Category: About Nepal

Let us make this festival even bigger and better this time…. Are you in?


Dashain (in Nepali) or Dushera (in Hindi) is a 15-days-long national festival of Nepal and is mostly celebrated by Hindus all over the globe during the month of September – October, every year. It is one of the most auspicious festivals of Hindu and is being celebrated with great enthusiasm and vigor. During the festival all educational institutes as well as commercial sectors remain closed to mark the festival. And, this is the only festival when people from all over Nepal (who have stretched in the process of job) travel back to their home to reunite with their family members to celebrate it. But, there are still over hundreds and thousands of Nepalese who live in an abject poverty who don’t have this privilege to get reunited with their family members – those are the people whose 24-hours of time often falls short to earn enough to make their festival happier too.   

This festival is mostly infamous because of the average expenditure people make during this festival. If you take an example of a small town “Malangwa, District: Sarlahi, Zone: Janakpur”, bordering India with Sonbarsa, you will find that just this Dashain the total sales raised to more than 50 million Rupees, while its population is just over 25,102 as shown by the Nepal census 2011. When the average salary of Nepalese is below NRS 8000, spending over NRS 2000 is bit more.

We earn to save whole year but when it comes to Dashain we spend lavishly. But, unfortunately, this is not common in our country as the average monthly salary and the monthly wage of most of the people is way too lower than handful of people. This video is about those people who are struggling and for them this grand festival doesn’t bring any form of joy in their life.

A better way of making this festival even more festive and bigger. I am in; are you in with us in this Nobel cause?

The festival “Dashain” is celebrated in an extravagantly lavish way which costs millions of dollars. However big it is, but most of the Nepal’s younger generation think that this is not going anywhere and it is not helping Nepal’s economy and most of all, it is not helping the millions of people who lives in an abject poverty. Have you ever thought of making this festival even bigger and better? If so, this might be an eloquent way of doing so….

This is our initiative and who knows this might be a legacy to the Nepal’s younger generation. We all can make a change and it begins from us – YOU BE THE CHANGE ! WILL YOU?

Lamentation of a pensioner


The words appearing here are the “Lamentation of a Pensioner”.

Happened to talk to an intellectual personality who has got 50 years of work experience and who has clearly understood Nepal and its functionality to its root. She started the talk saying, “I graduated in 1964 when you were not even born (She chuckled), and since then I have worked in various places. I have seen Nepal going through her high and low, and now see what we are really going through. I am sure, I will not see light (She meant electricity) in my lifetime, but hopefully, you guys will got to witness that.” She then continued with her another question fired at me with a little more frustration mixed with the her humorous side, “Why do they have to provide us with electricity when we have natural light for 12 to 13 hours? What’s the point in supplying with electricity during the time when you already have daylight?

During my talk with her, it was clearly evident that she loved Nepal as much as we all do. We all love Nepal. But, then, there are just few countable one those who have completely marred the image of Nepal and they have to be kicked out of their position because that is what dragging us down.

She continued, “The people of our country was the one who was once considered as the most trustable people and we had a great pride in British Army Force. British use to trust more on Nepalese soldiers even over their own soldiers. Even in Indian Army our people are in significant number and they were the one in the front line of defense during India’s 1999 Kargil War. Where has that pride gone?” Till when are we going to be vainglorious and keep on flaunting our hollow words which nobody is buying now.

She even said, “Even when India is grappling with its fake currency, we are still standing pure and unperturbed in that context though we have got open border.” So true!

She then added, “If you ask me, what have you earned during your entire life time, I would say, I have earned my children. I have made them capable of earning money without being corrupt. People those who have already tasted the corruption money, they will never try to work on their own will and they will keep on following the same path — It’s just like a man-eating Tiger — once they taste the blood of human being, they will stop hunting the wild animals.”

So true!

