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The Buzz Catching Up

Two things I noticed during the last fortnight was pleasantly surprising – both related to Citizen Journalism.

First is the question paper of Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism of the Purbanchal University. The Advanced Concept of Electronoc Publication paper for the students of the second semester carried a question on blogs.

Explain blogs as an alternative journalism mean in Nepalese context.

The five-mark question is, I believe, a proof that blog buzz is catching up in Nepal.

Second incident was a few days ago during the Training Techniques for Experienced Trainers workshop organized by Federation of Nepalese Journalists (FNJ) and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). The course was meant for the journalists of various executive level in FNJ and was conducted by Jacqueline Park – the Asia Pacific Director.

I was there as the interpreter for Park and on the final day was a group project for the participants. One of the group comprising of experiened print journalists came up with the idea of citizen journalism. Although more of their session focused on how citizen can use the traditional media, I was impressed because I hadn’t hoped print journalists of that experience would came up with such an issue.

Their defination to citizen journalism: direct reach and participation of citizens in journalism which citizen use by directly sending news, views and opinion in the media.

They listed out benefits of citizen journalism. Some of the major benefits were active participation of citizen in journalism, citizen’s true feeling is raised, citizen’s love for media increases, newspapers do not need many staff reporters and increased sale of media.

Though throughout the discussion, blog was never mentioned, I loved the feeling of knowing that citizen journalism is not a very new concept and even the established journalists have begun feeling the need to integrate it for their benefits. Continue reading…

May 15, 2007 by Blogs & Blogging

Amazing Experience of Paragliding

Friday, May 11, 2007 at 10:30 AM: I jumped off a slope at Sarangkot, Pokhara to glide freely on air. As I jumped off the slope, I was on air, flying freely. After a few minutes, as I looked down, I could see the whole city of Pokhara and famous Fewa Lake under my feet.

I looked up, afraid that I may fall down the long way and my stomach twitched. ‘Are you alright?’ my pilot Damodar Parajuli asked me. ‘Ya’. Why should I tell him that I was little afraid and my stomach was kind of twisting.

‘No twitch on stomach?’ Either this man is a devil or knows all about paragliding. ‘Little bit,’ I answered as he swirled around the Sarangkot hill making cold air pass through my body. It was really an experience worth life-long cherish because although I was in a tandem flight with pilot controlling the flight and everything else and I was just hanging to him looking around for hills and city.

‘Are you enjoying?’ What an absurd question? ‘Surely, it’s a big fun and I have never imagined that paragliding was such an amazing experience.’ He chuckled for he has been flying like this for five years – first two years solo and then piloting enthusiatics like me through air. As one of the few Nepali pilots working for Blue Sky Paragliding of Pokhara, Damodar had heard such answers for many times.

‘Mostly foreigners, Nepalis are increasing,’ he said adding that more females are interested in paragliding than males. [I thought maybe that’s true or maybe he is using his position in his office to allocate females to his flights]. The half-an-hour flight costs Rs 4500 for Nepali and US$ 75 for others.

I wasn’t flying in the season and my off-season flight costed me the view of the beautiful Ananpurna range. ‘You should have come during September-October,’ he said and I consoled myself thinking that I wanted the experience of paragliding, not seeing moutains from paraglide.

After a pleasant 20 minutes flight around the hill [of course letting photojournalist Chandra Shekhar Karki click a few photographs on flight], we were ready to decend. On the smooth decending flight, Damodar showed me the his village, his house and other things of Pokhara.

Once we were above the Phewa Lake and just about a few minutes away from landing, he asked me ‘if you are not afraid, I can show you some tricks.’ Why would I be afraid. He somehow manageed to slant the paraglide and then swished giving me the feeling of freefall of bungee jumping.

He did it twice and I was enjoying. On the third try, my stomach twitched and I told him so. He just instructed me to vomit on my left if I feel like and on the fourth swing, I vomited a little.

Then he instructed me how to land and I did that well, ran to the lake water, washed my face and sat on the ground thinking how pleasant the flight was.

