Bikey "BOOM"

Lately, biking has been one of my favorite hobbies. I was one of the active member of "Bhudi Ghatau Abyiyan" when I started intense (for me) jogging in june. But, later I found it more tiring and less interesting and happily switched to biking.The biggest reason of turnabout was "speed". I have always appreciated pace and with bike I could enjoy 5-10 times more rapidity in movement and my (not particularly big) belly did not require strenuous exercise. There are abundant abandoned bikes in Medary always looking for free riders to free them from shackles and let them do what they are destined to do instead of dust and rust gathering. I never missed biking with cooling breeze under moonlight until bikey boom happened. Singing accompnied biking for more recreation (Which I missed while jogging). I started doing some of my old tricks including hands free biking and also enjoyed riding bike while having long chat with friends and family. I love multiprocessing and idea was to have some exercise while talking.




Unattended, rusty and dusty bikes ( Car of same category can also be seen in background)


Last Tuesday (24th july), I was doing same praxis of multiprocessing when my bike suddenly skidded and I landed on my left knee. It happened when I tried to sharp turn in speed without noticing the scattered sand underneath. I got bruises around my knee and no wonder it was painful (It is still) but it gave me an oppurtunity to inagurate savlon bottle and cotton roll that I carried with me while coming to USA a year ago. The very next day I was again on bike rolling down the declivity (Over pavement by the nursing building) partially hands free as I had a file to carry with left hand. I saw a 90 degree turn in front and when I put break on speed, unanticipatedly the bike lost its course and bumped a car (of course stationary, otherwise I wouldn't have been writting all this) with big "BOOM". Thankfully, I landed on right knee this time. Thankfully because landing on already bruised left knee would have aggrandized the pain even more. It was good to see two knees sharing the pain together.

Recently inaugurated savlon bottle and cotton pack with crack bandage.

Even in pain I did not extend any sympathy to myself as I was more upset for my carelessness. With little more misfortune the accident could have been much more bigger and serious. Still lying flat on pavement, I suddenly heard my Mom's words, which she used to iterate all the time during my childhood-"Babu, hosh gar hai, dherai umliyo bhane pokhincha"

Beckham Ballyhoo

Can David Beckham become savior of football (Soccer) in America, where football does not look like ball, is played with hand and the game looks more like a bull fight. Beckham made brief America debut on last Saturday when he entered the ground on 78th minute against Chelsea (Once a rival, during his heydays in Old Trafford). Unfit Beckham failed to make any impression on the field during his brief stint but off the field he had already made a big splash in mainstream media. Most people gathered to see Beckham than to watch soccer, most cameras zoomed in on off-field Beckham rather than on-field action. It always troubles me when a gamer is given more materiality than game itself, especially because of his off-field activities than on-field performance. That Saturday evening American media portrayed Soccer inferior to David Beckham and eventhough Chelsea emerged victorious in an over hyped but painfully slow, spiritless & dull contest, the result was insignificant as Football itself was already defeated.

We all know - "every cloud has silver lining". Football and its truest fans will always be grateful to David Beckham if he can change the fortune of the game in America. Personally, I seriously doubt it, particularly on a person’s ability that is more mercurial than majestic and has already left his prime days behind. Much will depend upon his on-field charisma rather than off the field hoopla. Thanks to the publicity, now everyone in USA knows who Beckham is but promotion of football will depend on what he does with air filled sphere of nine inches in diameter.

LA Galaxy (now better known as David Beckham’s team) is second from the bottom on the league standings. So, it will be more interesting to notice Beckham’s effect on team position in Major League Soccer (MLS), which attracts only 0.2% of cable TV audience. It will also be very interesting to see the influence of Beckham’s stardom on his team-mates, who earn almost 500 times less. Can they ever commingle in a team or will Beckham’s aura always keep them away?

