Beyond my eyes ...

Economist's blog: Yam Yesterday, Yam Today

2012-01-19T00:14:00.004+07:00

Pretty balanced view on Nepal's position with its neighbors:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/banyan/2012/01/nepal-and-its-neighbours

The message behind MSN's Instant Message (IM) Status!

2008-07-17T02:55:00.016+07:00

No doubt, nowadays, MSN's personal status has become very common to express what we are thinking at the moment. Although MSN's status has common messages, easy to select like "busy", "out to lunch", people usually prefer to have their own status. I believe, people like to keep a unique message to get others' attention or express one's feeling through such indirect means. Some succeed to get attention while some fail. Some find it noteworthy and respond to it while some ignore it. Many times, I came across to some messages in the status that has been unique to me which I find it something worth to discuss.

It was sometime ago when I logged into my MSN, my friend popped "online" with a message "world without strangers!". Though I preferred not to pay much attention to these MSN status, I could not help myself thinking for quite a moment about the world without strangers. It was already late for office that day and I had to finish some job which was pending for quite some time but that message made me helplessly roaming into the world. I shrugged myself and ended it when I felt myself as a complete stranger. In an instance, I had imagined the world without me as well. I had spent quite some time thinking why he had kept that stupid message that ruined my precious morning time. Also for a while, I had also thought, better would have been, if the message was "World with strangers". May be that was too common that he didn't like it.

I usually keep off all the alerts so as not to distract me from my work. But these MSN status when they are unique and eye catching, I can't keep myself aloof.

It was my status "dheba dunsa naymakhanpi mahangar basi" (it is in newari language with the meaning "Even though people have money, they are not able to arrange their food"). It was not my creation; I had copied it from www.mysansar.com's coverage on the scarcity of food and other essential commodities during political crisis in Kathmandu. It was written in some banners kept in some vantage points at Ason, Kathmandu. I thought it was worth to keep that message as it was expressing how the people living in Kathmandu were going through. Probably it was unique for me and I had liked it to keep it as well. This was the message which got so much of responses that I ever got from the day I logged on to MSN. Some friends were asking what that message was. It was in roman alphabet and all could read it but only a newar would understand it. I was busy replying all the responses to have a look at www.mysansar.com. And it was the moment that I probably would never forget, when I got a response from someone who rarely chats. From the way she wrote, I could hear her laughter aloud and the aching, she had, reading the message again and again. Before that moment, I didn't know that a status in MSN could be so powerful that would bring people so close for a moment no matter how they were apart.

"Sky has no limit". It was the message that one of my good friends had kept. She had that status for quite some time. Surely it was a unique message and I found it quite decent one. Reading the message, I asked myself why sky had had not a limit. Probably it was the time when I was empty handed. Probably it was because "Empty mind is devil's workshop!", I rewrote the message and ended with "Even sky has a limit". Now it has completely different message and of course, a unique in itself. This message became my favorite message in the MSN status for quite some time.

"Time only seems to matter when it is running out". It was the message of one of my good friends. If I remembered it correctly she had kept this message since she stepped in US. It has been probably more than 10 years but still the message looks quite young and unique. I never felt it hackneyed enough and she never changed it either. Interestingly, she still has that message in her personal status in MSN.

I will post it again, if I come across any unique MSN status! Also watch out! I am watching your MSN status too! Till then have a good time!

Ni hao Shanghai ...

2008-06-08T14:23:00.015+07:00

It was my first visit to Shanghai, a city of a country in transition but comparable to the cities in the developed country. I was able to take out time off despite the busy schedule in the workshop that I had to attend. On the 3rd day (4 June 2008), the final day of the workshop, it was signed off by a farewell party which was hosted in the honour of Japanese delegates in an exclusive Japanese Restaurant in a newly built Shopping Complex along the Handan Road. For me, it was like recalling once again the moments that I had spent in Tsukuba with varieties of Japanese delicatessen served by a chef standing and serving to us. Especially, I liked the "wasabe" with "sussie". It was a raw fish eaten with green vegetable paste of "wasabe". The first time I had tried that in a restaurant in Tsukuba. I was helpless holding my breath for a while. I had felt that a strong smell inside my mouth was spreading all over my head trying to escape from what ever the shortest exit available on the way. I had felt that the strong smell was coming out of my nose, ears and eyes, and my eyes had watered for a while as if I was crying. But I had liked its taste. Same way I tried to experience the enigma of the "wasabe" this time in Shanghai. Despite being "wasabe" it was not that strong. I tried over and over but could not get the strong result as I had it before. I wondered if that was a Chinese "wasabe" or possibly I could have adapted to its strong taste.

At the end of the dinner, we had planned to go shopping and walking along the Nanjing Road - the popular walking street in the Shanghai. Shang, a chinese lady, in our group had her home on the way to the walking street. So, she was ready to accompany us. Shang was in her early twenties and just completed her undergraduate from a Chinese University. It was fortunate for us that she had a beautiful english and she was proactive and intelligent too. She was a student in International Politics in US-China Relationship and possessed a good attitude towards living up a life. Probably these were the reasons, she became closer to us in a short time. In no time, we became familiar with Shanghai city and its characteristics through her. We learnt the landscapes of the city, chinese lifestyle, one child policy, government protection of landownership, corruption etc. Probably we would not have learnt these, if there was someone else in her place. As soon as we had entered the Nanjing Road walking street, we had lost ourselves for a while in the magic of the lights all around beautifully decorating the european styled buildings. The place was full of tourists, sightseeing trains honking its horn, roadside hawkers making their boon, huge billboards displaying multinational product advertisements and welcome sign for Beijing Olympic 2008 as well as for Shanghai International Trade Festival 2010 were some of the attractions that surely will stupefy anyone walking the street.

We ended up our adventure at Tian Xing Di Square. We had a green iced tea at Starbuck Coffee shop, took some pictures for our memory and kept on talking all sort of current affairs. Surely it was like a meeting among the international delegates from 4 member countries (Chinese, Thailand, Vietnam and of course, Nepal). Some of the topics we discussed (but didn't minute it) were about education, communism and religion in China. We had learnt that the Chinese people were realizing that the belief in god and following religion would simplify their effort on solving social problems. It was already 2 AM in the morning when we finally felt that we should leave.

The next day, 5 June 2008, we went to Yu yawn Garden. The garden was an age old collection of buildings at the time of Ming Dynasty. On the way to the garden, as I was exploring some of the shops on the walking street towards the Yu yawn garden, suddenly from no where, I was approached by 4 students from Beijing University Faculty of Fine Arts. For the first instance, I was a little hesitant to reply their question who I was and what was my profession. But they didn't mind my hesitation rather made me quite comfortable with their non-stop talking in English, explaining why they were there in Yu garden walking street. I thought like they were not fine arts students rather international marketing or business. These students were apparently having a painting exhibition from their university in Shanghai as a part of their academic exercise and the day was their last day. They were asking me to visit their painting exhibition. They also said that it was just on the side of Yu Yawn garden entrance. So, I went with them talking friendlier than before. They were quite happy to get at least someone who had shown interest in their exhibition.