May 15, 2007 by Leisurely Activities Travelogues

Top 5 Joys Nepal Offers

I am going to Pokhara once again! Hopefully, this time I will be able to do paragliding. For me, the biggest attraction in Pokhara apart from usual scenic beauty and lakes is paragliding.

Nepal, though more known for its beautiful mountains, lovely people and cultural heritages, offers more. Rather than going through the usual things tourist guides usually recommend in Nepal, I have here my top five list of the things that a little bit adventurous people should do in Nepal.

Some of them, I have already experienced; some other I dream about.

Trek to Everest Base Camp
Not easy, but this is something you will cherish lifelong if you accomplish. The routine: fly to Lukla (usual dangerous looking hilly airport), trek two days to reach Namche – the gateway to Everest, and leave behind the usual life to embark a trek of a week to reach Everest Base Camp and return.

You will not only see mountain tops so near that you feel like you can just casually walk on the top of it, but also will have time to think about what life exactly is (that thinking comes as you see the hard lives of the people living happily in the remotest areas). I have done that and here is my diary of it.

Bungee Jump
This is something, that looked daring! The second highest bungee jump of the world, 500 feet drop, from a suspension bridge. My experience says, once you are on the jumping deck, you see all white (nothing else) and when you jump, you feel like everything inside your body is bundled, then there is the feel of the rope and you have that exciting feeling never to forget again.

Paragliding
I don’t know how it feels but its something that I believe is a fun. From Sarangkot, the view point of Annapurna range, you are with a pilot thrown into air flying like a bird. A good view of Pokhara city. Here is more.

Rafting
Nepal’s rivers flow quick in mountain and hilly regions, turning and twisting making a lot of rapids for rafting. Rafting in the natural rivers that offers the joy of rapids is something everybody shouldn’t miss. I had rafted in Trishuli and found it more exciting than anything else. Within a short time, the joy you get from rafting – the cool water hitting you and the raft that twists and turns creating a kind of feeling mixed with excitement and fear, is unforgettable.

Visit a Temple
This is somewhat weird looking for quite interesting as far as I am concerned. The best time to visit any popular temple of Nepal is in the morning because I am asking you to witness the people visiting temples and their faces more than the temple or the art in it. I love visiting Pashupatinath temple, not because I want to pray but I love roaming around amidst the sounds of pray and looking at the people – most of them happily chatting, with tikas on forehead and flowers on head.

Have to done any of them? Share your experience!

May 10, 2007 by Featured Leisurely Activities

Junket to Rasuwa Part II

The World Cup turned out to be an one-sided affair. A few of our trip friends joined us for a round of drinks and World Cup. The game was decided in the first 20 overs and I continued watching until 2:00 AM in the morning in a desperate hope of magic – that didn’t come.

In between, we had laughter particularly because one of our friends was too drunk and had to be carried to the room. We later found that he was sleeping in a odd way covering two beds and it was fun laughing at mid-night.

Soon, I found we, Bikash being the other, were left without a room. We couldn’t enter the room that the drunk friend was covering for it was too smelly. I almost decided to sleep on chair but Bikash managed somehow to get a floor in the room for me and put two beds together for three people to sleep (two were already there!)

Next morning was the race – the event that I was there to cover. I barely slept for two hours and had to wake up.

After seeing off the 21 cyclists from the starting point, I decided to hike up the hill. It looked easy as the locals were saying it would take around one hour for us. Krishna Thapa, the Kantipur reporter there, Annapurna Post’s Rajendra Shrestha, Prateekshya and Trishna – the two female journalists, joined me.

After half-an-hour uphill, Rajendra and Trishna decided to stop and rode on the bus. We continued, as a few points thinking we too should have stopped. It was steep uphill for almost two and half hours before we reached the Bhanjyang. From there, 20 minutes uphill to the View Point which we didn’t missed though Krishna decided to stop.

Then a downhill walk for 20 minutes to Goljung village. The village was nice and people smiling all over. The children were somewhat dirty but were shying smiling.

The race had been already decided. After a round to talk with the winner, it was time to the prize distribution and that was to be held at tha school premises 10 minutes away.

Walking again! Oh My God!

