strikes, protests nad some more....

Two weeks of festivities and everything nice sumped up my Dashain vacation. With the Dashain hangover still hovering around me, I headed to KU. With only two weeks more to go for the Tihar vacation, I was hoping for some serious study time during this period.

But living Nepal, its better not to think of even one day in advance. Uncertainties coming knocking onto our doors every moment, so its best for us to simply live in the present, LITERALLY. So it didn't come to me as a surprise, when we had to return from the bus stop for three straight days. There would be no confirmation about whether or not the banda was taken back. Therefore, we had to get to the bus stop to see it for ourselves and return back.

A banda can be pleasent for many when you work for months and months on stretch. But here not a week goes by without banda. We get all geared up to give finishing touches to our assignments, plan to do this and that in the college. But then a banda is called or some people block the road and we are forced to regret studying at KU. And most of the times we regret having to stay in such a country like Nepal where there seems to be uncertainity looming large over our lives.

We curse the protestors, the politicians and every such individual who contribute in making our lives so much filled with hassles. Yet we console ourselves at the end of the day saying things will get better. Nothing, no country is perfect. Nepal is going through a transitional phase and we have to bear the consequences for some time. In a few years time, all of these uncertainties that are now a part of our lives will be a long forgotten story.

Lets just hope that such day will arrive in our once 'peaceful' country.

privileges and more....

French Revolution of eighth grade history classes introduced me to the word ‘privilege’. It was then that I learnt about the perks of privileged people who were tax exempted and also about the peasant s who were burdened with taxes of all sort. That was where my understanding of ‘privileges’ began and ended. Although I was familiar to the various ‘privilege’ cards that endowed my parents with various offers, it never stuck to me if my parents were actually ‘privileged’ by any means.

With passing years and better understanding of how money and power makes everything go around in our daily life, I have finally figured out to certain extent about what may be kept inside the ‘privilege’ bracket and who are those lucky few ‘privileged’ in every possible way.

The first time I realized about being unprivileged was during the procedure of obtaining my citizenship. Fresh out of school, I was all excited to finally have proof of my identity as a citizen of Nepal. But little did I know of the fussy and lazy government officials who did everything to delay me from laying hands on my citizenship. And yes the long stinking queue of people under the scorching heat made it even worse. Just when I was discussing the hardship of obtaining my citizenship, one of my cousin simply gushed over how his citizenship card was brought to his doorstep from district headquarter of Illam. That was his ‘privilege’ of not even having to move an inch for his citizenship that too brought from hundreds of kilometers away district.
My same cousin seemed to be double privileged when his driving license was handed over to him inside the comfort of his living room. No hassles of driving test and paperwork for him. That was one privilege I didn’t know of back then.

Living in a country where nepotism and abuse of authority are on full swing, it didn’t come to me as a surprise when my friend casually said how he got ‘choose’ his mobile number as per his convenience. Thanks to high ranked government officer dad who pulled few strings to get his dear son an easy order of numbers. No wonder, anyone can memorize his mobile number after the first dial. And every time I dial his number, it reminds me of ‘headline making’ long queues of people who waited days to get their mobile numbers. That too with not a single repeated digit. (Talk of being unprivileged!!)

Of late, there seems to be only one category of lucky few who have clinched the privileged of the most privileged spot. And this lucky few are the ones who still cruise around in their bikes and cars each day without having to fret over the acute shortage of petrol. Yes, they are the ones who have ample amount of petrol stocked up to last for weeks. Even if they run out of petrol, stocking their petrol tanks again will just be a phone call away.
Ironically the same privileged folks never seem to get enough complaining about the ever worsening condition of the country. Since they are ‘privileged’ enough to make frequent trips to the developed (and seemingly cleaner) parts of the world, they find faults in everything about their own country. Right from how unmanaged the roads are to how uncivilized majority of we Nepalese are. From what they see and read about the hardship an average person in Nepal has to go through, they make conclusions about how Nepal is not worth living.

They aren’t the ones who have to worry about managing square meal for their family amidst shortage of cooking gas and kerosene oil. Neither do they know how difficult it is to not only to get the 5 liter of petrol (after waiting for hours at stretch) but also being extra cautious about preventing it from getting stolen. Same goes for the hardship of waiting for public vehicles and hanging on them to reach our destination that is beyond their imagination. Rather such crammed buses and hanging passengers tickle their funny bone.

The deeper my understanding of privileges and privileged people get, the more under privileged I feel. With all due envy towards the privileged people’s lives, I would like to ask them to step down from their privileged lives every once in a while just so that they could value their ‘privileges’ more. Hopefully that would bring an end to their attitude of looking down towards the majority of Nepalese people who are far from leading privileged lives like theirs , yet are going strong!!

Kids with camera : their world through their eyes

As a aprt of their monthly program, Photo Circle fetured the academy award winning documantary feature by Ross Kauffman and Zana Briski, 'Born into Brothels'. It is the portrait of several unforgettable children who live in the red light areas of Kolkatta where their mothers work as prostitutes.

