Couple Admirable

News coming from Nepal most often than not are negative. Sometimes good news are considered good, only relative to a bad news (or worse news) and the trend seems so unending that sometimes I feel like turning totally away from it. But every time, I keep coming back as many of us do because there is no running away from reality, no running away from yourself and your family.

Sometimes I try to soothe myself by comparing against the cases from Sudan, Ethiopia, Cambodia, Rwanda,Zimbabwe,Somalia, Haiti, Afghanistan,Iraq even sometimes cases from rapidly growing economy like India and China but it doesn't help, cause there is no hiding from truth and it doesn't eases Nepalese' pain either. But we do have hope, hope for better tomorrow, hope for gradual ease in pain. Sometimes small positives does tremendous good to reinforce your hope. That's what happened today with me.

Right at the morning I read couple admirable news . First was about Nepal's Shanti Sewa Griha clinching second spot in BBC World challenge 08.World Challenge 08 is a global competition aimed at finding projects or small businesses from around the world that have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level and it rewards projects and business which really makes a difference. Shanti Sewa Griha is a self-sufficient society for leprosy victims and other social outcasts. It was established back in 1992 with 13 leprosy victims and since then its been doing stupendous job. Second was appointment of Nepalese priest at pashupatinath. It will stop millions of rupees (money offered to god as Bheti) going to India. I hope for the transparency of the money collected and its proper use for social causes.

Though these are small developments compared to Godzilian problems we face today, they are able to create some positive news headlines in Nepal. If positives keep coming even at small packages, they will be able to build some inspirated ambiance, which certainly is a fuel for progressive society.

Wow

It was crazy. We all were novice at driving but planned a long trip for five days, which involved hectic driving but everything went fine . There were few unexpected twists in the plan and it added more fun. Weather predictions were really really bad but we were lucky all the time. We never encountered heavy snow fall, sometimes missing it by just hours wherever we go. Got chance to meet so many old friends from engineering college and it was always going to be fun. We were driving during nights and enjoying the days but never felt tired during the trip. Tiredness was surely due but only after the trip. I started to get hint of it while returning, during the final couple hours of driving back home. After trip I have gone into deep sleep whenever I get chance. I am feeling much better from today and will have to immerse into study after this weekend without caring much about Christmas break. I think thats what its like to be student, fun and study/work at crazy hours.

Oops I almost forgot to mention where we went. We went straight to Indianapolis, then findlay (Ohio), to detroit, to Chicago and finally back to Brookings.

Soon I will try to post blog on Ram Bahadur Bomjan which I have been planning to write from long time.

Movie Magic or Tragic ?

Never once I have found a Movie doing justice to its Novel. May be I am insatiable in this case as I love books more than movies. Movies are time efficient way to garner information but more often than not it also limits the info as its impossible to cramp up everything in couple hours. I love books because it gives more detailed info but more than that it never restricts imagination as movies do. I can bet many guys similar from my background will see Arun Govil when anyone reminds them of Lord Ram because our early impression of Ramayan was through Ramananda Sagar's Ramayan and Arun Govil's portrayal of Lord Ram was brilliant.

But why am I talking it today?

Because today I watched “The Kite Runner” movie based on the Novel of the same name. I think the movie tried its best to do justice to the Novel but even the best try was not enough to change the views of stubborn critic like me. There were numerous occasions in Novel when I was strongly moved but I felt little sad to miss those plots or see it so shortened, that it was not as effective as it was originally.My experience with “The DAVinci Code” was even worse. The movie is so fast-paced that makes it very difficult to comprehend without reading the Novel first. My friends also share similar experiences .One of them said “The Godfather movie is loads of crap compared to the Novel”.

Its not that I have never liked a movie based on a Book. I absolutely loved “A Beautiful Mind” and “The Pursuit of Happiness” to give few good example, but the reason behind their liking is I never had chance to read their corresponding books.

Thanks for reading my opinion but what's your take?

Perfect Accountant and Lazy Communist

I studied Thermodynamics starting from my science class in school and I still remember how joyfully I used to reiterate “Energy can neither be created and nor be destroyed”. I loved this law and later learned that this principle is basic to the first law of thermodynamics.

