When Terrorists get obsessed with Hollywood style trailers and Game of thrones

It is seriously depressing video of a human getting decapitated. No wonder source of such videos are often from terrorist who have been releasing such videos time and over. They are normally shot on hand held camera with low resolution. Their amateurishness is worse than those of a amateur youtube uploader. For best it can be compared to home made videos who are more concerned with content than the production values. But, a recent video showing decapitation of American journalist made me reconsider this conclusion.

The video is not hand held or does not uses cheap camera. It clearly uses a decent DSLR or even video camera which is held in a good tripod that does not shakes in desert's constant wind where this is filmed. The voice is not disturbed by the desert wind. One of the big thing to notice was it is in 720p resolution. The camera angle changes depending on where to focus sometime on the terrorist and sometimes keeping the victim at center. I am sure the team behind this must be obsessed with Hollywood production techniques.

Lets focus on the content. I am not going to talk about decapitation as it is actually not shown in the video! It starts like a movie trailer or even GOT season trailer. There is an introduction which is obama speech about his authorization on strikes on ISIS members. It then blackens to show the main scene. The victim who is a photojournalist says without any fear or doubt that it is US who is responsible for his death. I can feel no sense of fear or even hesitation. The angle of camera changes from center to right side during this time similar to what happens in movie trailer to show intensity of the situation. The camera is still during all this time. It feels they are taking multiple shots for this shot or using multiple camera for single shot which was later merged. The killer who talks in heavy British accent is next shown talking explaining the reason why he is being killed. He screams no Koran lines or any of those loud Arabic words. He reminded me of the wannabe terrorist guys from the movie Four Lions. All while watching this video, I was thinking there must have been a lot of 'cut' calls and two guys ending laughing of the mistake while taking the line. Considering the seriousness of the content, I always ended up regretting this thought. Then there is break in video and next part shows the guy moving on with chopping the head. It basically shows the terrorist applying the knife without any blood spilling out. The next part shows directly the decapitated head of the journalist. The decapitation process is not shown. Obviously, the censor board of terrorists video should actually require decapitation as mandatory part of video. But, it was not shown. Perhaps, the terrorist have learnt of humane way of killing and displaying it. Or, was it that these people are motivated by Hollywood style movie trailers or Japanese porn that censors from showing genitals. Or, perhaps it was the work of Hollywood people. We can only speculate.

When Terrorists get obsessed with Hollywood style trailers and Game of thrones

About Buddha

The birth of Buddha becomes a topic of conflict among India and Nepal. Gautama is now beyond doubt proved to have been born in Lumbini, Nepal. But, he was enlightened in India converting him from Gautama to Buddha which is in some sense a new birth. For me this birth raises no conflict as I belong to both countries. If a Nepalese says he was born in Nepal and is thus Nepalese then I am happy, for Nepal is my Motherland. If India says he was enlightened in India and thus is Indian then I am also happy as I was myself born and raised there.

And, If tomorrow any human comes and says he is human then I would be most happy because I am also human just like him and feel all the suffering that he had gone through. I too have my share of attachment and hatred towards things born out of my own desire of things. But, if tomorrow some God comes and says that he is God then I would slap that God and be thoroughly angry at him. First, he is not God and is not born among them. Second, The reason that Buddha is motivation to me is that he was able to transcend from being an average human to a higher state all on his own. The path he took was not like the one God would take. There was no magic to his method or is. There was no faith, let alone blind faith. However, There were failures. There were risks. There were utter disappointments. There was struggle. But, There was steadfastness that kept him throughout. And, that has kept us humans alive in this world in face of all the struggle that we face daily. Also, There was open mindedness to change and experiment. And, there was science. Don't expect Buddha to make you like him in a matter of seconds like God can. Even he had to struggle for lifetime for that. How come you get that in matter of seconds without your own focus and seriousness towards it? At the end, he is a teacher whose teaching suffers from the same fault as any human teacher have. It is highly open for misinterpretation and false judgements owing to ambiguity of human language and understanding nature of humans which applies previous assumptions over actual guidelines. If he was God, then there would not be so many division of Buddhism. Maybe there would not have been the word Buddhism at all!

So, this is message to all humans. If any Nepali says Buddha is Nepali. Smile. If any Indian says he is Indian. Smile. If entire humanity says he is human. Smile more. But, if anybody says that he is God. Hit him and hit him hard.

About Buddha

Why do plants stay fixed while we animals move?

Few months back, I watched a video Where Do Trees Get Their Mass From? in Veritasium that concludes that trees get all their mass from carbon dioxide that we animals exhale. We animals on the other hand get our mass from trees which is commonly known from our good old textbook topic called food chain. What it lacks is the fact that we in turn were being eaten by plants through our process called respiration (Are You Lightest In The Morning?) that we do continuously and photosynthesis that plants do mostly during day. So, nature does not acts like a bitch as it sounds in the food chain. The food indeed passes backwards in a circular manner. So, there starts a couple of question that bugged my mind. Are plants totally dependent on us animals for the carbon dioxide supply for its survival? What other roles does plant and animals play for the stability of ecosystem and its resources? Obviously the topic of this blog too. So, plants form the source of capturing energy from sun that forms as source of energy to all other living beings in the earth. They basically convert carbon dioxide into glucose which is petrol for us fuelling our activities. We animals lack such mechanism so we are totally dependent on them for getting that source of energy. This energy is used by us in doing all sort of activities like keeping us alive (involuntary actions) and those that we choose to do because we like to (voluntary actions). We have built complex organs in that process and us humans have gone to the extreme in developing advanced intelligence. On the other hand tree seem quite vulnerable, do not have complex systems like we animals have. They have simply skipped them all and are quite satisfied in staying fixed in one place forever making them quite vulnerable to all sorts of risks. So, just like we animals plants also respire. This is basically the process of extracting energy to allow life processes to support. The byproduct of respiration (aerobic which is most common form of respiration) is carbon dioxide. If plants respire then all the oxygen that they generate will be used by plants themselves nullifying any oxygen to be used by us. But, why it wont happen? Maybe because they don't move. I learned this during my Vipassana meditation days where we were asked to stay fixed like tree without moving virtually stopping all voluntary activities which automatically slowed involuntary activities. This helped focus all the energy being generated by respiration in increased mental activities which was then used in the stage of killing all bad thoughts in mind. Vipassana topic aside. Plant dont move or any such rapid activities that consume high amount of energy like we animals do. That allows them to survive with much less energy than us animals. The, the process of photosynthesis that yields oxygen is more then they can consume. This is where we animals come in. Our job is take that glucose generated by plants as their byproduct and burn it with oxygen to generate carbon dioxide which become byproduct for us but source of food for plants. Plants cannot generated carbon dioxide on large scale(because they don't move, right?) like we do so they need to get that carbon dioxide from us animals. All our life activities revolves around this thing. So, next time if you think that plants are dumb beings just sitting in the open land think a second. They are actually eating you all throughout your life.

Why do plants stay fixed while we animals move?

My Vipassana Observations

At start of the course on 0th day, Goenka says to follow the course without doubt and then make conclusion only after final day. So, here I am making my observations public though this blog.

While applying for vipassana when they ask if you have read their documents they mean it by every word of it. Make sure you have read before filling the form.

Goenka looks like Lalu Prasad yadav

Goenka has three distinct voices: Discourse, Sing and Meditation Guideline

When Goenka sings, he sounds like frog croaking before rain

I want that alarm bell as my alarm

The speed of people entering dhamma hall and speed of people leave hall for lunch simply is opposite every time

Staying one place without moving for hours during meditation sucks for guys but staying quiet for 10 days is what sucks for girls

Vipassana may not sincerely teach meditation to all students but it does teaches exercise to all students old and new

Dhamma sewaks are Bouncers and this is ultimate truth of vipassana with no exceptions

Two things need to be added in requirements of Noble Silence: Loud Farting and Snoring especially during group meditation hours. They are way more important than silence of body and mind

If you normally snore loudly during sleep you are going to have hard time during group meditation when you fall asleep especially in morning and after meal

If you are interested in signing up for Dhamma Sewaks, 1st day and days from 5 to 9 are going to be your most difficult ones.

