The colors
Following are the few of my recent pictures, taken within the 5 mile radius of my apartment. These pictures are more about what nature has to offer, than the camera tricks or editing; they are straight out of my camera. Enjoy 
12 comments November 5, 2009
What to do in Baltimore?
It’s been a little more than a year that I moved to Baltimore, and I still struggle to chaperon my visitors for the city and it’s vicinities tour. If someone is in Baltimore area for a very short visit, then it’s a piece of cake, I take them to the Inner Harbor. The Inner Harbor has it all; the aquarium, the science center, lot’s of chain restaurants, boat rides, and tons of other potential spots and scenes to capture for their Facebook There is also Fort McHenry close by to wrap up the combo Harbor trip.
If it’s slightly longer than a day visit, then it spells trouble for me. Not all want to go to the zoo, not all want to go for a hike in the trails, and going to a museum is an absolute no. Interests and time limits (enough for the harbor visit, but not for hours of hike) makes the above choices more difficult. I don’t know if its because that Nepal is blessed with so many natural wonders, we Nepalese want to see more physical structures. For any natural phenomenon to catch our attention, it has to be of a big magnitude, like Niagara Falls or Grand Canyon. Washington DC (less than an hour drive to my west) is always there to bail me out, but after multiple visits through the same routes has made it a very dull place for me. Even when it is extremely fascinating for the new visitors, I only go there if I am made to 
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4 comments October 20, 2009
1095 days of blogging
I have slowed down, limped, and even crawled; but I still vow to continue blogging. Today, ‘On the journey’ celebrated it’s third birthday, and it hopes for the same continued support and love from all the readers, well wishers, and critics towards its future march.
Thanks,
Prajwol
Enjoy few of the recent pictures from my camera. Please click on thumbnails to enlarge.
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- Ducks at Loch Raven Reservoir
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- Dusk in the Harbor
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- Overlooking the Harbor
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- View from the top of Federal Hill, Baltimore
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- Lights and glitters
9 comments October 14, 2009
The politics of health care
I believe there are three types of health care systems in the world. One is like in Britain or Canada, where the government either runs the whole health care system or runs the health insurance program. The people pay hefty taxes for it, but everyone is covered.
Second is like in Nepal, or in any other developing country, where health insurance is almost non existent. If you have money, you can find best of care. If not, then good luck in waiting for your appointment in government hospitals. Not a sound system, but fairly simple to understand.
Third is similar to what we have in United States of America, which I feel is the combination of above two. If you are above the age of 65 or a military veteran, then the system is more like in Canada, the government takes care of you. If you are below that age, then you need to purchase the ever expensive health insurance. If you have a pre-existing condition; good luck in finding an insurance provider. Even if you find one, it’s very complex to figure out what your insurance plan covers and what it doesn’t. The bottom line: health care system in America is best suited for wealthy or healthy.
The American legislator are currently trying to come up with a new health care legislation that will insure all uninsured people, and make it more affordable and stable for the ones who are already insured. There seems to be strong emotions in both sides of this legislative debate. I am, especially, fascinated with the opposition of this legislation. They have branded President Obama as both socialist and fascist for trying to overhaul the current health care system in America. I personally feel both of these accusations towards Mr. Obama are hyperbolic, but what amuses me more is how the “opposition” is trying to brand the proposed legislation (work in progress) as both fascism and socialism. Fascism and socialism are two opposing ideology. Even if the accusations were assumed to be valid, they contradict each other.
No matter how developed a country is, no matter how literate the people are; politics is always going to be politics: dirty.
Image source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/u107/health%20care.jpg
5 comments September 15, 2009
तिजको दर
सांझ ५ बजेको भेलामा सबै जसो नै आइ पुगीसकेका रहेछन, बिचरा एक जना भण्डारी दाजु सबै केटीहरुको माझ रहेर आफ्नो बुढीलाई सहयोग गर्दै रहेछन; कहिले oven मा मासु हाल्ने त कहिले trash फ्यांक्न जाने । तिजको एक हप्ता अगावै “दर” भनेर दरो कक्टेल पार्टिको तयारी गरेकी रहेछिन भण्डारी भाउजुले । एक छिन सबैले एक अर्काको खोज-खबर / hi-hello गरे, अनि त्यस पछी appetizer र wine संगै सुरु भइ हाल्यो आइमाइहरुको favorite topic: कसको दु:ख बढी दु:ख, र कसको बुढो झेल्न गार्हो
7 comments August 19, 2009
गफ
म: अनि साथी, काम कुरो मिल्यो कि ground work सम्म भए पनि सकेर आयौ ?