Recently I stumbled upon an Interesting article which described Mother Nature as a perfect accountant but also lazy communist based upon the law of thermodynamics. Let me try to explain this in entertaining way.

Perfect Accountant: Nature has to perform meticulous accounting because energy can neither be created nor be destroyed, though it readily changes forms. So, Mother Nature makes sure that there is always exactly as much energy around after something happens as there was before.

Lazy Communist: Please don’t judge me wrong I am not being harsh. My only concern now is to entertain you. The Lazy communist part comes from the second law of thermodynamics. Lazy because natural systems generally tend toward the lowest energy state possible and Communist because natural systems also tend toward the most equal distribution of energy. Aa…ha that’s why every morning the cream I pour into my coffee blends evenly throughout the cup, even if I don’t stir it.

Today I locked apartment’s key inside so in effect I was locked outside. To make good use of time I went to university’s dairy for Ice-cream. On my way back, all of a sudden the Ice-cream dropped and I could do nothing but watch the hot asphalt melt fallen ice-cream. Obviously I was saddened by the incident but it was all natural thing happening. Heat always travels from areas of high energy to low, so asphalt melted the ice-cream rather than drawing heat from it and thus keeping it frozen.
Natural events always proceed towards states of grater disorder. That’s why every once in a while my shoelaces come untied and never once they have retied themselves. That’s probably the reason why my desk always get messier and never neater (Its all governed by the natural laws who am I to change it).

VOID

Once upon a time when I was relatively smaller (in size, shape, age and also in thinking) I heard an astonishing fact. It goes like this “Only 29.2% of earth’s surface is land and rest is water (70.8%)”. “My goodness” I shouted and the reaction was pretty obvious because I never found great deal of water when I traveled around (It was more obvious in summer when me and my brother after finishing our morning school had to walk almost a mile to transport water from ever shrinking small well). Yes I knew earlier from my school textbooks that there are cool stuffs like seas and oceans as well but it never came to my imagination that water is actually more than land. To add to this astonishment I later found that water is responsible for 61.8% of human body weight.

I still do read, hear and participate in “water talk”. It seems human always find enjoyment in knowing the percentage of water in every imaginable object. The “% of water” talk goes from coconut to cocktail, from brain to bread and from mango to mars. But for the sake of change and also to make these talks even more interesting, today I have taken another entity in consideration instead of water and that coincidentally is the title of the story “Void”. We all know that an atom is the smallest unit of an element that retains the chemical properties of that element. In an Atom, Protons and neutrons are approximately the same size, while electrons are very much smaller. Now to take the discussion further lets take the example of a helium atom. If a basketball were used to represent the nucleus of a helium atom, then, on the same scale, softballs could represent the individual protons and neutrons, while large garden peas could represent the electrons. In this case, the diameter of an electron’s orbit would be approximately equal to the length of 250 American football fields [1]. Thus, the majority of an atom consists of void. If majority of atom is void then majority of us is void and it applies to everything around us. Yes, that’s the point I was trying to make. Now, just imagine your size excluding the void.

The bible says “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:25). But if all the empty space were removed from the atoms it would be possible for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle (Good news for rich man?). Oops wait a minute if all the void were removed from the atoms if will not only shrink the camel but also the needle. (Better luck next time “rich man”)


1. Bebop to the Boolean Boogie by Clive Maxfield.

Liberty Featured Number "90"

Happy 90th Birthday to Mr. Nelson Mandela. 18th July is not just Mr. Mandela’s Day but a cause for celebration to all the freedom loving people in the world. 90 is the remarkable latest addition to his life which consists of some other remarkable numbers. Like 27 years in prison in Robben Island but more interesting number is his number of awards. Mandela has received more than one hundred awards over four decades, most notably the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993

So, 90 is this weeks Liberty Featured Number and it is dedicated to all you wonderful freedom loving persons wherever you are.

Next week’s number? .......sky is the limit for the Guess Work.