Beckham always rejects the plan of his career in Hollywood and iterates his major focus is only soccer. But living near Hollywood hills is much more different than living in Manchester or Madrid and his friendship with class-A Hollywood celebrities attracts lots of distraction. Nobody can reject that the Beckhams always want to stay in limelight and make sure they do everything appropriate to create waves in media. For example, to make sure their relocation receives a blaze of media attention, Posh and Becks blitzed the US press with most saucy photo shoot yet. They are seen posing in underwear, kissing and striking provocative poses in August edition of "W" Magazine. Their attempt to add more and more Hollywood super-dupers in an already illustrious friends’ list also justifies the above claim.

Whatever the Beckhams say at this moment, many believe that the real motive to join LA Galaxy is much more than Football alone. It can be Beckhams’s careful planning for future. Beckham already 32 can not play professional football for too long and Victoria can not sing forever. So, what do they do then? With their massive notoriety and Hollywood contacts they can easily start a movie career. And, everyone knows LA is the place where people get lost in Showbiz.

I do not assume monopoly on truth and will be more than happy to be proved wrong & to see the development of Soccer in USA.

Romantic or Pragmatic ???

Argentina football coach Alfino Basile always says that he is simply not interested in winning alone, it matters to him how the victory is accomplished. By saying that he was suggesting Argentina should always follow traditional South American style of play and give continuity to sublime soccer. Millions of football fans around the globe keep themselves busy in debate of practical football vs beautiful football time and again. This debate is resurfaced again between Argentine fans and Brazilian fans because of Copa America finals with former accusing latter for not truely following the traditional South American style of play and not giving continuity to sublime soccer.

The powerhouses of South American football - Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay are countries of immigrants and football arrived there with the flood of immigrants. Football helped them bind together, for example when Uruguay won 1930 world cup more than half the population were immigrants. The South Americans developed a form of play which was both beautiful and effective. They attracted international recognition with their spread out, free flowing play and intricate passing and football became absolutely vital for their identity. But their technique did not go unchallanged for long especially after development of more physical,defensive and counter attacking football by Europeans.

Beautiful football (as purists suggest but critics says it is more romantic than beautiful and less pragmatic these days) became more and more toothless in later years. Purists fondly remember and never get tired of talking about Holland of 74 & 78, Brazil of 82 & 86, France of 86 and Argentina of 06 but the sad part of the story is none of them won the coveted trophy. The Brazilian "dream team" of 82 world cup exhibited sublime and most artistic way to play soccer. Their game was highly praised all around even though they did not win the trophy. They tried same thing in 86 but success deserted them again and when they were once again fruitless in 90, they were ridiculed with sarcasm even by South Americans. Failing to produce results with the so called "pure football" Brazil finally abandoned it and adopted some European (mainly German and Italian) tricks, which showed immediate effect and brought them success in 94. Since then Brazil has established themselves as world beaters, adding another world cup in 02 and four more Copa America trophies. Argentina who claim to play beautiful football has not won anything after 93 Copa America title.

The catastrophic debacle of Argentina in recently concluded Copa America final has now raised more questions against purists. Was the loss just because the players failed to perform to their potential ( Argentina looked lot stronger in paper) or was it due to poor planning ? Do romantic football really has firepower in its tank for eminence ? Is playing certain style of football is more important than winning matches ? Can Basile turn the wheel back to establish romantic football in 21st century ? The answer can go either way and people of opposite sects can argue for hours,days or years on this but right now, Man of the moment and winner is Brazilian Coach Dunga, who thinks it is important to make tactical changes to keep winning and believes changes are inevitable. Dunga at post final conference advocated the importance of win being much more important than any style of play. He said " We came to rescue the self-esteem of the Brazilian workers who wakes up in the morning and returns home late at night, whose only satisfaction in life is seeing Brazil win a football match"

Movies, Soccer and Barbeque

Hello and welcome to my world once again.

No Surprise ! last weekend also elasped pretty quickly. I always feel time cruises in no time in USA. Here, I do not count days but weekends and I still do not know if it is good thing or bad. Good in the sense its easier to pass time when pendulum seems to swing much faster. But, the other side of the coin warns I am also rapidly growing older (which is not very pleasing truth).

