Da Ugly Devil's Heaven

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. :D

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.

It was on Sunday, and I was just resting when my dear Smreeti sends me sms that she is coming to visit me today. I couldn’t answer as I was in a deep sleep. Anyways, she comes and visits me and she keeps on describing how hard it was to get to my place as there were no vehicles running that day. It has been a normal incident that whenever something happens the first thing will be attacking the vehicles, destroying them, and closing all the roads. This time she said that some kid was killed at Patan area but she doesn’t know the details about it. I thought I would watch the evening news for details.

Soon after I turned the television, I heard this dreadful news that an eight-year-old child Dhiraj Adhikari has been abducted and killed last Thursday night. As I watched the news in details, they said that he was abducted from his school at 2:30 Thursday, October 04, 2007, when some people offered him some juice and then took him hostage and ran away in a taxi. The father of the child then gets the call of kidnapping situation and then the other side of the phone asks the ransom money and tells him that he is from India and he is a big gangster asking for that ransom. They were unable to find the kidnapper till Saturday night when the father tells the police about his neighbor who has been having some issues with their lands. The police soon finds out that the neighbors are the actual kidnappers and that they have killed the child and then thrown him into the Bagmati River at Balkumari Bridge. So the next morning, the people who are too much furious of this act began to demonstrate, and they burnt the house of the kidnapper and murderer. The furious people also surrounded the district police office and asked the criminal to bring outside and let them punish for their cruel act. The mother of the child was still in shocked and unconscious. The father described how the child was beaten and choked to death. Hearing the story, even I got furious and thought this was really a stupid and cruel act. Three of the suspect had been captured and one had run away. I hope the police will be able to give the family proper justice of this matter. I want to send my condolence to the child’s family and pray that child’s soul rest in peace.

It was 9 p.m. yesterday and my mom was in my room to watch one of the popular television reality show in Sony Entertainment television. The name of the show was Indian Idol. It was season III for the TV show, and yesterday it was the grand finale where one of the contestant amongst two will be the winner and will become the Indian Idol for this season at Delhi, India. The show has been on for two months now and one after another the number from 1000s came to final two. They were Amit Paul from Shillong and Prashant Tamang from Darjeeling.

It was about 11 p.m. so I got online from my computer. One of my dearest friends, Neeti Sawarthia, was online, so we were chatting. I just asked her if she was watching the Indian Idol Show as well. She answered, No. She then told me, "Don’t you know that the results are out? Prashant won." I just thought she might be kidding around. She then gave me a url and when I opened it. It really was on that page that Prashant won the competition. I had no answer about this news. I mean they were saying it was a live show but there was no live show sign logo either. So after midnight they finally announced it, same way written on that page.

Prashant is 24-year-old constable in Kolkata Police who is originally from a Nepali family in Darjeeling, India. Since he was in Indian Idol he has gained a lot of popularity and support from Nepali-speaking community inside India and Nepal. One of the hosts of the show, Hussain, announced that they received 70 million votes breaking all the past records. The winner was to be announced with the most voting gained during the past 10 days through SMS and phone votes. The Indian Bollywood superstar, John Abraham, raised the hand of Prashant Tamang declaring him as the winner of Indian Idol.

Whole India celebrated the winning of Prashant, and mostly all the Nepali people were enjoying it will full of joy and excitement. I heard a big crowd of people screaming as soon as they announced the winner even at Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Pokhara, Biratnagar, Dharan and other places of Nepal. Prashant Tamang has now won Indian Rs. 10 million worth music contract with Sony Television and a brand new car. I am sure future has much to offer to the new Indian Idol who is a Nepali guy. Best of luck and Congrats to Prashant Tamang.

Today is September 24, 2007. Today is a special day as one of the most important festival celebrated in Kathmandu, Nepal has started from today. The festival is called Indrajatra, where in Hinduism, Indra means the god of heaven, and jatra means festival in Nepali language. So, basically it is festival dedicated to the god of heaven.