Arrive early on the first day first mediation and grab 3 or 4 cushions. You will realize the importance each day

That word Anichyat sanghara upatdaya dhammaya becomes a magic spell during group meditations starting 6th day

If during meditation you feel like you are flying then you are hallucinating and its totally normal there

Goenka does have sense of humour

If you go vipassana with the purpose of meeting new girls then back off. Better go to Art of Living or Osho

Donations are optional

Its totally fine to take food more than one time

If you have person who snores loudly during sleep in your dorm room, you are seriously fucked up

Dont buy CDs. They just don't work.

New and Old students are two separate category of students with different expectations and experience during course

My Vipassana Observations

Some random thoughts while sitting on desk

I am dying. I just fell down while walking in a long road without any reason. I feel terribly weak and know that my time has come. It is very dark and a lonely road. The only power now i have is to contemplate on those lifetime memories that i usually do during my daily morning time. I know this is last time i will do that contemplation and it will be lost forever. This thought sends shivers all over my body. I think of those silly childhood days when i couldn’t control myself. The first baby steps, first day of school, last day of school and all those weird memories when i thought i wouldn’t last more than that day. The thought of those achievements and thought of competing against that person and putting anything just to overcome. The feeling of supporting one thing and hating other. The levels that I go underwent to prove that what i believed was the only thing correct. That childish nature of hiding my true self just to feel happy around socially. The art of lying I mastered and the design of killing regret I engineered. I laugh at myself and then cry. All through those memories I knew exactly what i was doing and knew the way for proper path yet I didn’t acted on it and I dont have time to act now even if I want to. The laughter opens my mouth and the tears from my eyes enters mouth and meet my tongue spoiling the taste of time. All those years seems just like yesterday. Suddenly i feel very light and raising above like a helium balloon raises automatically when left. The force of the earth no longer seem to have control on me. Suddenly, I see a dawn of light whose light is spreading all over and the world being illuminated in its light.

This is the feeling I get every time when listening to the soundtrack Finale from Once upon a time in West by Ennio Morricano.

Some random thoughts while sitting on desk

Trek to the Kingdom of Lo

The kingdom of Lo is one of the few places in Nepal that remains intact and untouched from the outside influence. For Nepalese, it is land beyond Himalayas and land of people with Tibetan origin and called Upper Mustang. For outside people and Tibetan people, it is the only place in world where you find Tibetan culture unaffected. It was forbidden to outside access till 1992 due to its strategic position in the map. My dream to visit Lo started during my childhood when my mother used to talk about Tibetan people who migrated during cold months and used to stay with her. To me, the narrations about their lifestyle and culture were always interesting. For most Nepalese, Visit to mustang means Jomsom, Kagbeni and Muktinath Temple. But, the kingdom of Lo starts once when you enter into the restricted upper mustang area where you will find all the colors of Lo. There is great deal of active discovery going on in Mustang area in different areas that hopefully will uncover traditional past of this rich area with hostile terrain.

I was accompanied by Sunil who had been with me on a trip to Annapurna Base Camp one year ago. We started on Friday evening when we took a night bus to Beni from Kathmandu. I hated the idea of taking night bus but obliged for a longer stay at Lo. After lots of delay, we reached Beni at 6:30am. Unfortunately the direct bus to Jomsom was packed with people and we had to take the bus to Ghasa. Ghasa is the border point of Myagdi and Mustang district. From Ghasa after lunch we took another bus to Jomsom. This route passes through Annapurna circuit and is one of the wonderful places to be. It is a Himalayan region and is similar to Alps with temperate weather and coniferous forest all over the mountains. The Kali Gandaki river cuts the deepest gorge along this path with Dhaulagiri in north-west and Annapurna towards south-east. We reached Jomsom at 3:30pm. After some quick shopping we took our last ride of the trip to Kagbeni. We stayed that day at Kagbeni in a cheap lodge called Dhaulagiri Lodge.

We were excited for our first day into upper mustang. I had seen the way into Upper Mustang from Kagbeni 3 years ago during my Muktinath trip and had grown that intense desire to walk along it one day. Today was that day. We woke at 5:30am and after taking some noodles, headed along the way. It was a clean morning with Nilgiri shining towards south. Wind was blowing mildly allowing us to walk easily. The directions appear rarely and are sometimes misleading. Also, the population resides in villages only. So, you must follow the map keeping directions and Kali Gandaki river as reference. The terrain is semi arid with no cloud cover producing intense sunlight. However, the presence of Annapurna range to the south produces direct cold winds blowing from south. As day progresses and sun gets intense it heats the air nearby pushing it upwards. This creates vacuum below immediately filled in by the cold air from annapurna. No wonder winds blow all day peaking during afternoon. Our first taste of upper mustang village was Tangbe. It a small village fenced by high wall to protect sand from getting into village. We had tea as a break at the first tea shop. Tangbe seemed like a oasis in a desert full of lush green wheat crops ready to be harvested. Actually, this is common view of mustang during summer near any village. Every village has a canal of water(kulo) passing through every house which they use to drink, wash or irrigate their farms. The most typical of mustang is the house architecture. They are built from stone and soil found there that wont last presence of good rain. The roof are multi layer consisting of wood and soil made to protect snow and cold wind. Houses are mostly multi floored that are close to each other forming a narrow pathway to pass between. The next stop was chuksang/chusang which was fairly good village. We filled our water bottles which were already empty. At chuksang, there is division. The right path takes you to salt mine from which you can follow a minor trail up to lomanthang. That is great for camping trip. We accidentally followed that trail as we forgot to follow our map. Later I realized that we left kali gandaki river and were not on the way to Chaile, our next destination. We returned back to chuksang and confirmed it from people there. On continuing kali gandaki river you now walk along the river banks. This path is perhaps one of the best path in the route with massive colored cliffs. The cliff caves get visible from here. On crossing the bridge, there was a small uphill climb to Chaile. This climbs faces stiff resistance from winds blowing from annapurna. We had our lunch at tsaile(chaile/saile). It is small village with few hotels. After lunch, we continued on the noon heat to samar(pronounced summer). This was perhaps the most difficult way of the day. The path cut through cliff which was very narrow and dusty. Bursts of wind blew sand over the face from above. The path was unusually long and winding. The name “500 days of summer” reminded to me all along the way. Sometime it felt we had lost the way and had to search for footprints to make sure we were following the path trekkers used. We reached samar at 3:00pm. We had tea and apple as snack break. Samar is normally first day stop for trekkers but we continued. Our goal then was the difficult point of Ghilling. We crossed multiple hills slowly gaining height. We reached Bhena where we thought of staying the night. Unfortunately, it had only single hotel and that too seemed to lack any rooms. Our only option was to continue to Syangmochen. It was getting evening and we were racing against setting sun. We were climbing up the road and were told at Bhena that we could see Syangmochen below once we reached the highest point that road. That would not be an easy task once darkness came. We had our only torch on and we were in search for light below in hope of settlements. Finally we did managed to get sight of point of light. But, now it was pitch dark and we were at the top of a hill and need to climb down. It was difficult time indeed. Once we reached the low point we lost sight of light. Cold winds blew. We were at the height of 3800m then. We were not sure what we saw as light before was settlement or not. At one point we started following wrong path to Bhena but after studying footprints we backtracked and finally found settlements. It was Syanmochen. We got to Nilgiri Hotel. Our head was paining with day's trek in sunlight and cold winds coupled with altitude sickness of that place. The good thing about hotel is that it has hot water and is recommended place who stays at Syangmochen. The night was no good either. My head was paining and I had small fever too.