The program was as usual. Speeches. And, there was a welcome song-dance. It wasn’t a professional performances and girls singing and dancing were doing it like they were playing with each other. I really liked their rawness – something only visible in remote areas (I think)!

During the program, the guests were served with Makai Bhatmas (surely, a delight).

After the program was the lunch. We were given a coupon, asked to form a group of 10 and go to a house for the homestay lunch. The lunch was good, the hosts were nice and as went to the rooms designated for the tourists and I found it better than the Shree Ganesh Hotel.

But we had to return as there wasn’t internet or fax to send back the news. Though I had confirmed with the organizer that they would be able to provide me the vehicle for returning to Syaphru, I could not get that service as they took all the vehicles for the village trip to VIP guests.

I wasn’t happy. I had to send the news and were left with almost no other option than walking the whole distance again. Luckily one of the organizing officials found us – four journalists – seats in a vehicle of Chilime Hydro Power Project. The vehicle meant for eight passengers were cramped with 14 passengers and it was not easy sitting on it.

Riding on the vehicle proved good for us as we befriended officials from Chilime and they let us use the excellent speed internet at their office. After two hours, we all along with those three guys from Chilime would walk down to Syaphru for a splendid round for drinks.

The evening spent nicely. Despite not finding rooms in three hotels we managed two in the low cost one and sat for rounds of drinks joking with each other and talking about of course media and hydroelectricity.

We would only sleep at 11:00 PM, happily!

May 3, 2007 by Travelogues

Junket to Rasuwa Part I

A thing good about junket trip for journalist is you don’t have to worry about the expenditure. A thing bad about it is you sometime have to work hard for sending news.

When Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) invited me to be a part of the trip to Rasuwa for a cycling event to promote the Tamang Heritage Trail as the newest trekking route, I did everything possible to avoid it. Hadn’t I received repeated phone calls (or had I got anyone else for the trip) I would have avoided it for I was fearing that I may not get a chance to watch the Cricket World Cup final.

I had to go! The bus trip was smooth till we reached Trishuli and had a nice lunch. Thenafter, it was the daring travel – winding gravelled roads with curves and corners every now and then.

At Dhunche, the headquarters of Rasuwa, it looked nicer as there were people welcoming us. I trekked for about an hour from there until our bus picked up on the way. The daring road became even more dangerous with slopes extending maybe kilometers in height.

My first reaction to a big slope and the U-turn of the gravel road was to look at the driver. “Is he experienced enough to take us safely?” I asked myself. He was smiling amusingly thus I concluded unless the man is eccentric, he would take us safely. His one mistake was enough for our deaths deep down the slope where I could see the lining of the river.

At evening, we were at Syaphrubenshi (or Syaphru or Syafru or Syabru). It was the gateway for the trekkers treking to Langtang region. After receiving the traditional welcome from the Tamang girls (they give you a palmful of drink – mostly alcohol but here it was Coca Cola, and put a shawl around your neck), I went to the guys who were busy telling us the hotels.

“I need one with TV and cable,” I demanded. He said, “Shree Ganesh.” Other journalists went to other hotel designated for media while I started looking for mine. “Shree Ganesh?” A guy asked. “Yes.” He called me in and it turned out the hotel was without signboard and not very good.

“TV?”
“Yes. 21-inch color at the eating place.”
“Foreign channels?”
“Yes.”

Aha! That was a relief and through I felt like the passage of the hotel a little narrow, rooms smaller and the eating place with 21-inch color TV smelling alcohol, I was happy.

The hotel owner, Dawa, turned out to be the owner of the Langtang Cable TV and he proudly showed us the control room on the ground floor. And, I wouldn’t sleep much that night, because Sri Lanka was playing Australia in the final of the World Cup cricket. (To be continued)

May 3, 2007 by Travelogues

Civil Movement Continues!

Let’s first have a look at the atmosphere on April 24 for last two years and see how people’s power changed that:

Chaitra 11, 2062 (or April 24, 2005): King Gyanendra was in Asian African Summit in Indonesia; his speech hinting that Nepal will soon be free from the state of emergency, whence civil liberties and press freedom will be restored. Girija Prasad Koirala out of house arrest had asked, in weak voice, for reconciliation for multiparty democracy and constitutional monarchy. The bottomline of The Kathmandu Post editorial on the day read: …when the King himself has been spreading the message of democracy and peace, the onus is on all Nepali citizens to help the King fulfill his dream.

