On the journey

As a kid I always wondered how my grandfather knew so much about the history. He knew King Tribhuvan to King Birendra, Chandra Sumsher to Krishan Prasad Bhattarai. He not only just knew them but had personally worked with most of them (with exception to K.P. Bhattarai). I was always fascinated to hear his stories about the past and used to think if I would ever have enough stories to tell my grandkids. But to my surprise I already have too many stories, perhaps more than my grandfather. I may not have known the kings or the leaders like my grandfather did but I have lived in an era which witnessed major changes in Nepal; and I haven’t yet passed my half life.

I remember listening to the radio that sang “Panchai Ho Yo Desh Banai Deu” (a Nepali song praising the single party system). Then in 1990 there came the democracy. During the agitation for the democracy I found a flag of Nepali Congress in the street but as a kid I was scared to pick it up because I didn’t knew to which system it belonged to. Then I witnessed the exponential growth of malpractices in multi party democratic system. Royal palace massacre was another big event that shook the whole country where curfew was declared for the cremation of the King (Dipendra). I respect the decision of the investigative report on Royal Massacre but from heart, I fully doubt it. Maoist rebel is definitely another big episode in the History. There was bloodshed every where and suddenly a peaceful country were converted to a near civil war. Then the new King assumed all the power and locked up all the leaders; curb the telephone & internet, censor the media etc. People start uprising again, throw up the tyrannical king and then force the political powers to sort out their differences for sustainable peace. Eventually political parties have paved a way to peace (let’s wait for the implementation part later). And finally there was pinnacle of Communist Revolution in Nepal when in the rest of the world it’s extinct or endangered.

You might say what good is that story to tell your grandchild, but to understand its importance just look around the world. The last major revolution any developed countries had must be at least a centaury ago. I use to hear about LTTE in Sri Lanka and army rule in Burma since I was a kid; it’s still the same stalemate there. We are privileged to witness such eventful decades with so many changes. Recent editorial in LA Times has even hailed Nepalese People for their wisdom in recent peace process. LA Times states that “It has not been easy or painless, but it has been accomplished without suicide bombings, without military action and, except for some skillful U.N. diplomatic help in the endgame, without foreign intervention.” Although they might be trying to correlate Nepal’s success with Iraq, but this is one thing we can be proud of.

I believe I still have many years to live and I already have many stories, I might get more stories in near future but I am sincerely hoping that I get less random stories. I pray for more concrete, successful and sustainable peace & development stories.

As a kid I always wondered how my grandfather knew so much about the history. He knew King Tribhuvan to King Birendra, Chandra Sumsher to Krishan Prasad Bhattarai. He not only just knew them but had personally worked with most of them (with exception to K.P. Bhattarai). I was always fascinated to hear his stories about the past and used to think if I would ever have enough stories to tell my grandkids. But to my surprise I already have too many stories, perhaps more than my grandfather. I may not have known the kings or the leaders like my grandfather did but I have lived in an era which witnessed major changes in Nepal; and I haven’t yet passed my half life.

I remember listening to the radio that sang “Panchai Ho Yo Desh Banai Deu” (a Nepali song praising the single party system). Then in 1990 there came the democracy. During the agitation for the democracy I found a flag of Nepali Congress in the street but as a kid I was scared to pick it up because I didn’t knew to which system it belonged to. Then I witnessed the exponential growth of malpractices in multi party democratic system. Royal palace massacre was another big event that shook the whole country where curfew was declared for the cremation of the King (Dipendra). I respect the decision of the investigative report on Royal Massacre but from heart, I fully doubt it. Maoist rebel is definitely another big episode in the History. There was bloodshed every where and suddenly a peaceful country were converted to a near civil war. Then the new King assumed all the power and locked up all the leaders; curb the telephone & internet, censor the media etc. People start uprising again, throw up the tyrannical king and then force the political powers to sort out their differences for sustainable peace. Eventually political parties have paved a way to peace (let’s wait for the implementation part later). And finally there was pinnacle of Communist Revolution in Nepal when in the rest of the world it’s extinct or endangered.