Nepal votes


While the election fever has blanketed the entire milieu on the either side of the Nepal-India boarder, the people on the either side are lined up to vote for their candidate of their choice as their wait for their turn patiently. Yesterday and today, the entire valley (Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, and Lalitpur) look deserted with only few vehicles plying on the road. And, it is for sure that this election fever has not left anyone untouched.

For India, it might not be a kind of significant historical event, but for Nepal, it surely is. The reason why it meant a lot for we Nepalese is because it holds the rights of all Nepalese and is going to represent their demands in the coming constitution assembly for the new constitution of Nepal.  

Though it is one of the most historical event in Nepal’s history, the saddest part is that we are so divided because of our cast, color, creed and origin. We were never so divided as we are today! I am not a royalist but the harsh truth is that we started fighting among ourself only after the Nepal’s royal palace carnage – the dreadful night which swept away the entire the then governing royal family of Late King Birendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev. We let it go and this is why we are reeling into this unceasing hula-hoop of life. We are being manipulated and that is  for what the royal carnage took place.

I think we are being played by these politicians. They first wiped out the entire royal family, they divided us in the name of region, cast, creeds and origin, and now the are coaxing us to vote for them. This is nothing more than a sheer game of politics to grab the power and money. There is no other way in Nepal to become rich overnight other than turning into and getting associated with some political parties.

While I have been to my home this festival vacation, I saw these political parties preparing for this election. And, the saddest part of this election I got to see was that most of their cadres were the young guys of not over 16 years of age. They didn’t seem to have even crossed their teen age and they were clearly not legally authorized to be associated to any political parties. But, the cache here is that, these young generations who have little knowledge about the politics and those who are battered by the poverty is being manipulated by these politicians. It is easy to manipulate somebody who is hungry rather than who well off.

While I am writing this blog, news are coming up from all national and international news agencies saying that Maoists faction has boycotted the election and has set fire to the ballots. Isn’t that manipulating people who are being fair by voting somebody who they think will salvage we Nepalese from our ever ceasing miseries? So far I have not yet been involved in any of the election and I have not yet casted my vote for anyone. The reason is simple – I believe in playing fair and fighting fair. I am not going to fight an unfair game and getting stabbed on back while I am being fair. I don’t want to be manipulated by some goons who don’t even have the basic knowledge of politics. In my approximately 29-years of age, I have seen some mafias becoming the politicians and delivering their talks on the cross-roads and stadiums.

How can it even be justifiable that they are going to represent us? Those who were involved in kidnapping, extortion and rape cases suddenly become saint-and-savior and talks about our favor, our rights and our future. They are going to determine our fate! Those who were once the reason of our miseries have become our salvagers. I think, we Nepalese don’t need to get salvaged by anyone. We have done it alone and we can do it alone. We just ask for one simple thing – please leave us alone! We don’t need this election, we don’t need you – just stop becoming source of our miseries.

But, whatever it is, people are going to vote for good this time as not all of them thinks the way I am. I might be cynical in someway  and the way I think, but if you really muse on it for quite some time you will find the truth hidden behind my words. And, I hope this all go well.

Though there have been some skirmish in few places between CPN-Maoists led 33-political parties who are against this election and the security forces which has been deployed for maintaining security for the election duration, the election seems going fairly well. And, even though I am not voting this time, I would wish all Nepalese for good. I urge them to do what you think is right and vote for those who you think is our true salvager. Forget about your heart for a while and think with an impartial mind, think of your nation, think of your future and your child’s future. Vote for those who will bring the same blissful morning we have lost years ago. 

Vote for your sole and just do something right – once and for all! The future is in your own hand, don’t lose it.

God bless Nepal!

 

Who are you going to vote this time?


It has been almost a decade we all Nepalese have been waiting for this most awaited moment since the ouster of monarchy system in Nepal. One of the most awaited constitution in Nepal’s history which promises to preserve the rights of the people in or out of minority section of Nepal. And, additionally, ensure the rights of those unprivileged who have been battered by the erstwhile monarchy system somehow. 