Morning happened quite early due to previous night sleep problem. Our goal of this day was clear. No more race to lomanthang but a slow steady walk to Charang below Lomanthang. We started early after breakfast. Our first village was Tamagaon. It was a small village with some good people. They provided us with good guidance regarding path. We could continue Nar Phu trek path and go to ghilling or could go straight to Ghami. We decided to go to Ghilling to visit its monastery. It was all down slope to Ghilling. Ghilling is the first large settlement in upper mustang. The red monastery appears at the top of the hill. I had my first taste of Tibetan Tea here along with Tibetan bread. Sunil had by now started to show pain in his thigh part causing him to lag at times. The monastery was unfortunately closed. We continued to Ghami walking uphill. We were following the lomanthang road which would lead to Ghami. We thought of making it our lunch point though we were full with that bread. We reached Ghami at 2:00pm. It is also a large settlement at a good height. We met a guide who was fanatic of free Tibet. We had our lunch listening to his arguments regarding Chinese influence in mustang due to presence of Tibetan people. We were told Charang was at 3 hours from Ghami. The first half of the route was steep height. Here, one could see the red hills that Tibetan folk stories say are the blood of demon slained by Padmasambhava. It was a hard climb in sunny day with cold winds. Instead of following the winding road, we climbed straight following the tractor route. At peak, we had divisions. The main road went right but steeped down quickly while another road went left passing from above. Both of them seemed to go in different direction. Worse yet, there was an direction stone having direction pointing towards left. I grew very skeptical at it. We inspected footprints which we were following before. That also guided us left. So, we continued that way. That path passed through multiple hills rarely going down. We walked for hours before it was 5:30pm and we decided something was wrong with that choice. On the way we met a Shepard below and tried communicating. But, the distance was huge enough for voice to be misheard. We continued that way for another hour. Finally, it sloped down into a stream. Here we were left with horse footprints into the stream who must had come to drink water. We were lost big time. It was getting cold though we had an hour of day light available. The person whose footprints we followed was definitely not of a trekker but of a local shepard. We had no camping gear and at worse just a packet of peanuts to eat. Wind was blowing heavily giving signs of hypothermia. The map showed Charang to the south of Charang river. Since we had no compass we had no way where to go. It was a scary moment for both of us in pretty wild place with no sign of human settlement in any direction. Sunil tried hard to make call but in vain. The GPS too did not worked. I decided to return back and moved to the uncertain left side of road. On the other side of hill, we met a person riding horse. We asked him about locality of Charang. We didn't even know if he knew any of our language. All we could see was his hand pointing left. It was hard to listen anything in that windy weather. Also, initial stage of hypothermia caused some mild confusion. That person rode quickly and disappeared before we could get to him to clarify. It was one of those weirdest situation where you feel completely hopeless after loosing the only opportunity granted. The only goal was to find road as it would lead us somewhere. We decided to get to that small road that horse rider was moving along. We moved downwards opposite to direction of that person. We walked for half an hour when we noticed a line of road in a distance. We raced towards it when we saw a resting tractor. “Human settlement must be nearby” came the thought in midst of darkness. On reaching road, we continued same direction. On reaching certain height, we finally saw settlement. It was all there just beyond hill we were seeing all the time. If we had known the direction, we could have found out the location using map. For me, the lesson I learned was not about carrying compass or about direction. It was a moral lesson that failure comes to everybody, its only how we react/deal that separates us from animals. My first question on reaching settlement was “which village is this?”and the answer was “charang”. It was dark then and everybody was inside their homes warming themselves. We searched for the “Maya's Inn” hotel. Unfortunately, it was pack as it was popular place among trekkers. We had to take the outside room which was newly built. Charang was warmer than Syangmochen and room was well protected from cold winds by extra layer of wall outside. We compensated our previous night sleep by that night's sleep.

I could never be as excited as this day. It was day of Lomanthang, the capital of Lo. We woke up in a relaxed manner. We had our morning breakfast with other folks who were going to leave for Lomanthang too. We left for Lomanthang early moving rightwards and then following the main road. This way was pretty easy with less slopes. Passing vehicles were more common on the way. The sky was clear and less windy. It was a perfect morning. We reached Lomanthang at 12:00am. Our goal was to visit Chosser in horse ride after lunch. But, the horses were unavailable for that day. We had our lunch and after some rest, we roamed around Lomanthang city. It is a very small city with entire city could be circled within an hour in a slow pace. We tried to go to ACAP to get some idea of things around but that was closed. We tried to enter palace but King was reported to be ill and not available for visit. We visited the nearby souvenir shop. Sunil bought a necklace made of gems after some bargain. I was just interested in watching the pretty face of shopkeeper. There are three old monasteries inside Lomanthang. The main priest who stays in Choede Monastery has right to open the door of the monastery. Unfortunately, it was close then and we had to return back to hotel. At hotel, all the other tourists pushed hotel owner to help meet with king and enter palace. After some talk, 9 outsiders and 5 Nepalese were allowed on visit. Sunil and I were the part of 5 team of Nepalese to visit. Since, king was sick, the prince welcomed us. The palace was a four floored Tibetan house. It is an old building made in 1460AD. The ground floor was simple with wooden pillars. The first floor led to a large compound. We were taken to the left inn. The first of the room was kitchen where food was being cooked. It was an ordinary looking kitchen. At last was the main hall room where we could see prince smiling in normal dress. It was first time I was meeting a real prince in person. We had bought Khata with us which prince used to put around us as a greeting. We were made to sit around in chairs. We began our discussion with prince who appeared calm and gentle. We asked questions, shared our stories of travel, tried getting information about status of the region. Once, I acted as an English translator to the prince on the matter of history of Lo. It was an amazing experience. Suddenly, we all felt part of same team that had visited Lomanthang on the same day and were privileged enough to visit palace too. We had guide of a camping group who knew a lot of history of Lo. We spent a complete hour which was one of the lengthy session. After talk, we took snap with the prince. We hurried to the Choede Monastry to get possible access to the priest who kept the keys to visit of monasteries. Due to encroaching darkness, we were able to visit only one monastery i.e. Jampa Gompa. The monastery is 700 years old and has three floors with explicit meaning associated to them. The middle floor which meant 'in' had large “future” Buddha with two followers on the side. The wall paintings were the most amazing part of the monastery. Different stages in the life of Gautam Buddha and Tibetan deities were painted. The paintings used inks made of gold and silver. The wooden carvings on the doors and wall paintings show Newari influence in them suggesting Newars must had traveled to those locations showing past richness of this area as a center of culture demonstration. Work on renovation of these paintings were under going, under the funding of American Himalayan Foundation. The rest of the day went inside hotel talking with the other tourist and their guides about their experiences.

