Nepali Entrepreneur in Japan

An interview of a Nepali was published in Newsweek. It it a big deal… is it mention-worthy in the blog? I was debating myself as I started reading it.

We don’t have that many Nepali people who are featured in international newspapers and it is nice to see somebody, somewhere is doing good job to be interviewed by Newsweek.

Bhaban Bhatta went to Japan ten years ago to start his job as a dish washer. He worked in more than 60 restaurants in a year and now he owns nearly half that much (27) restaurants, a travel company and a real estate company.

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World Record – Cricket played at the highest altitude

To create a world record of cricket played at the highest altitude, a group of cricket enthusiasts from the United Kingdom completed at Gorak Shep, near Mount Everest on April 21, 2009. The team had to walk for nine days before staging the match at an altitude of 16,945 ft. (5,160 meters).

Team Hillary with trophy after the victory in the Everest Test. (Photo: myrepublica.com)

Team Hillary beat Team Tenzing by 36 runs with six balls remaining.

The Nokia Maps Everest Test was inspired two years ago when cricket-mad expedition leader Richard Kirtley, 28, noticed that Gorak Shep, the highest plateau of its size in the world, bore a striking resemblance to the Oval cricket ground in south London, according to CNN. (myrepublica)

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Mobile coverage to cover the top of the World

Climbers have been calling home from the top of Mt. Everest. But that involves satellite phone, bulky and costly cousin of mobile phones we carry in our pocket. Looks like future climbers can carry the phone they have been used-to to call  back home to share their moments of scaling the top of the world. 

Nepal’s largest telecom company, Nepal Telecom (NT), is going to extend its GSM and CDMA mobile coverage to Mt. Everest by the end of this year. A satellite antenna will be installed for the purpose in Gorak Shep, located at an altitude of 5,160 meters. This however won’t be the first satellite antenna installed in the Everest region. Certain areas of the mountain have had coverage for the past few years by seven other antennas in the region.

It is told that the antennas can smoothly handle 3,000 calls at once.

Looks like NT is inspired by the first ever mobile phone call from the summit in 2007.

Was having a crazy idea of yeti carrying a cell phone, while writing this post… hence the picture :) News source: myrepublica

Angelina Jolie tops the Most Beautiful Women list (again)

Angelina Jolie with Brad Pitt (Sept. 2007)

Looks like nobody is going to dethrone Angelina Jolie from the most beautiful woman’s list anytime soon.  In a recent ‘Most Beautiful Woman in the World’ poll she was voted by 58 per cent of the voters whereas Gisele Bündchen in the second place got only 9 percent of the votes. Halle Berry came third with 4 percent of the total votes. The online poll conducted by Vanity Fair magazine saw fourth place shared by five beauties with 3 percent of votes each.

Jolie is beautiful, sexy, influential and is paid the highest in Hollywood. She was among the Time 100, a list of the 100 most influential people in the world, in 2006 and 2008. She was described as the world’s most beautiful woman in the 2006 “100 Most Beautiful” issue of People, and she was voted the greatest sex symbol of all time in the British Channel 4 television show The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols in 2007. On Forbes’ annual Celebrity 100 list, Jolie was ranked at No. 35 in 2006, No. 14 in 2007, and she was the highest listed actor at No. 3 in 2008. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Jolie was the highest paid actress in 2008.
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Laptop in candlelight!

New Nepal new experiment!

With extended load-shedding Nepalese people have to live without electricity most of the time. I came across a photo where the photographer is working on a laptop in candlelight.

…a fusion of good old candle and the next gen Laptop

Apa Sherpa to conquer Mt. Everest 19th time

World record holder Apa Sherpa broke his own record of climbing the highest peak for the 18th time on 2008-05-22. Now, he is on his way to the top of the peak for the 19th time. Let’s wish him luck!

Appa Sherpa on his way to Mt. Everest to climb it for the 19th time.

He is preparing for the summit bid in May to raise awareness about climate change.

Apa climbed Mt. Everest for the first time nearly a couple of decades ago (on May 10th of 1990). If you are interested in his biography this page might be the best place to go for.

Before heading for the peak he was quoted as telling “I am not looking for recognition or doing this just to beat my own record. My objective is to highlight the environmental degradation of the mountain and draw attention to the issue of global warming”.
And,
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April Fool Day on Nepali Websites

Nepali people don’t celebrate April Fool’s day traditionally. We have a fun filled day to celebrate which is an equivalent of April Fool day and is called Gaijatra. But due to the influence of the Western world people play pranks in this day. Many websites have post hoax news on this day and some of the ones I could gather are listed below (there are not many and they are NOT sorted according their wit or excellence).

Gaijatra - Nepali version of April Fool's Day

The Himalayan Times, published a news about a blockbuster Indian movie “Ghajini” to be made in Nepali and will be renamed “Gajendra”. Geetha Arts, the same production house that made Ghajini, will be producing Gajendra, but it will be directed by Narayan Puri, a noted Nepalese film director. That was news! until, the newspaper told later that they forgot to tell the readers that it was one of their April fool pranks.

Mysansar blog published a post showing fake screenshots of chat with Paras Shah (former Nepali prince).

Hamroblog had its definition of April Fool’s day in Nepalese context and a story about it.

Kathmandu Dairies had an article about Nepal Drivers To Switch Sides.

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Rock in Saudi Arabia – floating in air

A huge rock in a village of Al-Hassa region, SAUDI ARABIA raises 11 cm from the ground level once in a year during the month of April and stays elevated for about 30 minutes !!! [Source]

Should have been one of the April 1st jokes. If you click on the image and see the large version, you might recognize the deletion and retouching in the photo.