With the advent of constitution assembly (CA) poll of Nepal and the date which has been set for November 19, 2013, the politicians are bracing up for the most historic day in the history. Alongside, Nepal government is also doing its homework and seems quite busy making arrangements for the poll – from security to printing ballots for the election. This is the second time Nepal government has deployed army personals for maintaining security during the election period. For which, approximately 4000 army men are being deployed from East to West of Nepal, while attention has been more focused in some vulnerable areas of polling sites which accounts for 12 sites from East to West of Nepal.

The CA poll is thought to have approximately 11,000 candidates vying for 335 seats. But, the sad thing is that most of the Nepalese are still not prepared for this time, as it seems like the preparation has been made in haste taking into account of unceasing protraction of the polling date since Maoists came into peace process and Nepal was declared the secular state from Hindu state.

It appears as if this polling date has been preplanned taking into account of the festive season so that the local candidate leaders can campaign for their election and might have influence on the local people while they are at home.  And, most of all, those promises are some lofty promises which is unattainable with the current country’s economic status, the hard nut policies of Nepal government in different sectors which hinders the smooth developmental transition and this has galvanized sense of apprehension in denizens from East to West.

The most hilarious of all is the chameleon and changeling nature of these politicians. It is really difficult for us to believe these guys who were once busy in kidnapping, killing and hooliganism is now bowing their heads as if they are the most humble person alive on this earth. They are busy going to everybody’s doorstep and offering their greetings by literally falling in the feet of the elders in their area from which they are vying for this election. What a shame! 

The real big question is, how can you trust somebody who were once responsible for kidnapping your loved ones is now all of a sudden falling at your feet. And, even that for a “mere vote”?! Doesn’t it look disgusting? The only thing to learn from whatever going in our society is that – WE CAN’T REALLY TRUST, but few exceptions those who are really determined to do something for this country through this constitution assembly election.

It is not good to pick one from these bunch of morons (politicians) and make a target examples. But, I confidently can say with full conviction that most of these morons come from  background with zero education. Some of them are completely illiterate. How are you supposed to talk, facilitate and give you opinion for the sensitive issues like constitution while you are yourself completely devoid of these black letters?  And, how are we citizens supposed to assimilate their opinion in the form of constitution?

There are innumerable questions to be answered by the state to its people about their right, such as: 1) Who these unknown faces are who are completely illiterate and boasts about representing our rights? 2) Can we believe and put our future on their shoulders and leave it up to them to determine our fate? 3) How can somebody who use to be a barber is going to be a constitution assembly member and talking about our fate to be determined in the history of Nepal? 4) Is this the face of new Nepal we have been waiting for? 5) Is it even possible to make 300,000 job opportunities every year for the Nepalese in Nepal? No body is magician here who can make overwhelming jobs posts available overnight. We have seen it all our life – this is simply not attainable. 

Folks its time to muse on this matter serious before it is too late and you see your rights slipping off your hands and being confiscated against your will! The hard truth is that we are more divided than we ever were. Every party is representing their community – What an insular vision is that?! How can somebody who is so divided in his/her community itself will ever going to have a future insight in the long run?

The fact is, all over the world, “action speaks louder than words”, but in Nepal, “Weapon speaks louder than anything”! – AND THIS IS HOW THEY ARE GOING TO WRITE THE CONSTITUTION OF NEW NEPAL AND NOT BY THE INCLUSION OF THE GENERAL PEOPLE’S OPINION!

So, who are you going to vote this time????

Our same old disgraced system


I know it is easy to complain and grouse on issue(s) than doing something about it to fix it. And, I am not an exception – I would better say, I am not the Samaritan who is here to salvage people and bringing change overnight alone. There might be some people, however, who might be interested in grousing and complaining about the our disgraced system and doing so they might be enjoying. But, I am sure that no people enjoy soiling their own image, their country’s image or their family image by themselves. The fact is, it’s not about whether or not you like taking up issues and saying something vehemently about it or mostly against it to soil its image, but it’s about our temerity to speak up about something which is not right. It’s about bringing up the issue which mostly people are apprehensive speaking rightly about it.