We would be staying this day at Lomanthang. The thought itself gave me happiness. After having breakfast, we started our horse ride to Chosser, a VDC north of Lomanthang. I had always fantasized riding a horse in Tibetan plateau. We slowly rode upwards and since the horse was pumping blood to carry us ahead, we could relax and look around and ask fellow travelers about the villages that we could see on the path. It was an amazing experience. Slowly we could see the caves from far away. In 2 hours, we reached the Chosser area. We went into first monastery called Garfu. It is the second oldest monastery of Lo after Lo Ghyaker, made in 9th century. It was dark inside and we missed taking torch with us. So, we couldn't see paintings properly. There was a school nearby, made explicitly to preserve this monastery and whose students were from Nepal, India and other countries. The schools there, runs for 6 months and during winter, it shifts to Pokhara, my hometown. The wall paintings near the door was the most amazing thing is saw in Lo. It showed the oldness of this monastery. The wall was of mud but drawing was done by pure silver. The Buddha was glittering even in the little light that entered the monastery. The other walls had paintings similar to other monasteries. I talked with the principal of the school trying to gain information about it. The next and last monastery in the line was newer one. It had priest having their daily worships and chanting. We were allowed in to see it. After that, we hike up to reach the real beauty of Chosser, Jong Cave. This cave is one of the numerous caves on cliffs that exists in Lo and several of them could be seen right while trekking to lomanthang. Jong cave has 8 floors stacked above each other and wooden stairs were provided to reach from one floor to another. Each floor had holes to view the beautiful view outside and let air come in. The room inside each floor was unexpectedly large and well structured. Brick walls were also present to create separation. It must have been a good and secure resting place for ancient people of Lo. Unfortunately, there was no adult guide in place to quench our questions. I got up to 4th floor only as I never knew there was higher floor above that. It was only when I returned to hotel did I knew there was higher floor above that. The ceiling in each floor was coated with black shoot of carbon mixed with oil showing wood was burnt inside to keep room heated during cold times. We returned down exhausted by climb but amazed with the hidden wonders of Chosser. We rode back to Lomanthang in noon heat. After lunch and some rest, we headed towards Choede monastery. We waited for priest inside their canteen which was like any other school canteen but with a Tibetan touch. We were given free tea and snacks. Finally when priest arrived, other tourist had arrived and we joined as a team on the visit. We first visited the Thubchen monastery. It has 35 pillars and Padmasambhava as prime deity. The walls were painted as usual. After Thubchen, we visited Jampa again. This time we visited the upper “secret” floor too. At last, we visited the newer Choede monastery. It is also an old monastery but had been rebuilt multiple times due to damage caused over times. The masks priest wear during Teijin and other festivals are kept here. It has a school behind which also hosts a museum in it. It has lots of old Buddhist scriptures and Tibetan artifacts. After visit, we returned back to hotel. Our rest time went through discussing our two days visit of Lomanthang with other tourist and singing songs as we bid our farewell to this amazing place.

This day we planned to go directly to Jomsom in Truck that went down through Kali Gandaki river in one day. But, it rained during our two days stay (all over nepal including jomsom but it was sunny all day at lomanthang) at lomanthang due to which truck path was canceled. We had plans to visit Lo Ghyaker and go to Ghami. But, Sunil had problems with thigh that made him difficult to climb the height of pass before Lo Ghyaker. So, we decided to scrap that plan and took a jeep to Bhena. We had lunch at Syangmochen in Nilgiri hotel. We reached Bhena at 12:30pm. From there we hiked all the way down through same route to Samar and then to Chaile and finally to Chuksang. Here, we could get a jeep to Jomsom. The intermediate way we hiked, is under construction for allowing jeeps to move. The construction work is underway at Samar and moving towards Chaile. It is hoped to be completed next year. We reached Chuksang at 3:00pm. The jeep started at 4:00pm and took us Jomsom at 6:00pm. We were bidding our farewell to upper mustang (Lo) that had kept us away from the tensions of outside world for few days and shown a completely new world. We stayed that day at a cheap lodge. We stayed with a local police staff who was returning home from Chosser on a month long Holiday. He shared with us the life of police in Chosser which is nearest check post to Chinese border. I got to taste my third Can of China made beer (Lhasa beer as it was called) from him. It was wonderful to taste it after day of tiring journey. All the way we talked with foreign tourists, Nepali guides, local people, priests and Nepali people on visit to Lo for some work. Each of them had their stories but they all had the aspect of Lo in them. The number of tourist is so less compared to other places that we knew well before other tourists who were entering Lo from mouth of guides we met in the way.

Our last day would be return trip to Pokhara for me and Kathmandu for Sunil. As before, we missed the sole bus to Beni and had to take bus to Ghasa. We could feel the moisture brought by rain during our upper mustang visit. The sky was clear as a result and the mountains were visible just as in autumn season. Kali Gandaki was overflowing with water. I felt like rafting on those violent rapids for some more adventure. Lete was as usual the beauty queen. Dhaulagiri to the north-west and Annapurna to south-east. It felt like we were on base camp of both mountains. We reached Ghasa at 10:00am. We took bus to Beni directly that took us to Beni at 1:30pm. From there, we took quick taxi to Pokhara. It was 4:30pm when we reached Pokhara. After getting sunil on the last bus to Kathmandu, I returned back to my home with all the sweet memories of visit to the kingdom of Lo.

Trek to the Kingdom of Lo

Similarities between the Connecticut shooting and Delhi Rape case event

It was the neighborhood of a so called “Apocalyptic event” as proposed by Mayans. Most people's eyes were in the heavens or Youtube's Gangnam style over signs of it. But, the signs seemed to be different. First, it was US, the third largest population of the world. It was morning of 14th December when a person drove to a school and massacred school going small innocent children and few staffs before killing himself. Second, was India, the second largest population of the world. It was the night of 16th December when a young medical student was brutally gang raped by a group of people in an area of urban security. Both of these incidents drew immense criticism from common people who were petrified by the brutality of the event. Social Networking sites like Twitter and Facebook saw massive rise in use over it. But, the important thing to realize is the similarity of these events apart from the fact that they happened on nearly similar period of time. Both of these events happened in two largest democratic counties of the world. Here I do not mean to criticize democracy by anyway but trying to apply my analytical mind over the events as they are present. Involvement of these events in democratic nation obviously meant demonstration from public in digital and outside form. But, the biggest similarity was the immediate debate that started over avoiding such events in future and deal with it. First thing to note that, though the brutality of event was unforgivable there had been worse event than them in the near past. Virginia Tech Massacre and Kunan Poshpora incident were events of worse brutality. But, the global media wasn't powerful then as it is now. Also, current events drew memory of brutality of previous events in the minds of people who cried for its end. The second aspect of these events is the approach towards solving them. Though everybody is fighting and calling for legislations against gun violence and rape, nobody actually knows what exactly to do. Actually, There are voices in support of such events from political lobbyists. In US, there are people who want to revoke gun laws and believe that allowing people to have gun (and that in pure isolation without government tracking) would make people more secure. But, as every sensible person would understand easy access to gun is the prime reason for such massacres in US. If you do not believe it, similar event happened in China during similar period of time where 22 children were hit yet nobody was killed. Worse yet, as bureaucrats struggle to make strong decisions over it, such events has been recurring ever after and gun companies are making huge amounts of sum from their sales as the possibilities of worse event looms in future. This is clear from the voice of president Obama who tried to clear his hands by saying “We Need Meaningful Action” without specifying what it meant showing lack of motivation of government agencies in tackling such issues. Similar is the case of Indian rape case. India has high rape rate with one rape being reported every 22 minutes. The current Delhi rape case was just a single one in a series of rapes where most of them goes unreported. Again, aftermath of the event saw massive protest from people. But, what about response from government side? They were towards politicizing it to avoid opposition parties pin pointing as much as possible and putting ruling party towards better position. Transport routes were shut, mobs were charged with lathis. Prime Minister tried consoling protesters by words. But in that process, the words of prime minister drew criticism in twitter. Later voices that directly criticized protesters too started erupting. All these proved that event was not so important from government agency's point of view. But, the final similarity which connects to the heart of these two events is this. Are the criminals the only guilty people? Aren't the society a breeding grounds for such events that silently motivates such crimes. With democratic society this becomes much more important because the thought of people defines not just society but the rules and legislatures. Hollywood movies are full of shooting and revenge is the basis of basic plot. Its very rare to find a Hollywood movie that opposes revenge as done by academy award winning movie In a better world. Also, American soldiers were involved in killing citizens in middle east countries and their videos was available in whistle blowing sites like wikileaks. Consider the effects of such events in the minds of young innocent children who consider them as hero and mimic them. Also, India is a place of bollywood. People from poor slum areas find solace in unrealistic plots of bollywood movies. Recently, bollywood movies are copying south tradition where bloody action, sex and revenge defines the basis of overall plot. This year was also the year when a porn star successfully acted in a bollywood movie. Consider the effect of such movies in illiterate young masses especially with the availability of porn movies and fashion projection of young females of growing middle classes. The final conclusion is towards where are we heading towards. Are we right in our decision in sending our children to school for learning who are getting killed, raped or bullied(ultimately suicide)? What can be done by us against such events? But, for that we need to know what is going on first and its cause. The best textbook explanation that I can give right now is the warning by Psychologist Phillip Zimbardo over the demise of guys which I completely agree with especially at psychological level and possible effects that it can cause to people overall (involving killing innocent people or raping girls). Again, I would like to end this by positive note saying nothing happens for bad. These events are recurring but lets hope we have realized the gravity of this issue at global level. Hope this holds key for change. We have entered an era where public realization is the most important thing and holds key to real revolution and not just political change.