The paintings were surely good ones. The team leader, Frank, as he had signed on one of his painting, was showing me all paintings one by one. At the end, I was asked to sign in their guest book. Probably this would earn them credit. I was quite thrilled to learn the stories behind every painting. I was not an artist but the way Frank told me the stories behind each painting, I kept on watching for some time and tried to trace the story in each of the paintings. But I was not allowed to take pictures as they were afraid their painting might be copied. At the end, he was showing some of his paintings and was quite jubilant in explaining how he came up with it. It was a simply a bamboo stick with snow on each of the leaves branching out from the stem of the bamboo. The bamboo was thicker one and there was another painting with similar nature but the stick was thinner. As he had explained, the painting would show, how a person would build up his/her career step by step with boldness in each part of one's life. There would be sorrow in every step but still one would need to stand boldly. The thicker stick was a symbol for the boldness; every node of the bamboo was steps in life; the stem between each node was part of life and the snow lying on the leaves were sorrow that one would have to face in one's life. I was quite thrilled and touched by the way he had explained and kept on looking at the painting if it would really depict such story. I could not figure it out but I thought I should contribute for their effort and I wished to buy the painting. It was really costly. I had not bought such costly painting ever in my life. With the several happy lines appearing in his and his friends' forehead, I was happy that I had contributed to a cause, no matter it was real or not. I asked him to sign at its back as that would be more valuable for me rather than the painting alone. He happily signed it in both English as well as in Chinese.

Behaviour of people largely originates from their background!

2008-06-08T01:08:00.005+07:00

I was about to abandon this theory but I was happy I didn't. There is an age old hypothesis that the behaviour of people reflects their background, lifestyle etc. I was quite curious to know about this and over the time period, I tried to understand myself and tried my best to practise myself to null this hypothesis. Of course, I do not need to have any statistics here to prove that I have nearly done it. But as I have mentioned it before, that hypothesis still holds true. However, in my experience, the hypothesis might fail for a short term but it would hold true for long term. No matter how the person raises his/her education, how the person experiences changes in his/her lifestyle (which may be due to living in different society), if the person tries to behave different than the normal then it is no other than brushing the matter. And this brushing will always give a look as if it is his/her real behaviour. Here, I am not trying to advocate a good or bad behaviour. But it is rational that a person will always want to show his/her good behaviour except in few cases which are not subjects of this discussion.

I am being brought up into such a family that rarely interacts with another world though having a sea of relatives within it. I used to think that I could change over the period of time with my development in the thoughts, of course to be overridden by the anxiety to have those changes in my behaviour, along with the raises in my education, social values and norms and understanding behavioural society. Here, I am not trying to say bad or good changes and also I may be ignoring several other drivers here. I would like to excuse for these as I am not a socialist and understanding these is really difficult for my little mind. I must admit that I have changed a lot from the time when I have been able to think independently. Over the period of time, I tried my best to interact with others with a behaviour different than my original. I had tried my best to act differently so as the other person would not take it otherwise. I had tried my best to be conscious about others' need rather than mine so as the other one would not take it otherwise. I had tried my best to behave like a gentle man (though I was not) so that the other person would take me as a gentle person. Ironically, these were reciprocated in the same manner. But these usually lasted for a short term. In the longer term, probably there are some other drivers that I could not understand properly, affect it and these actions usually have a peak. Probably this is the reason that a person in a short term always looks good but in longer term always ends up peaking high. One may argue it is not always and probably it is not true for some serious relationship. I am not discussing about any serious relationship here and this discussion probably needs to be read for a relationship in general.

What would affect such a peak? Probably this is something that requires more scrutinizing. But in my experiences,it is the background how he/she has been brought up. The rate at which one reduces his/her anxiety to interact during every step in the life probably reduces him/her from the brushing. But to one's dismay, the higher the anxiety reaches, the higher the result would reverse. At this point, probably one can see him/her displaying an act that belongs to his/her background. Probably, he/she would not be able to realize it with the anxiety reaching at peak. Rather one needs to reduce his/her anxiety from the peak in order to realize it and if his/her anxiety starts declining, then it would not take much time for him/her to realize it.

Comments are welcome!

Is this world a real?

2008-04-05T02:17:00.007+07:00

The world that we see, we feel, we think...is this real? No doubt, you would surely ponder on this question if you had watched the movie called "Matrix". I had watched it a long time back probably in 2002/03. I had enjoyed so much watching the movie that I repeatedly watched it for at least 3 times. I had tried my best to understand the real sense it meant during the repetition rather than enjoying the film. No doubt, it was a science fiction movie with full of animations. Probably for the first time, it had showed the animated slow motion of a bullet hitting a target. I saw such animation in several other movies later. In the movie, in several instances, it had mentioned that we had been brought up with an understanding about our surroundings such as physical structures for e.g., a wall was a solid structure, impenetrable; a fire that might burn when one would touch it; one would need an immense power to alter a solid structure; one might fall from a height because of mysterious power of gravity that the Earth possessed;. Here, I am not trying to challenge Newton's finding rather tried to raise eyebrows on the issue! You will understand what I mean once you browse the following section.

We humans are so smart and so intelligent that we can imagine the things, visualize those things even when we are given just a picture/concept of these! We are so intelligent and possess a natural power that we can accurately imagine it; for e.g., if it is a picture of place or city, we can locate it easily with the help of a map. Of course, one can easily browse through the map and come to the right location one wants using the map. Now if I say a map is a part of a program where we are asked to play a role of characters that are allowed to follow the program. Obviously, if we do not follow the program, then either we will not find the place or we would be given a penalty which may sometimes lead to an accident. For e.g., what if one tries to violate the rule of the program by flying/jumping from one building to another! It is obvious that it will result to non other than a fatal accident as normally we find ‘a fatal error’ when we violate rules of a program.

Back to the movie "Matrix" - if we carefully watch the movie, it has introduced a character called "Oracle" and it has introduced it as someone (here also I have difficulty to use proper word for such character with the present world I am programmed for) who knows about future and clearly, it has tried to give a message that there is always an option before the Future starts and the Future depends upon which course of action one wants to take. I must say, the movie has chosen an appropriate name for the character as we know "Oracle" is a name of very powerful software developed for database management. The main character in the movie starts playing with the program and gets the help from 'Oracle' in order to decode the Future in the program called the 'World'. In the movie it has tried to show that the world that we are in is nothing but merely a programmed world.

Now forget about how we were brought up and keep ourselves completely aside - imagine that we are out of this world and start watching what is happening in this world. I feel that the world is merely a thing that IT geeks usually would like to call it as a program and it is given a name "The World". The question who has programmed it, who are the mastermind behind it? The answer to which is still a subject of a research. First are you ready to accept it that the world you are living is not real but a program? Do you believe, if I say you are programmed in such a way that you are required to believe that this world is real. From the day you took your birth, you have been given enough notions that how the world would look like as you are taught how to talk, how to communicate the words. Your mind is filled up with so many components of this world that, you will take the components as granted and probably you never felt if that was true or not. Probably you are taught in such a way that you may never wonder if you belong to this world or another and you will never escape out of it. Whatever you try, wherever you go, however you do, you are in a program of which somebody else has a remote control. Now who is that fellow with a remote control? Probably this is a question that is tried by many religions on their own versions which now and then is a readily debatable issue.

If you go through several historic literatures (I don't know should I state these as literatures!) for e.g., Mahabharat you would learn that there is a mysterious but dubious character Krishna, about whom there are several myths. In certain parts, we were reminded in many instances that the character possessed a superpower enough to reprogram the whole story if he wanted. In many instances of Mahabharat, the Krishna had kept on reminding the other characters that the happenings which were already programmed, one would not be able to alter, no matter what. Further, the happenings were meant for some reasons, which were already programmed. 'The Geeta' with which, the Krishna had persuaded the Arjun for the war in the Kuruchettra in the Mahabharat was a good example. 'The Geeta' he was referring to, what in the modern world, we might call it non other than a program! I know one can easily debate this argument!

