Rural Education and Development

Weekend was great.

It was filled – just filled with brim. Friday was good with the movie. Saturday, as usual was little more relaxing. Sunday we had Shailesh dai, Reema and Atul over for dinner. It was nice and pleasant evening.

Oh! What a hot day today.

It’s been another very warm and sunny day, and apparently there is more to come. Tomorrow promises the same I think……. or there is a rain I heard. I wish I were in the pool soaking up the sun!

Today was good day. A usual Monday, I suppose.

Got woken up early in the morning by the annoying sound of the construction. Seriously, is it not illegal to start the construction as early as 6 in the morning? This thing has really ruined our body cycle.

This afternoon, I went to attend the Nepal-US Indigenous People’s Forum at Harvard University. The talk was about READ (Rural Education and Development). Mr. Sharad Babu Shrestha gave the talk about his experience as a Senior Program Officer with USC Canada and as Project Manager and Deputy Program Officer for Save the Children.

To empower communities by increasing literacy and access to education through the creation, advancement and leveraging of a replicable library-based model for sustainable economic development is the mission of the organization Mr. Shrestha emphasised. The main goal of this organization is Building literacy and communities through libraries.

It all started when Dr. Antonia Neubauer (president of READ) at the end of her trek asked the porter what she could do for him for being such a wonderful guide. The porter, Domi lama humbly requester Dr. Neubauer to build a library in his village and there! She did it.

The READ so far has successfully opened 40 libraries all over the Himalayan kingdom ranging from Panchthar in the east to Darchula in the west and Parsa and Rautahat in far north and south. I was very happy to see the determination of Mr. Shrestha and I am very glad that I got to meet a person like him who has been persistently trying to help our country.

It is heartbreaking to see the news of Middle East. The bluntness and candor, which characterized the war cries of neoconservatives, this weekend was quite striking. Will there be a W. W III? Why can’t there be peace?

I still remember talking with Stephanie, my high school friend from Lebanon and asking whether her families were safe in Beirut. This was almost 12 years ago, back in the high school days. Every one has gone in thier own path. However, the fight is still going on. Meanwhile, the war rages on, the world holds its breath, and the casualties mount.

Golmal

GOLMAAL- we went to see this movie yesterday and we were both very very fond of it. :) You will laugh your heads off till the veryyy end! That is a promise.

The weather is quite gloomy. The tyre of my bike is out. So no biking for me for a while. There is a construction going on near our house and the sound is just so anoyinggg.....

Nothing is planned as of yet. We will take the day as it comes. Have a beautiful weekend!
Library called : Jhumpa Lahiri's book is here :) I am excited.

My article

Here is a news, not a new one of course, but definitely worth sharing. I just found that that my article was also published in a South Asian media journal. As you can see, I am very ecstatic. Otherwise, I would not be writing twice a day. Thank you Mr. D!

It is the third article. Enjoy!! (Article)

Have a GREATT weekend!! It is going to be a little bit wierd without the W.cup, but I will be following the CARPE DIEM rule :)

ME

I am me. I am not setting up to be like any person else. I may admire the symbols, the philosophy, the viewpoints of other persons, but with all due respect, I do not aspire to be like anyone else. How can I? I am me!

Nooo, I take it back....... I am ME but I aspire to become like someone else. The people that we meet throughout the course of our lives mold and shape who we become. Some of those people have such a profound effect on our journey that we honor them by calling them a role model. I follow my role model and I want to become like that someone sepcial. I am me.. but molded by someone else. I need to change, toughen up and be more productive.I admire those who have a dream and never quit, regardless of how many failures they get. Someday, I want to become like my role model. The role model that I have always admired!

I take my artisitc licence to write words of whatever leaves in my mind. :)

I BELEIVE THAT: If you can not be happy in no-thing….you can not be happy with any-thing.

One more thing I thought about, it deals with vision. Not normal vision but special vision. I am speaking of the underrated art of seeing out of the corner of your eye. You can see things you never saw before, things you would never see normally. There is always that reflection there in the corner of oblivion that somehow reaches you in time to let you notice or warn you of anything at all. Bordering on premonition, you can see things you were not meant to, be granted that one instant of warning before the lightning strikes... its magical, really... so use it while you can, don’t take sight for granted but dont always use it for obvious purposes, trust me.

I have been listening a lot of RAVI SHANKER lately!

Asato ma sat gamaya
Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya
Mrityor ma amritam gamaya
Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti

From the false, lead me to the truth
From darkness, lead me to light
From death, lead me to immortality
Om, Peace, Peace, Peace.

Blog

Have been getting many e-mails =) saying that I should seriously consider “Writing”. To be honest, I have never really been a writer until very recently. When I first saw the whole blog thing, I was just so excited. I really enjoyed reading Paresh dai’s blog and he was the one who gave me the idea of starting my own one and Prasanna has always been very encouraging. :)

I'm not sure what this journal is now. A compulsion, I suppose. This has been a way to keep my memories from fading.Well, when you make a concerted effort to write every day in a blog, then it will have to,by nature, turn to something more personal. Hopefully it will allow you to see what it is like to live life as a student.I am interested in investigating questions of the mind and in my mind. Additionally, it gives me some accountability — which is always good.

Thursday night—nearly bedtime.

So, bleary eyed and not quite fully awake. I just took off my contact lens and writing wearing my glasses. I usually don’t take my lens till I go to bed. Today is different. Truth is, I think my eyes are just too knackered and needs a rest. Having an apt near Mass Ave is havoc. Blaring noises and disruptive horns is what we get. I feel bad for Prasanna who gets woken up early in the morning and comes home all exhausted. Poor thing! I am glad tomorrow is Friday.

I think today is just going to be a snippets. As a rule, I don't make serious posts. It's my genuine belief that almost nothing is sacred and immune from humour, even of the blackest kind.

That being said, I will start with my topic.

