Even after one of the two contestants for the post of Prime Minister, UCPN (Maoist) Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal, has finally pulled himself out from the prime ministerial race another candidate, Ram Chandra Paudel of Nepali Congress (NC), refused to give up.
What is more strange is that the sole candidate, Poudel, failed to secure majority yet again in the eighth round of voting on Sunday.
Only 189 lawmakers out of 598 active members in the 601-seat parliament, casted their votes in the election. Poudel
, the sole candidate, secured a mere 116 votes and was declared defeated.
September 22, 2010 was Indra Jatra in Nepal. The only living goddess in the world, Kumari, was carried in chariot while the Prime Minister, President, and high level official witness the procession.
Indra Jatra is the festival to remember Lord Indra, the king of heaven, and the god of rain. In Newari, this festival is also called Yanya Punhi. It is believed that the festival was started by Lichhavi king Gunkamadev in Kaligat Sambat 3822. Indra Jatra also marks the beginning of Dashain and Tihar festivals.
The festival begins with the carnival-like erection of a ceremonial pole, known as Yosin, accompanied by the rare display of the deity Aakash Bhairab. The Aakash Bhairab is represented by a massive mask spouting beer and liquor.
This is the only time of year the households throughout Kathmandu valley display images and sculptures of Indra and Bhairab. The Kumari, the only living goddess in the world, leaves the seclusion of her temple in a palanquin and leads a procession through the streets of Kathmandu to thank Indra, the rain god.
Every year, Indra Jatra begins from the Dwadasi of Bhadra to Aswin Krishna Chaturd asi, a total of eight days. Previously the festival was a week-long until King Jaya Prakash Malla in 1765 B.S. added a day to pull chariot through Naradevi, Nhyokha, Ason, Indrachwok and Hanuman Dhoka.
In one old saying, it is said that Indra’s mother needed a type of flower found in Nepal, parijat, for some religious ritual. Indra disguised himself as a human and came to the earth to fetch the flower. But, Indra was unlucky to be caught during stealing the flowers. The people tied Indra with ropes. A statue Maru Tole in Kathmandu depicts the tied Indra and is still being worshipped.
In Indra Chowk, Akash Bhairava bust, decorated with flowers, is displayed. The Akash Bhairava’s head is related to the epic, Mahabharata. Some even believe it to be the head of the first Kirat King Yalamber.
Some of the variety of performances during Indra Jatra are the dances of Sawa Bhakku Bhairav from Halchowk, Lakhes from Majipat, Devi Nach and Yeravat hathi (Pulukisi) from Naradevi, Mahakali and Kathi Maka Nach from Bhaktapur. These dances take place around the ancient Royal Palace, Hanuman Dhoka.
Indrajatra is the only time PuluKisi (Indra’s Elephant) dances in the public.
Other Lakhe dances are also very popular in Indra Jatra.
In the Lakhe and Sabha Bhakku dance, Lakhe chases Sabha Bhakku and Sabha Bhakku teases Lakhe. Lakhe dance of Majhipat is one of the most popular dances in the Jatra.
To promote Lakhe dance tradition, Narayangarh Bus Park Tol Sudhar and Bus Byawasthapan Samiti is organizing third National Lakhe Dance Competition on September 21 and 22, 2010. The first and second such competition were held in 2064 and 2065 BS. The winner, first runner-up and second runner-up will receive Rs. 30,000, Rs. 20,000, and Rs. 10,000 respectively. All the other participating teams will also be awarded Rs. 5,000 for their participation.
Appa Sherpa, 20 times Everest climber and other 20 Nepali mountaineers attended the walk. There were a total of 200 people including Nepali and foreigners in the rally. Home Minister, Bhim Rawal and Forestry Minister, Deepak Bohora addressed the rally.
