Answers to these pretty simple questions will help a lot shaping this site to your liking.

 Loading …

-

 Loading …

-

 Loading …

-

 Loading …

-

 Loading …

-

 Loading …

Your valuable feedbacks/comments are heartily welcome. You can leave a comment to this post or directly contact us here

.

Description:
In Hinduism, sadhu is a common term for an ascetic or practitioner of yoga (yogi) who has given up pursuit of the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (enjoyment), artha (practical objectives) and even dharma (duty). The sadhu is solely dedicated to achieving moksha (liberation) through meditation and contemplation of God. Sadhus often wear ochre-colored clothing, symbolizing renunciation.(wiki)
Sadhus are interesting catch around the places like: Temples and Aashrams in Nepal.

If you want to see your work featured here in Life In Nepal photography series, please send us your work at lin@everestuncensored.org
-LIN Editor

“I know the birds won’t be here forever, they are being killed and getting extinct due to loss of habitat and human encroachment,” he says. “Although I won’t be able to save them, I will preserve their voices.”

Although there are so many exotic birds, crows are Gautam’s best friends. He can communicate with the crows more efficiently. He opines that these birds use only few basic words to communicate like “come”, “go”, “run - there’s danger”, “let’s gather - one of us is in danger” and few other words. It was his long study and experience that allowed him to call a conference of crows during the auspicious festival Kag Tihar (The first day of Hindu festival - Deepawali, when people worship crow, the messenger of the God of death, Yama). Hundreds of crows came responding to his calls at the Open Theatre in Kathmandu. “They are my friends, and they come to me when I call them,” says Gautam. “They know that their friend needs their help and flock to me.”

Once hounded by media, he has been surviving on the presentations that he holds everyday in different schools. Till date he has visited more than 6,500 schools in 45 districts of Nepal, interacting, entertaining and education the kids about birds, their habitat, their ways of life and their calls.

When asked on how he was inspired to take up this hobby, he says, “When I was a little kid, I wondered how people imitated animals.” “When I grew up, I realized that I could mimic a lot different sounds, so I started my journey and the beautiful birds became my friends.”

Besides birds, he can imitate any other animal. However, following and studying the monkeys of Swayambhunath stupa and Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu, he has learnt the monkey sounds too. He can initiate a brawl between two and more monkeys. And if you really pester him, he can arrange a gang fight among the monkeys and ask all the monkeys to attack you at once.

You will never get bored by his bird calls. However, to entertain the students apart from the monotonous bird sounds he has compiled songs in different bird voices. An album of popular Nepali folk songs remixed in the voice of different birds (particularly heron’s voice) is on the offing.

Although born in a not so known Gadhi village of Makwanpur district in central Nepal, he is aspiring to record his feat in the Guiness Book of World Records. He is in correspondence with the officials and they are positive on recording this extraordinary feat.

Few pictures that I took with Kundan’s camera while waiting for the train to North Station. It was cold and windy. I was shivering even with my sports jacket on - as you can infer with the quality of some (well, may be most) images. The practice session lasted for almost forty minutes before it started to pour. I shook a few hands and said goodbyes after an eventful five days’ stay at Waltham. Then I ran for cover to the platform.

Signing off,
-Bhaskar.

PS# Dhilung - thanks for the creative support.  It was nice working with you after two years.

Start Slide Show

01 Bijay with the best merchandise in the premiership

02 Brother Goalies

03 Fan fare

04 First goal as Omkar looks from the far end

05 Kundan to Sanjeev Bijay trying to steal

06 Near miss

07 Nilesh with Romario look

08 Pawan [P]laymaker

09 Pawan [S]triker

10 Pawan and Tika give it a chase

11 Please read Pawan’s T-Shirt

12 Sanjeev eyes a quick pass through the center

13 The big picture

14 The scoreboard was not working

15 Tika trying to cut off Pawan’s move

16 Tika taking a free kick

17 Why is Sanjeev standing behind the pylons

Time it seemed had healed all my wounds
And the corpse that was my heart saw light again
One fateful day and a chance glimpse of you
Back was I shoved into this twister of pain

On the eve that you left I died a million times
With time however like the Phoenix I was reborn
Another shot at life foiled by a vision of you
In some abyss my fragments lie, my being is torn