New York based photographer Zana Briski gives the children their own cameras and teach them how to take pictures. the children are soon able to capture people and places around them though their new found photography skills. It is through their pictures that people outside the red light areas actually get a taste of how different life in the red light areas actually is. Inspite of being within one of the largest metropolitan city Kolkatta, people of these red light areas are forced to live under such harsh conditions.

children are the ones who suffer the most in these areas. the documentary not only showcases thepictures taken by these but also follows the children when they are taken to hostels across the city. during this process, it is revealed how unwilling people from these child welfare centers are to admit children from red light areas. The children are made to go through HIV test just as a part of the criteria to get admitted.

however, all the hard work of these children get paid off when they are flooded with appreciation from India and abroad. their pictures are on sale and all the proceedings go for the further education of these children and also for the welfare of many such under privileged children.

following the foot steps of Zana Briski, many countries have been doing similar projects involving children with camera and seeing the world through their eyes. this documentary has proved how powerful media photography really is.

iphone: the new eyecandy

The first time I saw it, I couldn’t figure what it actually was. Unusually larger than a regular cell phone and way too sleeker than an average digital camera. Then it struck to me that I was actually only 3 feet away from the most eagerly awaited product in the history of technological advancement. Yes, the shimmery silver surface, bearing a quarter bitten apple’s logo, in my classmate’s hand was the iPhone.

Although it was a summer blockbuster of 2007 in the United States, this multimedia mammoth made its way to our neighbouring country India only a few days back. Therefore so much of hype and even more is the urge to lay hands on it. The iPhone commercial pops up in a blink of an eye. And of course there are endless talk shows with tech gurus who never seem to get enough, revealing about iPhone. All these only make us drool over the hard to attain 600 USD priced sleek and posh iPhone.

The who’s who of our very own Kathmandu are already seen showing off their proud possession. Even though I am far from being one of those proud people flaunting iPhone, the iPhone mania has brought me face to face with its nitty-gritty. The story goes that Steve Jobs decided to tinker with a touch screen, and it evolved into an epic, the iPhone. Besides having a virtual keyboard interface, phone and internet capabilities, embedded digital camera function and, inescapably, the iPod muscic player, the new 3G iPhone also supports Global Positioning System mapping and wireless internet. The mind blowing applications and games on this new 3G iPhone could leave anyone asking for more. If merely seeing an iPhone on television could leave an average person wanting for more display of its functions just imagine how hard it would be for the proud owners to take their hands off this incredible iPhone.

iPhone represents the coolest of the cool mobile phone brigade. These cool brigades of mobile phones have everything from touchscreens and gold-plated bodies to features that we’d only dreamed of. They truly are the phones to die for.

Over the past decade mobile phones have gone from plain blue screen to the recent touchscreen ones. Few years ago there were mobile phone commercials that predicted how everything under the sun from movies to music to worldwide connectivity would all sum up in our palm. All such predictions have come true, given the ever evolving cutting edge technology that has changed the picture of mobile phones forever.

An average urban youth, financially dependent on parents (but fascinated by technological gadgets) like me can do nothing but pray for a techno savvy fairy godmother. Well, more than often I’ve to pinch myself to get out of this fairy god mother dream and start practicing pinching in real life. The sole reason being the incredible feature on iPhone that reduces image with a pinch on the screen and expands image by pushing two fingers outward!! Period.

my take on "3 mistakes of my life"

I have been reading books since the first grade but the only book that I have finished in a single read till date is Chetan Bhagat's '3 mistakes of my life'.

The biggest selling Indian writer of recent times is Chetan Bhagat and '3 mistakes of my life' is his latest book. Unlike what the title suggests, the book has nothing to do with the writer's life itself. It is a bittersweet small town comedy set amid a trio of Indian obsessions - cricket, religion and business. The book revolves around the lives of three friends Omi, Govind and Ish who venture into business to earn a living. As the story proceeds, their lives take unexpected turns because hoard of people, problems and pressures make way into their lives. Its all about how they react, solve and live with those problems. Just like his other two books, he chose a batch of people who truly represent a good proportion of of urban India.

With quirky and witty lines unmasking the realities of our daily lives, Bhagat has been able to leave the readers, especially the Indian youth, aware about the problema that plague its society. Since our Nepalese society is similar to the Indian society in a number of ways, we Nepalese youth can greatly relate to the issues presented in this book.

Right from the conservative mentality still looming large in Indian socities and religious extremism to our faulty government that has done very liitle to reform our faulty education system solely based on mugging and puking out everything to issues of to how the importance of money has resulted in killing of one's passion, Bhagat has tried bringing all such issues that have a lot to do with the shaping of our lives and our society's structure. He has thus weaved a wonderful story with a very funny and entertaining writing style that makes the book too difficult to put down.

And most importantly, with the price tag of only IRs 95, this book couldnt have been more (pocket) friendly for the youths.