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

Imbroglio of scientific world

|By Rajesh Chaudhary

Just nearly a week ago, the entire scientific world wake up in a frenzy. It has been marked as one of the memorable day in the scientific world when the news about “human stem cell line through cloning” resurfaced throughout the world creating a huge buzz – the day was so significant and it holds meaning for its daring job. It has once again made it clear that the world of cloning is not fading away doesn’t matter how hard the religious sentiments are being crushed time and again and how many times they are being challenged for what they preach.

When you enter into a real scientific world, you will feel the need of knowledge in research ethics. When we entered into our research work, we were not allowed to start our lab and touch anything until and unless we were made sure through classes, seminars and other activities along with the exam on research ethics to make sure we were not going to bungle it up once we start our full-fledged lab work.

The fact of getting conversant with the ethical guidelines before getting into the research work can’t be discounted. But, the confusion arises on the way. There had been, and there are still, unattended issues of whether or not ethical guidelines has to be implemented as strictly as it has been suggested. The reason is ethical guidelines are still not clear and it leaves researchers in lurch thinking whether to proceed or to leave the work which took time, money and all those years  of perseverance.

The news about the revolutionary cloning of sheep, The Dolly Sheep” in 1996 has long gone, but it has left a sense of apprehension and confusion pertaining to the fact that whether we are destined to doom our own existence while longing for our godly attempt – to create a new individual from the existing one – THE CLONE! 

Recent groundbreaking discovery on “Human stem cell lines through cloning” is one of those buzzing news which has created a huge outcry in the scientific world not just because it has surpassed its limit to go beyond what is usually ethically permitted but also because of some of its errors that was crept in during its zipping attempt to publish paper in the journal Cell.

Though this groundbreaking discovery has its potential to turn the table to those who preach the strict laws governing ethical issues taking into account of its potentiality to find one of those desperate answers to the disease such as “Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy”, and to create perfectly match tissues that might be a answer for the disease ranging from diabetes to Parkinson’s disease along with and other “mitochondrial-related diseases”; there still have been comments from the critics calling it a “barbaric” attempt while other terming it as “terrible injustice”.

The reasons was that during this procedure one has to go through three steps: egg donation, embryo destruction and cloning – all of which is unethical because for egg donation a women has to pass through procedures which have uninvited consequences.

It is also quite understandable that for every big achievement of whatsoever kind have a price we have to pay. We must have to take the lead and challenge what is being discouraged. I think the ethics stymieing the progress of research work involving stem cells has to take a back seat at least for a while rather than making issues with each and every groundbreaking discovery. It’s a high time to think about it rationally and give some space to those who are really seriously attempting to salvage from the diseases engrossing the entire humanity.

Life is beautiful

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It has been quite a while since I have left blogging which was not of course intentional. It has been quite a while since I have started to get engaged in my first ever job of my life. And, I am feeling good about it. It’s not because I always wanted to earn my own money and spent it the way I wanted, but because it gets be engage and this helps my body to secrete “feel good hormone” which in biological term we term it as “endorphin” – a hormone which is secreted in response to stimulus including coffee, during exercise, excitement, pain, love, orgasm, sex, and many more – whatever excites your brain and gives you a feeling of goodness.

I was born in Nepal, and I have been brought up in a very good environment though not even being from so well-to-do family. I love living in Nepal and continuing my life in Nepal whatever it is and will be, which is contrast to the feeling I had few months back. After spending approximately 3.5 years of my life, finally, I landed in Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), Kathmandu, in one chilling afternoon. The day, I still remember was December 05, 2012. It is just like one of those days of my life which is very hard to forget even I wish to.

Soon after landing, I was already rolling in taxi in the busy streets of Kathmandu – chaotic, noisy filled with pollution of all sorts (noise, air, and whatever you can think of). The first feeling that stung me was, “Is this what I was so desperate of?, Is this what I deserve after spending so much of time, money and facing all those academic-tribulation in foreign land?” – and the feeling kept on stinging me for few days, and it was even more acerbic as I was looking for job. And, you can guess what it costs to find your first ever job.