साथी: खै साथी के मिलेन के मिलेन । केही टुङो पनि लागेन, न त कुनै ground work पनि फिजाउन सकियो ।
म: Ground work पनि भएन? केही नभए पनि बिउ त कम से कम छर्केर आयौ कि जस्तो लागेको थियो ।
साथी: कहाँ साथी; पानी नपरेर कस्तो सुख्खा थियो, केही रोपनी हुनै पाएन नि ।
म: सुख्खा त हुनु नपर्ने, धेरै fertile छ भनेर पो सुनेको थिए ।
साथी: २०-२२ बर्षको मात्र fertile हो साथी, हाम्रो उमेरको लागि सुख्खै सुख्खा हो ।
म: त्यो त साथी अब जति ढिलो गर्यो उति नै गार्हो हुँदैं जाने त हो नि । २४-२५ बर्ष सम्म भए तिमीलाई ठीक हुन्न र?
साथी: अलि पढे लेखेको २४-२५ बर्षका सबै बाहिर, बाँकी रहेका २४-२५ बर्षकाहरु कि त पढ्न नसकेर बहिर जान नसकेका वा तिनीहरुका आ-आफ्नै २७-२८ का रहेछन ।
म: लौ न, फेरी यतैकालाई झनै गार्हो होला ?
साथी: गार्हो रहेछ । मैले धेरै जना बाट सुनेको, आजकाल काठमाडौंमा केटीहरुको कमि पनि छ रे ।
6 comments August 10, 2009
Cooking & recipe
In my previous work, we periodically cooked something for the lunch (just among our project group). It wasn’t mandatory nor it was an everyday stuff, but eating my colleagues (primarily Americans) cookery for long time made me feel guilty and inspired me to cook something for them too. I was a mediocre cook, so the pressure of “representing Nepal” was immense. For the first time I decided to take an easier route and made momo, which I am proud to say was well received. There on, I started to be more creative
Image source: http://www6.worldisround.com/photos/14/339/131.jpg
The biggest problem I faced was when someone asked me for the recipe. How can I produce the recipe when even I can’t duplicate the same taste, if I try again? To my surprise they had a recipe for everything, and if I asked they could simply print out from their records and give it to me in minutes. And trust me, they had very specific recipe, for example: preheat the oven for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, put the dish at middle rack for 20 minutes, let it settle for 10 minutes, apply 2 ounces of whip cream, and so on
Today at work I was discussing about food and cooking, and again I found my cookery lacked specifics when explaining the recipe. All I could explain was: add little bit of salt, and little more of cumin, and slightly more of curry masala, then boil for few minutes, etc 
I began to worry if it’s just me or our food culture (as a whole) is not detail oriented enough. Finally, after thinking for a while I came up with a good enough line to explain my colleagues “yours cooking style is a science but ours is more of an art, you learn these from years of experience”
6 comments July 17, 2009
FYI: Phishing related to BOA
Check the picture below. It is a screen shot of an email I got couple of days ago. If you have a Bank of America (BOA) account, this might look familiar. Notice the email address of the sender, it’s a Phishing email. I nearly fell for it, especially when it looks exactly as BOA email (banners and logo). When I clicked on the link “Please Upgrade Your Information”, it threw me off as it asked for my BOA on-line ID, password, DOB, address, SSN, etc. If you get an email like this or any email asking about any information (related to BOA) first verify that at abuse@bankofamerica.com
5 comments July 2, 2009
Did you know this?
We all are aware of current situation in Iran. I am in no position to confirm if voting was rigged or not, but public uprising there seems definitely genuine. The United States of America is paying a very close attention to the situation in Iran, and has been the headline for a week now in American cable news. Iran holds key to Middle East peace process, safety of American soldiers in neighboring Iraq, nuclear proliferation issues etc; so the interest on Iran is immense.
Couple of days ago I was watching PBS news on Iran, like on most of other cable news the talks were centered around how the use of social networking (Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, etc) has kept the momentum of protest in Iran, despite the governments clamp down on the conventional media and communication systems. Iran has applied Internet filter to stop these social networking sites, but the work around using the third party application makes harder for government to filter everything.
So the host of news asked an expert guest if a country can shut down the whole Internet system. The guest replied that it would involve a big political ramification to completely shut down the Internet system, ultimately giving an impression to the world that the election was rigged. So it’s unlikely that Iran would do that now, but it’s been done twice in past elsewhere. To quote that expert guest, one was in Myanmar and the other was in Nepal
5 comments June 19, 2009
Loss of a category
There was a time when I absolutely loved drinking, no matter if it was a social drink or simply drinking to get drunk (big time). I never used to shy away from any possible opportunity to drink, and on few occasions established some notorious reputations too
But times changed now, without even knowing about it, I ain’t the same drinker that I used to be. I had to sit around with some of my old pals to finally realize that. Now I am more of a social drinker, who if tries to push beyond that suffers a great deal the next day
I know it’s all good considering possible health as well as monetary benefits from my less enthusiastic drinking. However, my blog is in loss because of that. I have a blog category called “I love to drink” where I post all the creative ideas that I acquire during my drinking sagas. I doubt if I will have any more updates to that category. But I am optimistic that any substitutes (if any) to my drinking habits can also produce equally interesting and inspiring accounts for me to share 
5 comments June 8, 2009
