Please do not disturb

 It is not that I hate concerts. I enjoy them a lot. I remember the time of my school days when I never used to miss any concert in Biratnagar. I used to travel 40 km just to see 1974AD band members and Robin Tamang live. Not only then, I still enjoy them a lot. The entrance of Bryan Adams and MLTR with the cheap excuse was wholeheartedly welcomed by my heart, and I know that when such international artists come here, there has to be a grand lightning system, sound system and stage.
But at a point it dissatisfies me. It is understandable that the organisers have struggled a lot to bring international artists to Nepal, but why are they really ignoring the life of other normal citizens? Did anyone ever think what must have been going on in the minds of the patients at Bir Hospital while the concert was being held? Did it occur to anyone that they must have been disturbed? When the sound of the concert at Dasharath Stadium could be heard all the way to Putali Sadak and Old Baneshwor, no one can deny the fact that the patients nearby must have got disturbed.
There are various complaints when neighbours turn up the volume of their music systems, but why don’t they care about such issues during concerts? Don’t get me wrong, I am a huge fan of international music, and I understand the necessity of loud music at any concert. The louder the music, the more the fun. But there can be other alternatives like seeking another appropriate place. Such open places may not be available for grand concerts, but they must not create trouble in normal living lives as well.
Places a bit far from the centre of town, like Bhaktapur or Dhulikhel or around Kirtipur or around Kakani, where there will be comparatively less disturbance, can be preferred. There used to appear questions when concerts were organised at the Jawalakhel ground for animal’s rights, now this indeed is amazing regarding why the concerned department becomes silent when it is for human rights. The entrance of such international celebrities is a positive thing for Nepal, and more such events must be organised. But let that not disturb the other world. I really get frustrated when there is a marriage party going on near my house, and I am sick because of the sounds. Anyone can imagine what a difficult time the patients and their relatives at nearby hospitals must be going through with the ear-shattering music. Let the concert be enjoyed by the participants, and let it not trouble others. Happy listening.

Published in The Kathmandu Post under Post Platform on December 19.2012

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School Phobia

   ‘Please mom! I don’t want to go school’. Are you familiar to these types of cries? Or is it that your child says ‘Mom! I am not well’ at the time of putting uniform? There may be various excuses that a child makes before going to school. It’s never wise thing to scold or threaten them at such time. It becomes a responsibility to figure out why? This can be a warning to all the parents regarding the obstacle for the bright future of the child.
            Your child may not like the environment of school because of the bullying problem. Because it sounds stupid reason, your child might not be trying to explain regarding it. Anyone can imagine regarding it. Will a matured person as well remain satisfied if he is being teased by his boss, other members in the office? So this can be one of the reasons why child hates school. If it is the main thing, parents need to take necessary initiative as well, that maybe either by changing the school or talking to the administration. Other reason might be that the friends of your child don’t belong to his or her category. Their topics of talk, interest don’t match. This will create loneliness for your child. This problem can be easily figured out through minor initiative. All parents need to watch is if their child has got friends or not. It can be depicted through phone calls that your child receives or through the team sporty act. It can also be that the child has been lagged behind in studies and it is difficult for him to catch it. Jus consider, if your child don’t know how to a hand over the course where he is today is that he needs to do simplification. It’s much obvious that the child will be empty minded at such case. And he will not be able to understand simplification, no matter how hard he try. This will certainly create trouble at the time of his class works and homework’s and is much more likely for the child to have negative vision of teacher. This corrupts teacher-student relation. For a medium class family, if the child is admitted in hi Fi School, the child may have the feeling that he is not as smart as others. ‘All other comes school in their car, and I have to go on foot’. This sort of feeling as well can create trouble in those young minds. From the broad vision, the environment of the school, friend’s circle, stress given by school on studies can be the basic reasons why a child hates school. I remember my sister who always used to cry before going to school. Later when the school was changed, the problem erased and she improved her studies as well.
                     One major problem regarding the education system in Nepal is that we focus only on theoretical knowledge which keeps us behind when we have to compete with the external world. There definitely exists some entertaining ways to teach children how to learn. Various games are there, It will be a good idea for sure if we teach “A for Apple “and give them apple to eat. But the system we undergo is we explain A for apple and compel them to mug up. Even at secondary level, the course has been designed in such a way that student have to mug up the life cycle of fern, but I wonder in how many places it is exactly shown. So implementing practical side is one best way. It’s common thing for any teacher not to notice one particular student out of the mass. But this can create a problem. Proper distribution of students in class and proper notice to each and every student is required. A teacher should be full friendly with students. Ah! I remember my school, where teacher used to check our vest and if its not of white color, they used to punish. All of us used to hate teacher. What’s wrong with the vest inside that we wear? Okay, checking nail, handkerchief is considerable but what is wrong with the vest? School should never implement such stupid rules. Pressures simply burden students. Schools should never give pressures to the students. Homework, class work should never create pressure on them.  Why cannot you think of changing the school if your children totally hates the life within the school? Maybe new environment is what your child wants, with new identity and that could let him to forget his old identification.

