A team comprising of 11 mountaineers including the central committee member of Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) Krishna KC and Chairman Prachanda’s son Prakash Dahal have headed to climb 6,000 m high Langtang mountain. This climb is in preparation of climbing the Mount Everest.
After the intention to climb the world’s highest peak, party’s team had been practicing mountain climbing for the last few months. After the 20 days climbing training in Langtang, the team is ex
pected to climb Mt. Everest in this year’s season.
The Mt. Everest climbing team includes Krishna KC, Prakash Dahal, Yuvaraj Dulal, Bina Magar, Shivakumar Dangi, Mukunda Pokharel, Dinesh Shrestha, Ishu Bhatta, Madan Chudal and Maheshowr Phuyal.
Our best wishes for the team for the success of Langtang ascent and their ultimate Mt. Everest climbing!
A 13 year old kid selling SIM cards in eBay has grown to be the top seller in eBay. The Schoolkid trader, known as Dario Lopez, is in fact a Nepali living in UK, Sudip Gautam. The 21 year old Sudip now owns a company with 13 staffs and an annual turnover of more than £3million.
Sudip has opened his first high street shop and has plans to open a chain of stores across Britain in future. BBC says, Sudip comes from Gulmi district and he started selling sim cards on eBay in 2004. These days, he sells more than 2,000 items in eBay.
Our congratulation to Sudip and we wish him success in the future.
The 4-times record holder in the Guinness Book of World Records, Rohit Timilsina, is planning for his next world record.
The new record will be the 7 records in 7 wonders.
In our recent conversation with Rohit, he told that he is preparing for his next record with hard labor and dedication. In the process, he will also be promoting Nepali songs and dances all over the world. It is expected that his upcoming records in those seven wonders will be culture related music and dances.
COMING SOON – An exclusive interview with Rohit Timilsina, in which he has revealed his future plans
25 years old Nepali, Rohit Timilsina, is renowned by his records in the Guinness Book of World record. Rohit has registered his name in the recrod book by performing various amazing acts. It was not only once or twice, he has four different titles of world record.
Record kissing 116 people in one minute (December 21, 2009)
Holding 24 golf balls in one hand for 10 seconds (On 15 May, 2010). This record was equal to the previous record by a Canadian, Guillaume Doyon, on 30 November, 2009.
Holding the most tennis balls (21 balls) in one hand for 14.32 seconds. (On June 14, 2008)
An American lesbian couple, a lawyer and a college professor, married in Dakshinkali temple, south of Katmandu, on June 20, 2011. Present in the ceremony were the local gay rights activists of Blue Diamond Society. A gay rights activist and Parliament member, Sunil Babu Pant, was also present in the ceremony.
The lesbian couple dressed in traditional Nepali dress share a banana as a symbol of mutual union. (One was wearing the male attire and another the female).
It is is probably the first public same-sex ma
rriage, in accordance with the Hindu tradition, done in in Nepal.
Corporal Dip Prasad Pun who defeated more than 30 Taliban fighters, alone was awarded the bravery medal by the Queen.
During an Investiture Ceremony Buckingham Palace, the Queen honored the 31-year-old Gurkha soldier with the medal.
The Britain’s second highest medal for bravery was announced in March for the bravery Dip Prasad showed during a September 17, 2010 militants on a checkpoint near Babaji, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. At that time, Pun had fired more than 400 rounds of bullets, detonated a mine, and launched 17 g
renades in about fifteen minutes of intense fight.
I wrote about Sweta Lamichane back in Februry of 2010. It is good to see the beautiful lady featured in this week’s Saptahik weekly. But apparently, Sweta is not too much happy about the portraying of her as the ‘Hollywood star’ in the article.
Sweta’s clarification in her own words:
Since I can’t read Nepali, I had to have someone else read the Saptahik to me. I would like to clear up a few mistakes that were made.
Yes, I am a working actress, but I’m not a huge Hollywood star. I have done a few movies, commercials, and television shows. In fact, I did all of my training in Hollywood, got my SAG eligibility, and then moved away. It wasn’t until I moved that I started to book bigger roles. All of the movies that I have speaking roles in are independent films. These films only go to film festivals and you can’t find them on the shelves. Currently I’m working on a web series, I’ve completed three movies (will only appear in film festivals), and I’ve done a direct TV commercial campaign. I’m also in school for esthetics and make-up artistry. In addition, I’m recoding an album that will release at the end of this year. Thank you time and attention and Thanks for all the support!
Sweta has done a good job in Hollywood and she has made us proud by her skills over there. Now, I am also impressed by the humbleness she has shown.
A 30-year-old Nepali guru, Bhakta Kumar Rai, has spent 32 hours on top of the Mount Everest. He reached the top at 5:30 am on May 20 and stayed there till 1 pm the next day. In that time he mediated for the world peace for 27 hours.
Rai has broken the previous record of Babu Chhiri Sherpa who had made the world record by staying on the summit for 21 hours and 30 minutes in 1999. The freezing cold on the top can cause severe frostbite and swelling in the brain, that can even cause death to the less enduring climbers. It was told that in that 32 hours Rai had used oxygen only for 11 hours.