Chaitra 11, 2063 (or April 24, 2006): King Gyanendra gave up after 15 months reading out the statement drafted by political parties. The Maoists attacked Chautara killing six. After 19-day protest by millions of people, unprecedented, the parliament restored suggesting not only the restoration of democracy but also the end of Maoists violence, though the Maosits attacked Chautara and killed a few same day. The Kathmandu Post editorial urging Maoists to annouce ceasefire wrote: Though the revolution is yet to be completed, it can be said that upon its completion, it is going to be the most glorious instance of a peaceful movement in the world history.

Chaitra 11, 2064 (or April 24, 2007): A year after the end of 11-year long Maoists violence, monarchy hiding in the dark, political parties showing unprecedented unity for going republic, people are yet to be satisfied. It’s not that nothing has happened, the Maoists are in the government – the biggest achievement for the people who hated reading everyday about attacks and deaths. The Kathmandu Post editorial today noticing that there are still a lot of area where where improvements are required urges: We urge the government to put in more effort so that the complaints of the people ill be less by the time of the next Loktantra Day.

Today, Nepal is celebrating the Loktantra Day (or Democracy Day) as it’s the anniversary of the day when King Gyanendra was brought to his knees by the will of people. After ruling 15 months, millions of people taking streets nationwide forced the King to step back. This day, we celebrate the power of the people – the power that uprooted the regimes trying to stand on the foundation of weapons.

I wonder why not call it the People’s Day.

Sadly enough, the people who braved the curfews, latthis and guns, are not satisfied at what had happened in the gone year. One rightly said, the people brought down the King, disciplined the Maoists but failed to do so with the political parties and leaders. The political arena is back to the old, dirty game – leaders accusing each others and trying to work for the sake to their parties not to the people’s.

While writing this, I am listening to Raamesh’s Raktakranti Ko Jwalamukhi ma (on the volcano of bloody revolution) and remembering how did people participated in the rallies around the country, how did the security forces were forced to step back and how enthusiatic people were for the revolution.

Despite the dissatisfaction around, the celebration of this day is very important – neither to celebrate the restoration of democracy nor to laugh at the ashen-faced King speaking to the nation. But to remember our deeds – what we as a people can do, to regain the faith that people are the ultimate power, to remember the love and labor we had a year ago for the betterment of our country.

On 24 April, 2004, there were no talks about republican, they were for reconcilation because the political parties knew that people had lost faith in them. The leaders were jokers of the circus where a few of their own followed around but the mass mostly laughed at their performance.

A year after, they regained the faith not because they led the protest rather because they went with the wish of the people that were already in the streets. They learnt that going with people’s wish is their only way.

But have they forgotten the lesson?

As people, let’s celebrate the day! As the civil society had in their slogan for the day – Civil Movement Continues! Remember. Review. Warn. Let’s remember our power, the daring courage we showed for the country. Let’s review what had happened in the year since after and let’s warn our leaders that we are not done yet! If you are incapable, we are ready to take over!

April 24, 2007 by Politics Talks

The Best Blog Meet! So Far

By Jitendra Raj Bajracharya

Twenty-four! The number is certainly not very big, but whenever I look at the attendence of the Blog Meet IV and saw that 24 bloggers attended the April 21 gathering, I feel great. Not only because it was double than the biggest previous meeting, but because the discussion today led us to a new direction.

The most motivating factor was participation of Buddhi Narayan Shrestha, the border issue expert, who will surely prove a big motivator for all bloggers and six female bloggers.

Everybody agreed that we need a formal structure, although there was hot discussion whether is should be registered or not. Going through self-nomination process, KP Dhungana, Ghanshyam Ojha, Deepak Adhikari, Ram Prasad Dahal, Bishnu Dhakal, Rajendra Biswokarma, Avinashi Paudel, Mohd Tajim and Tapas Barsimha Thapa became the members of the working committee while I nominated Umesh Shrestha.