But as the time passes, it fades away with time. And, after long time, I am starting to feeling that it is anyway good, and I can still stay without electricity, internet or whatever facilities I enjoyed earlier. I am not really boasting, but there is some goodness in everybody and so do I. I always have a feeling of goodness when I engage myself in some sort of activity in the day. Doesn’t matter what I do – either read a novel, write a blog, watch a movie, do my lab work, teach student, – or whatever literally – I use to feel good and I still feel good. It’s a kind of feeling that, “I have not spent my day today doing nothing – at least I did something – something productive in some way which might help me feel good or help me lift myself to some degree of decency.”

Since I got the job, my life turned suddenly turned from being a student to being a professional. Though, managing things in the beginning is difficult, it is always fun to have some sort of challenge waiting for you. Once you accomplish, you feel as if you have own one war and you are now preparing for the next one. Now, the days passes within the blink of an eye, and I wish, the day would have been longer.

Even though lots of things have changed and I am feeling the responsibilities piling upon me, I still feel as if I am still the same old little guy who use to go to school carrying a bag on the back. I can’t believe how the days have been passed so swimmingly. It feels as if those days have been just few old yesteryears which is still fresh in mind. The beautiful memories of old school days and college days is still dancing in front of my eye radiating the goodness of memories.

I wish my life would move as it is and as it has been. There has been some challenges in life, but in overall, it was good and I wish, it will continue as it has been those yesteryears. And, for this I would like to thank god for bringing me in the surrounding of these beautiful peoples (my family, my friends, my seniors, my mentors and my well wishers).

GOD YOU ARE GREAT! THANK YOU FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE AND WISH YOU WILL CONTINUE SHOWERING YOUR LOVE FOR ME TILL THE END OF MY LIFE!

Thank you, my dear friend!

Its been almost 28 years now of my life and now finally I find you. It was so great when I first got to know you and the value of your presence in my life. I am so obliged to you the way you have helped me and assisted me in my work in everyway since I got to know you. You are simply great to me!

Even though I knew you in the beginning I didn’t want to come closer to you, for being apprehensive of losing myself, because I always knew that your effect in me might be devastating in nature. I have always been skeptical of things in my life and for that very reason I have missed so much of good things, moments and persons in my life. Being apprehensive and skeptical to some extent is good, but as it is said that, “Excess of anything is bad” – it has applied exactly to me till now in few things – that is being skeptical of things.

Since you came to my life, your presence has truly changed me in everyway and more specifically the my potential to which I can reach. Whenever I had a bad mood, swollen and being skeptical of my own potential and doubting myself, you have helped me to calm down, hold my heart and be patient. You taught me a lesson of having a serene mind and its good effect on us, and our productivity and our gregarious nature and helping us to become even more social.

I can’t discount the fact that you are around me, because you have always been inside me. Once you are in me, I can’t help myself but just to surrender to you. Your presence in me is to grabbing, and I have always felt that no doubt when, where and how. You are just omnipresent for me in a way. I can find you in every nooks and corner of this earth. The only thing I have to care is that I have to miss you once somehow, and want your presence in my life wherever I am – you have always been there and you are always there.

When you are with me, around me or in me, I just feel so good and the world looks so beautiful to me. Everything looks so perfect that I feel that I have been moron of being unkind to somebody or being unfriendly to somebody. Everything and everyone just suddenly start looking so beautiful, kind and like a friend of mine. If you are not around me, I can’t really concentrate in my work, I can’t do things and most of the things start looking so hazy to comprehend and impossible to achieve.

I don’t know and don’t understand, how I have been able to live without you?, or its just that you are my habit now? I know, I will miss you so immensely if ever I have to leave you for some reason. I know it will be very hard for me – either I have to find someone like you or find an alternative to ward you off my head for a moment or completely – which I know will be truly painful and tearing.

During my time with you and trying to know more about you, I have seen how helpful you have been to others in your surrounding and not just me. You greatness is that you are just equal to everyone and everybody feels the same just like me – everybody feels that you are special to them, and not just me. And,I guess, I do not commit any crime longing for you and being with you for ever.

