Da Ugly Devil's Heaven

SLC results was out yesterday night and it was supposed to be all over the net yesterday. The rumor was the results were to be published in the following websites: soce.gov.np, educationsansar.com, educationdirectory.com.np, and slc.ntc.net.np.

From 9 PM, I continuously tried to refresh those pages and I got different results with the different website. Quite funny but the first one, which is the official website of Office of the Controller of Examination, was not accessible due to it’s bandwidth problem. May be they didn’t quite had the idea of numbers of people visiting that day but that proves that even our gov.np sites gets banned from the servers. lol. For the record, they had their website up today morning, BUT when I tried to search the results following error came: Can’t find file: ‘./socegov_result/marks2065.frm’ (errno: 13). So meaning, their website still is not working!

Second was educationsansar.com. The only website that was opening properly yesterday, BUT with a single jpg page on their webpage stating the results will be out in some hours. For the record, they have updated their page today morning and it is up and running. Their result display is quite similar to the original certificate. thumbs up in that department

Third comes educationdirectory.com.np, and with it too I experienced some slow connection with the server and they had the same information: The results will be published in some hours. For the record, their website is also displaying the results in the morning.

Fourth and only good site that was giving information was slc.ntc.net.np. The only site that was opening till 10PM. Till 10PM they had a text message in their site stating the results would be out shortly. after 10PM they uploaded the results, BUT trouble with their excessive amount of visitors and mostly ADSL internet problem of mine, which actually is distributed by the same NTC (Nepal Telecom). I was frustrated by then. At last I was able to view the results via proxy site. I tried to open it from the normal connection but I was unable till 12AM and then I slept lol.

You guys might be wondering why the hell I am waiting and looking on these websites when I have already passed the exams 12-13 years ago? Well, my good old nephew, Ajay Maharjan, appeared in the SLC examination this year and he was waiting for my phone call, DESPERATELY, to hear the results. And I was even more DESPERATE & FRUSTRATED due to our internet connection and website problem to properly view the results. Finally with the continuous search from 9 to 11PM, finally we knew the results and we were happy to see his results, he “nailed it” with first division!

CONGRATULATION TO MY NEPHEW, AJAY MAHARJAN, FOR PASSING HIS SLC EXAMINATION IN FIRST DIVISION!

ALSO CONGRATULATION TO ALL THE NEPALI STUDENTS WHO HAVE PASSED SLC EXAMINATION 2065!

Finally we sold our house last week on Monday, 18 August 2008. There are a lot of happy as well as bitter moments in that old creepy house. I never accepted it as a house or home in any way. It was just a place which gave us shelter for more than five straight years. I was forced to stay there by my mom and dad. I was told we would only stay there for three months and we will shift to a new place but there was something creepy about that house, it just kept us there and we couldn’t leave it no matter how uncomfortable we felt living there.

If I analyze my stay in that house, I would have more of the bitter moments rather than happy ones. Many of my friends would want to visit it but I always hesitated and never took anyone there no matter how much they insisted. I once had written a poem to one of my best friends, who got lost somewhere after her marriage, Malina Shakya, on Friday, 31 March 2006 01:11:08 NST. The poems goes like:

My House
My house is not a house
house of cards are better
At least they look so amazing
May be I will only show it later

5 feet 16 inches, thats my house’s area (i just measured it)
No where to sleep, Nowhere to sit
Where will you stay? Where will you eat?
It will hurt me more within so deep

Four-story house with three stairs in it
Windows are six pairs with two pairs of doors
Within it living us, mom, dad, me, & my two parrots
Thats about my house, what u wanna know more?

It’s dirty, It’s stinky, It’s so …
All the bad things you will never wanna know
No invitation for anyone
Coz I got nothing to show!

I guess this poem best defines how my house was. I never took Malina to my house. Finally after so many struggles we finally were able to move from that house as there was not much space for the whole family. The brokers really helped us sell that house but they got a huge prize for that as well. We sold our house in 5 lakhs (approx. $7250), and I know that is not a good price but for that house, it is the best price we could get.

I also can’t forget the happy moments with my family there. A lot of occasions were celebrated, a lot of history was made, a lot of memories still remains. Well still I got no regrets for selling that house. We had to do it once and for all and I am glad it happened this year. No house for us for now but we will be struggling a lot to get one soon. May God help us and be with us in our search of a better home and better place for living!

Right as of this moment, every Nepali citizen is waiting for the Constitutional Election that went on two days ago. The vote counting is going on and so far Maoists has been leading the board. This election is supposed to change the future of Nepal and lead the Nepal in a new way. So far the results have been showing that Maoists will win in majority but yet the overall voting results are yet to be confirmed. So till the final voting ends, each and every Nepali citizen are watching the television and other news media to track the voting news. Be sure to tune in here as well to know the results of the election voting.