Bhakta Kumar Rai is told to have achieved ‘Supreme Master Godangel’ wh
en he was 18 years old. His followers in countries like Nepal, India, Hong Kong, Britain and Malaysia regard him as a messenger of God to earth to spread peace and eradicate poverty.
The news update of the Heavenly Path website says:
Heavenly Path would like to informed you all that Supreme Master Godangel has been arrived at Base Camp in 6 hrs 20 minutes leaving behind all the Sherpas after32 hrs of Prayer, Meditation and Request for the World at the Top of the World…
First Mr. Machhapuchre body building competition was held in Pokhara City Hall on 14 May, 2011. In the event, participants from different districts like Tanahun, Palpa, Kapilbastu, Baglung, Rupandehi, and Kaski participated to win the First Mr. Machhapuchre 2068.
Apa Sherpa has yet again broken his own record of climbing the Mt. Everst for the 21st time. He has been breaking his own records that he made in 1999, every year (except in 2001) for the last ten years.
Apa reached the top of the world at 9:15 in the morning of May 11, 2011. The 51 year-old Sherpa was one of the team of four Nepali, a Swiss national, and and an American national in the climbing.
The historical data of his Mt. Everest climbing started in 1990 and he has been climbing the peak almost every years, with twice in 1992 and pauses in 1996, 1977, 1998 and 2001. Although, he announced retirement after his 12th summit in 2002, he couldn’t help himself and was on the top next year. The dates of his climbs are:
May 10, 1990
May 8, 1991
May 12, 1992
October 7, 1992
May 10, 1993
October 10, 1994
May 15, 1995
October 26, 1999
May 20, 1998
May 26, 1999 (Start of World Record feat … and continues breaking his own recrods)
It is a huge responsibility to be (and remain) on the top in terms of quality. Nepali Times, an English weekly printed colorful (on glossy paper) is considered top-of-the-class, ‘elite media’ in Nepali journalism. Dazzled by the ‘English kaleidoscope’ I used to believe everything they publish in face value. But, when I came across a latest article, about ranking of Nepali blogs, the unconscious belief in me shattered like a glass vase, falling from a height.
Nepali Times is all about judgment. Judgment of people, judgment of policies, judgment of relationships, judgment of art/artists, and Judgment of products. Although, I still believe they are the best in town, it’s time to evaluate if they are keeping up with the expectation? After reading this article, I for the least, will be a bit more cautious in taking their judgments and credibility.
Ranking stuffs is not an easy task. It is an art, mathematics, and a rigorous exercise – based on facts and figures. Google, leader in ranking websites rank websites based on backlinks, number of incoming and outgoing links in a website. Alexa, another website ranking tool evaluates data from users who install their toolbars. These limitations have made them credible in their own field and their ranking comes with their respective limitations attached.
Let’s see the Nepali Times ranking (This is misleading):
(Top ten blogs from Nepal ranked in order of visits.)
They have given a boundary – visits. It is not clear whose visits it is (I suspect, is it only the author’s visit!) If it were general people’s visit, the author should have mentioned the source. When I visited the sites mentioned, all I could find the visit data were of the blogs ranked 1, 4, and 10. There is no doubt, Mysansar is the top in every terms.Talking about the rest of the blogs – I don’t think any of the blogs deserve the position granted by Nepali Times. Some low ranking blogs have much better visitor than mentioned and others don’t even deserve mentioning. For example, one of the blogs mentioned was updated last year, and doesn’t have a single original content. Some other blogs are mere online archives of articles published in the print media.
What is blog?
The article defines: “In Nepal, blogs are transforming the way urban Nepalis get their information.” I thought that was a news site, or Nepali Times magazine itself.
In my view – blogs the mouthpiece of person or an organization with a facility to discuss and debate. Unless a blog is defined properly, there is no point in ranking them.
What is “visits” ?
The ranking criteria of the article visits can be the number of people that visit a particular site in a day/month/or year. A single person can read more than one articles and those ‘page views’ are usually more than ‘visits’. For example, in March 2011, xnepali had 1 million pageviews. But, each visitor had an average page views of 2.7 pages (i.e. 382,000 visits). Many sites don’t reveal this information, so it is not easy to get this data from all the websites.
What is Nepali?
It seems easy, but it’s not. A Nepali blog, can be linuxcandy.com, a blog made by a Nepali blogger, but there is no mention of it being Nepali anywhere, or a xnepali.net/movies, where Nepali is written in the domain name itself. It can be lexlimbu.com, a blog by a UK resident Nepali who can speak but can’t read/write Nepali that well.
Response:
The blogger Ushaft (Ranked 3) after thanking the author of the article said (in Twitter), “But, I think it is misleading to say they are “ranked based on visitors”- would be better to say stg (something) like “our pick” or “a random cross-section of blogs” … not-so-good blogs are on the list you’ve made.” Ushaft adds, “I hope a little more care would be shown in such matters in the future.”