Similarities between the Connecticut shooting and Delhi Rape case event

Not worred for the end but excited about the start

As Dec 21 is nearing and so is the possibility of "end". What I truly believe is that this is will be the end of Dark Age not earth that we live in. The 3rd largest population of world saw the evil inside simple man when given Gun. I hope that they realize that "terror" comes not in a white turban saying Jihad but can be anyone with uncontrolled power. The 2nd largest population of world is currently enraged over similar event involving girl. Hope it helps them realize that uncontrolled passion is source of misconduct and again can be anyone. These events have been occurring in the past but I hope they have crossed their limit and will truly cause its own end. I hope that this realization will be truly decentralized and global event ending the shackles of this dark age and usher a new beginning where acceptance is truly global. I am not sad about the end but I am excited for this new beginning as I have always been.

Not worred for the end but excited about the start

Are we ready for a Global World?

In a midst of global tension regarding recent killings of American ambassador over what was globally available in Internet on a very sensitive topic, a question quite important than current issues lies ahead of us. Are our technological products mature enough that we can let them affect ourself? Should our product be based on only one school of thought denying all others just because they disagree with prevalent ones? Isn't the purpose of technological advances in form of global media a common good for all?

World is fast connecting thanks to recent usage of mass media in form of Internet. Though Internet has been around a decade now, its use has been seen global only recently thanks to mobile world that allowed cheaper technology into hands of even poor of underdeveloped nations and also the rise of social media of all interesting forms like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. So for the first time its not hard for anybody in any part of the world to connect to a person from any other part of world. With this, ideas and views tend to get shared in a very rapid sense. It does not takes big marketing agendas to do that. It should have the right combination to attract mass and there you go. There are enormous example of this with Gangnam style being worth to be noted. A Korean song whose lyrics rarely mean anything to a non-korean yet became an instant hit worldwide. It is the first Korean song to top iTunes chart. Do you think a global mass of korean population or biggest marketing propaganda of Psy helped generate that demand? Definitely not. It was a global network of interconnection in form of social bond through facebook, twitter and other social services that helped boost it. All being said on positive side, this blog however deals with possible negative sides of it. Are we ready enough for this global connection? Are our psychological thinking flexible enough that it will allow us to break the age old bondage of traditional thinking that we are used to? Are we democratic enough globally to accept other people feelings equally and yet defend ours in a truly democratic way? Recent events show exactly the opposite.

The so called movie “Innocence of Muslims” whose trailer released in Internet brought about an unexpected effect involving life of few people including an American ambassador. It also added to the pile of Muslim frustration towards USA and Israel in this precarious period where people are already frustrated/petrified by either civil war (Syria) or recent revolution (Egypt, Libya). Lets not discuss about the movie or trailer as it should be known to almost ever creature in this planet now, thanks to the global media. Was this a real movie from some lunatic or just another hoax/rumor for wild publicity or even part of conspiracy made by some nation(like stuxnet), nobody knows for sure. It is not the first time such thing has happened. There were previous episode involving controversial cartoons, movie, documentary, writing, picture, songs, etc. But, long before, the impact was less given lack of penetration of global media. But, given global connection, this can have devastating effects. Technology supports viral media. Its designed in every sense to support sharing whether it be a song, video, blog, tweet, photo or even meme. As a software engineer it gives me immense pleasure to see new power it has given. But, being an ethical engineer its my duty to realize its possible flip part. When I view comments on youtube on one of those videos, I can clearly categorize commentators into broadly two groups. One group supports the idea while other opposes it. Each one group is based on what they have been taught to think as. I call them local knowledge. For example, a person born in US may have democratic and liberal thinking while one from North Korea may have a rather communist thinking where socialism is basis for life. Similarly, a person from country where free speech is practiced right from schools like Scandinavian countries might love to experiment on different ideas and philosophy and attack it trying to find possible flaws in it. But for a person from a country where traditional moral values are held foremost important and entire society is based on conserving it, the behavior might be exactly different. If you clearly study the different groups of commentators in social medias, you can easily understand that everybody derives themselves from one of those group of thought. Some may be corroboration of two or more group of thoughts while rarely you see people who will be neutral to these issues. The problem of global media is thus that it interconnects them without properly educating them about it and expects them to be ready for it and possible problems from it. Due to this, instead of a taking a shape of global feast where everybody learns and enjoys, it rather takes a nasty tug-of-war shape. It may seem to start from comment but its not hard to reach a level of war or atleast some kind of riot.

But, nobody is to take single blame here. That would be again a wrong conclusion to make. Simply consider episode of Mohammedan cartoons supported by danish media. If you study danish media in isolation to danish environment, it seems perfectly plausible. It is simply criticizing a view. If somebody likes it they can support it. If it offends someone they can turn to court for justice. Now, consider the Islamic world in isolation. The conservative rule that governs not just thinking but also government, strictly restricts any kind of criticism of any respects to religious issues especially related to prophet. Here religion is held more than just idea or view. It is a basis of life. It is something on the par of freedom of speech to a Norwegian or socialism to a communist person. Simply speaking, everybody has some kind of biasness for something based on their background. So, when we move these group from isolation and put them in global scenario things soon taste sour with unexpected results, recent one being just a small one.

How can one have people with opposing ideas in one place and at worst connected to each other without ever affecting themselves? Seems like its not an easy solution. It is something social scientists/psychologists have to figure out first and then implemented by policy bureaucrats and educational entrepreneurs into masses at global level. Should government allowing free speech, revisit the domain of what freedom includes? Should government trying to preserve a conservative thinking revisit rules for possible reactions, should they be violated by a foreign person in an alien country. This already seems quite infeasible to me given bigger problems of world and a greed of nations for more wealth and power. As a technologist, I will prefer limiting technology first before we try to limit ourselves. Its far easy to do that kind of thing than changing nations and at worst humans. Are every technological entrepreneurs concerned about what can be possible effects while they define the domain of their product? I am sure they will look at rules of their nation. But, what about global norms and local thinking of people in it. How will they react? How immune are these global media against hoaxes especially those around sensitive ideas like religion? Again it is dependent on these technological entrepreneurs who develop newer tools for global media to decide and act upon before its too late and we have a world full of hatred rather than a truly humane world.

Are we ready for a Global World?

Today's Relations

Problem with today's relationship is that they fail to take into account the fact that relations are like Mangoes in that they begin with a total sourness but in takes great patience and two sided faith to reach a state of sweetness. Most people simply blame the initial sourness onto their partners not knowing its a state of chaos inherent to every other thing in this universe.

It may first seem to be only romantic relations. In fact, this extends to other type of relations as well. This however may not mean those relations acquired out of birth like one with your parents or siblings. This means all those relations where we have independence of choosing partners with whom to have specific relation. It may mean a friend, a pet animal and even your profession where you are totally independent to choose with whom you want to pursue relationship with.

People successful in their relations all must have had horrific beginnings, a state of utter uncertainty. But, the continued stress for grooming it is all what is needed rather than total neglect or judging at first look.