Sometimes, we say, things are not in our control. Something other than what we have planned, happens. Now the question is, how could this happen? We call ourselves as the most intelligent creature in the Earth, then why we cannot plan and make the things happen as per the plan. That means, we are just trying to mess up with something which is already programmed by someone else (I am not trying to point it here as human as I don't know how to address here because of the program I am in). We are so proud to have so many human inventions but if one looks back, then we find that inventions like 'Pushpak Biman' a flying machine is used so many ages back. If such machines were already there in ages, in history, why we were having it after so many years again. Is not this something like a program where you are required to follow the Time for any such inventions. I know we are programmed to understand by heart “Time does not wait”. We usually see it happen in 'video games', where we earn something after we complete certain stages. If this is not the case then, with the World's full of intelligent creatures, why we are required to wait for a 'Time' for such invention. If we as, a normal human being, know only the Present and live in the Present, then why there is the Future and also why the 'Past' exists? Why we are made to understand the Past as a time that we have spent and why we are required to memorize by heart that the Future is a time that is yet to come. Why we always get excited to know about future even though we don't know whether so called the Future exists.

Now one would be wondering then who we are and in real, how would we look like. This is a very important question that a mankind has been researching for quite a long time. I am not sure but I believe the enlightened people, to name a few, the Buddha, Rajanis, Jesus, might know an answer to this. But the movie has ironically simplified the complicated description of a mankind by comparing it with batteries. Discharging and recharging process of a mankind is compared with the processes done in the batteries. It has tried to show that the mankind is an energy that requires charging and when it gets discharged, it is required to be recharged. Here, I am failed to understand the correct explanation about the origination of the charge. Two ways: probably it is either the sun that keeps charging the man-kind or every mankind has a constant charge which either gets discharged or recharged with our activities and the addition of charge mainly comes from energy possessed by other man-kind. So, in the program (I am here referring to the program outside of the 'World'), man-kind possess a strategic balance of energy among themselves and they neither gets created neither gets destroyed. This has nothing to do with the current world which is a program.

Let us argue it with happiness that a human always runs after. The definition of the happiness is different for different people. People at different stages of life would explain happiness differently. I strongly believe that unless and until we do not understand who we are, we may not know what the happiness is. The happiness one would define without awareness, probably, would be a false definition. If this is not the case, then why the meaning of happiness differs widely among us, why even for same human, it has so many definitions during its period of life. I strongly believe that the simple answer to this is because one passes different stages during his life. The different stages of life have different values, responsibilities, norms and one would learn these as he reaches to these stages. The happiness one would have expected might not be the one when one reaches to other stages of life. Now you would be wondering why I am talking about happiness here and how this is linked to the World here. I believe that the true happiness for a human has nothing to do with the programmed World. But the World has programmed so many magic components that we find ourselves running after the false happiness every now and then. Such happiness usually is based on the physical achievement of the components that the programmed world has. One would find that the happiness he has successfully achieved in true sense apparently starts diminishing its glow after it is achieved. If this is not the case, then why a human is not content from what it has. Rather why a human always runs after the happiness. Probably because we are in the programmed world and we take its programmed offer to fulfill our quench for happiness but ultimately we realize it to be non-other than a hoax when we achieve it. I argue here that it is because the offer we took in the World is not a real one but appears to be a programmed one.

Here, I have tried to raise this issue and I know that one can easily debate on it as these issues are argued without any evidences. But being in this programmed world, even though if there are any evidences, then how one can say those are true since one is living inside this programmed world. But before debating or commenting on this issue, it would be highly beneficial if one can try to free oneself entirely from the World and try to think as a human-being in the region outside of this programmed world. If this is not the case, then there is ample space that one can easily doubt your comment/debate as you are debating being a part of this programmed world! Think about it!

"Silent beauty, true love" Quoting J. Krishnamurti

2008-03-30T11:40:00.005+07:00

Silent beauty, true love
(I found this article quite interesting. The article was originally published at http://www.bangkokpost.com/Outlook/30Mar2008_out001.php)

When I say, "Love has no tomorrow and no yesterday," or, "When there is no centre then there is love," it has reality for me but not for you. You may quote it and make it into a formula but that has no validity. You have to see it for yourself, but to do so there must be freedom to look, freedom from all condemnation, all judgement all agreeing or disagreeing.

Now, to look is one of the most difficult things in life - or to listen - to look and listen are the same. If your eyes are blinded with your worries, you cannot see the beauty of the sunset. Most of us have lost touch with nature. Civilisation is tending more and more towards large cities; we are becoming more and more an urban people, living in crowded apartments and having very little space even to look at the sky of an evening and morning, and therefore we are losing touch with a great deal of beauty. I don't know if you have noticed how few of us look at a sunrise or a sunset or the moonlight or the reflection of light on water.

Having lost touch with nature we naturally tend to develop intellectual capacities. We read a great many books, go to a great many museums and concerts, watch television and have many other entertainments. We quote endlessly from other people's ideas and think and talk a great deal about art. Why is it that we depend so much upon art? Is it a form of escape, of stimulation? If you are directly in contact with nature; if you watch the movement of a bird on the wing, see the beauty of every movement of the sky, watch the shadows on the hills or the beauty on the face of another, do you think you will want to go to any museum to look at any picture? Perhaps it is because you do not know how to look at all the things about you that you resort to some form of drug to stimulate you to see better.

There is a story of a religious teacher who used to talk to his disciples every morning. One morning he got on to the platform and was just about to begin when a little bird came and sat on the window sill and began to sing, and sang away with full heart. Then it stopped and flew away and the teacher said, "The sermon for this morning is over."

It seems to me that one of our greatest difficulties is to see for ourselves really clearly, not only outward things but inward life. When we say we see a tree or a flower or a person, do we actually see them? Or do we merely see the image that the word has created? That is, when you look at a tree or at a cloud of an evening full of light and delight, do you actually see it, not only with your eyes and intellectually, but totally, completely?

Have you ever experimented with looking at an objective thing like a tree without any of the associations, any of the knowledge you have acquired about it, without any prejudice, any judgement, any words forming a screen between you and the tree and preventing you from seeing it as it actually is? Try it and see what actually takes place when you observe the tree with all your being, with the totality of your energy. In that intensity you will find that there is no observer at all; there is only attention. It is when there is inattention that there is the observer and the observed. When you are looking at something with complete attention there is no space for a conception, a formula or a memory. This is important to understand because we are going into something which requires very careful investigation.

It is only a mind that looks at a tree or the stars or the sparkling waters of a river with complete self-abandonment that knows what beauty is, and when we are actually seeing we are in a state of love. We generally know beauty through comparison or through what man has put together, which means that we attribute beauty to some object. I see what I consider to be a beautiful building and that beauty I appreciate because of my knowledge of architecture and by comparing it with other buildings I have seen. But now I am asking myself, 'Is there a beauty without object?' When there is an observer who is the censor, the experiencer, the thinker, there is no beauty because beauty is something external, something the observer looks at and judges, but when there is no observer - and this demands a great deal of meditation, of enquiry - then there is beauty without the object.

Beauty lies in the total abandonment of the observer and the observed and there can be self-abandonment only when there is total austerity - not the austerity of the priest with its harshness, its sanctions, rules and obedience - not austerity in clothes, ideas, food and behaviour - but the austerity of being totally simple which is complete humility. Then there is no achieving, no ladder to climb; there is only the first step and the first step is the everlasting step.

Say you are walking by yourself or with somebody and you have stopped talking.

