The guy you puffing a cigarette is told to be 106 year old and he says that he has been smoking since 86 years. There is no doubt, smoking kills. But, this pensioner of army for the last 60 years is surely an exception.
There was Winnie Langley who lit her cigarette from her 100th birthday candle and was an internet sensation, gave-up smoking at 102 and died within a year. She gave a false impression that, "quitting smoking is injuriou
s to health".
Well, smoking is injurious to health and nobody should start it!
Thank you Neel Khadka, the news editor of Sagarmatha Television, for allowing me to use the photo.
Houston Nature Centre has honored Raju Acharya with the World Owl Hall of Fame special award for his outstanding contribution in the research and conservation of owls.
The Special Achievement Award was awarded to Acharya on March 5, 2011 at the International Festival of Owls held in Minnesota, US.
In the photo above, Raju is seen talking in a media event in Pokhara on March 21‚ 2011. (Photo credits – Krishnamani Baral)
A graduate in Environmental Management, Tropical Forestry and Agro-forestry, Raju Acharya is the director of Friends of Nature, a youth-led social and environmental organization and has been working in owl conservation for the last three years. Before that he had worked for Annapurna Conservation Area Project (ACAP) for ten years.
In an interview with Republica he told that he is interested in establishing an owl hospital in Nepal and develop it also as a conservation education center.
It was an incident when I went to watch a movie in Kumari Cinema. During the interval, when I was having coffee with one of my friends we saw a group of guys aged 18-22. They were were there to watch a Hindi movie.
One of the guys showed the poster of a recently released Nepali movie ‘Mann Manai Man Paraye’ and said, “Why all Nepali movies have got same type of posters and story? Always action and same actors?” Another replied, "Our country is poor, so Nepali film industry lacks the technology Hollywood and Bollywood is blessed with. Nepali film makers have to work with limited technology. Or else our movies will also be better like Hindi and English ones." I felt good to hear the positive views of the youngsters about Nepali films.
It made a ‘headline news’ when Music Nepal, the biggest music distributor in Nepal decided to sell music in memory card. Dr. Baburam Bhattarai inaugurated the pendrive by playing the National Anthem.
The memory card will be of capacity 1-2 GB and costs Rs. 675. Pendrive costs much more at Rs. 875. I know it includes the cost of hardware.
It was the time I started riding my scooter and I did not knew much of the street rules. It was the time, I didn’t even know I had flat tire and somebody else has to tell me about it. You can call me ’empty head.’ But, that was what I was in the beginning years of my scooter ride.
I am talking about an incident of the year 2004. I think, I was on the Lainchour area, when a micro-bus driver made a gesture with his five finger open and close twice and fast.
Okay, I have to admit it now, I misunderstood that gesture. Before I could even give him a damn look, he was off on the road. But, I didn’t want to let him go without teaching him a good lesson. So, I followed him as the it was going in the direction of my office.
At around Jamal area, near the Nabil Bank, the same micro-bus was stopped to let passenger get on it. When, I was close the the vehicle, the micro-bus driver made the same gesture, again. He opened and closed his five finger twice and fast!
Extensive effort to save Kumar Kancha proved to be unsuccessful and he died at the age of 54 on January 17, 2011. The sad truth, he lost all of his monetary earnings during the treatment and had to beg for help in his last days, from his death bed.
A lot of people had done their very best to help in collecting fund to help in his treatment.
Special mention : Donation collection drive one of my friends in the UK, Lex Limbu, came to an abrupt end when Kancha died. He sent a total of £800 GBP (NRs. 91,600) collected till date via Jharana Bajracharya to the fmaily of Kumar Kancha. It is really encouraging to see young people like Lex dedicating their time in helping artists in Nepal. Thank you Lex!
Bishnu Shrestha, a brave Gurkha soldier in Indian Army, defeated 30 train robbers while returning home after a voluntary retirement. The Indian army, is going to awarded Bishnu with Sourya Chakra, Bravery Award and Sarvottam Jeevan Raksha medals during the Indian Republic Day celebration on January 26 .
While in the train, Maurya Express from Ranchi to Gorakhpur, on September 2, 2010, 35 year-old Bishnu saved a girl about to be raped by the train robbers in front of her helpless parents. After looting the train, when the robbers started to strip a 18 year old girl in front of him, he couldn’t contain his calmness. He took out his khukari and took on the a group of 30 robbers, alone. In the fight, he killed three of dacoits and injured eight others. Remaining dacoits fled the scene to save their lives.
The police arrested the eight injured dacoits and recovered Rs. 400,000 in cash, 40 gold necklaces, 200 cell phones, 40 laptops and other items left by the robbers while fleeing the train.
In recognition to his bravery, his regiment has given Bishnu a cash reward of Rs. 50,000 and it has also terminated his voluntary retirement, so that he could get a customary promotion after he receives the medals. In addition to that, he will also receive a cash rewards from the government, special discounts in international air tickets, and discounts in Indian railways train tickets.