Failure----- It is really hard to stand again when you have fallen badly. It's even harder when you're constantly reminded that you fell. It's like a bad dream that won't go away. Only it's worse because you know it's not a dream but a brutal reality that you're facing every hour. I hear the second-hand ticking on the clock, the passing of time that cannot be retrieved no matter the cajoling or bribery. Time is the essence of honesty-because it runs you over whether you adhere to its rules or not. It's hard, but it's not impossible.

I still remember what Laxmi Mittal had said about making goals. He said, “ not to make high goals but change your goals as you move along. This way, even if you fail, you will not get disappointed. But like a wise person once sad, “Nothing lasts forever-not even bad times”.

I went to the library to get "Shaliamar the Clown" from Mr. Rushidie only to find out that it was checked out. Agghhh.. I then went on to look for “The namesake”, by Jhumpa lahiri. Nope, no luck in this one as well. Bit disappointed, I came home with “Satanic Verse”- by Salman Rushidie and 3 movies.

-The Accused
-Lost in translation
-Motorcycle diaries - Finally after 3 attempt!

Promise, I will keep you updated.

Pras got the ticket for Ghulam Ali :) I am estatic. It is my first time.

Good night

the night

There is a distant light in the sky. It comes and goes fighting with the breaking waves for superiority. There is almost inaudible rasp of razor palm leaves rubbing in the air. A single chime sounds. The light is turned off in the room. I am sitting by the window.People laugh and walk, across the road. The cool breeze gently swipes my face. Best of all is the Moon. It is almost full, like a porcelain figure. Perfect white. Everything is bathed into the orangish colour from the street light I suppose. The whole sky is splotchy but clear, although even in the clear around the moon, the light betrays the thin layer of haze. I know of nothing relentless than the sound of silence. Faint whiff of the rain in the air. There was a great thunder in the afternoon.I stare at the moon. It shines even brighter through the patch of truly clear sky.

I just want to sit on the floor and color this beauty. The night looks impeccable.

(My husband took the liberty of taking the beautiful picture of Boston. One was taken after the July 4th fireworks. )

Foray into Writing

I was very ecstatic to see my article “ The good will for Nepal in Europe,” get published in the Nepalnews.com. This is my FIRST article ever to get posted in this website!!I have been getting so many emails from different people regarding their opinion on the article. What can I say, I was very happy to have that day of fame. This credit really goes to daddy, my father- in law for his constant encouragement and of course, Mr. Pras for all his help and lastly, the Internet. This indomitable medium has really connected my article with people from all over the world!

The article is about my experience as a Nepali in Europe, which I then compared to my experience in Tokyo and Mississippi. To me, it seemed as if Europeans were more aware of Nepal then the Americans were. This is solely based on my experience. I have been getting emails from the readers expressing their different views. Honestly speaking, Mississippi took me by absolute surprise. Coming from an International school where I had friends of Ghana, Djibouti, and Sweden to a place where many had no clue about the existence of countries other than the United States was indeed a shock to me. Moving from Kathmandu to Tokyo was not a surprise to me as moving from Tokyo to Mississippi was. This transition had not been easy for me both emotionally and practically. Now, I can only look back and smile.So again! this article is my experience and please feel free to Disagree :)

Yesterday evening was very eventful evening. The “MaHa” show was very exuberant and funny. “Sharada” was my favorite one. I laughed so much and still hurts! I had seen them in Baltimore in 2000 I believe. This was the first live show I had ever seen. The Help Nepal team did a wonderful job. Kudos to all the team, especially Shailesh Dai and Muna Aunty for the job well done. My thulo daddy got here last night. He will be going back to MS today. This is another of his very very brief stay but it is always nice to spend some time with him.

Oh and the weather has been amazing for past couple of days, especially during the evening I must admit.

And Ah! No scorching sun outside…

(Article) Enjoy!!!

Sayonara World cup

What a fantastic and dramatic final to end a great World Cup. It was a great game, a classic that will go down in soccer history, in my opinion. This world cup lacked the precitability that's scourged other world cups. The finale took a strange twist when the sentimental darling, veteran and the French captain lost his composure and aggressively head- butted an Italian player

What happened to Ziddane.. Zizouuuuu… ??

It started off being his defining moment, but the reasons changed after the headbutt. He had scored an audacious penalty. All was going well until the extra time and then the red mist descended. The officials seemed to miss the incident but the Italian players remonstrated loudly and Argentine referee ended Zidane's career nine minutes prematurely with a straight red card.

As described in this Sports Illustrated article about the final match, “the beautiful game turned vicious, even venomous on Sunday.” I mean what was on Zizou’s mind to make him flip out like that toward the end of such an important match? What did Italy’s Marco Matterazzi say to Zinédine Zidane to make him so angry?

Here, one of the greatest players in the history of the game pulls out the bonehead play of the tournement in the 110th minute. The champion who in front of two billion people, was putting the final touches on one of the most extraordinary sadas in soccer's history.Can’t imagine that a player of his caliber would let something that was said to get to him and then do something stupid on the last game of his career in the finals of the World Cup. He could definitely have been the next Beckenbauer or Pele......….. but at least he got ghe GOLDEN Ball Award.

Zidane is fallible. Zidane is a mere mortal. If he wasn't fallible, he wouldn't be human - he'd be God. Alas, no man is God. It was a storybook setting, but his dream ended in a nightmare. The parting image for Zizouuu will forever be him, the viliant knight rearing back in anger, lowering his bald head into the chest of the Italian defender.

WOW!! I could only sit and wait for the inevitable.

The enduring image of the World Cup for me was when Rooney got the Red card. It was one of a tensed game I had watched so far. Aside from the poor performances of various established stars there were very few surprises. World cup debutants like Ghana and Ukraine put up a fairly impressive performance that got them to the second round and quarter-final stage respectively, while England was knocked out again at the quarter finals via the dreaded penalty

And such was the 2006 World Cup....Congrats to all the team =)
Watching the game with the fans from both the team in the middle of Boston city Hall was indeed a phenomenal experience. Initially not knowing about this event we had headed to our usual place, of course, the Phoenix landing. The place did not look as crowded as we had expected. Upon starting the pre-show started, the ESPN showed the glimpse of the hall and without even having any second thought; we headed to the city hall.The place was CROWDED and we were very thrilled and Excited!!!