Another blogger Aakarpost (Ranked 9) told he his blog had 75,000 pageviews last month (excluding his own visits). That is more than twice the total pageviews of the blog ranked 10, in it’s entire existence since 2008 (~ 1,100 per months).
Anil of Aaakarpost had even analyzed the Alexa ranking of Nepali sites to compile this ranking – Mysansar (1/17), xNepali (2/72), itinfoz (3/78), techsangv (4/99), aakarpost (5/137), chapagain.com.np (6/185)nirmal.com.np (7/244) ashesh.com.np (8/314) – where the first number in bracket is blog rank in Nepal second number is the total website rank in Nepal. The rank proposed by Aakar is at least based on credible data (with it’s own merits and demerits).
I ask the following Twitter users (Representatives of the blogs ranked by Nepali Times) to post their views in the comment section:
UPDATE: I am updating this article in fear that the negative tone in the article might undermine the quality of the blogs mentioned in the Nepali Times article. In terms of quality, the top ranked blogs, by Nepali Times, deserve mention (but, without the numbers attached to them). Here are my evaluation of the blogs:
Mero report – a community blog striving to redefine journalism is gaining popularity in Nepali blogsphare. The contribution of another blog, initiated with the motive similar to meroreport, Dautari, can’t be overlooked. Most probably the first Nepali blog in English, blog.com.np doesn’t deserve to be ranked based on visits. Ushaft is a seasoned journalist with views to ponder upon and respect. Anil of Aakarpost is a dedicated blogger with useful and informative contents in it. I don’t read much of Hamroblog, but I have heard that he is a good journalist. The fun filled Guffadi’s blog is a worthy mention too.
My question was – How can somebody say the following blogs (that weren’t ranked) are bad?
NepaliKeti’s blog, Dhaiba‘s blog, Durjaya Chetana, Lex Limbu’s blog, CP Aryal‘s blog, Krishna Thapa‘s blog, blog by Archana Shrestha, Rajesh’s KhasKhas, Anish’s eNepal, Bhojraj Dahal’s Nepal Diary, Tajim’s blog, Dipak’s Diary . Yes, this is my personal list of blogs. I expect some good stuffs in them. That doesn’t mean they will rank in a list of top ranki
ng blogs in Nepal. I shouldn’t be ranking them unless I have credible data, knowledge, and resources to do so.
It was 2years ago, I wrote about the former Foreign Minister, Shailendra Kumar Upadhyay, who announced about his intention to scale Mt. Everest.
Shailendra climbed a 6,160m high Island peak and 6,467m tall Mera Peak successfully in the last few years as a preparation of his ultimate feat to climb Mt. Everest.
Shailendra Kumar Upadhyaya, served as the foreign minister and permanent UN representative in the 1970s and 1980s.
The diplomat grandfather says:
I am confident of my success as I believe that the most important part of success of any mission is confidence in oneself, selfless c
ommitment to serve humanity and, of course,will to achieve success.
Upadhyaya is planning to start his ascent from the Everest base camp on April 28, 2011. The expedition is organized by the Senior Citizen Mount Everest Expedition. If Upadhyaya could reach the top, he will dethrone another record holder Nepali senior, Min Bahadur Sherchan who climbed the peak at the age of 76 in 2008. After much struggle, he was finally entered as the oldest climber of Mt. Everest in the Guinness Book of Records in 2010.
Gurkha soldiers are known for fighting single-handedly against a number of enemies. Last time, it was Indian Army Gurkha who fought more than 40 train robbers, in India to save a girl from being raped.
Now, a British Army Gurkha soldier was honored by Britain’s second highest medal for bravery for fighting off at least a dozen Taliban insurgents.
Acting Sergeant Dip Prasad Pun was stationed in a checkpoint near Babaji, in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. On September 17, 2010 militants opened fire from all direction.
Alone on the roof, Pun fought rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47s. He fired a more than 400 rounds of bullets, detonated a mine, and launched 17 grenades in about fifteen minutes of intense fight. He even used the machine gun tripod to knock down an insurgent, trying to climb up to his position.
In a BBC news article, Pun says, "I think I am a very lucky guy, a survivor. Now I am getting this award, it is very great and I am very happy."
The Conspicuous Gallantry Cross medal is only one level below the Victoria Cross, the highest medal a British Army personnel can get. The 31 year old Acting Sergeant Dipprasad Pun’s father and grandfather both had been Gurkha in British Army. (Photo credits – BBC)
In the last year’s Forbes Magazine’s Rich List, a 70-year-old Mexican telecommunications mogul, Carlos Slim, worth an estimated fortune of $53.5 billion, succeed in surprising Bill Gate’s $53 billion. That was a slim margin of $0.5 billion. Before that, Bill Gates had been the richest person for 14 of the past 15 years.
This year, the 71 year old Slim’s fortune leap-frogged by almost $21 billions to reach $74 billion. Bill Gates, 55, has become a distant second with $56 billion worth of fortune. That was according to the Forbes’ World’s Billionaires 2011.