                   Two parties, school and parents are equally responsible for giving birth to the problem of school phobia in the students. A mutual understanding among a child, teacher and parents is necessary to drag the assents of nation in a correct and right path.

Published in The Rising Nepal on Friday Supplement on November 23.12

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Living Alone

Those people who are living alone get enough time for everything, they get time to feel that they have not talked to their dad and mom. Or they get time to think that it has been a long they have not visited their aunt's home. This time can never be gained when you don't live alone...cell phone, internet has made living much easier. Research also shows that those who live alone go out more. Hence, living alone will never let you be in isolation anyways, rather it fosters your development.
You read novels, spend time for books, you learn to cook, you learn how to wash clothes and utensils when you live alone...You get the confidence to live in any part of the world. Life may or may not give you this opportunity for you to live alone, but if you get it, taste it. In this modern technological era, you will never be feeling lonely and bored to live alone. Once you get habituated you feel irritated in a crowd. I can say this because I have been living alone in Kathmandu alone and I am happy.--


Published in The Himalayan Times dated Nov 12.2012

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Living Alone

Living Alone

After reading the Sociology textbook of my course written by CN Shankar Rao, reading to the notes provided by my Sociology teacher and listening to his lecture, I came to the conclusion that living alone is the best way to be social. The thoughts in fact contradict with those from the entire sociology book of course. 

Man is a social animal, and needs a society to live. Yes, he cannot live in isolation. Man cannot live alone at the top of Everest even if he has got sufficient amount of oxygen with him. But, I probably would not be wrong to express the idea that man gradually prefers to live in isolation, away from family, politics, tradition and religion. To prove this the data from The New York Times shows that American cities like Denver, San Francisco forty percent of the house has single member in it, and the data gets increased when we view of Washington. Paris, popularly known as love city, consists almost half of entire house with single member in it. It is understandable that their religion promotes such individualism, and our culture teaches us to live in the family. They are living in the culture that teaches them to live their father’s home as soon as they cross their age limit and we are of the culture that teaches us to be together with our parents throughout the entire life. However, we can see that there are conflicts in our tradition more than theirs in such case.