Just like it is said that you would never enjoy or have that feeling of happiness if you haven’t experienced sadness or hardship, likewise, it is not possible to figure out what is wrong from what is right. I mean, these things are comparable and we can’t figure out “better” from “good”, or say, “good” from “bad” and so on. But, at the same time, it is not necessary that you need to have all sorts of exposures, experiences to differentiate these things and the reason is that we are in the technological world where we have all sorts of information about the system around the world at our disposal and those information are just few clicks away and on our finger tips. We don’t necessarily have to travel all around the world to know everything before coming back to our country to implement all those things. Rather, it’s just about our willingness to do the right thing after finding tangible information on it and implementing it.

People these are all vying to please people in their surrounding and winning their hearts and mind with an ulterior motif to gain some favor from them; usually what they don’t deserve. And, this is what has impacted our society and our system so badly that it seems virtually impossible to revert it back to the form it use to be few decades back. We have forgot that in the run for appeasing somebody near to us or to our surrounding, we are doing something really abominable and it is for sure that our younger generation – those who are following us, who thinks us as their role model and want to follow our path – once they will know our real face, they are not going to forgive us for what we are doing indirectly to our own system by being nice to each and everything – and this includes even the person we don’t know.

We all are so short of time that we don’t have time to think about what is right and what is wrong. We just want to get our work done at any cost and just simply forget about the negative impact of our action, our words and our perceptions. We often reach out to people when we are desperately in need and we want to get our work done in that short period of time and for that we often take shortcut route to our work done – which means, we try to bribe people in the authority to get our work done. We don’t bother to be fair and be in queue and wait for our turn.

I don’t say that all, but most part of the sectors of our Nepal’s government work has been seriously compromised when it comes to getting a productive and tangible work done. Go to any office in Nepal and tell me you have got your work done without hassles – except banks because they are the only one who is making white money from providing you the service. So, it is of course obvious that they will get your work done in time without hassles because they owe you your money and they are using your money for their own benefit and yet they are charging you for providing  you the service.

We as a Nepalese are used to this system because since the beginning of our childhood we have been brought up into this society and we never have had that kind of exposure to the outside world so that we can clearly and doubtlessly differentiate between a good system of government and the one that defunct.

If you look into the paperwork of our rules and laws, it appears as if we are even better than those whom we copycat – of course, United States of America. But, sadly, that is just limited to paper and it has never been implemented as seriously as it is taken in the paper work. If you go to some governmental office they will ask you for long list of things to be presented to them before they will even get their hands on your document for further processing. I think, if we would have been really this serious, I think we would have surpassed everybody by now on this earth when it comes to providing the best service.

In addition to that, we have a very nice system of blame-game. If something doesn’t work one person blames other for the work not being done and that person blames even higher authority for failing to comply with the duty and it just goes on. We (all of us) have a very nice face and we know perfectly how to make it even better through our body language but inside us there is something bad biting us to do something really bad to people and it’s just because we fail to escalate ourself in our own work to achieve our target.  If you are a son/daughter of some politicians, your work gets done in just minutes. But, if you are just some other common people, then god knows when you work is going to be done. Because, its all about oiling somebody’s else hand. Helping a politicians sons and daughter indicates they are oiling their hand indirectly doesn’t matter even if they have to break the rules for that.

This is something which has been in place for more than a decade and it is not going to change anytime soon until and unless we all act honestly from the position we hold. It just need our basic instinct to decide about our actions and initiatives we are going to take for the betterment of this society. It it is not hard and it is of course doable if we take care of the basic things like: being fair to yourself, being fair to the person in need of your service, being honest to yourself and your basic instinct, being the person who follows the system and being one who tries to be a role model for the new system – New Nepal. I have taken one step closer to this initiative. Will you?