For now, until the formal structure is made, I will be co-ordinating the working committee. Thanks all for approving me for the responsibility.

The other major decision made today include giving kick-start to book publication. KP Dhungana will be co-ordinating the work while all of us agreed to help him by writing what he will ask for. All the bloggers will write their blogging experience (either English or Nepali), Deepak will write a chapter on Nepali Blogging History, I will write the chapter on international trend on blogging while Salik Shah and Mohd Tajim will write a practical guidelines of using blogger.com and WordPress respectively. Continue reading…

April 21, 2007 by BLOGAN

Participatory Model for Television

Audience participation in television is always difficult. It’s difficult for television stations to broadcast letters they receive, though we have seen CNN broadcasting thoughts of their viewers. In newspaper, the opinion page and letters to editor gives readers space to express themselves (of course, they are selected and edited).

In television, there is very little normal audience can do. They are a few ways to integrate the audiences’ voices. One good model of television giving space to their audience in Nepal is Kantipur Television’s Sarokar. The one-hour weekly program has gained popularity and because of the nature of the program, it asks for the citizens’ participation.

462720047_753a85afea-2616116
The participants of the program.

The program, produced by Bijay Poudel, Somesh Verma and researched by Bhaskar Gyawali (all of whom are my friends), is a moderated discussion between 12 to 24 people on a particular topic.

I watched the shooting of the program on April 16. It was on the election of constituent assembly and there were 14 participants. Four of the participants were invited while other joined by their interest. The station runs an advertisement asking the people to call them if they are interested to come and join the discussion on the subject on Sunday for about an hour (or until there are enough callers).

Normally, no caller is rejected and they all are asked to come for the shooting on Monday. I talked with a few participants who came by their interest and they seemed quite happy. “We were said the democracy dawned in 1951 and then in 1990, but as a normal citizen, we didn’t get forum for such expression,” one of the participants told me.

During the shooting that lasted for 53 minutes the participants participated nicely in the discussions. Though I felt like the time wasn’t enough for the participants to talk all they wanted too.

462720005_3496e38aed-3063461
Somesh and Bhaskar during shooting of the program.

I have seen program called Sarbajanik Sunuwai in Nepal Television in which the programs are organized in districts and government officials are made to answer the questions from people. And, that too is quite participatory.

I believe these two models (of course, I don’t know much about NTV’s program for I don’t have friends producing that program) of participation of citizens in discussion of current events will have some effects and there will be more such program.

Photos by Nepal Photo Agency

April 17, 2007 by Featured

Happy New Year 2064

Happy New Year 2064 AD!

Let’s hope Year 2064 will be fruitful to Nepal in terms of political stability, peace building and smooth transition from conflict-hit nation to once-again-country of peace.

For Nepali, there is three opportunities to wish happy New Year every 12 months; the Gregorian calendar, the Bikram Sambat, and then the Nepal Sambat. Yet, despite making the wish every time, we fail to work for the completion of the wishes and go on wishing that again each and every time.

We all know, wishing alone is not enough; we have to work for that. Yet, we remain ignorant. I am not an exception and I am afraid to make new resolutions. But with the hope of not running away and not ignoring, let’s make a few resolutions.

All Nepali citizens let’s make a promise to be aware of the current situation in the country and then to express our views in anyway possible – at teashops, at letters to the editor and better in blogs.

All Nepali bloggers, let’s try to make our blogs a regular one and to help build the New Nepal in our own way! Let’s raise the voice and let’s discuss.

One of my blogger friends vowed to write for the establishment of republican democracy in his blog and I loved it. Our views can be different, but for the making of the New Nepal, if we could do something, we should do it.

New Nepal is a vague term and this doesn’t only apply for the political turnaround. This applies to socio-economic change too, and most importantly the change in our perceptions. We need to believe that we can build a happy nation.

We can wish for New Year three times a year, but for contributing to the making of New Nepal, we may not get the second chance. Let’s contribute from our side in whatever way we can. Together we can!

April 14, 2007 by Uzz Update

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