You are surrounded by nature and there is no dog barking, no noise of a car passing or even the flutter of a bird. You are completely silent and nature around you is also wholly silent. In that state of silence both in the observer and the observed - when the observer is not translating what he observes into thought - in that silence there is a different quality of beauty.

There is neither nature nor the observer. There is a state of mind wholly, completely, alone; it is alone - not in isolation - alone in stillness and that stillness is beauty. When you love, is there an observer? There is an observer only when love is desire and pleasure. When desire and pleasure are not associated with love, then love is intense. It is, like beauty, something totally new every day. As I have said, it has no yesterday and no tomorrow.

It is only when we see without any preconception, any image, that we are able to be in direct contact with anything in life. All our relationships are really imaginary - that is, based on an image formed by thought. If I have an image about you and you have an image about me, naturally we don't see each other at all as we actually are.

What we see is the images we have formed about each other which prevent us from being in contact, and that is why our relationships go wrong. When I say I know you, I mean I knew you yesterday. I do not know you actually now. All I know is my image of you. That image is put together by what you have said in praise of me or to insult me, what you have done to me - it is put together by all the memories I have of you - and your image of me is put together in the same way, and it is those images which have relationship and which prevent us from really communing with each other.

Two people who have lived together for a long time have an image of each other which prevents them from really being in relationship. If we understand relationship we can cooperate but cooperation cannot possibly exist through images, through symbols, through ideological conceptions. Only when we understand the true relationship between each other is there a possibility of love, and love is denied when we have images. Therefore, it is important to understand, not intellectually but actually in your daily life, how you have built images about your wife, your husband, your neighbour, your child, your country, your leaders, your politicians, your gods - you have nothing but images.

These images create the space between you and what you observe and in that space there is conflict, so what we are going to find out now together is whether it is possible to be free of the space we create, not only outside ourselves but in ourselves, the space which divides people in all their relationships.

Now the very attention you give to a problem is the energy that solves that problem. When you give your complete attention - I mean with everything in you - there is no observer at all. There is only the state of attention which is total energy, and that total energy is the highest form of intelligence. Naturally that state of mind must be completely silent and that silence, that stillness, comes when there is total attention, not disciplined stillness. That total silence in which there is neither the observer nor the thing observed is the highest form of a religious mind. But what takes place in that state cannot be put into words because what is said in words is not the fact. To find out for yourself you have to go through it.

Every problem is related to every other problem so that if you can solve one problem completely - it does not matter what it is - you will see that you are able to meet all other problems easily and resolve them.

The above article is from J. Krishnamurti's book, 'Freedom from the Known', published with permission from the Quest Foundation, Thailand .

You may contact: questfoundation@hotmail.com, for further information.

Loadshedding Crisis in Nepal

2008-03-06T12:54:00.004+07:00

Comment posted to MySansar.com blog!
March 2, 2008 @ 8:45 pm
http://www.mysansar.com/?p=2443#comments

Dilli ji,

I think your calculation is wrong. You cannot compare energy and power. 16 MW*24 hr = …MWh that is energy. But here in the peak period we need peaking capacity and 16 MW is added to the capacity which is already mentioned by NEA. That will surely help in reducing the loadshedding. Also we know NEA is not reducing it during peaking hour i.e. 6-7 PM. This is very clear that 16 MW is not going to help during that hour!

But I support your theme that NEA should have exercised other means of reducing the loadshedding…e.g. transmission loss, electricity theft. Can you imagine we have around 25% electricity loss which is official figure and if you count on unofficial figure then it is more than 40%. Probably in the world this is the height of T&D loss. Further NEA does not have any plan for demand side management. Studies show that saving 1 MW by using deamnd side management is cheaper than installing a new powr plant with equivalent capacity. But NEA is turning its deaf ear towards this concern. Also NEA could have utilized seasonal tariff, peaking and off peak tariff to even domestic user. More than 50% of the NEA’s energy is consumed by residential sector. If people would be given flexibility to use electricity with appropriate tariff according to the peaking hours, then the peak load could have been shifted. Instead of current 2 peaking load hours, it could have been made horizontal throughout the day n night. NEA is sitting like duck waiting for bankruptcy and ironically, it is only eyeing big hydropowers to save it from bankruptcy. For your kind information, with the kind of trend, for 10 years, there will be no relief from loadshedding. Every year 10% demand is found increased. We have no plan for any power addition. Whatever we are planning is for export only. Also every new installation of hydropower plant will at least takes 7 years (if no obstacles is faced, we have e.g. of middle marsyangdi). On top of that NEA does not have any plan for large reservoir type of hydropower. All hydropower in the pipeline is run of river type. Even you install these run of river type of hydropowers, this is not going to help reducing load shedding. In winter, we have problem of loadsheding because of less water discharge in the river and these run of river type of hydropower plants will not generate power as per their capacity during winter time. Probably you are quite aware that every year the loadshedding hours has been increased. This is nothing but electricity demand has been increasing yearly and with the constant power generation, NEA has no option but to increase the loadshedding hours. NEA has no plan of mitigating this problem so far! I think what NEA should do is expedite the task of increasing the capacity of transmission line to Indian border which is power hungry states of India during summer time. Come with favourable policies to IPPs. Sell power to India during summer time and in winter time, purchase power from India. At the same time, other measures at mentioned above should be taken alongside.

Shree

Alternative to Petroleum Crisis in BME52

2008-03-06T12:05:00.003+07:00

----- Original Message -----
To: bme52 Group
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2007 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: Alternative to Petroleum Crisis

Hi!

I must say Great comment! Actually, I was expecting similar comment from experts in another forum and my article was just to provoke the thought of the like minded people in that group. But I am surprised that you have also similar thought and interest in this regard. Why can't be after all we are nepalese and will be nepalese no matter what!

Now, coming back to your comment, I fully agree on your international pricing mechanism not going to be affected by electricity consumption in Nepal. Very true, how can one control the international price even from exporting electricity from Nepal where the electricity price is one of the highest in Asia. Well, probably my article is not able to point out clearly that the article is in the present context where people are finding hard to accept the price hike. Government and intellectuals like you, me and others fully understand that the price hike with automatic pricing is the only solution in the long term. But my question is what now? Till when...one more price hike..Nepal bandha starts again. We already faced it...what do you expect from this government in transition...wait till CA... 2/3 months from now. As somebody said, the petroleum issue has been a hot potato now. Who is going to put the bell on cat's neck? Who is going to convince the general public? Till when the public like you and me will face the stringent problem like this. Who is in loss now? I am sure that if this continues for 2/3 months more, it is going to be the catastrophe now. Everything will come to a stand still. I think government is waiting for this to come and make people feel that the last option is price hike. I would say, if this is true and the govt is awaiting then I think it is inviting more anger from the public. It is not able to feel the public's sentiment and this may fire another Janaandolan III with more public with real concern in the street and imagine what would happen! If you would have seen the queque and the frustration of the public while lining up, I would say this is fatal. I used to be one of the victim so far.

Now what then? this is what my article tries to address it. Come up with policy that strongly make public feel that the price hike (or some other indirect taxing policy) you can have a safe landing in the present context...Just not simply a price hike only. People will feel that the higher price is for them not for NOC or whatever. This is the only bold step or I must say an active step rather than passive step (hike in price).