Altering the Equilibrium


The statistical verification of Nepal’s demographic data shows that we are in the best status when it comes to male to female ratio compared to other countries in the world. This scenario is, however, changing with the legalization of abortion in Nepal since 2002. And, since then Nepal has seen the shifting male to female ratio which shows that from 2007 to 2010, the CSR for second-order births where the first-born was a girl was found to be 742 girls per 1000 boys.

To be more precise, we can say that Nepal’s male to female ratio is 0.92 between the age of 15-65-years-old while it is 1.04 during the time of birth, as of July 5, 2013 consensus data on human population. I am not a preacher of a particular belief and I respect all religion. So, basically, whatever religion you follow, it must be true that you believe in your god — your god. And, god has set its own parameter to maintain the world’s population and check it from wiping out of the history.

But, since the last decade we have seen some heinous crimes of female-infanticide going unpunished. So, now the question is, who is to be blamed for this? — the perpetrator, our system which fails to protect the fetus from being killed or we who are reticent to most of the things going around us?

There is a saying, which means that the biggest culprit is not the one who commits crimes but the one who abets it and/or fails to stop it by acting against it. There is another one such saying which says something like this: “If injustice is happening to your neighbor and you can see, then wait for your turn because you are the next.”

And, I guess, this dictums can’t be more precisely applied to anyone else but us. So far, we were pointing fingers to India and China — one of the two major fostering states of world which is growing by leaps and bounds (where China is already a second biggest economy of the world), for female-infanticide. They were the leaders responsible for shifting the godly-equilibrium towards an grotesque image of society having more boys than girls. And, so far, we have been more reticent on these issues rather than bringing into the discussion and bringing it into the world’s attention in more aggressive manner than it has already been.

Ironically, the trend of sex-selection has been seen to be increasingly more popular in more educated family and has been more prevalent in the urban region than anywhere else in the country. And, probably it is because of the availability of instruments and tests necessary to determine sex before birth.

Like in most of the South East Asian countries, Nepal values male more than female and it is quite infectious and prevalent. And, males are the ones who get more attention than female in our society. The escalation in choosing male over female and going through the process of abortion for male child is because of the family pressure in most of the urban families. Moreover, there are families who use to blame their daughter-in-law for not being male child, which is nothing more than a sheer stupidity.

Nepal has been so far one of the most modest society in South East Asia particularly in case of female and female has been revered as a goddess in this society. And, for that reason they are being prayed in certain occasions and festivals. We are the country of living goddess — popularly known as “Kumari”. However, the way are slipping in the world’s trend seems that we are not far from annihilating our own revered culture.

The skewness in male to female ratio might have severe repercussion on the society and this is something which will turn the society in complete chaos. History has proved that scarcity of female in any society turns society violent.

There are several driving factors which might be motivating the Asian society to follow their self-doomed way through female infanticide such as: earning power and dowry system. Our society is more infested with the deep-rooted culture of dowry system and it is hard to get rid of it. With the modernity of the society this dowry system is getting even more infectious and this is what getting the situation even more difficult and it is even exacerbating rather than ameliorating the problem even a bit.

Science has shown that female immunity is more stronger than male’s immunity and therefore, they live longer than their male counterpart. Additionally, female are getting academically stronger and going stronger in the performance wise as well as they use left brain rather than the right brain unlike their male counterpart.

Therefore, this is the high time to change our perception towards women and female and view them as superior in the human kind. It is just our perception which will bring the change and to bring the change you have to change yourself first. So, be the change to bring the change! ■

From TIA Immigration


If we look back into our (Nepal’s) history, most of us will agree with the fact that non of us are that smug with the development of Nepal and what we have seen in last ten to 15 years or even more. I think, so far, we are not been able to hold on to our responsibility as a good Spartan citizen, and I think we are in delusion to be called one. Yes, of course, we have somehow been able to hold on to our duty and still rise in the adversaries, but that is so hidebound and the development has been limited to our own family. We have not been able to contribute to the extent we are supposed to have by this time.