You might say what good is that story to tell your grandchild, but to understand its importance just look around the world. The last major revolution any developed countries had must be at least a centaury ago. I use to hear about LTTE in Sri Lanka and army rule in Burma since I was a kid; it’s still the same stalemate there. We are privileged to witness such eventful decades with so many changes. Recent editorial in LA Times has even hailed Nepalese People for their wisdom in recent peace process. LA Times states that “It has not been easy or painless, but it has been accomplished without suicide bombings, without military action and, except for some skillful U.N. diplomatic help in the endgame, without foreign intervention.” Although they might be trying to correlate Nepal’s success with Iraq, but this is one thing we can be proud of.

I believe I still have many years to live and I already have many stories, I might get more stories in near future but I am sincerely hoping that I get less random stories. I pray for more concrete, successful and sustainable peace & development stories.

Many people might not aware of the origin and culture of thanksgiving. It was started by the pilgrims (originally the members of English Separatist Church moving away from England to avoid religious prosecution); the first real European settlers to go to North America boarding a ship called Mayflower in 1620. They landed at Plymouth (Massachusetts) where they had to face a terrible winter. Their first crop was a complete failure and they ran out of food. But with the help of Native Americans they produced a great crop yield next year so they decided to celebrate with a feast along with the natives. The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true “thanksgiving” observance. The Pilgrims continued to hold a Thanksgiving celebration every year, and it was eventually declared a national holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.

Though there is no real evidence that turkey was served at the Pilgrim’s first thanksgiving, but with time it became an obligatory part of the Thanksgiving tradition. My first thanksgiving was more concerned with eating Turkey than its culture. I and my friends were introduced to thanksgiving by our respective host families. One time we even tried to bake a Turkey, “the thanksgiving fashion”, in our apartment. Since living here in US, thanksgiving certainly has been a part of my life too.

I did have a turkey a week before Thanksgiving Day when my friend Erika invited me for a thanksgiving dinner, however on that particular day I ate something else. A stomach full of Lamb momo at some Nepalese friends place (whom I didn’t even knew before that day). Then to follow it up with a momo party at a Nepalese Professor’s place next day. I had a quite a chat with Dr. Durga Poudel (Professor at University of Louisiana at Lafayette) sipping Red Label and eating momo.

Dr. Poudel and I were talking about possible paths for development in Nepal; we both agreed that political parties need to integrate scientific agenda with their policies. We also agreed on strong federal government with independent and sustainable local governance. I always felt that constructing road in Nepal is the path towards the development but he gave me a new insight to something broader. He is a developing a conceptual model which he explained to me; that there needs to be a detailed soil series survey in Nepal. This long term study requires Soil Survey, GIS, Remote Sensing, Natural Resource Inventory etc, and could provide new jobs to 10 thousand people. His rough calculation suggests that it requires total 10 million dollar over 10 year’s period to complete the project after which we will have a strong scientific base to formulate our policies. We can use that base for urban development, road construction, increase agricultural productivity etc. If the current agricultural practices and productivity continues then it will require five times the project sum to import food for ever growing population in next twenty five years. Dr. Poudel has more facts to support the necessity for that project and he will be happy to answer if anyone of you is curious about his conceptual model. He is planning to present that in Nepal in couple of months.

No matter if Nepalese government accepts or rejects Dr. Poudel’s model, I think we definitely need a scientific base to formulate our policies. This blog proves how much I can digress, started with thanksgiving and ended with development model for Nepal. I think I need to stop writing now or else I will start about new James Bond movie.

Many people might not aware of the origin and culture of thanksgiving. It was started by the pilgrims (originally the members of English Separatist Church moving away from England to avoid religious prosecution); the first real European settlers to go to North America boarding a ship called Mayflower in 1620. They landed at Plymouth (Massachusetts) where they had to face a terrible winter. Their first crop was a complete failure and they ran out of food. But with the help of Native Americans they produced a great crop yield next year so they decided to celebrate with a feast along with the natives. The feast was more of a traditional English harvest festival than a true “thanksgiving” observance. The Pilgrims continued to hold a Thanksgiving celebration every year, and it was eventually declared a national holiday in 1863 by President Abraham Lincoln.