I am from a Newar family and wine is almost necessary in any occasion but our wine is totally different from others. We have homemade wine and it is very strong as compared to other branded wine. We can find different types of wine around the world. It is said that the older the wine the stronger it gets. There are lots of ways to find out the taste and age of wine. Some people can tell the age by just tasting the wine.

In our culture, wine is consumed on every occasion. We have this custom of giving an boiled egg with fried fish (sometimes egg with fried buffalo meat) and with it our own homemade wine on most of the occasion. This custom of giving egg, fish, and wine is called giving “Sagun.” Mostly it is given to the person when they have their birthdays, on weddings, or any special occasion even when the person is going abroad and when any person is starting a new business. It is considered as good luck.

Most of the people will not like the taste of our homemade wine as it is too strong. Most of the people are beginning to find new taste and mostly branded wines are preferred these days. I was surfing over the internet and I found this website called tv.winelibrary.com and they are considered as a popular internet podcast dedicated to different types of wine. Wine Library TV has lots of episodes featured on their page. If you are in search for different wines available you should watch their videos and you can also find more information about the wine and price details.

I am having less interest in blogging these days. Nothing seems to entertain me. Our country’s situation is getting worst and worst and so is my blogging days. There is nothing good to blog about and nothing would interests me. So I thought of playing some long-term PC games. My all time favorite would be Tomb Raider and NFS (Need For Speed) games. So I went with my best friend, Bishwo, in the mall (Bishal Bazaar) to buy the game CD. I had to wait couple of days till I get to play the game as I didn’t have any DVD ROM at my place. So Bishwo copied the game in his mobile hard drive and he brought to me couple of days later. So from the moment I received the game, I have been playing it; of course, when ever the lights are back. Who can forget our country’s loadshedding chaos. holding the world’s second highest resource of water, our country still has eight hours of loadshedding.

So these days I would be playing Tomb Raider Anniversary whenever I have free time or shall I say whenever the power is back. Most of the times the game seems to be adventurous but there are places in the game where I would frustrate and don’t know the further step. I am sure if you have played the game, you will know what I am talking about. For this some gamers and even the official sites do have walkthrough and cheat codes for the game. I too found Tomb Raider Anniversary Walkthrough and Game Guide featuring all artifacts and hidden rewards in the game. My search further led me watch the youtube videos about the game and found that a someone named Elen, 28, from Greece had uploaded all the videos of the difficult portion of the game. I still haven’t finished the game. I am in the middle level, level 7 and according to the walkthrough, there are 14 levels.

I hope the links above will help the fans of Tomb Raider Anniversary if they got stuck in the game as I was.

For now I rest and start playing the games until my condition along with my country’s condition subside in the days to come.

May God Be With Us!

Nepal has a huge problem of wild street dogs. I often have encountered being alone on the road with the packs of wild street dogs as I am home mostly late night. Mostly I fear for the wild untamed dogs on the way than the bandits or thieves. The bandits or thieves would only take your money and your belongings but if a wild street dog bites, god knows what you might get as they are never vaccinated and we can have any kind of disease transferred with their bites. Since they live in packs, they might attack together. I have often watched the dogs go after the street kids who live their lives collecting wasted plastic bags which they sell and get their bread. The dogs would just bark at them all the way through their territories and the same thing happens to those street kids all the way. Most of the streets in Nepal, mostly Kathmandu Valley, are just filled with wild and untamed dogs. I have not encountered an attack with those dogs but I have been barked at times. I just hope to stay out of their territory but most of the times I end up kicking them but yet a bite from them can be fatal so I would prefer to stay out of their way.

Well with all those danger issues, there is a bright side to those wild dogs as well. I talked about the bandit but the thing is I haven’t seen bandits or thieves wandering around at night. This may be due to those wild untamed dogs as well. Mostly the dog would just go after those who run away from them. As the streets are filled with these dogs at night, the thieves have higher chances of getting caught. So having street dogs has some benefits with all the dangers as well.

Few years ago the government metropolitan offices had controlled the breeding of these wild dogs by having them family planned via vasectomy but I think the young born at that time may be the cause of the growing population these days. Before the population was controlled by poisoning the street dogs. Later animal rights overruled this act and few years back they went on by controlling via vasectomy. For the couple of years now, there has been no activity of controlling street dogs in Nepal.

Today is November 10, 2007, the first day after new moon of the Nepali month Kartik, and (this should be the drum rolling moment) Happy New Year 1128!!! I know even most of the Nepalese people might not know about this New Year. There are so many groups of people living in Nepal with different tradition and customs. It is so wonderful to have them all living in the same roof of country sharing their own values and belief. This New Year today is according to the Nepal Sambat which is a lunar calendar. Mostly the Newars of the Kathmandu Valley celebrate it taking part in a big rally throughout the valley whole days. There will be all sorts of programs and concerts, motor cycle rallies, on foot rallies, and lots more happening today. There is a long history behind the Nepal Sambat.