Now I must say, everybody should have felt that the country's dependency upon petroleum products can go to what extent! Can you imagine, transport takes up 100% petroleum products consumption in the country leaving few standbay generators and this is increasing day by day. Other developing countries are now taking a U-turn and trying to address their energy policy with more home grown energy mix. At least they started from some point. But for us, its not fossil fuel but it is hydro power. Make the hydropower in priority projects. Issue electricity bonds....Assure/guarantee the banks so that they give project loans to hydropower. Probably the project loans in USA is simple like our personal loan here. You won't believe we do have provision for project loans but non of the bank want to go for it or they have so stringent rules that it is non other than collatoral loan system. Now what to do in this context. I am not trying to address here subsidy and others, these are there and bring other issues too and I don't think this is that simple again. Because some subsidy has to be there like in kerosene. You cannot totally neglect its use in rural area where 100% lighting is dependent upon kerosene. But we are lacking good policy and at the same time we are lacking monitoring mechanism too. And on top of that, the policy never addresses till when the rural people will have to depend upon kerosene!

Now question arises, why only govt why not us. I am not talking about implementation here. I am just talking about policy and this is where the government can play a large role. There should not be doubt on that. For the cost meeting this, the ways I have suggested could be one part in several other ways.

Now to your question on 8 hrs loadshedding and all. To tell you honestly, I would like to remind about the article about Abdul Kalaam as Poudel has forwarded some days ago. You need to believe on your strength and your capability. Have a long term vision. Rome was not built in one day. Petroleum economy did not come over night. I am not trying to put the things such a way that you can do it over night. Its a long prospect. If you don't act then probably you won't even act in the long term. This is where policy matters. Making an environment fostering enough so that private investors like you and others (of course BME52) can come into play. Policy give them a level playing field. I will give an example of Delhi where Supreme Court has to rule that the city has to be converted to CNG vehicle. Now, I don't believe that there is no intellectuals like you and others who never thought about it in Delhi. But circumstances and on top of that as in the case of Delhi,investors/technocrats/intellectuals do need policy to support their endeavours. And this is 100% true in the case of developing countries like in Nepal and others. If it was in USA then probably government only need to come up with stringent measures like emission standards and fine the public for their emissions or whatever just control it no matter what they do. But can you do the same thing in Nepal? Probably not then what can you expect then? At least some measures in policy that even as you said some investors like Manakamana Cables come infront and take their stake in the development! This is what I am expecting once there is policy. But if you ask the owner of Manakamana Cable then you will understand the story he has to go through. Luckily it is surviving even after going through a number of hurdles. If it was not the case, then probably by the time, we should have seen cable car in Muktinath, Naamche etc. Without government policy, non of the investors would like to even think about it rather seeks personal backing from policy makers and this is profitable for handful of people and it is good neither for public nor for the independent market. So, putting a long term prospect and keeping good track of hydropower development in planning process, it should start from some point at least. Why not metro in outer ring at least! But to tell you honestly, if you come over this 8 hrs load shedding, then you will have surplus amount of hydro energy that you will find hard to even take up in the grid. On top of that NEA will be paying for that spilled energy on the other hand and this is the reason that NEA is putting off some IPPs even though it has to go thru load shedding. It is in loss in this cases.

Best regards,

P.S. some of the personal notes are removed!

Update:
Nepal government has successfully hiked the petroleum products price once but it has faced a severe resistance from the public against its decision for the second price hike. As a result, the government has annulled the second price hike and now the government is seeking experts' advice for smooth supply of petroleum products.

Alternative to Petroleum Crisis published in CE Newsletter

2008-03-06T12:01:00.004+07:00

Clean Energy NEWS Vol. 7, Number 34, July 17, 2007
CE News is published weekly by Clean Energy Nepal.

Alterantive to Petroleum Crisis

By Shreekar Pradhan

Some People are of in favor of price hike as the only solution for current fuel crisis in Nepal. But, in the current situation, this bold step will have to go through a difficult resistance which we have already faced earlier too. Will the current transitional government have that courage? Or will it wait till Constitutional Assembly?

I strongly believe the government of Nepal along with Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) is not able to come up with strong reason for price hike till date. They are not able to convince the people that the price hike is not for the bonus/revenue for the government/NOC. The critical question is, “How can people be assured that the price hike is for them and not for government/NOC?"

In the current context, the government should come up with a strong policy which provides relief to the people from dependency of petroleum products. A number of policies have been taken in other cities to relieve them from pollution and promoting energy security. Good examples can be found in neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan, where millions of CNG vehicles are running. Pakistan is considered as number one CNG vehicle user in the world. They are using their own resources and also relieving people from air pollution. In our context, we have hydro resources and we have already developed electric vehicles. So the government should come up long term strategy on cleaner electric vehicles. The strategy should not be isolated strategy as we see in the past. The promotion of electric vehicles should be for limiting the use of petroleum products. The current policy of government is more focused on managing the demand and supply of petroleum products and it does not consider the alternative way of limiting the petroleum demand by promoting electric vehicles in the long run. The government should start consider the following implementation strategy without any delay:

a) East to West Electric Train: It will relieve pressure on urbanization and tourism can be boosted in other parts of the country. Expenses relevant to road maintenance, vehicle maintenance, health can be lessened to larger extent. On top of that, a larger rural mass can be employed

b) Electric Train that links India to Tibet through Nepal: This has been thought for long time as this would boost the economy of country as two Asian giants will start trading with Nepal as transit point.

c) Electric Train in Outer Ring Road: A huge relieve from city centered urbanization to rural satellite towns. It will reduce the vehicle activities in the Kathmandu valley and reduce the pollution.

d) Electric Vehicles like safa temp, buses: It can be used in the central city and can be used as feeding vehicles in every route.

Now the question arises how to meet the cost for the infrastructure. Government should come up with strong policy with a committment that the revenue generated from petroleum products will be spent for building cleaner vehicle infrastructure and for limiting petroleum product dependency in the long run. A price hike with this reason may have soft resistance from the people. Rather than direct price hike, the government can levy certain emission tax, energy tax, congestion tax and carbon tax on these petroleum products or vehicles using it. This way, in one part, the government is limiting the petroleum product use and in other hand it will be showing the government's commitment towards promoting cleaner vehicles in the country. But importantly, these taxes need to be spent for the development of the cleaner electric vehicles in the country. If every citizen feels that the money he/she has been charged is for the purpose of clean transportation, then he/she may not be hesitant to be charged at all. They will be more assured once the development starts to take place and it should be a pride for every citizen that it is his/her contribution that has made it possible.

(In response to article "Alternative to petroleum Crisis" by Ganesh Regmi-Kathmandu Post-July 9, 2007, CE News Vol 7, No. 33)

Alternative to Petroleum Crisis

2008-03-06T11:03:00.004+07:00

I would like to share some of my articles (correspondences in forums and e-mails to the listserv) about emerging issues like petroleum crisis and loadshedding in Nepal.

Posted to Clean Air Network Nepal (CAN-N)
Date: Sun, 15 Jul 2007 02:09:52 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: Alternative to Petroleum Crisis

Hi to all!

I would like to draw your attention on the issue raised by "Alternative to petroleum Crisis" (by Ganesh Regmi-Kathmandu Post-July 9, 2007, CE News Vol 7, No. 33)

Quoted here:

"Hence, the government should boldly hike the petroleum price adjusting to the international rate in order to facilitate a smooth supply of the same to the people and create a mechanism of automatic pricing so that international pricing is balanced by internal pricing in the future. If NOC comes with crystal clear pricing methodology, people will not hesitate to pay a higher price for petroleum products that would be available without any hassle."

in which the author tried to advocate price hike as the only solution in current situation. In my personal opinion, in the current situation, this bold step will have to go through a difficult resistance which we have already faced it earlier too. Current transitional government will have that courage? or it will wait till Constitutional Assembly?

