central position among the other planets in the solar system. While Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are one side, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are on the other. Astrologically, Jupiter represents balance, organization and optimism. So, the dreams are considered to be sent by god Jupiter for awareness of supportive internal and external forces. They compensate for what is lacking deep inside us, in our daily life. They attempt to balance the psyche. In other words, they embrace a positive attitude.

So, next time you see a dream, remember that it is there to remind you that there is an order in the universe for a prosperous, balanced and joyful life. Is this the interpretation of a dream? What do other intellectuals say about dreams? Do dreams come to us when we are unconscious to make us realize that there is order in the universe or to fantasize about things because these things are not possible in the real world? Every symbol we see in our dreams is considered to have some message for us. Do you believe that?

Unknown White Male

noreply@blogger.com (Mahayoddha) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:58:00 +0000

“Unknown White Male” is a 2005 documentary film of a Brit in New York Doug Bruce who leaves his house one day, completely unaware of where he is going and what his real identity is. All the experiences he has had, all his things of the past are erased from his memory and his mind is blank like a white paper. He is overwhelmed for everything he sees is his first impression. His 35 years experience is gone. He doesn’t remember his parents, family and friends. Filmmaker Rupert Murray, a childhood friend of Bruce, films him over the next few months.

Bruce’s meetings with his friends and personal tapes can’t bring his memory back and all his friends feel that they have lost someone who is attached to their history. ‘Retrograde Amnesia’ has made him more reasonable, more sensitive and more focused as if a computer has become 'refreshed' after a format. His learning skills have honed and his talks about things have changed. Out of a sudden he talks about existentialist philosophy with his dad which makes the story interesting. He wants to remember things of the past in memory rather than just in photographs.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005.