Well I was about to write it but I got all the details found in Wikipedia. So I would like you guys to make an effort and go there and find the true history behind this era. I know for sure you will be proud what Mr. Sankhadhar Sakhwa did for initiating this era. I also heard on the news that Newa Manka Khala (a group of Newars) have been trying to make this era our National Sambat as the Bikram Sambat that we have been following is not of our country.

All the best for the Newa Manka Khala for their effort, and with all of the Nepalese people I also cheer by saying, “Nepal Sambat Rastrya Sambat! Nhu Dhanya Vintuna! Nhu Dhanya Sa Jwona, Jhi Nepali Wei Chwona!” (Happy New Year! With New Year’s Voice, Here We Nepali Come Forward in Newari. Today in all the rallies, people will cheer these words and sing all the way).

We might be lucky with the last earthquake on October 31st, 2007. The police have mentioned earlier that no harm or destruction of any houses or any people was recorded during that 2 second earthquake. Most the earthquake have aftershocks and they say that it is the most dangerous thing. The aftershocks are more dangerous and destructive than the foreshocks. I really thank god that the aftershocks didn’t occur on that day. I also want all my friends and family to be prepared of any such natural disaster and try to have enough food supply just in case. Besides there are always strikes going on in our country, Nepal, and right now too there is this strike for the sky-high increment in the price of petroleum. I hope we have peace and prosperity in Nepal soon and may all our odds end up to evens soon.

It was around 4:35 and I was watching television and suddenly the walls of my room started shaking. Firstly I thought may be some heavy vehicle is moving around the area. Mostly whenever a heavy load truck or bus comes on the road outside, our house begins to shake. Sounds funny but it is the truth. Most of the houses have the same nature at our area. This time it was a bit different. The walls had a cracking sound and the whole house was shaking. I could see the rope in my room swinging left and right. At the same time, my dad was sleeping downstairs and my mom was on the upstairs. Actually she was on the stairs on her way upstairs. I then shouted her to come downstairs. She didn’t even felt it. My dad was also shouting and asking her to come downstairs. Well it was not a big one though. It lasted about 2 seconds or so. It wasn’t so much terrifying one.

Nepal has been declared as one of the most dangerous areas in case of earthquake and often radios, fm, televisions, and other media have been emphasizing and sharing knowledge about getting safe if earthquake occurs.

I have found the news in the daily newspaper below, which has the details about the earthquake:

KATHMANDU, Oct 29 – A mild earthquake rocked parts of central Nepal, including the Kathmandu Valley at around 3:40 pm Monday.

Shramthali VDC of Nuwakot district that lies 30km north to the capital was the epicenter of the earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale, according to an official at the National Seismological Centre at the Department of Mines and Geology.

Many people rushed out of their homes and offices as the tremors were felt for some four seconds.

A couple of mild, immeasurable earthquakes were also experienced after the 5.0 Richter scale earthquake. However, there are no chances of its going again, added the official.

The police said that no damages have been reported.

The recent earthquakes recorded in Nepal include a 4.0 Richter scale earthquake (epicenter-Dolakha) on October 12, 4.2 Richter scale earthquake (epicenter – Sarsing, Rasuwa) on September 7, 4.1 Richter scale earthquake (epicenter- Jugu, Dolakha) on the same day.

Due to Indian tectonic plates sliding 2m north annually, Nepal is considered an earthquake prone region.

I don’t own a bike or any other transportation facility that needs gas. That doesn’t means that I am backing off and allow the government do whatever they want by increasing the price too high for petroleum, but there is also nothing I can do except read newspaper and watch television about it. What makes me wonder is even though the price has reached sky-high, the people still have not got the fuel and there is a long queue in every gas station. All of the gas station has a long queue of all kinds of vehicles that runs in the capital city, Kathmandu. I haven’t been outside the Kathmandu to see the same scenario but I am guessing that this is only happening in the capital as there are lots of vehicles these days.

I have a house to run and for that too I need petroleum in the form of kerosene and gas. The government has even raised the price for such general needs. Being a poor and developing country, Nepalese government should definitely not be irresponsible by increasing the price of the petroleum for the people who have ordinary and poor life. There are so many people living here who have their food cooked in the kerosene stoves. For them there is no other way than to go out in the woods and chop more trees for cooking their daily meals. This will allow more devastation and if the rate keeps on going of forest destruction, Nepal surely will have major crisis regarding environmental disaster. This is just one example I have and there are lots others as well which Nepalese government should take under serious consideration and should think before they act at least now when the country is in suffering so much of difficult situation.