Fifteen years is not a small period of time — it is a long duration. The reason why I am repeatedly mentioning this time is because as a Nepalese we have seen our country developing by leaps and bounds till that time. Booming of industrial sector, government sector, quality assurance and control, the grip of Transparency International Nepal on the offices and government as well as private officials had been so much commendable, and it had shown the productivity along with the extent of productivity and quality general public had experienced in the service and products. But, as the time passes we have seen it slipping out of our hand and so far nothing has been done to assure that it is not going out of our control.

It really hurts when you see thousands of Nepalese leaving for greener pasture, and no other place can be best which can reflect the real-time scenario other than Tribhuban International Airport (TIA). As I was checking-in in TIA for Bangkok, I was shunned to see the overwhelming number of people in the queue waiting patiently which was exclusively for the Nepalese who are destined for the gulf countries for work purpose, and those who are under working visa category. The milieu of the boarding-room appears as if there are 75% of Nepalese under that category and rest contains foreigners and Nepalese for some other purpose. I am not being judgmental here, but the fact is anybody can spot it correctly without hesitation — just from the countenance and the dressing sense of the people in the room.

We can now say with a dignified tone that we are one of those countries of the world which is contributing to a significant degree to the developed world for their further progressivity, and fortunately, this has also impacted immensely on our economic graph simultaneously, which shows it is rising just because of the foreign currencies entering into our country through remittance.

This is not just the case with the working class, it has been infectious to the intellectual class as well. I guess, there are more than 100,000 students pursuing foreign degrees all over the world ranging from A-level and Prophecy Certificate Level (PCL) level to PhD and post-doctorate. And, we don’t have to go farther to look for the example. Because, if I start to trace back my friends only from my high school to my college, I can find them dispersed in more than 20 different countries with the range of subjects from arts, humanity, commerce, science and medicine which I guess is quite jaw dropping in a sense. But, hang on, because this is not painting some rosy picture towards the Nepal’s future.

The reasons are innumerable, but I would still reiterate the fact which I have been sticking to for more than last 10 years and that is “political instability”. For me, it’s a backbone towards the progressivity. Until and unless this is sorted out in a conclusive manner, I think, doesn’t matter how hard we try, we are not going any further. But, then, this doesn’t mean that we are stagnant. Of course, we are going to make some advancement but that will be just iota of something we can achieve in just months and few years.

We all know that development of any country doesn’t just depend on the individual initiation and it is not under a particular person’s frame of control, but rather it is a group venture. We all have to cooperate with each other as we all have a common target to reach to. But, it seems as if it is taking too long to just even understand that we have a common agenda and we need to cooperate to each other for that common purpose. But, sadly enough, we are being hidebound in our attitude and we have stopped listening to each other and at the same time we have become myopic in our future vision.

The lack of cooperatively in our self is another factor that is dragging us out from our country. We have virtually lost our faith, trust and sense of respect for others in the run to reach a destination overnight — which is nothing more than a seer stupidity we are following.

There is difference between in doing something by your heart and something by force. Today, we are being materialistic and we are engaged in something by force rather than by our wit and our desire for it. Today, we feel like as if we are being pushed for something we don’t want to do and there where we fail to escalate to our limit. It’s always an urge to do something tangible. If we have an urge for something it will gives us with result that we long — because these days we have become result oriented rather than work oriented. Doesn’t matter how hard we try, if we can’t produce result, rest all is just futile.

For us to produce results, we need our togetherness which provides us with cooperative — something that we desperately need in this situation. What we have earned from Thailand is not just my degree but a value of togetherness and cooperative. Thai people believe in the slogan, “Together We Can Do It!”. I think, we need the same. Because, until and unless we don’t understand this, we are not moving forward and immigration will continue for ever. ■

Author can be reached at btrajesh@gmail.com

Dealing with the devil


|By Rajesh Chaudhary

Kathmandu | June 20, 2013

Time and again, history has outspoken pertaining to the issues of women being subjected to physical violence which suggests from physical to mental ail. Since the beginning of the civilization women has been sporadically been subjected to some forms of violence and it can’t be discounted.

