This is the country of rumors: late poet Bhupi Sherchan once wrote. If he had been living in this era, he would have probably written an epic instead of a short poem on the topic. Everyday, Nepalis hear at least one new rumor. This fortnight the rumor that was heard around the city was that the state will ban wearing jeans trousers by girls and cut short the long hairs of the boys from new year 2062 BS. (once, a few years ago, some crazy brains came up with the idea and police were seen roaming with scissors on their hand to cut shorts long hairs). So there were reasons behind many people thought the rumor might be true. But it wasn’t. Home Ministry today issued a notice saying it had no such plans.
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MyGoogle: Personalized Google News
Google News was different when I browsed it yesterday morning. On a look, there was just a box of three words that made it different – Customize This Page. I clicked on it and it expanded where I can change the position of news sections, add or remove, and determine the number of news to be displayed. The feature I liked the most is, off course, the ability to add a custom section – if you subscribe to Google Alert in your email, then this can save your inbox space. A great feature added by Google – and yet another confirmation that Google is thinking big – indeed, very very big.
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Reading Smiling Poems of Photo-Poet
Kumar Ale is a hobbyist photographer, but his photographs have earned him a unique nickname – ‘Photo Poet’. And he was on the limelight for last eight days as his photographs of smiling litterateurs were exhibited at the Nepal Art Council. I am not a frequent visitor to the art exhibition, but for the sake of a hobby that engulfed me during my last five teen ages plus three early after-teen ages, I went there on the last day and I found it a worthy visit. Continue reading…
Talking About Charismatic Sadhus
Shivaratri, or Mahashivaratri, festival has been celebrated. I wrote an entry on my visit to the Pashupatinath Temple, the most important of all Lord Shiva temples, earlier. But to talk about Shivaratri without mentioning the sages (Sadhus or Babas) will be unjustifiable to all those charismatic Sadhus, who are considered main attractions of the festival at the temple.
The post displays a photo of a naked sage which may be offensive to some. Continue reading…
Pro-Monarch Rallies: The Government Propaganda
There has been a few rallies ‘in support of the Royal Proclamation’. Immediately after Feb 1, there were a few one participated by some Royalists welcoming the proclamation. And in last week, there has been a few participated by students, clubs, government employees and many others. If you have seen these rallies, and the protesting ones with only 25 – 50 people, you might have thought there has been more support for the King and that Nepali people are happily accepting King’s direct rule and death of democracy.
But I believe all of that is nothing but a Government Propoganda.
While the authority has banned people from gathering in a group in sensative areas due to State of Emergency, is has been directing others for the ‘compulsory participation’ in the rallies. Some friends had told me that District Administration Office directed all the institutions of the district ‘for compulsory participation’ in some of these rallies.
When I asked a few people in one of such rally in Kathmandu, he said no common people, be it businessmen, or teachers or whatsoever, can defy the ‘authoritive direction’ and if he did, he could face serious problems in his business. He was afraid of authority and the King played on that to show the international communities and Nepali people that he is welcome around.
Ditto to government officials, various other institution, they fear the adverse effect of defying. And, there was rally of the Buddhist monks – about 18 monastries participated with photos of King Gyanendra and Queen Komal. I was there. I asked one of the participants why she was there. She told me she didn’t know. The other girl on her side poked her and said ‘she should not speak of strangers because they can be anyone’.
Some analysts told me that since the government had closed down a few Tibet supporting offices in recent past, to make China happy, these monastries are also under threat and they had no choice when asked by authority to organise a rally. It was really sad to see that the authority is dragging the disciples of Lord Buddha, the peace advocaters, into the dirty politics.
And then the photo of the rallies makes main photos of government owned dailies which always says ‘a big rally’ although later adds ‘participated by hundreds of people’.
And why those protest rallies are too thin. The security are all ready not to let them walk 10 m in rallies, they will bring a few vans put them inside and take them to unknown places. Even there are hundreds to plain-clothed police who will engage themselves in arrest. Moreover, the goverment is doing everything it can to stop the communication channels between the leaders and people.