Prasanna had always wanted to buy the jersey. He wanted to get the Brazil one, they lost, then he thought of Germany, they were out, then finally Italy…. Both Pras and sano babu, my brother in law from DC bought he ITALIAN jersey. Somehow, Prasanna during the half time started doubting whether he should have actually bought the “les Bleus.” Well the extra time…. proved him all wrong! With a little Italian flag on his face along with the t-shirt chanting ITALLIIAAAA , he could not been any more loyal fan.

Congtratulation to the AZZURIIII =)

My weekend indeed was indeed a CARPE DIEM weekend! It was really nice with sano babu. We also had a chance to watch our wedding video, which was soooo nice and beautiful. All that just seems like yesterday.

What a Great month it had been.I am sad that the World cup is finished. My dad had predicted brazil,holland, france and italy to be on the final rounds. Well it was partially correct. Now that the Wcup is finished, back to regular life for me;this means back to the Economic and Statistic world!

Mr Mittal

According to the Forbes magazine, the three richest men in the world are:

1. Bill Gates
2. Warren Buffet
3. Laxmi Mittal

I had the honor of watching the interview of Bill and Warren at Charlie Rose last week. Yesterday I got the chance to watch the interview of the “Mittals.”

I still remember that day, when I was watching the “ Top 10 elegant weddings of the world” at E! and then the name “ Mittal” was ranked number one. I really wondered who this Indian guy was. After doing some research, I was impressed with Mr. Laxmi Mittal's background.

Mittal steel is king of steel market today. It possess a peculiar knowledge of converting non- performing public business and factory into highly profitable steel producing entities. He is famous for his personal spending and is now reported to be the biggest steel tycoon of the world a very much old world business; but his lifestyle from the most expensive home in London to the flamboyant daughters wedding in France ( At the palace of Versaille!) and his India visits are all pretty free flowing- globally. Mittal will now run the Arcelor, Luxembourg European steel champion. When I was in London with my husband in December, my friend Priya also drove us around his house neighbouring Kengiston palace, princess Dianna’s residence and the Nepalese embassy. :)

The interview was just so nice and encouraging. Laxmi Mittal was- very humble and down to earth desapite being one of the richest in the world. Mr. Mittal grew up in Rajastan, India in modest circumstances and simply decided to take up the export end of the family steel business. It was very interesting to find out that he had spent 14 years in Indonesia and that where he “ smelt the success.”

The interviewer asked Mr. Mittal what the word “Money” meant for him?

The interviewer asks - What is money to you?
a- number
b- security
c- power

He humbly replies:

“It is the satisfaction of doing something different and doing it unique. I think this is important than money. There are lots of successful leaders in the world who never earn money. In business there are lot of successful CEOs. They may not be a billionare but they are still successful and I highly respect them. It is not that money makes you successful but it is success that makes you happy.”

The Key word here is that SUCCESS MAKES YOU HAPPY!!

I truly agree with the suggestions he gave to the new generations. He said that there is so much knowledge available today instantly (thanks to the internet!). Knowledge is the key. If you have ambition, if you are focused, if you are committed and if you persevere, then you can do it!

On topic regarding " GOALS," he said-

" I do not set high goals. I set goals as I move along. This way you do not get disappointed if you do not succeed. You always take one step forward and then gain the confident and then move along. Then again, you change you goal. This gives you satisfaction and pleasure.”-Wow!

What can I say! I was just mesmerized by the whole interview. Listening to these sucessful leaders just inspires you and gives you a push! That is why an old edge say,

“Give me 10 knowledgeable people and I will conquer the world." :)

subliminal advertising

After pondering for a while, I came to the conclusion that it was now time for me to write about something else other than the world cup. So as a marketing major, I decided to converse on this topic.

Subliminal Advertising

What is subliminal advertising?

-If you attended the July 4th fireworks and saw the “Hood” balloon floating on the sky. I don’t know about you, but I depict that as a subliminal advert.

-In the Donald Trump show, right after the candidate is fired he steps inside a cab waiting with the “Yahoo Job”sign on the cab.

- The Famous one- subliminal messages being flashed in theaters telling people to drink soda and eat popcorn.

-Another interesting one is the research done by Wilson Bryan Key, a professor at the University of Western Ontario. Key found that the ice cubes in the Johnny Walker Scotch ads had images of screaming faces, skulls, and other horrific images. These types of images were in dreams experienced by alcoholics. After seeing these ads in Key's presentations, alcoholics who hadn't drunk for years suddenly had an urge to have a drink. :)

I will now take the example of my experience on the July 4th. As I sat down to see the Fireworks at the Charles River Esplanade, when I looked up in the sky one of the things that first struck me as wide-eyed eagerly waiting person was the floating HOOD balloon. The balloon was still floating peacefully even after the fire works had started. I am estimating that there were few million people that night and now the question is who will not remember this brand? Hood definitely was not doing any explicit advertising. The balloon was just floating peacefully and yet it managed to capture our attention and successfully might have also transformed other milk buying customers to the HOOD buyers!

One reason the subliminal advertisement is a dangerous conduit for innocent people like us is without knowingly it would have successfully brainwashed us .Now imagine, I am at a store and having trouble picking the right milk. You guessed it right… HOOD will be it :)

Also while watching the World cup, I have noticed the advert for “AVAYA” quite a lot. This no doubt is another form of subliminal advertisement. Subliminal advertising is a technique of exposing consumers to product pictures, brand names, or other marketing stimuli without the consumers having conscious awareness. Once exposed to a subliminal marketing stimulus, the consumer is believed to decode the information and act upon it without being able to acknowledge a communication stimulus. Thus, it is believed that one can influence behavior by surreptitiously appealing to the subconscious mind with words and images. If this were true, then advertisers could manipulate consumer behavior by hiding subliminal messages in their ads.