But even the sociology explains that more than social, man is a biological animal. Gone are the days when people feel lonely, bore and anxiety in living alone. Living alone provides self realization and personal control. And the more weighty part, living alone provides you freedom. You can masturbate whenever you want or can stay nude if there are lots of troubles within your mind. You can sleep in what so ever bed you want, and no one is going to complain you if your room gets messed up. No one will be there scold you for your dirty bed sheets either. You can eat whatever you want; you can cook it of your own or can go out and have it in a mess. This can be one major reason why youths fly abroad in the name of education. I don’t want you to broke up with your husband and wife and go for single life, but just want you to change your perception for those friends, family members or relatives who stay alone. You may think living alone is living in isolation, but the research had already shown that people who live alone are more social than those who live with a group. Because those peoples who are living alone get enough time for everything, they get time to feel that they have not talked to their dad and mom. Or they get time to think that it has been a long they have not visited to their aunt’s home. This time can never be gained when you don’t live alone. Technologies like cell phone, internet has made the living much easier. Research also shows that those people who live alone goes out more. Hence, living alone will never let you be in isolation anyways, rather fosters your development. You read novels, spend time for books, you learn to cook, you learn how to wash clothes and utensils when you live alone. It is not because it is a compulsion, but you prefer doing it considering it personal control phenomena.  You get the confidence to live in any part of the world.

Life may or may not give you this opportunity for you to live alone, but if you get it, make a taste of it. In this modern technological era, you will never be feeling lonely and bore to live alone. Once you get habituated you feel irritate to live in crowd, you feel the morning tea talk or the evening dinner talk is pure waste of time. I can say this because I have been living alone in Kathmandu alone and I am happy. It indeed is hard to live as there is scarcity of gas in the capital, there is loadshedding that appears as huge hindrance in my daily living, but still I am satisfied. I now have the confidence that I can go and study Masters in any part of the world by staying alone. I am not feeling lonely. I cook of my own, I wash clothes and utensils, I clean rooms and still I get enough time to be social.

Published in Folio

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Shallow Syllabi

Shallow Syllabi

I don’t remember the exact date since when I have been solving these two equations. Maybe since grade six or must be seven. It has been more than seven years and I am still into this. Solving x + y + z = 8 and x + y – z = 6. Oh! How long should I go for this? The simple method to Gassian Elimination method, and now there is simple method. No matter what so ever the method be, the answer is x = 5; y = 2; z = 1. The question appears what is the use of diving into every sea just to check if you are able to swim perfectly or not? You don’t have to get into every seas to check if you can swim perfectly or not, small river will be more than enough for your justifications.

It is not my criticism against the education system of our country, but an open dissatisfaction for the syllabus designer. I remember my teacher calling them 'intellectual criminal' who does crime by making wrong selection of course of studies. It is much more likely for any board to choose highly educated people to prepare the course of studies, and hence the old professors get to design the syllabus who tries to escape from the burden by choosing the topics without any proper understanding, survey and inhale the wage without any effort. Sitting in a group, in some star hotels, and maybe with some alcohols, they design the syllabus that the students have to go through entire year. This results as a trouble for students and the teachers are likely to get frustrated. These huge professors never need to teach so they are really less worried about teaching pedagogy, teaching materials and as a result we need to study Law of variable proportion both in plus two and bachelor! It is definitely not a huge issue to collect educated
professionals to publish books for any publication and then publish it. So, as per the syllabus designed, publication house prints the book that will easily get into practice. Publication house stays in profit, those peoples who are included as writer gains fame and some royalty too. But it is the students who need to suffer. There are no answers to questions like why Nepalese lack good English pronunciation? Matured English tone? Why do we pop out car-ee-er instead of carr-ia? It is all because of these intellectual criminal who possess no any such responsibility towards students and therefore despite the fact there exists good students, they can't compete in international level. The education trend has been more theoretical than practical which makes the trend continue and above that we lack proper syllabus. The student of Bachelor can’t answer why the price of gold goes high when the value of dollar fluctuates even if they had studied economics. Instead all the unnecessary laws are known to them, and who is to be blamed here? Definitely intellectual criminals! We have been studying stories and poems since our early days in English, and the trend is yet on and still we don’t have the ability of speaking and writing in proper English!