As I closely inspect the scars in my spirit
They will never mend it seems no matter what I do
If you look from afar, blemishes all over me
If you take a closer look, they’re all pictures of you

aashishkoirala.wordpress.com

Description: Month of Ashad is considered to be the most important month for Nepalese farmers since it is high time for rice plantation. Farmers grow rice seedlings (which we call biyu in nepali). Fields are ploughed and filled with water. Once they are ready, rice seedlings are planted with appropriate spacing. Ashad 15 is also celebrated as festival among Nepalese and on this day they eat dahi chiyura and do rice plantation. Farmers expect rainfall in this month. More the rain, better it is for “Dhaan Ropai”.

If you want to see your work featured here in Life In Nepal photography series, please send us your work at lin@everestuncensored.org
-LIN Editor

Rejuvenating the spirit
Thirteen ladies of D2 were all set to rejuvenate their spirits into one of the most cherished tradition named ‘Hiking’. The vivacious beauties congregated at D2 premises on a misty Sunday morning and left around 6:45 am with every intention to explore the adventures of the new trail. Since this was the first one-of-a-kind ladies hiking, we thought of enhancing the already unique event by coming up with a dress code. Everyone agreed to wear white tops to show uniformity. Cracking jokes, taking snapshots, and sightseeing along the way, we headed towards our destination.

We started our hike from Lele. After walking for some distance, we saw a school named ‘Sri Gupteshwori Nimna Madhyamik Bidhyalaya’ at a place called Nallu. We decided to stop by and spend some time there. We had a short interaction with the teachers and distributed stationery and chocolates to the students. Then we bid them goodbye and continued with our hike.
After a while we stopped for breakfast at a local tea. While waiting for breakfast, we came up with a brilliant idea to play “Dumb Charade” and had loads of fun. AnjanaS was victorious in the game and Brija was the funniest. She had to enact this movie called “Musafir”. By showing her white-colored T-shirt and her gesture of playing badminton, everyone guessed that the actor was none other but “Jeetendra” – some style he’s got!

After a hearty breakfast, we headed for Lamidanda, our ultimate destination. This was probably the toughest part of our hike because of the steep climb; and the simple fact that it was monsoon made it even worse. The route was teeming with blood-thirsty leeches. The frantic cries of the hikers were common after being attacked by the leeches but the parasites couldn’t deter the spirit of the thirteen ladies. Instead, we learnt a lesson from them: “Run for your life”. Whenever we stopped for some rest, the very sight of the leeches stretching their heads out to reach to us made us forget our tiredness and run further up. Brija was left wondering why the leeches stayed at places where people hardly tred. They might as well go and live in the cities.

Learning the lesson of the day, all the hikers ventured up the hill in the cool weather that further revitalized them. We finally reached the army barrack on the top of the hill. The open field and the view were both captivating. We were really amazed at the beauty of the place.
On the way back, we stopped to plant paddy as it was Ashad 15 – the day people sow grain in the country. The local population was warm and hospitable. We joined them to plant and plough, and sang folk and Ashare songs with them. So enthralling was their voice that some of us even started dancing to the tunes. They were also so delighted that they offered us some of their home made pickle. After spending about an hour in the muddy field, we headed back to Kathmandu.

Though we left the place, and the leeches, and the school, and the tea shop that took us back into our childhood, and the marvelous view, and the field planting with the locals, and the sweat behind, we carried with us memories to last for a life time.

After all, the pain and the loss of blood were definitely worth the experience.

Start Slide Show
Please click on the image to see its large version.