The advertising industry, a prominent and powerful industry, engages in deceptive subliminal advertising which most us are unaware of. By bypassing our unconscious mind using this techniques, advertisers tap into the vulnerabilities surrounding our unconscious mind, manipulating and controlling us in many ways. (If not then why all of a sudden I would start buying the HOOD product) Half of their dominating influence can be attributed to their use of subliminal advertising. Using the latest computer technology, they have unparalleled resources to manipulate each image to target a specific weakness in us. Subliminal messages gain their potential power from the fact that they may be able to circumvent the critical functions of the conscious mind, and it has often been argued that subliminal suggestions are therefore potentially more powerful than ordinary suggestions.

There have been lot of positive and negative connotations on “subliminal” form of advertising and I am not going to any more detail. I am sure most of know about the picture of the girl by Sigmund Freud :)

I guess, the bottom line here is that: People should be aware of the way hidden messages can be used in advertising. This way they will not be manipulated by the sneaky advertisements that may be out there, because, although there have been many studies conducted, the question still remains unanswered, "Do subliminal messages exist in advertising or do they not?"

Do subliminal messages violate the code of advertising? Will this change the way advertising is regulated? How could we detect subliminal messages inserted into creatives? ----This is for you guys to answer!

BUT PEOPLE out there….. Be aware of this MALICIOUS scheme.

And NO, I am still not over the fact that Portugal lost………………

JULY 4th

Yet another exciting and a disappointing game!

This, I thought, would be an easy win for the Germans. ( Holland was out. Argentina was out. But I had, against my better judgment and every instinct in my body, adopted Germany as my new team and sadly they are gone!) They were on home territory, at the top of their game, and Italy hadn't really impressed anybody.

Italy has never won a penalty shoot-out in the world cup, while Germany has never lost one. Naturally, the Germans were quite prepared to ride out the game and go to a shoot-out in front of their home crowd. With just a minute and a half remaining, it looked like penalties were a certainty. However,Italy stunned World Cup host nation Germany: Grosso slammed in a beautiful goal that sailed past Lehmann, followed around a minute after by an equally elegant one by Piero. The German side became visibly deflated after the first goal and lost its composure, which partly led to Piero's 2-0 goals.Arghhhhh!!

What happened to Ballack? He didn't have quite the sparkle he had showed against
Argentina.

I was amongst the many disappointment fans in the Bar. Am betting on Italy - Portugal final. Hope Deco can counter Zidane.

So much for the game …

JULY 4th weekend. Just like the wind, the big JULY 4th weekend is gone ! It indeed was quite a memorable one for us.

Now, America is officially - 230 years old.

Sitting and listening to Steven Tyler and Joe Perry perform with the Boston Pops at the bandshell on the Charles River Esplanade could not have been better. This year, we got a perfect spot. Both Prasanna and I, we sat with the crowd right in front of the river bank where we got a perfect, I mean..PERTECT (trust me, I cannot be more clearer) VIEW of the BEAUTIFUL fireworks.

Firecrackers, bottle rockets, bigger stuff….
Crackling, booming, screeching

The crowd was amazing. People everywhere. Somewhere in the crowd I spotted two Japanese with their Kimonos on. I was happy. It reminded me of the “HANABI” back in Tokyo. During summer time, around this time to be exact, they have something called HANABI/fire works in Tokyo as well. To tell you the truth, I really am not aware of its significance. I am thinking just for Fun. This takes place usually over the weekend and everyone wears their kimono. It is sort of a bonding time with the family with BBQ and picnic.

Somehow my experience in the crowd made me recollect my old memories back in my days in Japan.

Hope everybody else had a nice July 4th.

On the contrary note, I am reading the article at WSJ titled “ Fans say ESPN’s world cup Derseves Penalty”- I am completely nodding at this. It is really annoying getting disrupted by the overuse of graphics and cut-away shots. Who cares about the “ father-son duo players in the world cup”? The commentators are trying to show us how much they know but they do not realize the fact that all they are doing is showing how much they DO NOT KNOW!

Bye Bye England and Brazil

It was a VERYYYY exciting game today. The first one was even more exciting.Like our usual routine, we headed to "Phoenix landing". The game started at 11:00 and our target was to get to the place at 10:30. We got there at 10: 15 just to find out that the club was over its capacity and they did not allow anyone inside. There were long lines of people, mostly ENGLISH fans of course, with their T-shirts (Beckham and Rooney) still waiting and talking with the security guard to let them in. There was no hope for us. There was another pub nearby the area but the place was not as appealing as the “Phoenix Landing.”

We only had 15 min left and whatever we did, we had to decide quickly. Prasanna suggested making a quick drive towards “New Orleans,” the sports bar in Davis Square. We were also kind of prepared for the worst-case scenario. In case that did not work out, we would just go to the North end, the Italian town and watch it in a café. Bit disappointed and anxious, we both quickly made the move.Driving by Harvard Square we saw quite a crowd at “Graffton Café” and decided to make that our Football venue for next 2 hours. That place was packed with the English fans.

England has always been in the limelight and that was one of the reasons why I did not want to root for that team. And then there was the “ BECKHAM” craze. Trust me, I have nothing against England. My sister is studying in England and I love London but I just was not the biggest fan of the English team so I decided to root for FIGO and Ronaldoo!!!! Prasanna and I, we were the only two excited fans rooting for Portugal in that whole Café. My throat still hurts.....Go FFFigoooooooo!

One English chap also shook our hand saying "Good luck" in his thick English accent. Never was I so tensed in any of the games like I was in the ENGLAND VS PORTUGAL game. When Portugal missed the second Penalty, I thought we lost and that was it but when English missed another one and then another one, I was very confident that Portugal was going to win and that was it!!!

Yes! you guessed it right! I along with other fellow Portuguese fans were whooping, jumping up and clapping my hands about England getting dumped out of The World Cup. AGAIN!Please Keep in mind that I absolutely love England!

England really dealt a blow when David Beckham went out with an apparent knee injury and Rooney left with a red card. Portugal sealed the victory with the final penalty pick from Manchester United's Ronaldo. Portugal beating England was a welcome change and I loved that match. Somehow, I always have a thing about siding with the underdogs - for the simple reason that the passion to succeed is greater than the drive to defend.