Among the participants were the mounteneers – Appa Sherpa, Dima Gombu Sherpa, Tenji Sherpa, Pasang Rinji Shrepa, Serab Jangbu Sherpa, Angbabu Jimba Sherpa, Lakpa Gelja Sherpa, Kipa Sherpa, Lakpanorbu Sherpa, Angchiri Sherpa, Migma Nurbu Sherpa, Sonam Sherpa, Migma Chiri Sherpa, Dawa Steven Sherpa, and A.C. Sherpa.
Sushil Koirala was admitted to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) for treatment of infection in his lungs, within a few hours of his victory in the party election.
The doctors have told that the illness of the newly elected president of Nepali Congress is related to the excessive effort during the preparation of the election. According to the doctors, he will stay in the hospital before for five day.
Due to the illness, Koirala could not attend the vict
ory rally organized in Kathmandu. Earlier, the 12th general convention of Nepali Congress had elected Sushil Koirala as the next party president.
The movie made on the direction of Deepak Shrestha and produced by Rekha Thapa, Himmat, did unexpected business. Excited by its success Deepak Sherestha started the second part, Himmat-2 under his own banner, Pancha Kanya Films. The movie was released at the time of Teej in the theaters out of Kathmandu.
The movie features Indian Idol, Prasant Tamang and actress Una Upreti. Biraj Bhatt is is another attraction of the movie. Some would also love the comedy actor Shree Krishna Luitel is appearing in double part.
If you live in Nepal, and are subscribed to internet speed more than 1mbps, forget about your privacy. The police are snooping on those high-speed internet users.
After a couple of failures on internet banning attempts, police has thought of this new tactics to deal with illegal users of internet. Previously, police had directed ISPs to block sex related sites. The step proved to to short-sighted approach, as I suspected, and implementation was not done effectively. Some of the ISPs (e.g. Subishu) have blocked xNepali.com, and hence we are seeing lower than usual traffic from Nepal these days.
After the failure of identifying which site to block and which not, the police blocked 5 voip sites. The very next day, Google announced its internet phone service which offered free calls to US and Canada. Thank god, they didn’t try blocking Google.
Puspa Kamal Dahal has decided not to contend for the post of Prime Minister after he was defeated for the seventh time.
In a joint statement signed by Prachanda and Jhalanath Khanal, both CPN Maoist and CPN-UML have decided not to participate in the election to choose the next Prime Minister of Nepal.
After we published the screenshots and details on how hdnepal.com is doing the similar business as that of the site being run by Kasaju brothers, the site has removed the reference to the movies it was selling.
The front page of the site is redesigned and reference to movies is completely removed. Here are the comparison on how they have changed the layout of the site:
Arrest of Kasaju brothers on the charges of distributing movies illegally in Nepal has raised some issues previously considered off-limits in Nepalese contest. It is believed that Nepali people can’t afford to purchase Hollywood movies legally and the only way they can watch is by illegal means. After the arrest of the owners of cybersansar.com and givemehd.com, the sites are now offline and people operating similar businesses are reconsidering their business practices.
While searching, I found a similar site, offering similar movies and designed by the same company owned by Kasaju brothers. The website hdnepal.com, is still online and it also has similar information and services to that of givemehd.com. According to the site, the service is provided by Lokesh Oli and the physical office is located in Babar Mahal, kathmandu.
The operators of the largest modeling website in Nepal, cybersansar.com were arrested on copyright infringement charges. Apart from cybersansar.com, they were operating givemehd.com, a membership website to distribute high quality movies.
The police has confirmed the arrest of Abhinav Kasaju and Dipankar Kasaju, the owner brothers on copyright infringement charges. Continue reading
An Awareness Rally to be held on 21st September 2010 (Tuesday).
At: Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th Street, New York, USA while world leaders gathered in the United Nations. (Noon to 4 PM)
Participants – 29 mountaineers joined by a crowd environmentalists, Nepalese-American immigrants, Nepal’s Minister of Forest and Soil Conservation, and outdoor enthusiasts
The Real Juice, real worms, and real inedible materials have been reported almost every days and from different part of the country. This time the news is from Eastern Nepal, Jhapa where a five-year-old was unlucky enough to fall prey of the product. Continue reading