Today's Relations

Why Money grows on Trees

Money don't grow on trees is a very old saying especially from parents who want to inculcate the habit of savings on their children. I have been listening this for all my life time. As I grew, Like most of words from parents, I observed different thing. Money indeed grew on trees. In good old days, that tree was natural and had natural growth and hence money supply was natural and uncontrolled. But, in current world of mass production that tree was genetically modified using technology. So, that tree now has enormous rate of growth.

So, logical connection between money and tree is simple. Woods grow from tree. Paper are created from Woods. And finally, money is created from paper. These days its not hard for bankers to create money. Recent recession was an example of good excuse for doing that. Printing billions of money is a matter of few greedy people reaching a consensus as to what each one gets and passing a bill. Normal people either don't have an idea about that or they simply don't care.

So, for normal people like my family that saying still holds pretty much true. But, for international bankers this does not. If you have any friends whose parent is an banker, ask what they said to him while s/he was growing. I doubt they said same what my parents did.

Why Money grows on Trees

Mind-Mail: Comparing thought processing Mind with Email

Humans are made for thinking. We think lots of things: past and future and sometimes present. We are thinking machines that never pause expect in deep sleep. We even think when we yawn, “OMG what I am doing, stop it, stop it” but it wont stop. So, are other things in life. We cannot control all things in life yet we waste time thinking about it. Maybe its our default nature. We tend to think too much into past, regretting things we could have done but couldn't do. Also, we think a lot about future that has yet not presented itself. So, our mind is stuck processing two kinds of thoughts that constantly bombard our mind, past and future. Whats more interesting in them is that they generate two possible results. Some make you happy while some make you sad. The ones that make you happy are ones related to your achievement, your loved ones, your belongings, adventures, etc. And the ones that make you unhappy are ones related to lost things (people and money at top), fear for something that may get wrong, etc. So, our mind is constantly tacking various threads of thoughts that enter like stream, result of which are happy or bad mood.

So, our mind can be looked as your email box. Every thought that enters it is like an Email. That thought can be independent (like thought that comes when you get promotion for first time) or that are recurrent(every time your alarm wakes you from sweet dream on cold morning). The former is like independent mail and latter one is like email thread having same topic. In Email, there are two kinds of possible outcomes of when you open them. One is good one because you get some useful information like you got your promotion. Obviously, it starts a thread of congratulation emails in same thread for you. But, other type are spams that when open can do malicious things to your system and even to your personal life. They can crash your hard drive, or drop in some male-ware that starts sending personal information to remote server which can lead to anything. So, what is difference between both type of emails, nothing. They are just emails with subject, body and possible attachment. Since I developed email client myself at one time, I know there are lot more thing in it apart from obvious things listed. Yet, they look apparently the same in structure.

Fortunately in case of Emails, we have developed many anti-spam system that use various ways to automatically filter good genuine mails from spams. Its like filtering wheat from chaff. So, we have two place in email, one called the inbox where you normally focus your time while checking in email and other called spam where all those spam mails go in. The email server does no bad to spam mails but is generous enough to give it some time (like a month or two) before deleting it forever. You can have look at it if you want during that period and can even turn it back into good mail(move it back into inbox).

Unfortunately, In case of mind, there is no such thought filtering system. We do not filter our thoughts the same way as emails are. They always end up getting processed by mind resulting into various moods. The good thing is that there are indeed two folders inside our brain for every thoughts just like email, inbox and spam. They behave same way as do emails. But, problem is we don't have filter system in place. Every thought that enters ends up into mind 'inbox'. Result is that we end up processing malicious and wrong thoughts that not only depresses us but encourage us into wrong actions. Just like there email counterparts, they are uncertain and take up huge amount of your minds time. They may fill up your life with regret and lead to your down fall. Worse part is that we tend to process them in real time without giving them time to settle i.e. we think while they are still immature meaning their outcome hasn't manifested itself yet.

We could filter every thought that comes by sending the malicious/depressing ones into spam. Once inside spam that thought gets locked up without getting any attention from mind. After some time just as in case of email, that malicious thought disappears forever. Our mind has very powerful weapon for deleting unnecessary thoughts through process called 'forgetting'. Our brain are made of neurons that die and generate all the time unlike silicons. We could just store such malicious thought in one of those dying neurons. After sometime, we may realize that the filtered malicious thought wasn't actually bad (like thought of your recent breakup which later helped you get into better relationship or pursue your lifetime dream). We may now be store it as good one and cherish it for life time. Its like moving mail marked spam back into inbox. Good thing is we have prevented that thought from affecting us while in immature state. We gave it some evaluation time when we detected its malicious behaviour. If it was unable to get into good one (remained sour for long time), we deleted them forever and once that turned good later, we store it back as good memories. Result is that our mind is full of good thoughts that enrich our lives. As Buddha says, thought reflects our action which in turn reflects our life.

So, next time before thinking about any thought, try taking some time out filtering it and deciding whether its worth your precious time. If its not, just ignore it and put it into mind 'spam' folder and let it die its natural death. You should lead a better life in that way.

Mind-Mail: Comparing thought processing Mind with Email

Co-Existing dual nature: Individualism and Humanity

Everybody is born different and unique. Yet in difference there is similarity which software engineers called Abstraction. There is no way to group different people. There are only extremes. The one end is called humanity where everybody is human: no race, no country, no language, no religion, no profession, etc. The other end is called individualism where everybody is special and unique that goes into DNA structure with other feature stored in brain. Every intermediate level is born out of lack of proper understanding of human science. They can be religion, country, language, profession, etc.

Today in Nepal, there is continuous ongoing talk about groupism and representation for it. There simply seems no end to it. The conflict that arises due to that is hampering daily life and overall development of nation. It is affecting lives of simple people who accept themselves as part of common whole. The result is mess which leaves nobody in good position. If we satisfy the condition where a unique group is properly represented with a fixed location in map of world, then that would come down to level of individual (if not now but later when two subgroups in one group realize that they are not same and need further division which goes recursively till we get to individual level). So, 30 million population would need 30 million different divisions. That can be impossible to generate physically because that would leave one area too small to do any basic job for survival.

The solution is simple. We as individual only own that small area of land that our body covers. Even that area diminishes once our life looses this body. This could be understood from Alexander the great who realized the futility of world conquer idea during his end days. So, when you think from individualism perspective, the idea is simple. You are responsible for that small area you cover at one moment of time, nothing else. You own it and no body has right to displace you except the mighty nature of whom you are part of and who has every right to punish/reward you. At the same time you have to respect the area that other individual around you cover. From the global perspective, nothing is yours. You are just block of a big wall that forms world. Everybody has its part to play. I am surrounded by fellow Nepalese with whom I have cherished a wonderful life. My school and childhood friends all from India represents all my childhood that are ones who understand me very closely. I also work with American people who help me at every step and have learn a lot. I feel as a block that appears at one point in time, plays his part and later at some other point diminishes. During that period of time, many other block also appear while some other disappear whose subset I deal with. From that perspective, You don't have singular representation but have global representation that you form part of. You remain for small part in time however that global body remains forever. You play your part, other play their part. It however appears as though that global body is acting. That global part for me is humanity and not any country or religion or any profession. We are now entering knowledge world from information world where everything will be represented generically. As I said earlier, everything will be abstracted right from top.

At individual level, We are already given freedom by nature to represent ourself. Nature never interferes with it. At global level, We are connected through technology that helps us understand each other at every possible way. It has helped us solve big problems globally as a team and share our sorrows and happiness making it a global event. The greed for representation and right will never end until everybody has killed every other weak person and world is full of exhausted devils who will have land and resources to enjoy but no friend to share that happiness with. Nepalese politicians desperately need to understand this truth and understand co-existing dual nature of being and stop childish fight for right and land of representation. That is only going to sow seeds of destruction.