For the second game, we decided to go back to “Phoenix landing”. The place was already packed with the Brazilians and the French fans. I was quite confident that Brazil was going to win. Regardless of knowing that, I still picked to root for France. We sat in the middle of French fans and rooted for HENRRYYYYY singing “Allez Les Bleus”“Allez Les Bleus!!!!!

What a shocking game it was!

Brazil vs. France match epitomized the ‘adage’ to the fullest. Brazil, the world champions for five consecutive years, could not make it to the semi-finals, and were brutally dominated by France throughout the quarterfinal match. France had the perfect strategy up their sleeve - being a strongly defending team; they scored an early and then kept Brazil at bay for the rest of the match. Brazil lost 1-0.

The super cool french with their fancy flicks, solid tackling and razor sharp attacks just blew the famous Brazil side away. It was the best of the times ………… Henry, Patrick Vieira, Franck Ribery were a pleasure to watch … Zidane’s superb touches and virtuosi control.What happened to RONALDO? To me, it seemed like he was already satisfied with the fact that he broke the world record by making the 15 goals, and cared less about winning the W. cup.

France's 3-0 Final win in 1998 had already given than slight historical edge over the five-times champions going into this latest match. However, the Overconfident and Arrogant Brazil lost!! I can't believe it - Brazil got knocked out of the world cup even before reaching the Semi-Finals!

This will be the first time since 1982 that will be an all-European final in the 2006 World Cup Soccer. The home team advantage still favors Germany as the eventual winner.

My prediction- I think that we will probably see a final between the hosts Germany and the comeback kings of France. Looks like this year is the year for the Germans.

snippets...

This one is going to be a short one.

I really do not have much to write ……really.

There has been no football for last 2 days. I am looking forward to seeing the ones tomorrow. Argentina Vs Germany!

Roman Polanski, no doubt has portrayed the movie very thoroughly.

I started to watch the movie “ THE PIANIST” and just could not finish it. It was just too hard. Even harder than “ HOTEL RWANDA.” Adam Brody plays his character wonderfully.Roman Polanski, no doubt has portrayed the Jewish experience in World War II that manages to be both illuminating, historically faithful, and definitive.A strong script, powerful direction and splendid production design allows us to be transported into the life of Wladyslaw Szpilman, (Adam Brody) who is not only a pianist, but a good human being."

The other night, I also watched “ The Charlie Rose interview,” one of my favorite programs since college. You really get to hear perspective from big people. This time he had an interview with Bill/Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet, the 2 richest guys in the world.

Warren Buffet announced his plan to give 85% of his wealth to charity ( 5 Foundations ). Todays value $37 Billion. He said that his decision to leave most of his wealth to charity was logical, adding that he feels terrific. Buffet (75) has for decades said his wealth would go to philanthropy upon his death, is now reversing the time table. This is the largest philanthropic gift in history.

"Now worth $30 billion, the Gates foundation is one of the world's richest philanthropic organizations," "It has committed millions to fighting diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in developing countries, and to education and library technology in the United States." (From the Internet sources)

KUDOS to MR. Buffet!

I take these types of actions by successful business people at face value and simply say that they're setting good examples, if anything, of what business owners should be doing - helping out and giving back to the community. If that's not the highest form of service - I don't know what is. When you give back to the community, it brings more meaning to your work.

What I really liked about MR. Gates is, despite his wealth and him being the richest man in the world, he is such a down to earth person. The way he speaks, they way he ahs been involved in the charity, however, on the other hand, Donald Trump- he is a man with arrogance. I guess that is their personalities.

I ponder a lot these days. Numerous topics is going through my head I must say.

This topic again got meinto thinking. The topic of “Patience.”

What can I say about this topic... Patience has to be the hardest virtue; I think that if you counted through the day how many times you lose it you wouldn't be able to keep count. The hardest thing is that most of us are called to exercise our patience.

This is all for today!

Random snippets..

I have had this post, about the power of words, floating in my mind for a few days .It got me into pondering about how we internalize them and personalize their meaning. This will be a humble effort on my side to define how I feel about this topic.

Ok! Here we go:

In an average day we may use as many as 20,000- 30,000 words, the equivalent of four to five hours of continuous speech. (Yes! I did manage to do little bit of a research). You don't have to work with words for a living to know that power is distributed unevenly to words and phrases. Even the person who is saying the “Word” might not really mean it, but if the word is powerful, the meaning might get into the wrong connotation. It is amazing the power that words have, a few words can lift you up or bring u down … they can make you smile, make you sad, make you laugh or may you cry.

Words are important, VERY VERY important I would say. Words have been important in human society for the longest time imaginable. In fact, it is impossible to think of the history of the World without the notion of words. We use words to express our experiences, to represent knowledge, to communicate, and to impress and influence people. The power of words has been well established in every civilization that human society has seen. We are taught from early childhood to use appropriate words for different contexts. The quest for increasing effectiveness of the words used in our expression never ends. The whole fight in the long Hindu epic, Mahabart and Ramayana started with a misuse of a word. The war started by an ugly remark uttered by Draupadi, the wife of prince udhistir to Duryodhan, the son of Dhritarashtra. Like-wise, the ugly remark to Rawan made by queen Sita led to a war.(Again! this is my analogy and please feel free to disagree).

Search engines are now telling us to forget the language and the notion of sentence – just consider a bag of words. I totally disagree with this. Words are just so powerful and we cannot just categorize it as a “bag” of words. I think we should always try to be aware of what we say, I know I personally slip up sometimes and just blurt out stuff that I shouldn’t have, but I would like to think that most of the time I think before I say something.

We use these words with much ease and usually little self-conscious thought. We simply open our mouths, and out they come. Out they come like rushing water out from a dam. Sometimes we rattle words without even knowing the actual meaning. This is a very bad excuse. Some just blame their habit and they do not even bother to correct it.