I don’t know what to say and how to thank you. I have just virtually no words in my dictionary to thank you. I am just dumfounded, astounded, and speechless to see how you have engrossed me completely in yourself. You have complete control over my mind, body and life!

Thank you, COFFEE!

Are We Really Happy Today?

This question is as interesting as it is pestering, and we all know this very well. There are lots of questions like these which is still  unanswered and will be in years to come. This question, in a way, is just like questioning, “What came first? – Egg or Chicken?” So, in some sense, questions like these are called pestering question that will never have any concrete answer which can satisfactorily quench the query.

Apart from my research questions which is innumerable to count and which will takes years to find the answer, this question has always been reeling in my mind ever since I lost my sense of serenity and acquired an ambition to achieve – some of which has of course been mine and still is, while some are those that I have to find for someone else (family and friends). Our life is divided into combustible chambers of a rocket – our childhood, adolescent, maturation and old age. Every chambers of our life rocket is as important as it is to a rocket to propel it to move forward. Even a single glitch or failure in some intricacies will lead to complete downfall without giving us a single ray of hope to rise again.

In the above paragraph, I said, “……since I lost my sense of serenity and acquired an ambition to achieve……” which means in our adolescent age we start losing our mental serenity and this is the part from where the real combustion beings. Feeling unhappy or momentary happy is the part of this combustion process where when the heat is less, we feel happy, but apart from that we are unhappy. Most of our life is engrossed with this fact – believe it or not – but this is the fact. If you doubt, look back and try to visualize and ask yourself, “Why have I never stopped for a while to take a sigh of rest?”, “Why I am running like somebody is distributing something for free and I have to preempt and get it?”.

The most saddening thing is that we will never attain a ultimate peace of mind, we can never be happy if we keep on living the way we are. Just take for example: Once a child is born the parents start thinking of their health – they grow up, their health becomes fine then they start thinking of their study and to keep them consistently in the right track so that they will take a right course in their life once they will be left on their own. Once they take the right course, the parents starts thinking of their marriage (In this case, it is in terms of South Asian countries) – once their marriage life is well, they wanted to be known as a grandparents of a good kids and the process goes on. In our case, once we finish our school we start thinking of college, then subjects to choose which will lead us to some lucrative job perspective, then job, then money and then comes other accessories things.

When we get something for which we have been running, we are happy for a moment which has the shortest lifespan on earth and then we start thinking of the next level – in fact this chain of process never ends and we kept on running till the time comes when we are left with no other option then going to our moribund. So, what the heck? – what’s the meaning of running? – we never stopped for a while to relish the fruit of our perseverance and achievement . This might be a bit pessimistic opinion. But, in another way it is good. Good in a sense that we are busy with our work so that we never get time to think of anything evil – because there is an old saying which we use to read in our elementary school: “An Empty Mind is a Devil’s Workshop”, “Work is Worship” and things like that.

But, after all, the balance of HAPPINESS AND SADNESS is still not even and it is very difficult to find why. It is difficult to decipher the code of God and to find out why this world is so uneven when it comes to maintaining the equality. But, at the same time it is hard to believe that GOD CAN BE PARTIAL. In this case, we still have to believe that we are living in a even society of God where everything is fair and equal – however, it is difficult to believe, we have to believe if we are even a bit theist.

However stark it sounds, I have got just one thing to say, “Stay Happy, feel happy and be happy” – this is the only way to achieve what you want to. Perseverance is the best choice we are left in our life to deal with life. Be as supple as you can otherwise it is very hard to break even with a gust of wind sometimes – just like a dry branch of a tree.

All the best to all of you whoever have just finished reading this!!

A Letter to Dr. Wagle

 

Dear Dr. Wagle,

I have just come across your post: “KU’s forward move” dated January 16, 2012 in “The Himalayan Times”. And I must say that was a wonderful stuff I got to read after a long time. That was worth reading and I can fully comprehend that. After reading the post I am confused with few issues what you have put forward – which I have been accustomed to through out my life and even till now, which is not something surprising, and I have got few questions to ask you.