There is one latest example of the one of those violence against women which is harsher, cruel, inhuman or even called barbaric than anything else and it governs both mental and physical ail — “THE RAPE”!  And, this problem is not the product of our society; it has been in existence since the beginning of the era and has been clearly expressed in various occasions and news outlets citing its existence in Greek Mythology, Ancient Rome as well as during the time of Christian empire.

The censes data on rape victims has appalled from rags to riches alike. Some of the few examples are something like this: Delhi has witnessed 700 rape cases in 2012 alone with Madhya Pradesh of India has reported highest number of rape cases which amounts to 3,406 during that time. Besides that, as of January 2013, our country, Nepal, has witnessed 30 rape cases in last 3 months of time. Out of which one third has been reported to be in Kathmandu itself. However, this might be just a part of the story, and might not reflect the complete scenario of Nepal. The reason is more than 50 rapes is thought to have taken place during that 3 months period while police might have been able to collect the data for just 30.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on its website under the article “Rape Prevention and Education Program (RPE)” has mentioned that, “nearly 1 in 5 women and 1 in 71 men in the United States have been raped at some time in their lives and nearly 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men have experienced other forms of sexual violence victimization in their lifetime (e.g., made to penetrate someone, sexual coercion, unwanted sexual contact and non-contact unwanted sexual experiences)”.

So, now, the bigger question is, how we can deal with this devil or the perpetrators behind this heinous crime? Would the answers be the anti-rape underwear (which gives shock to the molester) which has just been developed by a team of students of Instrumentation and Control Engineering at Chennai’s SRM University or would it be anti-pervert stockings for females which has buzzed the Chinese media since last couple of days.

I personally believe that the answer doesn’t lie in what we develop, rather than, it lies in our mores. Developing certain kind of tools to fend of these kind of crimes might be appreciating for a while, but this is not going to last long — this is not an ultimately solution. As a human being, our moral values determines what we ought to become — either a human or someone who is inhumane.

Though, the data on rape cases might be subjecting to the fact of level of education we have attained, we can’t completely rely on it. The reason is that even the capital city like Kathmandu and Delhi has tasted the bigger chunk of it rather than more improvised states and regions of both of these countries.

The only ultimately step to be taken to tackle with this existing problem is to introduce more modified educational system as well as stricter laws and amendments of the rules governing the violence against women — just like India has amended its legislation according to which a perpetrator is liable to capital punishment if the victim becomes handicapped or dies.

Different awareness programs along with the NGOs and INGOs might help a bit to tackle with this problem, if not completely uproot it. I think, the violence against women has rooted itself in a such as way that it might take years before even a iota of progress be made in curbing it. And, sadly enough, it is going to remain here for sometime now since the authorities responsible for amending the legislation doesn’t seem paying much heed to this ever growing serious problem.

I think, they (the authorities) are not going come out of their cozy cocoon until the problem knocks their door. This is how it always works and becomes effective.

Find the PDF file here:  Dealing with devil

Commercialization of plant tissue culture technology


Kathmandu | Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Few months back I got a chance to attend a youth forum which is being organized once in a month by the biotechnology graduates of Nepal. And, it has been nearly a year or more since this talk program has been conducted continuously. And, it has been a year of glorious journey and we feel glad to share this to all of you. The essence of the program is to make people aware about the necessity and importance of biotechnology in Nepal. And, this time the topic of this talk program (Team Up and Talk Biotechnology) has been “Commercialization of plant tissue culture technology”. It has been long since I wrote this blog on the very program, but somehow I have not been able to manage to post it. But, now, I am posting it here. Hope you will enjoy the post.