01 Reserving the first Seat	02 Happy to hike
03 The eager interns	04 D2 Ambassador
05 Getting ready for the tough path ahead	06 Hiking essentials
07 The trail begins	08 The march forward
09 ….and the cows accompany us	10 On the way to Lamedanda
11 The landscape	12 Heaven on earth
13 The misty mountain	14 Lonely path
15 3D photography	16 Children of the corn
17 Spectacular spectators	18 Sisters in hand
19 The peaceful mountains	20 House atop hill
21 Entering the local tea shop	22 I drink tea
23 You drink tea	24 She drinks tea
25 And we all drink tea	26 Those are for us
27 Helping hands	28 Icecream soda sugar on the top….
29 It has 10 words…..dumb charade	30 The first syllable is….dumb charade
31 Being attentive	32 Flies flying to BOSTON
33 Motherly care Part1	34 Motherly care Part2
35 The school we would go to	36 Talking with the teacher
37 Here you go nanu	38 Thank you D2
39 Innocence thrusting her nose	40 I love the lady foreigners
41 Those creatures called `D2 Women`	42 Free flowing water
43 Rain drops in the water	44 Crossing the river
45 This is how we do it	46 Time to hike again
47 Yes Jyotsna, that is the spirit	48 Interns follow
49 The steep climb	50 Sky touching trees
51 One Two Three	52 A guest hiking partner
53 In front of the barrack	54 Dai, tyo jutta ma ni juka pascha….
55 In my territory	56 Beautiful skinned insect
57 The catepillar before	58 The butterfly after
59 Bloody leach honored	60 Shooing the leeches
61 End of the descend	62 Can you see the blood
63 Checking for leeches in there	64 Walking under the umbrellas
65 And the God spoke to us…..	66 We believe we can fly
67 We believe we can touch the sky	68 Sweet Pragya
69 Women padding	70 We go join them
71 Planting	72 Together we plant again
73 Standing above our own reflections	74 Rina at home with the locals
75 Dancing to their songs	76 We all have a good time
77 And so do they	78 The muddy feet
79 Ho mane ho	80 Ashare pandra gift
81 Mark of Asar 15	82 Let`s get going now
83 Worldly wisdom	84 Another mark of Asar
85 Lunch time in Ktm	86 Wonders of Tukche
87 And finally…thanks to Ram dai!

Start Slide Show

.

A press conference for the upcoming DHL Six-a-side 5th Soccer Tournament organized by Lotus Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. was held today at Nepal’s Sports Journalist Association, Dashrath Stadium. So far 26 teams have registered to compete in DHL six-a-side 5th soccer tournament. Following is the fixture determined by the draw held today. D2 will play in Group B against CAS Trading House and Smart Choice Technologies. D2 is participating for the second time in this tournament.

The league matches will be held at St. Xavier’s Ground, Jawalakhel on Saturday 5^th July, 2008 starting from 8.30AM onwards. One winning team from each group will play in the quarter finals. Quarter final, Semi final and Final will be played on Saturday 12^th July 2008.

There is another event ‘Tug of War‘ between the spectators of competing teams and other fun filled programs as well. Entrance is free. All the supporters are requested to come, participate, and enjoy the event.

———————————————————————————- 

The last week’s practice session was focused on team strategy and shooting practice. The lads are ready for the challenge and is sure to put up a strong competition.

D2 Team News:

1. Top striker Richan out of the squad with back injury.
2. Goalkeeper Nabin is expected to overcome a slight knee injury he got during the last practice session.

D2 squad:

1. Nabin Karmacharya (GK)
2. Prashanta Shrestha (c)
3. Shankar Sharma
4. Hitesh Karki
5. Manoj Rokka
6. Biswa Shrestha
7. Sajan Sangraula
8. Rajiv Shrestha

Tie Sheet:

Following are some of the pictures from last week’s practice session.

Description:
Butterfly is one of the most beautiful of all insects. People have always been charmed by the delicate, gorgeously coloured wings of butterflies and their beauty inspires many poets, artists and photographers.

Nepal has 11 out of the 15 (about 643 species) families of butterflies in the world. I was able to capture this picture of Monarch Butterfly after chasing it more than 15 minutes on the bank of Trishuli River near Krishna bhir.

If you want to see your work featured here in Life In Nepal photography series, please send us your work at lin@everestuncensored.org
-LIN Editor

.

Thanks to the open political scene in the country, the runway was the place where we all stood staring at the clouds to open up. I say this because certain places used to be out of bounds area in the days gone by and in the name of freedom, suddenly everyplace is accessible and every action doable. To spur up the otherwise dull atmosphere, a stray dog began running across the sloped runway and soon two more joined the party. A policeman guarding the airport got some order from his senior and started his efforts to drive them away. The dogs ran but aimlessly, almost in circles. They would not get out of the little outlet in the otherwise fenced runway of the uniquely built Lukla airport. He picked up a stone and started hitting the dogs. A couple of his hits missed the dogs before one hit right on its back. The dog made a very loud squeaking noise and managed to draw everyone’s attention. Almost instantaneously, the Russians thronged into the heart of runway. It did not make sense at first before they almost attempted to bring the policeman down by overpowering him. A girl screamed right on his face “Isn’t non- violence something that your country preaches’. Being a good nepali, he just shied away. I am not quite sure whether he understood whatever was said to him but he just kept mum, even dared to smile. Or could it be that he disagreed with the question. Whatever the case be, the trip to mountains had started in somewhat memorable note.