MprofIT

G8 Summit Irony: Discussing Global Food Crisis with 18 Course Banquet

British Prime Minister suggested his country mates that stopping wastage of food would be one of the better ways to combat current global food crisis. Mr. Brown made these comments after going through a Government report which concluded that 4.1 million tonnes of food was being wasted by householders. He suggested that Britons can save up to £8 a week if they embrace prudence and thrift in kitchens. Its necessary to reduce “unnecessary demand” for food, he further added. But just after two days of his urging he sat down with leaders (and of course their wives) of leading industrialized nations to an 18-course gastronomic extravaganza at a G8 summit in Japan.

But the extravagance of the menus drew disapproval from many critics who thought it hypocritical to produce such a lavish meal when world food supplies are under threat. Dominic Nutt (Save the Children charity) did not like the idea. “It is deeply hypocritical that they should be lavishing course after course on world leaders when there is a food crisis and millions cannot afford a decent meal,” he said.

In 2005, at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, world leaders promised to increase global aid by £25billion a year by 2010 and raise aid to Africa, the world's poorest continent, by £12.5billion. But the bloc of rich nations is only 14 per cent of the way towards hitting its target.

And the world’s poor have no other option but to look for these leaders to stand by their pledges of three years ago at Gleneagles.

Source:dailymail news

Anniversary

You Know What? I missed my Blog’s Anniversary. I should have posted this on the Anniversary day, anyways lets move on.

It was on 27th June last year around 5:00 Pm in the afternoon, after returning from DAK I rushed to Library, gave a Bizarre URL for my Blog home, named it Liberty and came up with first post “Beginning”. I always liked the idea of Liberty as I have always believed in Responsible Freedom. I am happy that I maintained this habit of Blogging, but more than that rediscovered my interest of writing.

There were total 37 posts in Liberty, I wrote 33 of them. Almost three in a month, not bad I suppose. It would be nice if I can increase the number this year, but I am little concerned about the quantity. This year too I will strive towards improving the quality of my posts; try to be more diverse and interesting at the same time.

Thank you to all visitors of Liberty for stopping by, reading and leaving comments. I must say your comments along with my own resolution are fuel for liberty; they are most important impetus that will keep Liberty moving and improving.

Liberty Featured Number "119"

119 is this week’s featured number.

According to the first 'World Map of Happiness', Nepal is the 119th happiest place in the world. The map is prepared by Adrian White, a British analytic social psychologist from University of Leicester and it rates 178 countries. The study considered three parameters Health, Wealth and Access to Education as major sources of happiness. Denmark comes out as the Happiest Place while Burundi came out as Unhappiest. Our neighbors China (82), SriLanka (93) and Bangladesh (104) are considered happier place than Nepal whereas India (125) and Pakistan (166) are less happy.

It is up to the readers to buy this or not but that’s what the report says.

Yes, 119th happiest nation on earth is Nepal and 119 is this week’s number. Hope we will rank higher as we reach political stability and move away from domestic violence but for today I will leave you with 119.

MpfrofIT

The Racist Mahatma

This is certainly controversial, may be little disturbing to some people but the argument has point. I was supremely surprised to know Gandhi; the well known Mahatma certainly harbored Anti-Black views and even despised them. Its not just allegations, but Gandhi’s own words prove it. What surprises me is the fact that its not some hidden documents that attempts to bring the real person behind the veil of divinity, the information are left openly and still majority of people do not know it and the issue is never seriously debated. It certainly has to do with his impression and popularity among general public around the world. The official collection of Gandhi’s writings “Collected Works” are available online @ gandhiserve.org. In his speech at public meeting Bombay on 26th of September, 1896 he said the following on the famous Indian struggle in South Africa

“Ours is one continual struggle against a degradation sought to be inflicted upon us by the Europeans, who desire to degrade us to the level of the raw Kaffir whose occupation is hunting, and whose sole ambition is to collect a certain number of cattle to buy a wife with and, then, pass his life in indolence and nakedness”. (Kaffir, Kaffer or Kafir is a derogatory term to refer to Black South Africans).