There are just few handfuls of people, group, organization or institute that dares to escalate and stand in the time of adversity, and “Team Up and Talk About Biotechnology” is one such youth forums. “Team Up and Talk About Biotechnology” has ventured in this noble work of garnering the current molecular biologists of Nepal since January 2012, and since then has been engaged actively in such discussion programs pertaining to the ongoing research works in Nepal and their achievements so far.

In the due process, this time, the very group has just finished its 10th. Talk-episode successfully organized in Martin Chautari on Wednesday, February 27, 2013 among the enthusiastic biotech graduates and scientists from different renowned organizations such as Kathmandu University, SAAN International, White House International Sanpo International Corporation, Japan, and Department of Plant Resource under Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation, Nepal. The talk program was entitled: “Commercialization of plant tissue culture technology”.

The chief guests of the program was Mr. Hari Krishna Saiju (plant tissue culturist) and Mrs. Amira Dali (International Business Management officer associated with Sanpo International Corporation, Japan) – one of the few renowned figures in Nepal who have devoted their entire life contributing to the Nepali society with the available plant resources and making it one of the sustainable business through research work.

The talk show was opened by Mr. Saiju – one of the leading plant tissue culturists of Nepal who had invented and introduced “Sand Rooting Technology” in plant in Nepal – one of the groundbreaking technologies in the field of plant science that has made the world owe on that particular achievement. The technology made the world jaw-dropped because the technology made plant grow their roots in sand which didn’t contain any form of growth hormones such as auxin or delicate environmental conditions necessary for generating root – it rather contained just clean moist sand from Godawari river.

The very technique was universally accepted and got publication in various international journals on plant research after the technique was approved by researchers from US and Japan – including Professor Murasakami from Okinawa University, Japan who once visited Nepal during 1970-1980 and took the sand sample from Godawari to investigate possible nutritive materials that was thought might be inducing rooting in plant. However, researchers didn’t find anything other than just moist sand which has contributed so magnificently – and that was really hard to believe and accept. However, unfortunately, researchers in Nepal failed to patent the technique due to fund crunch – required for processing patenting work in US. And, later, the technique was made available free of cost for the society – a paragon of philanthropic work by Nepali scientists.

The gist of the talk program reiterated on the fact that Nepal is rich in natural resources and there is a tremendous scope if research works on plant resources is to be taken seriously, especially on tea, potato, wheat, maize, banana and some other cash crops. Because of the lack of proper business-oriented tissue culture labs in Nepal and the reluctance of Nepal government towards research work, current cash crops are on the verge of aging and it needs serious attention to rejuvenate it.

Yes, of course, there are some stymies that might be trying to stumble work, but it is not impossible! While Nepal is under the transition phase which seems unceasing for the time being with surmounting load-shedding hours in addition, it is obvious that it might be somewhat disheartening to those who are seriously giving it a thought. But, the current growing demand for tissue-cultured tea plants in Nepal is so overwhelming that once it is initiated it will surpass all those stymies.

The handful of tissue culture labs in Nepal has just not been able to cope with the growing demand of tissue-cultured banana plants, virus-free potato and few ornamental plants which are also being exported elsewhere in the world. Mrs. Dali reiterated on the fact that, Nepal is still importing potatoes from Bhutan and India, but surprisingly only the Nepal’s homegrown potatoes are the only that are virus free – which has been developed by the researchers in Nepal. And, unfortunately, it will taint the current virus-free potatoes of Nepal in future. Additionally, current research on wheat has shown that Nepal’s wheat is only free of leaf-rust disease in South Asian region.

Finally, the talk show ended successfully with a hope that Nepal still have tremendous potential and ample of research fields to develop on cash-crops and ornamental plants that can be turned into a sustainable business with a R&D in the background for continuous upbringing of aging Nepal crops and plants.

DISCUSSION SESSION

Q. How sustainable is the area of plant tissue culture in Nepal?

We have to accept the fact that it will not be garnering money overnight, but since cultured plants have huge demand when it comes especially in tea and banana market, it is one of the most lucrative businesses in Nepal. But, you have to hold your heart for at least few years before it starts to bear fruits.