It was perfect - as it later turned out.

After having a breakfast began the walk. It was magnificent. One could invariably be reminded of ‘far from the maddening crowd’ and the feeling that for the next couple of days I could dedicate my life to my own self was too overwhelming. The breath of fresh air and clean open environment was a harsh reminder of the fact that life in the city, in most ways, had very little to offer even though one always harped about ‘development’. I walked watching hundreds of trekkers pass by, some en route and some on their way back, who hardly failed to say ‘Namaste’ once the distance got closer. And with each group of trekkers were a group of porters who walked almost silently carrying huge luggage on a doko. One could only imagine the strength of their shoulders and the neck for often times the sheer size of it all appeared almost too much to carry even for a taxi back in the city.

For a moment, and I must admit it, it just did not feel nice. While the tourists walked around savoring the beauty of the hills and the air, along walked a group of people who as if had no right to enjoy the place they were so fortunate to have been born. To cut it short I just felt as if I was being an audience to modern day slavery. But then, I am sure what you are thinking, this was something that gave us our means to livelihood and the whole thing was not by design but by our own doing. If only we were not this poor – that was precisely the feeling that I had in me then. I walked on.

We rested for a night in a place called Phakding which rested along on the bank of one of the tributaries of ‘sapta-koshi’. There were a couple of Australian couples, a retired army general from Indian army with his grandchildren and a group of Slovak students at the big dinner table in the restaurant of the hotel. We all had managed to introduce each other while we all waited for dinner sipping 400 rupees per bottle beers.
And as we got to know each other better, soon everyone began sharing their travel experiences which seemed to cover almost two thirds of the globe. And the funny part of the whole conversation, well at least to me it appeared funny, was that except for four of us Nepalese in that room everyone had already been to this place before. The Australians, as they told us, have been here almost six times and they had succeeded in bringing 25-30 people residing in the suburban area of Perth over the last twelve years. It was almost as if the realization dawned upon us that Himalaya is not just some numerical value of 8848. And while Jim began explaining the trail over the spread out map on the table, we realized two things. Nepal is not just the two ends of Mahendra highway and there was much more to know about this country.

Next morning we walked up to Namche bazar. The place somehow took me by surprise for I had this picture in my mind that Namche lay atop a hill from where you could see Everest. Rather it lay on the slopes of a hill like almost like a baby in a mother’s cuddle. A heavy duty meal and a light snap, we readied ourselves for a walk in the trail encircling the Namche. After couple of hours we found ourselves in one of the most beautiful places that I have ever been to, the Khumjung village.

The village of Khumjung nestled in the lap of divine Khumbila Mountain, as I learned, was also referred as Edmund village. The village with its picturesque settings was perfect, to say the least. As my colleague travelling put it, if any Nepali were to be directly air dropped in this particular village and were told that this was one particular place in Switzerland, chances were there that the person would tend to think along the same lines. It had almost everything that any human habitat would look for. One had to, almost forcibly, take a pause and think for a moment that here was a place completely inaccessible by roads and yet had each and everything that one could think of vis-à-vis development. And yet there are n numbers of places in the country accessible through every possible means (highways/airports) and yet life continues at its basic minimum. There was a lesson to be learnt although I am not sure what exactly. ‘Commitment’, for one, seemed to cross my mind.

By the time we returned back to hotel in Namche it was almost pitch dark. The day had certainly been an eye opener in many ways. With a plan of sipping our morning coffee at the Everest View hotel, we all headed to our respective $10 / night rooms.

The thirty six hours experience had already turned out be the one to carry along for a long time. Also begging was a prospect of even more exciting tomorrow.

Unedited version of the article published in the Sunday edition of the Kathmandu Post, 29th June.