At the time when the political influence has been creating various hindrances, the act made by these intellectual criminals for few amount has been contributing a lot in spoiling the education system in Nepal. It is really disappointing that we still need to follow the traditional ways of learning through the heavy bags and note books. It is again disappointing that we lack proper syllabus. Yes, there has to be some professional and experts to design the syllabus, but let those professionals and experts be trustworthy enough. Let they actually think of the student’s benefit, think of globalized world and then pick up their pen to design the syllabus. Now, appointing the number of Learning Horus simply seems the calculation done to give out the total final number of learning hours in the end, because where the syllabus gets completed in two learning hours they have kept it ten and that which requires ten, they have kept it three. Yes, it is you who need to design syllabus,, but please refer to the international courses, and select those lessons that are really useful to the students. Learning what is Psychology is not all we learn in Psychology, there has to be some benefits that the students could feel after learning the text book! After completing the educational time and understanding entire syllabus. If not, there is no use of making it. The price of gold goes up when the value of dollar falls down. How many economics studying students can explain the reason? Maybe old theories are important, but they need to teach with the basis of understanding today’s necessity as well. What is the use of learning entire flow charts, algorithm and program for computer engineer if he doesn't know how to format computer or repair it when damaged? A student who studied Sociology throughout the year, will get confused if is asked what Sociology deals all about. He struggles to say few line, and concludes up. Unless he turns able to explain, sociology is the subject that teaches the ongoing trend in society, and motivates us to move as per the changing trend. He must be able to show that he has social ideas after all.

Honestly, we have to struggle to hear news from CNN or BBC. Many of us fail to catch their words first time! We still need subtitle to watch English movie, and still we feel proud upon our English because we know how to write a letter, and how to write an essay. We knew the summary of some poems and stories, and because of that we even got good scores in examinations! It is high time we need to be alert about the syllabus designed for our studies. 

Published in The Rising Nepal's Friday Supplement dated October 5, 2012

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Biratnagar by bus

Dashain has been providing a reason for meeting people who have remained ignored for a year. Mothers expect their sons to come back home, and so they come back! No matter where you are, Dashain always encourages you to return home and meet your family members. When somebody asks you when you are returning home, Dashain will probably be the answer. They say that more than 60 percent of the people living in the capital come from outside the Kathmandu valley. The capital has been the place that provides job, good education and so on. Living in a centralised country, it is not surprising to hear that people from all over gather in Kathmandu. And they want to return home for Dashain.
There are basically two ways of travelling in Nepal. We don’t have water ways or railways. This limits us to airways and roadways. Flying is the best way to travel, but it’s for the big shots. Ticket prices go up by 75 percent during this season. Also, you need connections to get an air ticket. So you better buy your tickets early or they will be sold out. I am a student, and I have to go back to my hometown Biratnagar for the festival. For me, the roadway turns out to be effective, hence I prefer this easy and cheap means of travel. However, it’s not that it lacks side effects. It’s irritating to travel during this time. First, they don’t care about your identity card. You purchase the ticket or you don’t, it doesn’t matter to the bus companies. They are going to get plenty of passengers willing to pay the full fare.

That’s not all! They trouble the passengers during the journey by cramming as many passengers as they can.
The roof will be occupied and even the aisle in the bus will be occupied. You must call yourself lucky if you only manage to get fresh air. Pickpockets and thieves are another source of trouble. They show you a picture of a new bus while selling the ticket, and then bring the oldest local bus claiming that the new bus has broken down! When we make payment for the service, why don’t we get good service? I blame the concerned authorities for ignoring this aspect. Let the bus company charge Rs 50 more, but they must give the best service to the satisfaction of their passengers.
If the bus lines provide this kind of honest service, their tickets will be sold well in advance; plus they will receive goodwill. And despite the fact that we are well aware of the prevailing trend, why do we hesitate to make early bookings? At least at the same price we will be receiving good seats. And when we are dissatisfied with a certain bus company, let’s ignore the company the next time so that they feel and realise their mistake. Have a safe journey!

Published in The Kathmandu Post on Oct 3, 2012

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