Last weekend I watched couple of good movies, participated in two barbeque banquet and played soccer twice. Do all good things befall in pair ? The movies "Remember the Titans" and "Timeline" should be in everyone's must watch list. Titans touched the heart and the story once again reminds how much difference a single person (Coach Herman Boone in this case )can make in society. I was also completely awe-struck by the plot of Timeline. Michael Crichton is master story teller and his stature to me has grown at least ten folds higher after watching this movie (Although I have some questions in technical issues). He masterminded a thoroughly engrossing story with combination of science, history and affection. Certainly there is no limit for imagination.

Other notable event in weekend was soccer. We played barefooted soccer wherever we felt appropriate as it became inreasingly difficult to resist amid talks of Copa America finals. There were also barbeque parties, one at family housing and another at lake oakwood park. Two days, I ate nothing but chicken. Sometimes I feel I may develop wings if this continues. hahahahahahhahaha......I laugh at this idea but fear I may develop big belly instead, which is certainly possible.

Next blog might be on Soccer

C u soon

Bigotry

Lately, I have been following the news of Red Mosque assault in Pakistan. Yesterday morning, as I was going through the Pakistan's public comments in BBCnews.com (after the Red Mosque was cleared of militants), couple of comments attracted my attention. I was little saddened by those comments and it lead me to think about Islam once again.

Comment 1 (By Qamar Iqbal, shopkeeper ): It is such a great tragedy. Muslims have killed Muslims - what could be worse?

Mr Iqbal's raised more questions in my head. Was the assault inappropriate just because they were muslims irrespective of their heinous atrocities ? Would the assault have been more justified if they were carried against non-muslims ?

If you are worried by comment 1 then you will find comment 2 even more disturbing.

Comment 2 (By Raja Ajmal): The government should have carried out a peaceful operation. This is not war with India. If they were fighting with non-Muslims then they should bomb like this... they want to finish madrassas in Pakistan.

It shows how Mr Ajmal thinks about India and non-muslims. I just do not understand why majority of muslims, especially those living in muslim country are so intolerant towards other religions ? What makes them so hard-hearted, bull-headed, uncompassionate and blind ? Is it their madrassas, clergies or qur'an itself ? Everyone now is familier with the increased amount of brutal bloodshed inside countries which has muslim majority. It seems violence has now become an indispensable part of Islam. Exorbitant fighting and intolerance between their own sects adds more proof to it.

There is one more thing that is even more despicable-'Jihad', sometimes also known as the sixth pillar of Islam. The ultimate purpose of Jihad is to establish the universal domination of Islam. Jihad is the only form of warfare permissible in Islamic law which may be declared against non-Muslims who refuse to convert to Islam or submit to Islamic rule. Jihad is perpetual in nature; in theory, there can be no permanent peace with non-Muslim states, only truces which can be repudiated when circumstances become favorable for the resumption of hostilities.

Muslim hardliners ( as all hardliners do) are making life difficult to everyone, including themselves. And, the saddest part of the story is that, these days non-muslims are becoming more negatively prejudiced towards whole muslim community, which certainly embodies open-minded and liberal muslims as well. The great Blaise Pascal once quoted "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction". It is certain that this statement will remain true for long long time to come.

Little Break for Life

Four parties in as many days, if I also count the small gatherings the statistics will be 6 in 9 days. Oh boy, I have been partying like there is no tomorrow and summer is turning out to be lot differrent ( Not particularly colorful) than I expected. It has now become worthless to try to sleep before 2:00 am and avoid hooch even if I have to wake up at 7:00 in morning.

Before Summer the farthest place I have visited was Sioux Falls and now in pretty short time I am already been to two pretty long and exhaustive tours and umpteen parties in between and it seems unending. Men certainly is a social animal and parties creates strong bonding between people. But, at times I feel I am lost in big groups, party jokes, music and dances. I am slowly becoming unknown to myself by imitating too many friends too often.