With our words we express our beliefs, and ourselves while at the same time imparting some affect on those we are speaking to, and they, vice-versa to us. It is this very influence that our words have that truly gives them their power. We all, at times overlook the far-reaching strength of our words, but this ignorance makes us no less susceptible to their power.

Ultimately, we all hold the power of words within ourselves. It is important to master words routinely and with dedication. Whatever powers we give them, and however they may influence us, they are things of our own creation. With this knowledge we are charged with a great responsibility. Words reflect and give wings to everything that is inside of us, and for good or for bad, they can express what we truly are as nothing else can. Our society also tends to judge people by the way they talk and how their family raised them. The good "talk" will you a positive mark and might also label you as a "sophisticated" person. Yes, it is unfair to judge people based on the way they talk, but like it or not, this is how our society works. Euphemism is also another good way to take control of the words. It really makes a big difference, if you say some one “ passed away,” rather than some one “died.”

The bottom-line here in to use the word correctly. One thing to remember: Whatever you say please make an effort to think rather than just bluntly pouring your thought.

This is my potryal of the power, the power of words.

World cup news:

Brazil won!

I will root for Spain for the next FRANCE Vs Spain game.

yellow.. dirty felloww..

The Netherlands Vs Portugal game turned out quite the disgrace. It could not get any uglier. I was of course rooting for the Holland. My dad studied in Holland so I felt some sort of a connection=) Unfortunately, they lost. This game will be remembered for all the yellow and red cards. The referee gave out the cards like flies. The game got out of hand. There were total of 16 yellow cards and 4 red. Some might suggest that the fault lies with the refree but I think it is the both the referee and the players.

The best game of the tournament so far was the Argentina/Mexico game--not because of the high drama of going into extra time or anything of that sort, but because it was played in a beautiful way openly, with a controlled yet frenetic quality. Here, though, is the important thing: In this game, it felt like as if it did not matter what the score was, as long as the ball moved around beautifully. We might agree, for instance, that a sense of personal satisfaction at the most basic level appears to be a smooth goal. But sometimes the maneuvering tactics of the players with the balls is also an interesting point to watch.

Let me talk about something else other than the football.

I was very shocked to read the news about the missing girl, Pratistha Budhathoki. I do not know her personally but I had worked with her at the Expo at Hyatt in Kathmandu about 4 years ago. I was working as a marketing analyst in a company called ITNTI and she used to come to our office quite often. I still remember her face quite vividly and was really saddened by the news. I hope she is fine and I pray for her safe return.

This incident reminded me of the disappearance of Arvin last year. Last summer, around this time, Arvin Sharma from DC had been disappeared and his body was later found in the Potomoc River. I knew Arvin as well. He was my maiju’s sister’s son. The whole ordeal was really hard and now this. I cannot imagine what Pratistha’s family must be going through. This year has been really hard for the Nepalese student studying in the US. I just watched the news clip about Pratistha's disappearance from the internet. It is really sad.At this point, we all have to remain optimistic and pray that everything is fine with her.

A million raindrop voices suddenly cried out in terror and suddenly were silenced. Sun finally decided to show up after 3 days of pouring rain.

Interview

Weekend is here.

It has been quite good so far other than the gloomy weather.

Friday, both Prasanna and I, we watched the movie – “ Malamal Weekely.”- What can I say, the movie was not as good as we had expected and we were glad that we did not go watch it in the theatre.

I also had a chance to see “ S.Rushdie’s” interview in PBS. He is also one of the guys that I would like to meet someday.

Why? one might ask.

No doubt, for his courage,his perception and for what he writes.

Salman Rushdie is, after all, the man who spent ten years of his life underground, hiding from Islamic assassins. He says, “The mélange of culture is in us all” and I truly agree with him. I have seen his interviews and really missed the opportunity to hear him speak at Harvard, when he had come for the book signing of “Shalimar the clown.” It would be a whole different experience to meet and talk with him in person.

His publication of THE SATANIC VERSES in 1988 ignited a firestorm across the Muslim world for its depiction of the prophet Mohammed. And around the world, copies of the book were set afire in protest. Even the powerful Ayatollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of Iran, issued a calling on Muslims worldwide to kill the apostate Rushdie wherever they found him. He went into hiding, moving from safe house to safe house, appearing only sporadically in public, always listening for footsteps behind him.

He refused to take his books out from the shelves, despite the threats from the Muslims.
Even recently when cartoons in a Danish newspaper depicting the Prophet Mohammed sparked worldwide protests and deadly violence, the leader of the Islamic group Hezbollah said there would not have been a problem if the assassination of Rushdie had succeeded.

And look where he is now. Throughout his ordeal Rushdie kept writing. His nine novels have been translated into 40 languages. Rushidie has become a very public champion of free speech and an outspoken critic of fundamentalism.

What I really liked in his interview is when is he said,“ Human beings look for transcendence. We're not satisfied with the every day because we are dreamers, because we are an imagining creature, we do have the ability to imagine a world which is not simply the flesh and blood world that we inhabit.”

During the interview session with Bill Moyers, Salman Rushdie said, "You know, even us atheists are obssessed with God". He has a point. Atheism is an idea that people arrive at after questioning the logic of their particular religious tradition. It seems to go beyond the need to explain the world and to alleviate our fears.

Without even realising, I manged to watch the whole hour of the interview. I have to admit, I must have very much enjoyed watching his interview because usually I do not even have the patience to watch anything without flicking the channels, however, in this case, I watched all of it without even touching the remote control.

I have yet to read the SATANIC VERSES. I think it will be an interesting read.

We went to watch the World cup soccer at the Aryal residence this morning and enjoyed the Fish curry and tama. A great “thank – you” goes to Ms. Appu. For the second game, we headed to my regular place, “Phoenix Landing,” and also met Hemendra dai along with Neevs and Anil dai and bibhu dai. The game was interesting. Argentina and Germany Won!

Later that night, we had a dinner at a French and Cambodian restaurant.

Today has been a good day.

Let me bid farewell for tonight.