Though there is no real evidence that turkey was served at the Pilgrim’s first thanksgiving, but with time it became an obligatory part of the Thanksgiving tradition. My first thanksgiving was more concerned with eating Turkey than its culture. I and my friends were introduced to thanksgiving by our respective host families. One time we even tried to bake a Turkey, “the thanksgiving fashion”, in our apartment. Since living here in US, thanksgiving certainly has been a part of my life too.

I did have a turkey a week before Thanksgiving Day when my friend Erika invited me for a thanksgiving dinner, however on that particular day I ate something else. A stomach full of Lamb momo at some Nepalese friends place (whom I didn’t even knew before that day). Then to follow it up with a momo party at a Nepalese Professor’s place next day. I had a quite a chat with Dr. Durga Poudel (Professor at University of Louisiana at Lafayette) sipping Red Label and eating momo.

Dr. Poudel and I were talking about possible paths for development in Nepal; we both agreed that political parties need to integrate scientific agenda with their policies. We also agreed on strong federal government with independent and sustainable local governance. I always felt that constructing road in Nepal is the path towards the development but he gave me a new insight to something broader. He is a developing a conceptual model which he explained to me; that there needs to be a detailed soil series survey in Nepal. This long term study requires Soil Survey, GIS, Remote Sensing, Natural Resource Inventory etc, and could provide new jobs to 10 thousand people. His rough calculation suggests that it requires total 10 million dollar over 10 year’s period to complete the project after which we will have a strong scientific base to formulate our policies. We can use that base for urban development, road construction, increase agricultural productivity etc. If the current agricultural practices and productivity continues then it will require five times the project sum to import food for ever growing population in next twenty five years. Dr. Poudel has more facts to support the necessity for that project and he will be happy to answer if anyone of you is curious about his conceptual model. He is planning to present that in Nepal in couple of months.

No matter if Nepalese government accepts or rejects Dr. Poudel’s model, I think we definitely need a scientific base to formulate our policies. This blog proves how much I can digress, started with thanksgiving and ended with development model for Nepal. I think I need to stop writing now or else I will start about new James Bond movie.

The first poster that I ever bought in my life was that of Def Leppard. I used to save my lunch money when I was in school to buy cassettes from Def Leppard. At that time, a peacock brand cassettes, one of the original brands found in Nepal cost around NRS 90.00. I bought all their original albums; On through the Night, High & Dry, Pyromania, Hysteria, and Adrenalized. During my early teen, I used to represent myself with their songs, particularly “Let’s get rocked”. As I grew older I stopped listening to the new songs (not only theirs but quit following any band), so the last song that I heard from Def Leppard (I have no idea what albums they were from) were ‘Two Steps Behind’ (perhaps OST from Last Action Hero) and ‘When Love and Hate Collide’. It won’t be unfair to call me musically outmoded, I discuss music with my colleagues at work and call Green Day a new band, so you can see where I stand. Nevertheless, Def Leppard, the band which had such big influence on me during my youth had a concert in New Orleans. This was going to be a great opportunity for me to revive the rock music in me; New Orleans here I come.

New Orleans is two hour east from my place, so I took off from my office at 2:30 hoping to have extra 3 hours to see the city before the concert starts at 7:30 pm. I was driving with Erika (my colleague) and her friend Michele; and we were to catch up with other 3 guys in New Orleans. But we caught our self in huge traffic and just made it to the concert. It was very frustrating; forget the sight seeing, we didn’t even had chance for a dinner. We parked our vehicle at Superdome (football stadium which had housed thousands of Katrina evacuee before its roof crumbled too) and made it to the New Orleans Arena (home of New Orleans Hornets, the basketball team). When we reached inside to the designated seats, the concert had already started.

Journey (a band I never heard of, though when they sang I knew some of their songs, maybe via FM) opened for Def Leppard. It seemed that Journey had a huge following, the crowd sang with them for almost all of their songs. I liked them, but I was more eager on hearing Def Leppard. Finally after 90 minutes of Journey, I could hear Def Leppard.