Gandhi even went further to say “The aim of the Christian Governments, so we read, is to raise people whom they come in contact with or whom they control. It is otherwise in South Africa. There, the deliberately expressed object is not to allow the Indian to rise higher in the scale of civilization but to lower him to the position of the Kaffir” in the same speech.(The speech can be found @ http://www.gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html first volume (i.e., July 4, 1888 - November 30, 1896 page 407)

We all know about the famous train incident involving Gandhi where he was thrown out of the train for traveling in compartment which was only reserved for whites. The incident is also portrayed in the famous 1982 Hollywood movie “Gandhi” but going through Gandhi’s own words on this incident it becomes clear that he had no intentions to let Blacks travel by train. In Johannesburg Letter in May 26 1906 under the heading “The Tram Case” Gandhi writes “You say that the Magistrate’s decision is unsatisfactory, because it would enable a person, however unclean, to travel by a tram and that even the Kaffirs would be able to do so. But the Magistrate’s decision is quite different. The Court has declared that the Kaffirs have no legal right to travel by the trams. And, according to tram regulations, those in an unclean dress or in a drunken state are prohibited from boarding a tram. Thanks to the Court’s decision, only clean Indians or Coloured people other than Kaffirs can now travel by the trams” (These words can be found on Page 235, volume 5 of Collected Works)

Its not that Gandhi was fighting against the British colony in South Africa; he was just looking for freedom of Indians and actually defended the idea of colony. Gandhi always wanted the Indian share of responsibility in defending the colony and even joined British Forces and became ambulance stretcher bearer to help suppress Black rebellion in 1906 famously known as Bambetta Rebellion. Gandhi on behalf of the Indians living in South Africa requested the Government to accept their help in this fight against Blacks. The article published under the heading “Indians and the Native Unrest” in the newspaper Indian opinion (Run by Gandhi in South Africa) on June 9th 1906 writes “The Government have at last accepted the offer of the Indian community, and put it upon its mettle. By way of experiment, they want a corps of twenty stretcher-bearers” it further writes “The acceptance by the Government synchronizes with the amendment of the Fire-Arms Act, providing for the supply of arms to Indians, and the statement made by Mr. Maydon to the effect that the Government intended to give Indians an opportunity of taking their share in the defence of the Colony” and It even went on to write “The Government have, by accepting the offer, shown their goodwill. And if Indians come successfully through the ordeal, the possibilities for the future are very great. Should they be assigned a permanent part in the Militia, there will remain no ground for the European complaint that Europeans alone have to bear the brunt of Colonial defence, and Indians will cease to feel that, in not being allowed to participate in it, they are slighted”. (Refer page 258, Volume 5, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi).

Gandhi even persuaded Indians forcefully to volunteer in the suppression. The article “Should Indians Volunteer or Not?” published on June 30, 1906 in Indian Opinion is a proof. Towards the end the article writes “We have to learn much from what the whites are doing in Natal. There is hardly any family from which someone has not gone to fight the Kaffir rebels. Following their example, we should steel our hearts and take courage. Now is the time when the leading whites want us to take this step; if we let go this opportunity, we shall repent later. We therefore urge all Indian leaders to do their duty to the best of their ability”. (Refer page 273, Volume 5, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi for full article)

In Gandhi’s Zulu war memoirs he has written “However, at about 12 o'clock we finished the day's journey, with no Kaffirs to fight.”(Page 280, Volume 5, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi)

I almost spend my whole weekend preparing and writing this post and whatever study I did in last two days to write this article leaves me no doubt to conclude that the Well Known Mahatma is also a Little Known Racist. I am sure you will find many more proofs if you find time to go through the old archives on Gandhi.

Now after knowing all this, I think Gandhi was more like normal human being (with many imperfections) to start with and perhaps perfected himself more later on with time and experience. Even with imperfections Gandhi raised himself to the stature of Mahatma and without a shadow of doubt played most important role to free India and inspired the whole world through his nonviolence mantra. All these facts remind us the same old statement that we repeatedly hear “Only GOD is perfect” and after all Gandhi too was Human.