As I return from office, I am already late for the party, when I return from party it will be already late to sleep and as I wake up I am already late for the office again. I think blog during lunch hours at Dak but could not manage time to type them. I feel sleepy but do not find time to sleep. My brother who passed with distinction in SLC waited me for 2 hours in cyber but all in vain as I was too busy partying and did not know the knews. I can imagine he must have ran like a hare to give me the news of his accomplishment. I hope I am not dissapointing my dear friends who are throwing party so generously but from my point of view there were too many ( certainly unavoidable) in too short time. Now, I need little break for life.

I want to hybernate for a while & rediscover myself. I want to stay alone for a while and think about myself, my past and plan my future. I want to absorbed into the beauty that nature has offered. I want to stare at setting sun, sit below moon and count the stars . I want to appreciate the color of rainbow instead of color of wine, music of birds instead of Rock n Roll. I want to ................................................

C u soon.

Early Days in Land of Oppurtnity

Bhatta finally persuaded me to write experiences of my early days in United States. Its almost been 11 months and as I retrospect it feels like traveling back in time and witnessing my own past in front, very much similar to ATF official Doug Charlin ( Denzel Washington) in Déjà vu.

Sioux Falls Airport Parking lot, 11th August 06, Friday 9:30 Pm

Three Nepalese (Davendra, Bikrant, and Rojina) were distributing fruits to seven (including myself) hungry, tired but equally excited individuals. I was little surprised, it was not dark still. Soon, two vans started journey towards Brookings. Bikrant was driving at 75 mph (Something I had heard about US). Around 10:30 we reached 726, Medary Avenue and encountered few more new faces. Seven of us dispersed to three different rooms and soon started calling home.

Biwek and I joined six other guys in Apt 1. As we entered the room a loud voice welcomed us “Welcome new friends, I am head cook for today and food is ready for you. I was relieved and delighted at once. He was VJ dai. Apartment 1 was packed with luggage and people, making it difficult to maneuver through it (especially for the drunken legs returning from Bar late night). But it was only the start, few more days and the number of occupants increased to eleven. It was an enjoyable experience and I highly appreciate the help of everyone in room.

A week later, I shifted to my own apartment and orientation classes for new international students started. Tulasi became lucky winner of T-shirt on very first day. Biwek and Deepu Quickly became interested in Tina and Nicole respectively. Life was never difficult even in early days because of all the arrangements done by seniors. I also cannot forget help of Mary ( Sirish Dai and I call her mom) and Dave who arranged so many stuffs for free from church. So, early life in Brookings was easier than expected but one thing was unsettling my mind – “Financial Insecurity” and it continued until I received mail from Dr. Hietpas. It was largely possible because of highly unsatisfied Bunty, who left SDSU and eventually USA even after getting TA (Bunty’s move perplexed, petrified and stupefied everyone). The early American transients started to die and the system moved to reach steady state (Although small transients are always expected to come and go and everyone of us knows ideal steady state can be reached only afterlife).

After my settlement it was turn of my dreams. Some get setteled, some will be setteled eventually but some just fell apart. Unfortunately, I do not have wormhole machine through which I can re-enter my past and repair my dreams.

Mo:mo, Volleyball and Songs.

Hello world.

How r u doing? Well this is not my intended topics to write but i did not have time to prepare my planned one. So just to complete quota for today or u can say just for the sake of writting.

Well today was another good day. Slept till late, went to (deepen+prerana)'s new apartment., Ate momos,beer, cold drinks, played volleyball of volleyball and football of volleyball and we went on singing till midnight. Nepali and Hindi classics. Tulasi dai and his guitar always adds charm.

I also tried to read little physics this afternoon but in vain. I ended up sleeping in sofa for 2 hrs and then went to public library( Read few titles of book).

I don't like beers or other alchoholic drinks but many times end up drinking because of somebody's drive . last time it was VJ dai's insistence and today ?? I do not know. It was myself I suppose. well thanks for Rawal couple for hosting clamorous party and thanks for neighbours for tolerating. It was good that no policeman came to ruin our brawl. And Finally big thumbs up for ur patience for reading till the very end. I will see u next time.

MprofIT.