We need to understand what went wrong in the past and why people were not agreeing to the price hike as the solution in the current context even though people have to queue up long for petroleum products for days and weeks. If we do not understand this and we think that the price hike as the only solution, then in my opinion it will not only invite more difficult consequences but also it is not complete solution in itself for the future of Nepal.

The author even mentioned that the crystal clear of pricing mechanism would make people pay even higher price. I do not see any strong ground on that in the current situation. But I agree that it will help people aware about the pricing mechanism but NOC has to go through the people's anger first once the price hike is carried out. Because the reason that fueled anger of the people on pricing of the petroleum products is not pricing mechanism or price of petroleum products as such. I strongly believe the government of Nepal along with Nepal Oil Corporation is not able to come up with strong reason for every price hike till date. They are not able to convince the people that the price hike is not for the bonus/revenue for the government/NOC that it used to enjoy earlier but instead it is a need in the current context. Currently I see NOC as the merchant who took high profit in the past and now going under loss and it is trying to put the loss to the head of each citizen. People are not aware of these in the past and they were compelled to get quiet in many occasions. Now the political situation is different than in the past. Every citizen can raise his/her voice on autocracy and the current transitonal government has no other option but to listen and address it. In my opinion, in the current situation, if one thinks that the people are not aware of the need of price hike and hike in international prices, and this is the single reason people protesting price hike then, in my opinion, I would say, it will be no other than a grave political mistake.

In the history of petroleum products pricing, every price hike has the following reasons:

a) To maintain the higher price from other side of the border
b) To minimize the price disparity in international price.

In the past, non of the Nepalese saw any problem with these because these were obvious reasons. But this situation did not stay long when they became aware about past deeds of NOC involved in sharing (i would say amassing) huge revenue as a consequence of price disparity in international fuel pricing. How would a citizen can digest that their hard earned money was enjoyed by handful of opportunists taking advantage of a loop hole in the policy? How can the people be assured that the past reasons for price hike will not repeat the same story in some other way?

Now the question is again, how to solve this status quo? In my opinion, if this question "How can people be assured that the price hike is for them not for government/NOC? ", then any policy on pricing of petroleum products will not have to go through difficult time as it has faced earlier if political vested interest is not considered here!

In the current context, the government should come up with strong policy which should relieve the people from the dependency of petroleum products. If this is achieved, then I think it is win and win situation for both. A number of policies has been taken in other cities to relieve them from pollution in one hand and in other stepping in energy security. To name a few, a good example can be found in neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan, where CNG vehicles are running in million with fuelling stations in thousands. Pakistan is considered as number one CNG vehicle user in the world. They are using their own resources and also relieving people from air pollution. In our context, we have hydro resources and we have already developed electric vehicles to much greater extent. Much of hydro power projects are in pipelines. So, in my opinion, the government should come up with strong policy on long term strategy on cleaner electric vehicles. The strategy should not be isolated strategy as we see in the past. The promotion of electric vehicles should be for limiting the use of petroleum products. The current policy of government is more focussed on managing the demand and supply of petroleum products and it does not consider the alternative way of limiting the petroleum demand by promoting electric vehicles in the long run. In my opinion, the government should start consider the following implementational strategy without any delay, if not else:

a) East to West Electric Train (Cross Country Train linking Mechi and Mahakali): With this train, I don't think I should write more on the advantages of the development of rural areas. In the cities, it will relieve pressure on urbanisation. People can live in Achham (Far Western region) and come for office Narayanghat in half and hour. Tourism can be boosted in other parts of the country. Expenses relevant to road maintenance, vehicle maintenance, health can be lessened to larger extent. On top of that, in my opinion, a larger rural mass can be employed. A huge population will be engaged in business activities that should reduce the political unrest to larger extent once people feel they are busy.

b) Electric Train that links India to Tibet through Nepal: This has been thought for long time as this would boost the economy of country as two asian giants will start trading with Nepal as transit point. A lot of has been already discussed on this regard for quiet some time.

c) Electric Train in Outer Ring Road: A huge relieve to city centered urbanisation to rural satellite towns. At the same time, it will reduce the vehicle activities in the Kathmandu valley and reduce the pollution.

d) Electric Vehicles like safa temp, buses: It can be used in the central city and can be used as feeding vehicles in every routes. A huge relief to the city people in air pollution.

Now the question arises how to meet the cost for the infrastructure! This is very pertinent issue in the current context when the government is in loss in petroleum products and facing a stiff resistance from people on price hike.

In my opinion, the government should come up with strong policy with a committment that the revenue generated from petroleum products will be spent for building cleaner vehicles infrastructure and for limiting petroleum product dependency in the long run. A price hike with this reason may have soft resistance from the people. Rather than the direct price hike, the government can levy certain emission tax, energy tax, congestion tax and carbon tax on these petroleum products or vehicles using it. This way, in one part, the government is limiting the petroleum product use and in other hand it will be showing the government's committment towards promoting cleaner vehicles in the country. But importantantly, these taxes need to be spent for the development of the cleaner electric vehicles in the country. I think if every citizen feels that the money he/she has been charged is for the purpose of safa tempo, electric bus and for electric train, then he/she may not be hesistant to be charged at all. They will be more assured once the development starts to take place and it should be a pride for every citizen that it is his/her contribution that has made it possible.

With this, I would rather conclude that instead of easy (so called bold step) solution, the government should take bold steps for the betterment of the country and even if the price hike is taken due to various reasons, the hike should couple with strong commitment towards the promotion of cleaner vehicles in the country that would lessen the problems each citizen is facing in the current context and this is the only win and win possible solution for all in the present context.

Comments are highly appreciated!

Where is the Grand Palace?

2007-07-08T23:51:00.000+07:00

July 08 2007: This was my first day, I went to Central Bangkok on my own. Actually, I was supposed to meet two of my friends at Mahidol University who were there for PhD. I was quite excited to meet them in Bangkok even though I didn't meet them that often when we were in Nepal, huh!

I started at 7:00 AM and caught an empty van with the color Chaitya had suggested. I had tried that van earlier and I had experienced the speed of the van with throttle at 140 km/hour. But this time in contrary to my expectation, it was really slow. Stopping at every bus stand and stop, slowing down trying its luck to every group of people waiting for bus, one probably should not expect a speedy travel even though in the low traffic area. Though it looked crazy, but I would suggest never travel in an empty van. I was about to conclude it we reached the toll way and I had a sigh of relief!

It didn't take much time to find my friend who came to pick me up at the monument. But the only thing that confused me was my friend's understanding about sky bridge. He asked me to come up to the skybridge where I was supposed to find him. I looked around and saw more than 4 sky bridges and some of them were pretty much far. I felt quite dejected when I didn't find any clue how to get hold of it. I tried him on his mobile number and asked him again. All he could say was, I should get in the skybridge towards Central Park Hotel. Oh how could I see any Central Park Hotel from such a place! I called him again and this time he said that skybridge was the only one which went round the monument. Then I was pretty much clear that he was talking about the longest skybridge that was below Bangkok Sky Train way. After a few minutes we were exchanging big grin in a nepalese style!

I went to his apartment where he was staying with the other friend. On the way, I saw a beautiful park with a musical fountain. He told me that lots of people would come there in the evening. Some would come for cooling off the heat, some would come with their partner/family for relaxing, while most of them come for physical exercises, also I saw some people jogging and making round to a small pond full of red fishes. Usually the place would be full of people in the evening when, some volunteers taught a yoga to the public along with a background music and a musical water fountain! It seemed to be an ecstatic view to watch. Surely I felt I would like to join the crowd in an evening some time later!

