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Showing posts from 2015

Different in our similarity

"I wanted nothing more than to be a Nepali." "I wanted nothing more than to serve my country." "I wanted nothing more but to get some rights and dignity in this country." "I wanted nothing more but to gain some recognition through my work." "I wanted nothing more but my children to have at least a better future than me." "I wanted nothing more but to provide for my family." "I wanted to feel like this land belonged to me too." "I wanted to feel like I did some good for this country too." "I had a long plan for my life." "I had a long plan for my life." "I had never thought that one day I would pelt someone to death with stones." "I had never thought I would be a cold blooded murderer." "I had never thought that I would stop seeing another person as a person but as an obstacle to be removed." "I had never thought I would

In Which I challenge Austin Meyer & Nick Kristof!

So many facts skipped over and simply wrong in   this article by New York Times   titled "India Dampens Nepal's Celebrations"   that even opening up the link a second time tires me up. Really "international" journalists- you have to make such sweeping blanket statements regarding the state of my country which is not only ignorant but almost offensive? Even to go through it once more for a mere blog piece is an effort for me in practicing perseverance. To put it mildly, like I tweeted, this is a great example of "parachute journalism". Add to that, the parachute lands in an extremely small section of the country and comes in contact with only a handful of people who are from the same circle. What if the situation in USA is judged just by looking at Donald Trump's tweets or by following the Kardashians? A nation is always a complicated, dynamic thing. Even Nepal is not so simple. It is not just "water buffaloes" debating each other . You

पानी परेपछिको आकाश खुले झैं

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“हैट, तपाइहरु त राई हुँदै होइन !” तेस्रो चोटि पनि तपाइहरु राई नै हो भन्ने उनको प्रश्नमा मैले “हो त” भन्ने उत्तर दिदाँ हामीसंग पागंबोचेदेखिसंगै यात्रा गर्दै गरेकी कुलुङ राई बहिनीले पत्याउदै नपत्याएर यसो भनेको थिइन् । बिहान करिब ८ वजे फेरिचेबाट बाटोभरि फुलेको सुन्दर फुल, हरियो घाँसे मैदान, निलो आकाश र खुलेको हिमाल हेर्दै नाम्चे हिंडेको हामीले उनलाई तल्लो पागंबोचेमा भेटाएका थियौ । फेरिचेकै एक होटलमा काम गर्ने उनी आफ्नो होटल साहुनीको खुम्जुङमा भएको घरबाट केही सामान लिनका लागि डोको बोकेर बाटो लागेकी रहेछिन् । हामी दुई बहिनी काठमाण्डौबाट घुम्न आएको त्यसकारण फोटो खिच्दै र बिसाउँदै अनि वहाँ भने डोको रित्तै किन लाने भनेर साहुनीले कामीकोमा तिखार्न पठाएको फलामे औजारहरुको गर्‍हुङो   भारी टेकाउँदै लगभग उस्तै गतिमा हिंडिरहेको थियौं । बारम्बार विसाएर सुस्केरा हाल्ने ठाउँहरु एकै भएपछि मैले पनि एक बसाइमा सोधिहाले  “बहिनीको घर कता ?” तल्लो सोलुखुम्बुमा कुलगं राईहरुसंगको करिब डेढ वर्षे उठबस र एक हप्ताको माथिल्लो सोलुखुम्बु (खुम्बु वा सगरमाधा आधार शिवि रक्षेत्र)को अवलोकनबाट म

एक आपसमा लडिरहेका देशबासीहरु र लडाइरहेकाहरु

न पुलिसलाई मधेशी जनतासँग कुनै रिसइवी  थियो/छ न त मधेशी जनतालाई पुलिस सँग केही रिसइवी थियो/ छ । तर पनि आज प्रहरी र मधेशी जनता एक अर्का सँग एसरी लडिरहेका छन् जस्तो वहाँहरुको सदियौ देखी को केही ठुलो झगडा नै थियो । मधेशी  जनताको रिस त अधिकार पाउँ  भनेर नेपालका एक दुइटा महान नेताहरुसँग पो थियो जस्ले काठमाडौं को सुरक्षा र आराममा चुनावमा आफ्नो  सिट सुरक्षित गर्नका लागि मात्र संबिधान ल्याउन खोज्दैछन  । एउटा पुलिस, एउटा मधेशी,  एउटा बालक, एक महिला - हाम्रा दाजु भाई छोरा दिदी । मरिरहेका छन् दिन दिनै । र यो देश निस्किनै नसक्ने खाल्डोमा जाकिदैछ । तेही पनि हाम्रा नेताहरु शायद आफु प्रधानमन्त्री रहिरहने वा भबिस्यमा बन्न सक्ने जोखना नै हेर्दैछन्  । कतिवोटा लाश गनी सकेपछी यि नयाँ राजाहरुलाई होश आउनेछ  ? एक आपसमा केही झै झगडा नभएको जनतालाई भीडाएर आज एस्तो स्थिती अाइसक्यो कि घाइतेलाई ambulance बाट निकालेर मारिदैछ भने सडकमा खेलिरहेको बालकलाई ताकी ताकी गोली हानिदैछ । तै पनी यो स्थिती सबै रोक्न सक्ने मानिसहरु उखान टुक्का भनेर "आप झर्दै गर्छ" भन्न मै ब्यस्त छन् । पुलिस नभये आर्मी परिचालन भन्दै