It reminds of Words from Gita:

I exist in every being, yet I form a global whole

Co-Existing dual nature: Individualism and Humanity

My Richness

Alone at my flat room, I was playing song 'Chanda hai tu, mera suraj hai tu' when I suddenly realized the biggest richness I have. It wasn't money or even knowledge or health or friends that most people consider so precious in their life. It was something like the Deewar film reply, Mere paas Maa hai. A small idea just grew into a biggest conclusion of my life suddenly in a second. It was like Nuclear Fission. It happened in a flick of second and grew into something I will value for my life. The richness that I have is simple: Mother.

Let me ask you one question. Imagine your mother. You will imagine a female lady depending on your experience with her that will give you various feelings. But, ask me and I will give you a list of never ending personalities each one conflicting yet true. The reason is simple. I have multiple mothers that you may not have. In my life of 24 years, I never realized it. Today I realized it. It wasn't even like Buddha's meditating posture yet the same feeling what Buddha must have obtained during his nirvana. My life had been shaped and influenced by each of these great personalities. Maybe that is why people find difficult to deal with me because my own personality is conflicting which corresponds to that of my mothers.

My biological mother is ofcourse the first and yet the most special one. The sweetness of my relation with her has grown over time. She has been very protective of me as I have been very weak from my start. She represents everything that parallels with the properties of GOD. When I imagine about her I can only feel courage and confidence that I never felt even with my best of friends.

I also have my step-mother with whom I don't have good relation. My family never had good relations with her and thus that relation was inherited to me too. To me, she represents the dark lord. When I imagine her I get cold with fear that I never felt even with worst of my foes.

I never felt grandfather as both my paternal and maternal grandfathers were dead by time I gained natural consciousness. But, I was gifted by grandmothers on both side. Both have been very influential on me. I lost my paternal grandmother during my undergraduate studies. When I think of her, I see myself in mirror. If you know me, I don't need to describe her. My father strongly bears her characteristics and thus I inherited her characteristics through him. My maternal grandmother represents social figure to me. When I imagine her, I can only see smile. The eternal smile that Buddha emitted after defeating evil Mara.

I was born and grew in India, the mother of billions including me. When I think of her, I feel girl talking Marathi in a speedy yet smart accent. I also feel the warmth of water when you hold for drinking which equals to warmth of my biological mother when I hold her tightly when I am scared.

My motherland is Nepal. When I think of her, I feel eternal peace in a lonely planet far away from the regular crowd. Among peace, I feel strong disturbance that suddenly disrupts my stable mind. I have been seeing goodness and badness separate till now. When thinking of Nepal, I feel both entities converging into one. I can feel the darkness of loadshedding and in it see brightness of hope. It somehow represents me. All conflicting things merged into one. Nepal is land formed out Indian Plate colliding with Asia that gave rise to mighty Himalayas. Maybe we share same origins. We both look at each other and smile, internally.

My Richness

Fun with online forum topic and comments

Its fun sometimes to read a hot topic on online forums like slashdot where comments are more funnt than subject matter itself. Here is one topic I stumbled upon Women More Likely To Unfriend Than Men by Hugh Pickens. It basically concludes that females are more likely to delete existing friend from social media like facebook and males are more likely to regret sharing any post. These two conclusion had their own observation by community and thus followed a long chain of comments. Each comment has its own implication. I just tried to go through it and list some of the important ones. None of the comments are mine. I have just copied them as it is.

Women are more likely to friend people they'll end up unfriending later.

corollary: ...women are less selective, and they add people without thinking about it, and then remove them later when it proves to be a bad idea.... 

Facebook is a technology now? That is kind of like calling Slashdot a "technology."

More like "Women less regretful than men, more likely to blame others."

corollary: Socially women are seen as victims if people misuse or ogle their pictures, where as men are seen as "fair game"

unfriending I see as akin to what I watched a group of girls do in high school. There was about a dozen of them but only 11 could be friends at a time, there was always one girl kicked out of the circle, when she came back they chose another one to be mad at and kicked her out of the circle.

women are more selective than men regarding who to include in their social circle. I could've predicted this from real-world interactions. Women tend to form close-knit cliques. Men will hang with anyone who will get shitfaced drunk with them and commiserate about their problems with women, work, money, etc.

Female's all over the animal kingdom use social exclusion instead of violence in order to punish other females. Exclusion is the primary competitive strategy for all sorts of female animals. Look it up on Wikipedia. Or google it. Its a widely known fact among researchers in the social science. That's how teenage girls bully each other.

Poor grammar and spelling is less objectionable than nasty language. Malice is worse than incompetence.

Women will unfriend someone for wearing the wrong shoes with a skirt, I think men have known this for years.

corollary: ...I've always wondered why so few men wear skirts. Now I know.

What about divorce? Sources say [divorce-la...source.com] that women are initiating divorce in 66% [yahoo.com] of cases.

women come into relationships hoping to change the partner more often (and I believe men come into relationship hoping that the women don't change over time), and both get screwed.

Hope you liked them. There are many more comments. I just caught few of them. You may get more. Just visit the page.

Fun with online forum topic and comments

Some Reflections

As I left Pulchowk Campus after taking my letter for writing final question paper, a thought as usual came on my mind. Is it the worst position I have ever been? My current state has been full of trouble of all sorts. I am suffering from my recurring lower respiratory track infection that I always fear will turn asthmatic one day. This grows worse each time as I commute my way to office and back home. A physically as well as mentally weak person from childhood, It has been difficult for me to convince myself that I will ever survive this big monstrous world. Home has no gas and its weeks since we haven't seen proper cooking of food at home. My past childhood days of kerosene are back and my room smells it. My poor roommate rushed for kerosene on morning chill spilling it all over his body as he carried it back home. Its not my poverty that is causing but the state of the nation I am in that reflects this. As I am typing this blog, I am having current loadshedding that I have been facing from the day I crossed into Nepalese border 9 years ago. A small nation yet so unmanaged in all respects that it is one of the poor nation of the world. Scarcity has been implanted so much into my blood that I have this obsession on preventing every kind of resource wastage. Work has been my trouble too. Work pressure caused by improper management and high expectation has been prime source of problem. Its like daily struggle for no goal. Plus being away from home is such a big pain. Half of my problem would sublime if I get the warmth of people around me who don't pretend but feel me internally.

But, suddenly I try thinking of the positive sides of it. Man does not live for happiness, he lives for his dreams and passion. He lives for proving that he has ability to fulfill his goal. I still remember dreaming of teaching one day at pulchowk, a dream college for most of students in nepal as I entered a college far away from kathmandu, rarely heard of. Its not big to have dreams, its still not big to ignore it later. But, what is big is the sacrifice you make to achieve it. Currently, work pressures are immense but the responsibility of my shoulders to lead my team makes me feel proud of myself. A weak person from childhood who always feared that my voice will disappear among crowd, I am representing voice of my team. Its like a roar that echoes and baffles the minds of people. My passionate mind is so much blinded that it has started to ignore the normal human instincts of fear and care. Similarly, I feel I am representing the voice of troubled units. That unit may be my family, my city, my team, my country or even my human race. Suddenly, my fear looses grip and I feel stronger in face of problems. I gain courage to smile at it. Its like becoming so much strong internally that normal external senses dont have any effect.  

Some Reflections

Never take things for granted

Many times in our life, we tend to take things for granted. Especially when we have them without putting our effort. We stop taking them seriously. They can be people who love you, things that you use on daily basis or special times or even sweet memories of your past. They make you special and thus give reason for envy by other people who lack them. But, the real problem is you, yourself don't value it. You think it as if its like a 'usual' thing and feel like a burden somehow. Maybe you are used to it now. Late teenage is the age everybody wants to have. However, a late teenager dislikes it and feels like escaping it as soon as possible rather than enjoying it.