Sayonara Japan

As I Cradle a cup of coffee in my fist, with my poignant face, I sadly admit that Japan’s World cup adventure is finally over. They will not go home with just a point and will no doubt remember this Cup mostly for the disheartening loss to Australia in their opener. This will surly haunt them for next 4 years.

They actually had the lead in the first half but Brazil just came back so strong in the second half.What happened to Japan after the second half? Its offense has either been eaten by godzilla or was left in the locker room at halftime. The unfortunate side effect led for Brazil victory.Japan was beaten 4-1.

Brazil is a strong team. Fair enough. But with Australia it was no excuse...

I decided to watch the game with the fans at “Phoenix Landing:” When I entered the bar all I could see was the Brazilian fans holding their flag. I was hoping to see some Japanese fans, to my dismay, none were to be found. To make the situation even worse one Kenyan guy who was of course rooting for Brazil decided to mock at me.

“They are going to loose,” he proudly claimed.

This comment made me enter into a private contemplation, rather self-indulgent in the circumstances, of whether " Japan was really going to loose really badly."I tried my very best to ignore that guy, however, deep down inside I knew that it was the truth.

Just as I sat down in a chair, the door opened and my good friend Koi walked in with his Japanese uniform. Oh! How happy I was!

The game started. Everyone was rooting for Brazil. Even though we were just two of us, both Koi and I screamed for “ Nippon.”

We were clapping and chanting -“Nippon Gamnbaro!!”

I guess the team must have heard us, cause just before the half time Nakamura scored a goal. Couple of fans seeing us scream also decided to transform themselves into Japanese fans. Soon, half of the room was supporting for Japan. When they scored the goal at first hope, we had some hope, but after the half time which conveyed the incomprehensible optimism, we both came into the realization that Japan of course, was playing none other than Brazil, the number one team and there was no way they were going to win.

Even though, Japan lost, I felt good that I rooted till the very end. KUDOS to KAWAGUCHI, the goalie for doing a wonderful job! He made some magnificient saves.ARIGATOU!!

Ghana also celebrated their victory. Nice game I must say. I am sure Mr. Kofi Annan is very happy that Ghana made it to the round of 16.

I guess now that Japan team is out; I will be an avid fan of Argentina. I think it is about time that some other team wins the title other than Brazil.

I am glad it is the weekend. Prasanna has been working like anything for past two weeks. He really, I mean really really needs a break. He was saying something about making a delivery to his clients.In addition to getting tired, he really have not had chance to get a good night sleep. Honestly speaking, this week really has been very tough for him. Hopefully, he will be able to recover well this weekend.

What else… The raindrop, growing tired of life in a cloud, decided it best to end it all and plunge to the earth below this weekend. The weather forecast says 100% chance of Rain. Most likely, the rain will be hitting the ground with distinctive splashes. Of course, we will not let this rain ruin our weekend. We have an exciting line up on both the days.

I have started reviewing for my Economic classes. I was happy that I still remembered normative economics.

Who will go to the next round ?

Now that summer is here, it is really hard to sleep with our windows closed. However, if we do sleep with our windows open, being next to the road and the fire brigade, it actually will be very difficult for us to have a good night sleep. The dreaming of "peaceful nights" are gone for us. The roaring, the honking will now welcome our new day!

This morning I woke up with a sharp pain( and no! not from the noises) in the lower right quadrant of my abdomen, and for about 10 minutes I was convinced I had appendicitis. However, I fell back asleep and when I woke up an hour later, the pain was gone. I must have eaten a lot night last I suppose. Prasanna was up quite early this morning. When I woke up at 6:30, he was already in front of his computer and was talking with his colleagues in Nepal.He was trying to solve something...some engineering things he says. I could hear him talk about cheques,"debit" and "credit" stuff.He had already made the coffee and the aroma had already captured the room. It felt fresh and nice. I love the smell of the coffee, especially when you get up in the morning and if you get to smell this beautiful aroma, it just makes your day!

World cup wise… it is USA Vs Ghana and Japan Vs Brazil. The game has just started. Truthfully speaking, Ghana is likely to win. (and Ghana just made it’s first goal).Had it been an afternoon game, I would have gone to the “Phoenix Landing” to watch the game but since it is in the morning, I decided to watch it from home. Brazil plays Japan in about 7 hours. I might go, not really sure though. It is fun to watch it with a crowd and rooting for a team.

My prediction is 2-0. I really want Japan to win but the chance is very slim, 5% to be exact. Japan has a good team but they just seem lost as of lately. It is quite ironic that Zico, the Japanese coach is from Brazil. Even if they win against Brazil, they will need the other result between Croatia and Australia to go their way to stand any chance of making it to the next round.

Will Japan beat Brazil? -This statement will resonate in my mind for next few hours, till 5 o'clock to be exact.Certainly, it's possible, but definitely not probable... RIGHT?

Yes, I still need to wrap up the Journal. Not to worry, I will soon!

In search of a Hotel

My last few posts have been cold (not cold per se) and impersonal, so I figured I'd post a few egocentric notes for some reading enjoyment. I thought before I lose more notebooks and render scribbles to unreadable scrabble, I’d like to write about the last leg of our European trip.

Our TRAVEL JOURNEY continues to the cradle and heart of the Renaissance.

As we were driving through Monaco with Lamborghini and Ferrari on our side, the night gradually started to descend. Soon, we were driving in the moonlight. There were streaks of pink sunset in the sky over the lagoon. I really have to admit that the scene was very beautiful but we really were not prepared to what was going to happen next.

It was almost about 10:00 when we left the border of Monaco and entered France and within the next 15 minutes, we entered Italy. We started out apprehensive, having heard bad stories about the Mafias. Our night started with the ominous sound of silence. The streets were quiet and empty and there was almost no one on the streets.We were excited to be in Italy.

We had left for St. Tropez, France around 10:00 in the morning.This means Prasanna had been driving for almost about 13 hours now. Slowly, I could see him feeling exhausted. I made a suggestion about taking an exit in the next town and looking for a hotel. (Yup! that was another adventure, not booking our hotel!!) Prasanna kept on insisting to drive to this city called “Savona” which looked quite far away in the map. I really wanted to take the exit on the next stop. While debating on whether or not to take the next exit,we accidently missed the exit that I wanted prasanna to take. We had no choice but to keep on driving and sadly, that it what we did. After couple of meters, we saw the sign for "gas station" and both agreed to make a stop and freshen up and also ask about the hotels.