On the other day, authority cut off communication to Jhala Nath Khanal, who was given the responsibility of acting general secretary of Communist Party of Nepal (CPN-UML) by a party cadres since general secretary Madhav Kumar Nepal is under house-arrest, where they are given no communication other than state-owned newspapers (to read government propoganda) and religious books.
Special note on this entry:Radio Free Nepal was a blog that ran during ex-King Gyanendra’s direct rule of Nepal defying the tight censorship and was instrumental in getting out information out of Nepal. The blog was at freenepal.blogspot.com which has now been closed.
The banner reads: King Gyandendra of Nepal has issued a ban on independent news broadcasts and has threatened to punish newspapers for reports that run counter to the official monarchist line. Given that any person in Nepal publishing reports critical of “the spirit of the royal proclamation” is subject to punishment and/or imprisonment, contributors to this blog will publish their reports from Nepal anonymously.
Shivaratri: Unorganized Thoughts
Today is Shivaratri – the biggest day to worship Lord Shiva (for us, Pashupatinath). At the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, more than 200,000 people will be trying to enter the temple. Not me, because I am a lazy guy and will in no way have patience to stand in queue for a few hours and I am also a kind of people who don’t believe in deity worship. However, on the eve of the holy festival, I spent two hours around the temple enjoying the glowing Pashupatinath temple and thinking a lot of things. Continue reading…
Security Mistreating Leaders’ Families
Student leaders have accused authority of not following the law during and the arrest of their colleagues. Talking to RFN, Pradeep Poudel, the vice-president of Nepal Student Union and Madhukar Khanal, a student leader, said that the police mistreated with the family members of Suraj Kafle, the former central member, and Asta Kumar Shahi, the central member, during the raid in their homes to arrest them.
The leaders also told RFN that the two along with Pradeep Humagain, the free student union president of Kathmandu Education Campus and Yuvraj Singh of Nepal Commerce Campus been held in custody giving them the warrant staying they have been arrested for maintaining peace and order. Khanal said it’s illegal to keep them in custody after giving the warrant. “They should immediately be sent to jail and treated as the political figure,” he said.
The union also denonced the mistreat of family members by the security force.
Special note on this entry:Radio Free Nepal was a blog that ran during ex-King Gyanendra’s direct rule of Nepal defying the tight censorship and was instrumental in getting out information out of Nepal. The blog was at freenepal.blogspot.com which has now been closed.
The banner reads: King Gyandendra of Nepal has issued a ban on independent news broadcasts and has threatened to punish newspapers for reports that run counter to the official monarchist line. Given that any person in Nepal publishing reports critical of “the spirit of the royal proclamation” is subject to punishment and/or imprisonment, contributors to this blog will publish their reports from Nepal anonymously.
Blogging World: Good & Bad Story
In a last two days, two stories relating to bloggers made headlines. The first: A California judge rules that bloggers should not have the same protection afforded to journalists under US law. This wasn’t welcomed in the Blogosphere. The second was the good one: Garrett M. Graff, who writes a blog about the news media in Washington, is to be ushered into the White House briefing room to attend the daily press ‘gaggle.’ So he officially has the status of Journalist– first blogger to be issued a press pass.
Protests Against King Being Cracked Down
On March 3, about a dozen of protesters were forced into police van,then taken away, cracking down their attempt to peacefully protest against the King’s move. Dozens more students faced the same when they attempted to organize programs demanding restoration of democracy.
Same day, the King’s men extended for two months the house arrest of two former prime ministers and four other top political leaders. They are being kept under house arrest to weaken any protest program. They are being held under the Public Security Act.
Those detained included Girija Prasad Koirala, Nepal’s first prime minister elected in 1991 and head of the centrist Nepali Congress Party, and Sher Bahadur Deuba, whom Gyanendra sacked as prime minister, former finance minister Bharat Mohan Adhikari, sacked home minister Puna Bahadur Khadka, Madhav Kumar Nepal – general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal United Marxist and Leninist (CPN-UML), and Amik Sherchan. Continue reading…
Blogging Using w.bloggar
I started using w.bloggar. This freeware, w.bloggar, is a nice software to use, because I can type offline, save my entries locally and post them when I am online without logging in to the WordPress. A good tool for the regular bloggers, find it here.
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