But, in that process you tend to forget the actual effort you put that made you own it. Human mind tends to forget things with time and only reminds good memories. It tends to neglect area of previous effort or problems to stay positive. This helps you to move ahead but also makes you forget the importance of what you have right now. They are the result of your efforts that you put in times of tensions. A warm house during your retired life is result of lifetime work that you did in a cold, dark house. Remember, Nothing is free, not even your life!! They have been possible just because of your previous effort or work. Also, we have been so passionate about life and things we want, that we forget what we already have. Best, example I learn was from myself. When I moved to big room recently, I desperately wanted a table. In that passion for new table, I forgot the warm extra blanket I had that was left unused and was a nuisance for me. Months later, I realized that same blanket could provide a warm cushion which could be more useful than table itself especially in cold seasons. I roamed entire Kathmandu street for table. But, in that search I forgot the more desperate search for blanket done two years before. My mind was blinded by hope/goal of getting a new table and forgot what I already had that would actually solve my problem without cost!

Same goes for things/people we have. We are surrounded by people who value/love us, things that make our life beautiful, past memories that have changed us and made us what we are today. We just need to stop our passionate mind that is always on search of new things/people/memories and let it focus on things/people/memories that we already have. Only then we will realize the true value of these things. Also, they will calm our unstable mind because these things are already ours and their is no fear of not getting them. They also will make you proud of yourself for owning such a beautiful thing and what can be more amazing than feeling good of your own self?

Picture taken from http://www.motifake.com

Never take things for granted

Reason

You were the one who started it and you are the one who ended it.
I was the reason why you started it and I am the reason why you ended it.
We both know it

But, what u don't know and I know is this
You were the reason behind me being the reason for you starting it and you were the reason behind me being the reason for you ending it.
So, Don't blame me for it. You were the ultimate reason for it.

Reason

What it takes to be an Entrepreneur

In my two years of professional life I have met him lots of time. He came in every size, age and habits. Yet, every time he was same in some basic characteristics. So, I am jotting down some of my thoughts on him after my silent observation. I have spent a hefty amount of time with him and have patiently listened to him (I don't normally listen to people) as his words are irresistible. Hopefully my views matches with your view on him.

You treat this guy as God. He may be in his forties or even fifties with or without gray hair. He may even be still younger in his twenties. No matter what his age is, you all pay him respect at least in front of him, if not at his back. So, as the title says, I am interested in discussing what it takes him to get such respect and how you could also join his club of earning it. So, let me start with his traits at various phases.

At start-up phase

He talks a lot

Yes! The company is small but not his words. He tells you what he has achieved in his past companies, how he founded, worked and raised their values to millions or even billions of dollars before they got sold off. You like his words and so listen and work for him for a low salary. You want to be like him, he is your super hero. He may not be wearing underwear over his suit but you are enchanted by his words. His spells are more stronger than those of Lord Voldomert in binding you to his garage.

“Garage” is his buzz word

They say it all starts in a garage and he knows it. He knows garage is a buzz word related to start-ups and most of the successful companies like Google, Microsoft, etc have their roots to it. It does not matter if this Garage is fully air conditioned or not, for him, it is “The Garage”

His nose is more powerful than that of the best police dog.

Good employees stink inside huge company walls and even their boss can't smell them. But, our hero has such a powerful nose that he can smell them out. He knows every whereabouts of other companies employees and does every effort to get them into his garage. Police dogs may sometimes fail at smelling out criminals but he does not fail. He has built-in employee hunting instincts.

More emotional than your mother or girlfriend

You are the star employee and your contribution outweighs all the stock options and meager salary (that you get after a couple of months) you are getting. And, out of frustration you have somehow got freed from his spell of words and decided to kick his company. You go to his chamber with a resignation letter and tell him that you are leaving the company like a young guy telling his mother about breaking free from the bonds of home. You have already calculated his reactions to your words in your mind but still find his words tempting. He gets on the floor and starts throwing tantrums like a spoil toddler when his mother is about to leave home for some work. It includes loudly crying, shouting at the top of voice and using every possible arguments to win back you. He will tell you about his thoughts about you, how much you mean to the company. After listening to his words, you start bargaining which is the real reason for your decision. You don't have the guts to tell him that you don't trust the stock options that he is offering and that you want real cash. But, before you make any offer he does that. He tells you that the stock values are increasing and next month he will upgrade the options that you are getting. No cash even now. He talks about the bonus and the other incentives. But, seeing that you are not happy even now, he quickly turns discussing towards salary which is simply a regular increment. You are dumbstruck and leave the chamber silently.

At fully established, product development and Revenue Coming stage

He talks a lot

I don't know if he knows anything else than talking but he is still good at it. He may have changed in his actions or physical look but not in his words. Now, his focus of talk shifts from previous companies to his current company. He talks of how he built his products and moved the current company from a garage to a fully fledged corporate environment. It is his way of showing progress even though garage was better, friendlier and had a humane approach to deal with employees. The graph has somehow gone up and he knows how to show that. So, he called it a garage at first place and now is calling it a Infinite Loop. But, you don't like it anymore and imagine a dog barking in front of everyone. Perhaps this is the one progress you have made working for him.

His smell power decreases

Our dog nosed hero seems to have got slower with age in terms of smell power. He does not seem to smell out employees from other companies. Instead he is stinking now and you have smelled him out. You apply to his company along with others in long lines. He has his special gang whom he calls HR to perform such tasks for him. He has taught them how to hunt for employees like he did in the initial phase. He will tell them all day about it, which is his strength. They will go to various job sites and top universities to place their magnets which are good enough to attract good number of irons to sort out.

He is never wrong whatsoever

If you have done a good job, he will be the first to give you bonus or appreciation. He comes near you with his ever charming smile and tell you how hard you have worked and hand you down a piece of bone to lick. You thank him for that wholeheartedly and believe that he is the only good man in the world. Good things don't always happen. If you do wrong and he wants to fire you, then he will never do the dirty job. Instead, he will send his jackals (HR or any other manager), who hunt you down and kick you out the company door. And while you curse the whole company for this, he comes by with that sugary smile and wish you good luck. Everybody in company feels like hell to you except him. He is never bad.

You work like a machine but still feel as best human being

Your day is made only for work. You get up early and rush like anything to get there. You take your seat and start working with the feeling that your work is the best work ever and you are the best person in your company, even though you are just like any other human machine working mechanical machine. He comes around to each one of you, to tell you what an amazing job you are doing and how much you can do to make it even more fun but in reality, he is just applying daily grease on each of his machines.

Coffee: the human petrol

If you go to any office of any kind, you will find one dark, bitter liquid. He likes it very much and you too. He likes it in the hope for making you work even more and you like it in the hope of getting some relief from work. The former is true but I have to still figure out if latter is right. Since both are counter points, one of them must be wrong. It works by stimulating human computing system to work more. In layman lingo, they call it coffee. Even if the company is going down the drain, and has nothing to buy, you will always find it there in its place. The basic assumption is: if coffee supply stops, work also stops.

His hearing power has also decreased

With age his hearing power has also decreased. He has all sorts of people around him, but is willing to hear praises only which are loudest. He does not listen to silent complaints that people are making. He has created hierarchical network just to cut down any such voices. Those words are like statutory warning that comes with every cigarette pack bought, for a smoker.

Conclusion

He is a serious believer of “Monkey Theory”. Fool one monkey and rest simply follow that monkey. So, they rightly call him Entrepreneur which resembles “hunter-par-nar” or “hunter-vanar”. If you want to be like him, starting today, start talking and stop working. If you work, you will work for someone but if you talk, you will talk for yourself. If you find it hard to talk, then use a mirror. It is the best talking partner for you until you have your first employee. You can best learn it from your dog who barks all day without imbibing the honesty trait.

Note: Throughout this blog I have used “he” to represent entrepreneur without being gender biased as females can be equally good entrepreneurs as males. This is done just to shorten the blog by one alphabet. :)

I would like to thank Jagir for her sincere editing of this post and to have patience for re-reading other person's work.

What it takes to be an Entrepreneur