They sang to me!

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At every stage of my life, there has been time when I look back at my past self of various stages and go "ewwww" at some things that the past me found absolutely cool. "You sang to me" is one such song that happened to me. I don't even know what I liked about the song, I only know that I did. Well, there were a lot of Bon Jovis that happened too which I now scrunch to even think about, but hey they were cool when you know...and they spoke the feelings perfectly for me. I cannot guarantee even now, that if those songs came floating to me while out on street, I wouldn't pause for a second to flashback my mind to my "Prince Charming" wishing days. Hmph! This song came back to me when I was photographing away my room out of sheer boredom- my camera's boredom not mine. I have enough in my plate right now to not get bored for another century. I hadn't picked up the camera even once since my last trek so I thought I might as well give i

How to help Nepal?

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More than almost anything, and perhaps maybe from every corner of the world the furious question that’s coming our way is “how can we help”?  The first few days of the quake was almost as chaotic as our brains which could not process so many aftershocks, and the fact that we were still alive even after being in a situation that resembled close to what happens in the Apocalypse themed movie 2012.  A few who had way better reflex, and the capacity to deal with the monstrosity of the whole disaster had already started to respond both offline and online. When I got back power two days later, there were postings online on where to donate funds, where to go to volunteer, what materials to donate and to who. As the number of days since the quake increased,, more brains including slower ones like mine worked in a collective frenzy in response. By now, we know that millions of money, tonnes of relief items, and thousands of people have come or are on the way.  But still, this question

Kathmandu Bloooms

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You can run, you can hide but you cannot escape. That's Kathmandu to me. I do not want this city to be my muse, yet I find myself indulging in its various facets again and again. One of the recurring positive dawdling has been on the row of cherry (or are they plum peaches?) planted in the Airport Sinamangal stretch which during the peak bloom season steals too much of my attention. This year, I went on the extra length and photoshopped most of the photos I took to see how it would have been if Kathmandu was dust free and the colors would be as radiant as nature wanted it to be without the dust filter. And here are a few results. Although I must say that when one is under or around the cherry trees, no amount of photoshop can convey the real vibrance and the beauty. No matter the layer of dust. A slight water color effect to mask Kathmandu's dullness "Original" Photoshop. I wanted to see what it would look like if we had cherry trees on both sides. The

Fall Colors in Rara (Part 2)

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My previous posts of 13 photos here . Enjoy some more of the photos taken during October Visit to Rara Lake in Mugu. Rara lake is the biggest lake in Nepal. Since this is located in an alpine altitude, we can see beautiful pastureland, meadow and grassland sprawled around the lake. Even the hills  here are more gentle, giving way to sprawling beautiful meadows where local herd their cattle throughout the year.

CK Raut is the Key Word

A cursory search through alexa.com of Nepal's online portals will quickly show us that CK Raut is the buzz word. I was checking the traffic on some tiny site for my official work, and I just lazily flicked through the top sites of Nepal only to be intrigued to see in one of them that among the 5 keywords , CK Raut was also one (other keywords mostly being referrals of the same website or something dry like Nepal or RSS). It piqued my interest and so I went through several other top Nepali websites, mostly newsy, and turns out CK Raut is a HIT. It's among the top 5 keywords in the following sites: Nagariknews.com Setopati.com Ratopati.com Pahilopost.com Kathmandutoday.com These site are 5 of the 9 most visited websites of Nepal. Note that among the top 25 websites (according to the traffic flow in the past month) in Nepal, only 9 are Nepali. Number one is of course facebook, and there are other giants like amazon, wikipedia, google etc rounding up the 16 top spots

Fall Colors in Rara

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Such a beautiful place. Here are a few randomly selected ones from my shots of over 1000 which I shot during my last trip to Rara during October.