They were quite happy to see me, a friend to talk around anything in Nepalese language ;) We had good lunch together and a good talk. Nepalese food made by nepalese...eaten by Nepalese ...in central Bangkok!!! We had all sort of talk. They were also pretty new to the place and they had not gone far much from the apartment. So I thought probably we should go around and visit some of the attractions in the city. My professor had told me much about the Grand Palace in Bangkok and the Emerald Buddha inside it. It didn't took me much time to persuade them to visit it! Off we went in a taxi @100 baht!

Getting inside the Grand Palace after getting a 250 baht ticket, I felt we did right decision to come in this place. The place was surely a fantastic place for tourist to go around the historical royal palace buildings, the museums and of course the Emerald Buddha...approx. 2 feet high budhha made of green emerald stone.... I would say mesmerizing buddha...so many people watching him, praying, spending some quite time after getting through a soaring heat outside...surely mesmerizing enough. The golden shining painting on the walls of the galleries of some of the monastries were quite eye catching. It was like our Thanka painting. Not ours... Tibetan Thanka paintings that we would normally find at tourist locations in Nepal. Amazingly if you would look at the text in the information brochure and try to match the painting at the walls, you would find a story of Ram and Sita during her abduction by Ravana in Lanka. The brochure had even mentioned that the tale was of Rama of Ayothaya who waged a war to rescue his wife Sita. In fact, I had already visited that place 'Ayuthaya' the ancient city and it was not that difficult for me to recall it. It was really exciting to imagine and link up the strings in the history looking at the painting walls...of course the text written in the information brochure.

But one thing that surely caught me offguard....we came almost to an end of the tour, while keeping good track of the information map given at the gate! But I didn't see any Grand Palace as such. We asked ourselves..."Where is the Grand Palace then?" I tried to trace around the map a number of times but could not locate it! The brochure had a good picture of a building with a big title 'The Grand Palace' but finding the building in the map or in the place was not that easy either. I thought I should better read the information brochure and the text below the title and understand more about it. Well, it didn't take me much time to conclude that the whole place was known as 'The Grand Palace Complex'. It was King Rama I's decision to build the Royal Palace Compound in there, which was not only used to serve as royal residence but also as house for some of the administrative offices (probably like our Singha Durbar where most of the ministries including Prime Minister's office are located inside) and it was given the name as 'Grand Palace'. With that we concluded our half a day tour and got back to the apartment. This time we took metered taxi and only paid 90 baht...huh saved 10 baht?

On the way to return, I said goodbye to my friends and also I invited them to visit my place during any weekend they would prefer. It did not take me much time to find the stand where the vans to AIT used to wait. After confirming, I took a seat and waited. As soon as the van got filled up, we were asked to pay the fare. This time it was 50 baht each. This was 20 baht more than when I came. I thought I got screwed up. I had no choice but to pay him. Off we went and this time surely at the speed of 150 km/hour. On the way, it was heavily raining. I could see the rain flowing up on the windscreen. Shubha had told me about it but I didn't have any chance to watch it. It was true. It was because of the van's speed, the rainwater falling on the windscreen was going up rather than coming down.

Crazily the van came to a halt on the highway that was very near to AIT. I thought it would take us at least to the gate of AIT as normally it used to in the past. Hastily I got off and also I saw a lady in college uniform (in Bangkok almost all colleges were required to wear same uniform: black skirt and white shirt) got off too. Probably she was student in Thammasat University. She was walking quite fast probably to catch up with the classes ...not sure. I called her up...Excuse me...with a smile of course. She looked back and stopped with a surprise! I hurriedly approached her and asked how much she paid to the van. I thought she would understand english but she didn't. I knew 'sip' was called for 10 baht. So, I told her, showing five fingers, I paid 'sip' to the van. And using sign languages, asked her how much money did she pay. Then she answered 50 baht. I got a relief I was not screwed at all. She told me that the van was not of the regular route to AIT and thus charged us more. Oh! goodness! that was the reason. Now what next, we had to talk, it was a bit long walk up to AIT. I tried my best to understand her which level she was in. All I could get out of her was .... she was Commerce and Accounting student in Thammasat University...her english was not that well....She got a call at her mobile by the time we reached AIT gate. But she stopped her mobile and with a big smile said bye bye....c u later..I thought to myself ...oh great ... and I went to AIT gate waving bye to her!

I made my birthday Special

2007-06-29T02:45:00.000+07:00

June 28, 2007, was supposed to be my special day, the day I was born according to the tithi 'lunar calendar'! The first ever birthday, I was going to spend very differently than my past ones. No puja, no 'Sagun' nothing. I got up a little late and sat for a while trying to gather the dream I had. I was not sure myself if I was expecting any birthday wish early in the morning but definitely I felt like my phone was ringing, my mobile was vibrating ...but it was not.... who would know!..nobody...all the people in my circle had already celebrated my official birthday on the records!

I felt I should do something extraordinary to mark the day. I felt like I should visit a temple and pray for myself. I thought it was not possible to find a temple inside AIT. But Whenever I went back to my room from my office, I had noticed a place having a small shade like of a temple which was close to a corner of the first crossroad on the way to my room. I did not know what it was till the day before when one of my thai colleague, Thapakorn, explained me about it. He ruled it out as temple as there was no monk. He thought probably the place was kept so that the thai people could pray to protect themselves from evil spirits by offering some drinks. He had told me one usually would go there, offer food and pray. So, I did not think anything else, just grabbed a small bottle of milk from fridge and went to that place to offer...I didn't know to whom I was going to offer but I felt I would at least pray for myself.

Amazingle the place was full of offerings and it was surprising to note that there were not puja, not ladoos, not flower and not even red powders. There were several small statues kept inside a small shade and they were statues of men and women wearing beautiful clothes. Lots of mineral water, coke, chocolates, biscuits and so many other foods were kept there as if these were going to be readily consumed anytime. I put my offering inside the shade and I did a quick pray and came back to my room. I was quite happy that I was able to pray in a temple. I did not know what kind of temple was that and also to which god it belonged to but I was walking with a peace in mind and feeling a kind of happiness. I thought to myself I really made my day Special!

Yeah! It was a Crazy trip to Ko Si Chang Island near Pattaya

2007-06-18T23:26:00.000+07:00

Eventhough this was not my first time in the sea, I was thrilled to be in the beach of Thailand and this was something that I had planned for some time. And travelling in a group of 23 people from differnt countries like Vietnam, Cambodia, Britain, Philippines, Pakistan, Thailand and of course Nepal was surely a thrill in itself. On top of that, Chaitya's company and her partnership in all the expenses till the end was quite unique in itself for me! By the way, this was her 7th Crazy trip !!!

We went to a beautiful chinese budhha temple located on a hill in the island. It was a laughing budhha. Then we climbed up high to the top of the hill to find a sacred place with Buddha's foot print on it. The footprint was nicely painted with golden color and looked quite bigger and not humanely in size. To be honest, I was not used to this kind of sacred places which were nicely decorated. Normally we did have sacred places in Nepal but these were either messed up with holy powders during 'Puja' or one had to put some effort to gather his thought to imagine what the object would look like in the past....but it looked natural....probably an untouched beauty! Well, probably we should learn from the way Thai people had been maintaining these sacred places!

One thing about this human nature. May be its crazy trip, perhaps I felt like going crazy for some moment too! It's about a cute child probably in the age of 3/4 years, who was accompanied by her Cambodian father in the group. She was so cute that every lady in the group probably liked to play with her. First a vietnamese, then a Cambodian, and then a phillipino tried to talk to her. Vietnamese tried her language and phillipino tried english language but from her expression I could understand that she did not follow any of these languages. At the end, obviously a cambodian was able to make her comfortable. I thought how different we humans were. Being human we didn't have a common language that could be understood by even a child. If the same child was to be brought up by a Nepalese parent then she would probably never understand the cambodian. huh! I said to myself, "Are we human in real?"-"Are you crazy?"