Before I should start with my queries and my points to get cleared, I want to make few things clear here. The thing is I am not writing you to discuss on this matter as my panel of balance is not tantamount to yours, and so, for that very reason I do not have that leeway to argue, discuss on this particular matter. I am not a politician and I do not have that understanding of even basic politics, but what I do understand is the basic sense of assimilating things in our daily life and putting into action. If it goes wrong or if it become aberrant in its nature and values, that’s what I believe might a politics – which is never straight forward and obviously not honest in manner in anyway.

I do not want to comment on which I am not quite sure of, but what I can guess from your tone of writing and your ideas is that you are trying to pour something personal irk here. You are trying to actuate the poor students and the staffs members of the KU community which is truly devastating in nature. Because as of nature of fact this will create a massive disorganization and anarchism in the institute which is by no means good for an organization and its integrity – which I believe as a member of KU organization you are trying to commit suicide. First thing first, because the person who is trying to create a rule of “divide and rule” will not be trusted by any other organization once they will have no platform to stand after the institute they are associated with once gets demolished. Every true leader of an organization loves their institute and they will by no means going to jeopardize it in the hands of few turncoats.

My understanding of Nepal is as a potters-clay which is slime and it has still not got its true shape before we are trying to cook it in the furnace. In another sense, Nepal is just a small plant from which everybody wants their share of branch for their use even before it is fully grown into a tree. How about trying to water it, mineral it and let it protect from the external environmental factors to let it grow as  big tree from which even chopping few branches will not make difference. But, in fact what we are doing here is trying to chop its branches when the tree itself needs its braches and leaves to become a perfect strong tree to give us shade later in our life. I am sad to know from your article that you are also in the same track as our dear leaders and members of parliament who can barely write their names, but still can travel in Pajero and get a salary far more than a real salary of most revered jobs positions in the world – doctors or engineers.

I am not writing this because I have got some ulterior motif hidden in myself, and I am not taking a position in favor or against somebody and I do not longue anything from this . What I am trying to explain here is what I have felt as my carrier as a student in that institute. A student’s the first and last expectation from an institute is that they should get a better and quality education and they wish that they will get return for what they pay and their tuition fee doesn’t go in vain. And, I guess almost all students have got that. So, its worthless to tickle them for your own benefit. Everybody knows that the only last person to get benefitted from this protest against the institute if erupted is you, and you are not going to make it a golden palace even after you get appointed to that  position. I don’t think that any students or working staffs there will be getting much benefitted in your command if in case you come to the position.

You know what is the problem of Nepal and we Nepalese here? We can’t see somebody progressing. Something starts biting us when we can’t do something by ourself. The only option we are left is to backbiting others, making gossips and trying to pull their feet somehow or if not then finally trying to create some obstacles in their way so that we can feel good. We do this to vent our frustrations out. This is a well established phenomena in our society. So, as a educator of the society, I think its your duty to mitigate these problems, educate the kids to not involve in the issues like this, and not to actuate them for something there are never meant to. Do not try to create another politician here. We have enough in our parliament to voice our wants and our demands – in fact, precisely there are almost 650 of them to speak in favor of us somehow – doesn’t matter how ignorant they are and how they come to escalate to that position.

Now my question is: Where have you been when Dr. Suresh Raj Sharma and his friends were struggling to give Nepal a good institute? For me, they do deserve to stick to the position for whatever tenure they want – in return for their sacrifice. Kathmandu University has more affiliations than any other institute in Nepal and this has been a kind of benediction to all staffs. I have seen every year there are staffs from every department who are getting benefitted from this institute – they are getting chances to continue their education, their research and their carriers ahead with training where they can’t afford to pay by themselves, and everybody knows that. I think you should come up with a good set of plans, ideas and some golden words that people will truly believe in you so that they can support your voice for you.

We have a bad habit of having read-made food. How about cooking ourself? Having food in restaurant might be delicious, but it can’t be as salubrious as cooked in our home. So think about cooking by yourself rather than having ready-made food. Think about it!!