UPDATE:
Updated according to a news in Indian newspaper Times of India of September 4, 2010. The report of Indian Army awarding Soury Chakra proved to be wrong as his name was not included in the official Indian Army site.
A disclaimer first: I don’t know anybody, in person, in Kantipur publication; they have never done any harm to me or anybody I know. Nobody has told to write this article and I have nothing personal to gain or loose by writing this article.
A Nepali weekly, published by once the biggest media house in Nepal, Saptahik, has claimed itself to be targeted to "EVERYBODY" and is publishing contents inappropriate for the children. I have raised this question more than a couple of times and have used every possible medium of communication to get reply from the concerned journalists in Kantipur publication. But, to my dismay, they have chosen to keep themselves in closed door.
It’s a common phrase and everybody must have heard it – “it’s all in the blood”. You are born with it, wealth, name, fame acting etc. My question is, is it?
Whoever said this line must be the one who was not paying much attention to the surrounding or, may be living in a very narrow circle and does not know what the real truth is.
Let’s talk about acting here. Let’s talk about Bollywood and pick one top actor of the 70s – Hema Malini and Dharmendra. Both were the superstars of their time. Their daughter Easha is not doing that well in the movie industry as her mother did in her time. Hema Malani was raw in the industry and was not trained and polished to enter this line and she was not from the movie family background either. Easha should be doing a lot better than her parents because she has blood with good gene running on her body not only from one superstar but superstar parents. They were well known for their good work on the screen. Lookwise, Esha is also identical to her mother. Continue reading
Disclaimer: I don’t favor or detest any political views. I just wanted to show that everything we do is NOT related to religion.
Prakash Dahal, posted the following press photo to prove the Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal is no communist. He claims, Marxist and communists don’t belong to any religion.
But, is ‘dhog‘ a religion?
Dhog, I think, is a culture to show respect to the elders. Some religious pundits branded it as a religious rite but it never was a religious thing from the start.
In a latest news about a couple of schoolgirls being arrested for prostitution in Kathmandu, a local TV has been criticized for divulging too much information of the girl while dramatizing the issue.
On October 2, 2010 police arrested two girls from Town Plazza in Naxal. Two pimps named Sanjiv Lama and Som Bahadur Tamang were also arrested with the girls. It is told that they used to charge Rs. 50,000 for a night to customers, however, the girls got only Rs. 10,000. But, the issue is not about prostitution or, cheating the prostitutes, it is about how our journalist cover the news.
The British Association of Model Agents (AMA) says that female models should be around 34-24-34 in (86-61-86 cm) and at least 5 ft 8 in (1.73 m) tall.
How many of the Nepali models are taller than 5 ft 8 in ? I suspect none.
Wikipedia defines a model as ‘a person who is employed for the purpose of displaying and promoting fashion clothing or other products and for advertising or promotional purposes or who poses for works of art.’
How many of them are posing for ‘works of art’? Probably, none.
How many of the internet models are ‘promoting fashion clothing’ or other product ? A very small number of them, I believe.
Some of you might say that the definition of model, in this digital age, is changed. I agree, and I also believe so. But, there is still something amiss, odd, or awkward on the way our modeling industry is shaping up. I have lost track of the beauty contests, being held every other day — and I won’t be writing about them anymore unless they are ‘big enough’ like Miss Nepal. These ‘model manufacturing’ contests might be one of the reason there are so many models around.
When you can’t fit it in the traditional definition, you should redefine term itself so that, everybody fits in it. Then, what is the definition of Nepali version of Model ?
After the arrest of Kasaju brothers, the owner of the largest modeling site in Nepal, cybersansar.com was taken offline. Although the arrest has nothing to do with cybersansar.com, the site was taken offline along with their another site givemehd.com.
The arrest can be considered the largest operation of against internet crime in Nepal.
Although the arrest is justified, the role of Kasaju brothers in establishing Cybersansar.com and promoting internet based modeling for more than a decade should also be appreciated.
Kantipur owes me an explanation. Why didn’t they cover the Miss Nepal event? I am still not convinced Kantipur did something ethical.
Not publishing major news based on one’s personal problem (or, organizational dispute) implies that the Indian Embassy was right in telling our journalists are unethical (even if, it is still baseless).
Am I baised ? Yes, a little bit. Previously, Kantipur writers simply ignored my enquiries through previous articles and emails (on Maya Bazin and Smita Thapa issues). The article was targeted to thick skinned, writers there.
My friend Aakar argued that he thinks Kantipur publication is doing what it should. Dipak Bhattarai and Aakar sent me the link to The Hindu article. It was a very detailed and in-depth analysis of the background of the current problem. I have summarized the articles below:
There have been a series of banning in Nepal recently. It looks like, various government agencies are depressed by the failure to form a government two after the resignation of he current PM and are venting their dissatisfaction in the form of banning everything they don’t like personally.
This time, a promo of an upcoming album of Komal Oli was banned from Nepal Television. Komal Oli once used to be the news anchor at the TV. The promo was being broadcasted in the television for a couple of weeks. It was suddenly halted on Sunday.
In the controversial song, calls Lord Shiva a Badmas.