On the way to the Palace, I learnt from a Cambodian friend that we could easily go to the Cambodia and then to the Vietnam by road from Thailand. She was a cambodian lady just graduated from AIT and was very enthusiastic to tell us about her country and the things we should see in there. I asked her if there was 'Tuk Tuk' in her country. She said 'Yes'. Then I asked her how much would a 'Tuk Tuk' cost? Straight away she said, 250 baht. I repeated my question. She got surprised and reiterated that it was just 250, this time a littel annoyed and put more emphasis on discount that I might get on bargain. I said to her that the cost was probably for a trip. I tried to explain her ... I told her I would pay an amount if I had to buy a shirt in a shop, so similarly how it would cost for a 'Tuk Tuk' there, if I had to buy it like the shirt. Then she understood and stared at me as if I was crazy guy, she never imagined I would ask her about the cost of a 'Tuk Tuk'. Yah I was crazy, after all it was a crazy trip!!!

I could never imagine how a Crab would taste. I had not had its taste till the dinner in a restaurant near the coast in the trip. We ordered fried rice, a big fish with hot lemon soup and Sam Tam (veg salad alongwith crab) and of course a basket full of ice pieces. I wished to try crab meat when I came earlier in Bangkok but could not do it. Alongwith fired rice, first Sam Tam was served with a small black crab. I got a piece of it to try but I could not stop myself from staring on it for awhile....didn't know where to start it from... Chaitya came for my help...somehow I took out little (tiny) meat out of it and tasted it.... a big Woh...and one could see my face, nasty way. I just could not keep it inside my mouth and had to spit it on the floor. It had so hard smell and it tasted like rotten egg. I thought to myself... okay my wish fulfilled, that was the taste of a crab meat huh....I tasted the big fish with hot lemon soup. It had really great taste and much better than what we would normally have in Kathmandu. I kept on eating it so that I could put that bad taste of crab meat away. After awhile another Sam Tam was served. But this time it was red crab but a bigger one. Chaitya asked me to try this once. I said Woh no more no more huh! She said she tried that once before and tasted good. So, I felt I should give this nasty Crab a chance more and then I requested a piece of it as I did before. Hastily, I put the piece in my mouth, afraid I would get the similar taste as before, trying to avoid the bad taste I had earlier. Surprised, this time, it tasted really great. It tasted like a lobster that I had when I was in Roskilde. Well, I thanked to myself that I gave it a try otherwise I would have minded bad taste of the crab meat all in my life....probably it would have been worst for crab lovers huh!!!

Its Crazy people on Crazy Trip! .... Crazy me!

2007-06-18T00:48:00.000+07:00

Don't get surprised to see 3 Crazies in the Title. Actually I was told only about Crazy Trip but I came to know about other 2 after I went to the trip myself. Hey! it is 00:44 AM now and I returned from the trip an hour ago...a little bit tired ... but still felt I should write about it no matter how late it would gonna be now.

You must be now Crazy to know about this trip huh! Well, I am told that the trip is crazy because goers are usually informed where they are supposed to go and how they are supposed to go. But the destination is completely new to the organizer themselves. Instead of organizer, I would say volunteers though. Further, there could be twist in the plan, sometimes crazy things happen like finding hard the vehicles to get back to home, getting stuck on the road waiting for others to join, finding the right way to the destination etc. Its crazy trip anyway!

This time (7th time-17 June 2007), the Crazy destination was Ko Si Chang Island before Pattaya beach. A Crazy thing happened before we started our Crazy trip! There were about 33 people who signed up for this trip and only 21 people appeared. So, out of 3 microbuses, one had to be cancelled for which we had to pay 500 Baht as cancellation fee. Crazy though...

I should put another crazy tag to this trip....Crazy drivers. The two drivers had mentioned that the charges for microbus included the cost of gasoline to be spent on the trip! So, we had estimated our individual fare accordingly and was happy with that. But when they came to pick us up at the beach, they said the cost of gasoline was an extra to the reserve fare. So, we had no option but to give them the extra. Thanks to Jonathan who shouldered half of the responsibility! Don't know why... Crazy Jonathan!

I will write about my trip thing later...i should get good sleep otherwise I will get crazy tomorrow! bye!

please do visit again!

Ayutthaya

2007-06-16T23:44:00.000+07:00

Ayutthaya, the ancient city of Thailand. We were 5 of us (Durga, Chaitya, Sareena and Aashish), hired a taxi for a whole day and went to our 'adventure' of Ayuthhaya. Well I had an imagination what an ancient city would look like, from my own distant past visits to Bhaktapur and Lalitpur cities, it proved to be different. Of course, it was an ancient city but the dwellers were probably migrants. The places were so ancient that it had now the remains with brick structure depicting ancient stupas, prangs and temples. Rest of the places seem to be well developed. Better if I would have said the city had got a facelift with people living there. Probably the land development does not seem that old....or it is maintained properly...i should have asked about it....

I had heard and watched the giant buddha statues in Afghansitan destroyed by Taliban regime but I did not know people in ancient times (probably 3-12th century -Khamer age) too had problem with Buddha Statues. Hardly any Buddha statues in the ancient city had its head. It was said that these Buddha Statues were destroyed during war, and in earthquake. I got a relief when I saw a number of Buddha Heads belonging to different centuries in the National Fine Arts and Museum.

One thing that caught my attention whenever I visited WATs (temple of god Buddha).... The pasting of golden flakes to the buddha statues. It was so soft and fragile that it easily pasted on the statue surface and made it shining, giving it a look of gold color. It was really fun. While Buddha was born in Lumbini, Nepal, the tradition there worshipping Budhha is entirely different than the tradition here, except lighting the incense sticks. My mind striked hard about the tradition that we had in Nepal and I started to question myself....do ever these people know about it...have ever these followers been to the birth place of Budhha...I should have asked them but uff... i should have learnt Thai!

Fortune Teller with a vessel full of wooden sticks each having a number was something that really concluded whole day adventure. It looks like a game where one has to shake the vessel and a single stick fall, get the number it has and find the slip with that number. The first slip I tried, gave a good fortune but I did not like a statement it had and I felt if I should try one more and check if I would get the same number again. But tried 2 times, got different numbers each time I tried and of course different fortune to know about my future! I thought, what if everytime I tried, it would give different numbers....I would have different fortune?...probably the last fortune would be the one whoever tries....no this was not written there but I made it myself! funny though!

How I came across Blogspot?

2007-06-16T23:34:00.000+07:00

It was the e-mail from 'Nishakandu' that striked me and I wondered if I could start writing my philosophy about my life in a Blogger. I came across this word 'blogger' from a 'friend' but I did not know what it was and I did not even try to explore too. But the e-mail from 'Nishakandu' had a blogspot website written at the end. It striked me again and I thought perhaps I should check what it was and then I came across some nicely written scripts, memories and philosophy on her subject of interest. ...it was really nice to know about the life from one's vision..... it striked me hard. I was also thinking about developing a personal website but it was not only time consuming but could be costly too. Wow...Blogspot could be pretty useful though it didn't have the facilities that i thought to have earlier .... and....instantly I started registering it. Took some time to go through it...find a title, understand it and finally I felt now I could present myself ....with a vision....something that I see more than what my eyes see....and finally gave it a name ..... Beyond My Eyes...