Bearing in mind that we were in a country called Italy where "Bonjour,” or “Hola” would not work, we were bit confused starting our conversation. The journey turned out to be rather uncomfortable for us, the anxious travelers. For other trips we were quite well off with our “Lonely Planet," however, in this one we were totally clueless.Finally with a help of little English and sign language a young lad at the convenience store was able to give us some suggestions on the hotel. He told us to take the exit on the next city.

We bought some sandwiches and headed to our car and drove towards “Imperia,” the next city. We then took the exit. The city was crowded with youngsters and the tourists. It was almost 11:30 now. This looked liked a happening place. Restaurants and bars everywhere.As we drove by we also started seeing Hotels. Since there was no parking I decided to get off the car and find out the roon rates to compare with other hotels. “ No room,” the gentleman said in his hoarse voice. I smiled and left. We made a stop into the next on, “ All booked,” was the reply, and then we tried the next and the next one and so on.

The scene was quite ugly. In an unfamiliar place, horrible nightmare lurked in front of us and we were totally hopeless. After making a stop at the 14^th hotel, we decided to make a move to the next city. It was 2:00 in the morning. The night was cold, and we had nowhere to go. We were both in havoc and I really prayed for a room for us to rest.

While driving, we saw a police car and even asked his help. “Next 5 minutes, 2 hotels,” he murmured ogling at us in his so-called English language which was very vague. At this point, we were willing to do any this to get somewhere to rest. The clock was ticking and the long hand was now at 3:00. It was almost morning. We had been driving for almost 18 hours now.

Made the stop over at those two hotels.

I froze with horror. You guessed it right everything was booked.We opened the window in our car to let the cold wind in from letting us falling asleep. Both tired and frustrated, we still made an effort to talk to each other and kept on driving. I also made a suggestion about sleeping in the car. Prasanna was ready to drive all night rather than sleeping in the car in this country where we were a total strangers.

Another toll machine!

As I was about to duck to get my wallet to take out the credit card, I saw the sign of a hotel. Ok, this is it! This is the hotel. There was a hope at the end of the tunnel.

We followed the sign and kept on driving. Soon we were in the middle of nowhere. Our ONLY friend was the DARK night. Prasanna then began to doubt our decision. Feeling Helpless, Prasanna rolled down his window and raised his hand for “HELP.”

A big SUV stopped.

“Hotel?”

The young gentleman in the car tried to explain but I guess he could make out from our expressions that we were totally lost and helpless.

He signaled us to follow him.

We kept on driving in the dark night, in the deserted road.

I started getting eerie feeling. Prasanna was quiet. Is this stranger going to rob us? Is he a part of the mafia group? Does he have a gun?

Soon the big SUV made a stop and we were in front of a hotel.

The Goodwill for Nepal in Europe

“Nepal! It is a Beautiful country, I would really love to go hiking there someday” – a young Austrian excitingly told us after taking our picture in front of a beautiful valley in Interlaken, Switzerland. This was the third person that we met in the interim of two hours upon entering Switzerland, who had expressed so much interest in visiting Nepal. Just in the airplane on our flight from Amsterdam to Zurich, we had also chatted with a lovely Norwegian couple who had lived in Nepal for almost 33 years. To top it all off, even the gentleman at the passport control in Zurich International Airport seemed to know about the current political situation of Nepal and hoped for Peace.

I should explain. By sheer good fortune, I happened to be in Europe for a brief tour with my husband. They say that travel broadens the mind and challenges our preconceptions. My husband and I were uniformly engaged and even enchanted by our travels. Switzerland is a beautiful country with Alps, lakes and valleys, so green and so much like Nepal. A very developed Nepal with more educated citizens, I would say. Driving in Bern felt like driving in Chitwan. Gallivanting around Europe was very exciting, but more importantly, I was very impressed by the Europeans goodwill for Nepal. Every time we would ask someone to take our picture, our friendly conversation would end with the cheerful statement - “I will definitely visit your country someday”.

I got my high school education at an International School in Tokyo. Interacting with students from various nationalities made me realize the uniqueness of Nepal. I thoroughly enjoyed learning and discussing the cultures of the world. However, I was a bit saddened when I started my college in the United States. It was quite a daunting experience. To my American friends, the meaning of traveling was flying to the far east or to the far west of the United States. My Nepali and Japanese experiences would leave them in total amazement.

Nepal’s name was often mistaken for Naples in Italy. When I attempted to explain by saying “Mount Everest”- I would get the oft-quoted remark - “Isn’t that in Denver, Colorado?” which no doubt induced cries of indignation. Pause a moment to consider what this means. There were times when I used to sympathize or get disappointed by such remarks. But soon, I started getting used to it. It is quite heartbreaking when you do your best to follow the Western world and find out that to many here, your country does not even exist.

In stark contrast to this, my experience in England, Switzerland, France, Spain and Italy was very positive. My first encounter with the Norwegian couple gave me good vibes about Europe. On the whole trip, I was neither mistaken for being an Indian/Pakistani nor confused for coming from Naples, Italy. I was recognized for my genuine identity. I could freely talk about Nepal without having to explain its geographical location. The recent political events in Nepal had brought her more attention then ever before. This political upheaval was making many Europeans concerned for Nepal. They hoped for the quick return of peace and prosperity to our country.

I was extremely delighted to see this positive opinion of Nepal amongst the Europeans. This is certainly a very good sign. We can harness on this good image to increase our tourism business substantially. Our tourist industry is going through a slump and it is the right time to aggressively market Nepal as a “safe and beautiful tourism destination”. Nepali entrepreneurs should realize that Europe is a good market with significant good will. A marketing campaign similar to “Visit Nepal” should be launched again. With such efforts, Nepal will once again regain its popularity as a premier tourist destination.