From the installment of the big wooden timber at Hanuman Dhoka, the Indrajatra 2007 begins. Lots of devotees and excited visitors were there to see the occasion today. The occasion starts with installing the timber in front of the Kaal Bhairab Temple at Hanuman Dhoka. The timber is brought from a place called Sallaghari at Bhaktapur. It is dragged from Bhaktapur to Kathmandu about a month ago. The first stage of the Indrajatra is installment of this timber and now the festivals are on. Lots of beautiful dances will be performed through the week of the festival. It will be a breathtaking moment where there will be so much joy and excitement amongst the people which unites us together. I will put on the detail information about the festival as it happens for this week. Till then, just hang on to my blog.

After the grand success of John Players, the company Surya Nepal has recently launched one new brand of clothes named SpringWood. John Players is one of my favorite Nepali garment which is cheap in price and good in its quality. John Players is gaining its popularity day by day.

Surya Nepal has launched its garment product all over the popular countries, and the company has taken Indian actor Hritik Roshan as its brand ambassador. This is 100% Nepali garment. This garment is widely available and come in different sizes, color, design, and shapes. This is specially made for men, and when it comes to quality, consumers seem to pouring money into unreliable and cheap products. Most of my friends use John Players and SpringWood, as it is their favorite garment clothes as well and they look much more stylish while wearing John Players and SpringWood.

Momo is the food that is made of flour and usually buffalo meat. It is believed to be Tibetan food item but it has gained so much popularity in Nepal that it is now hard to believe that it came from Tibet. I think this is the most eaten food item in Nepal these days, well may be besides rice.

I don’t remember when was the first time I ate momo but since my childhood, I love to have momo and I have kinda become crazed over momo. I can say no to rice (our basic food) but I cannot say no to momo. Either I am full and just had a huge feast, there can always be a place for some momos inside my tummy. If you are in Nepal and at Basantapur, you will see 100s of crowded street stalls selling momo and I wonder where do the people come in such a great mass to have those street food. Even tourists are having momo and other street foods these days, beside the fact that they do not come up to the hygienic food as they have it in their 5 star hotels. Well for me no matter what, I love momo in any form, either hygienic or non-hygienic.

There are lots of varieties of food and cuisine in our country. Mostly, Newari people are renowned for their eating habits and feasts and festivals. With a single buffalo there will be minimum of 20 different varieties of food items. The daily food we eat for our meals is rice. The food cycle for the day would go like, tea probably with gwaramari; and then at about 8-10 a.m.
rice, daal (lentils), varieties of vegetables (usually lots of potato item is cooked in most homes) or meat as a substitute, aachar (pickles); 4-5 p.m. bitten rice, with varieties of vegetables (usually lots of potato item is cooked in most homes) or meat as a substitute; and pickle, with a cup of tea; then in the evening from 8-10 p.m. we will have same thing we had in the morning, i.e. rice, daal (lentils), varieties of vegetables (usually lots of potato item is cooked in most homes) or meat as a substitute, aachar (pickles). This is a regular scheduled eating habit of most of the Nepali people (mostly Newars) on regular days besides when they are having feast.

Cultures differ from place to place, home to home, and not forgetting individual to individual. The essence of culture is its level of comfort that it provides to a community. Today, in business world where people strive hard to survive in competition, they need to take care of differing culture as well.

The essence of the definition of culture is expanding day by day. People who get married, especially girls in the eastern society, have to adopt the culture that is followed in her in-law’s home. Now the question is that are they comfortable adopting one of those cultures? If the answer is yes then there is nothing ahead; but if the answer is no then they are definitely living a life filled with sacrifices. Culture is an answer to sacrifices and difficulties in life. It is there or it is inherited in us to make our lives better and peaceful. This can be seen in business people as well. Yes! They have tons of business colleagues to handle. The cultural difference that they have had almost become a way to high blood pressures and severe clashes in the principles of life. This is not the end. The difference will become greater. This is because the world’s development is centralized to commercial places. Like in Nepal, the development is a centralized one. Similarly if we view the entire earth, we can see that nations like America and Europe has risen too high that it has become a pressure for the third world country to join them. Lets hope that technologies like the Internet, music, and sports help us to lessen the differences.

This post was written by Neeti Sawarthia for dauglydevil.com.