Def Leppard started with ‘Let’s get rocked’, the very song that had huge influence on my youth. Most of the audience knew Journey more than Def Leppard, so it seemed like I was the only one screaming the words on top of my lungs. But my intensity faded quickly, not even booze could come to my rescue. Not only me, it seemed that Joe Eliot (the band front man) had lost his intensity too. I was surprised to find that I did not enjoy them as much as I expected. One of the bright parts of Def Leppard concert was a fight in a row next to us. I had seen fight’s in Nepalese concert, but here it was totally a new experience. Bunch of cops appeared from nowhere and took the whole section (fighters and others, perhaps as a witness).

I had listened to Def Leppard when I was young, so I might have changed. They might have changed too. But I have to confess that I enjoyed Journey more than them. Most of the people coming out of the concert agreed on that. I was debating in my head, when we were returning (we got back in 2 hours this time, but it was already 3 am), has my taste for music changed or there is something wrong with me. I hope to go to a Metallica concert; if I don’t even enjoy them then I must accept that I lost my taste for rock. I was hoping this Def Leppard concert will revive rock inside me, but I guess I have to give it another shot. Till Metallica or Pink Floyd shows up in the town, I am happily content to listen to great Narayan Gopal and Gulam Ali.

The first poster that I ever bought in my life was that of Def Leppard. I used to save my lunch money when I was in school to buy cassettes from Def Leppard. At that time, a peacock brand cassettes, one of the original brands found in Nepal cost around NRS 90.00. I bought all their original albums; On through the Night, High & Dry, Pyromania, Hysteria, and Adrenalized. During my early teen, I used to represent myself with their songs, particularly “Let’s get rocked”. As I grew older I stopped listening to the new songs (not only theirs but quit following any band), so the last song that I heard from Def Leppard (I have no idea what albums they were from) were ‘Two Steps Behind’ (perhaps OST from Last Action Hero) and ‘When Love and Hate Collide’. It won’t be unfair to call me musically outmoded, I discuss music with my colleagues at work and call Green Day a new band, so you can see where I stand. Nevertheless, Def Leppard, the band which had such big influence on me during my youth had a concert in New Orleans. This was going to be a great opportunity for me to revive the rock music in me; New Orleans here I come.

New Orleans is two hour east from my place, so I took off from my office at 2:30 hoping to have extra 3 hours to see the city before the concert starts at 7:30 pm. I was driving with Erika (my colleague) and her friend Michele; and we were to catch up with other 3 guys in New Orleans. But we caught our self in huge traffic and just made it to the concert. It was very frustrating; forget the sight seeing, we didn’t even had chance for a dinner. We parked our vehicle at Superdome (football stadium which had housed thousands of Katrina evacuee before its roof crumbled too) and made it to the New Orleans Arena (home of New Orleans Hornets, the basketball team). When we reached inside to the designated seats, the concert had already started.

Journey (a band I never heard of, though when they sang I knew some of their songs, maybe via FM) opened for Def Leppard. It seemed that Journey had a huge following, the crowd sang with them for almost all of their songs. I liked them, but I was more eager on hearing Def Leppard. Finally after 90 minutes of Journey, I could hear Def Leppard.

Def Leppard started with ‘Let’s get rocked’, the very song that had huge influence on my youth. Most of the audience knew Journey more than Def Leppard, so it seemed like I was the only one screaming the words on top of my lungs. But my intensity faded quickly, not even booze could come to my rescue. Not only me, it seemed that Joe Eliot (the band front man) had lost his intensity too. I was surprised to find that I did not enjoy them as much as I expected. One of the bright parts of Def Leppard concert was a fight in a row next to us. I had seen fight’s in Nepalese concert, but here it was totally a new experience. Bunch of cops appeared from nowhere and took the whole section (fighters and others, perhaps as a witness).

I had listened to Def Leppard when I was young, so I might have changed. They might have changed too. But I have to confess that I enjoyed Journey more than them. Most of the people coming out of the concert agreed on that. I was debating in my head, when we were returning (we got back in 2 hours this time, but it was already 3 am), has my taste for music changed or there is something wrong with me. I hope to go to a Metallica concert; if I don’t even enjoy them then I must accept that I lost my taste for rock. I was hoping this Def Leppard concert will revive rock inside me, but I guess I have to give it another shot. Till Metallica or Pink Floyd shows up in the town, I am happily content to listen to great Narayan Gopal and Gulam Ali.