Posts Tagged ‘ Nepal ’
I check the numbers everyday; numbers of how many are infected, how many couldn’t make it. I don’t want to use the word dead, I don’t know why, but I hesitate. These numbers seem to multiply dramatically everyday, by the thousands in the website. I narrate it to my husband, “Wasn’t it 11000 something in Italy last time you checked?!” , he questions in disbelief.
Continue reading14 Jan 2017
As the wind rustles,
From in between its bristles;
A song magically emerges;
Different everyday and in every way;
Slowly, soothingly will it then sing;
And fill us up with a serene zing;
With everything we want to hear;
With everything we want to share;
It is the song of maidengrass!
15th November 2017
I promise you;
That I will take you to new places;
Satisfy your wanderlust and stir your senses;
But let me anchor here now and feel the water flow by;
Unwind , relax and loose myself in this magical reverie.
15th September 2017
As the monsoon ends,
There is this particular change,
A fresh fragrance comes alive,
In the otherwise humid air,
Smell the crispiness,
Of the approaching season,
Of calmer days and cooler evenings,
Of bluish sky dotted with kite flying,
The nature herself seems to rejuvenate,
From the harsh heat and chaos,
Mingled with the smell of sweet perseverance,
And hope of bountiful harvest, Continue reading
5th May 2015
A 7.9 richter massive scale earthquake hit my country on 25th April 2015. The central part of Nepal including the capital has been devastated. This nightmare has cost us 8000+ lives and the numbers keep on increasing.It has also cost us our infrastructures, our homes and our heritage. 5 of the UNESCO world heritage sites of Kathmandu valley are ruins, leaving a vacuum in their place and in our hearts. It eats up my heart to see it empty, what had always been there, which we had always taken for granted. Our ancient Durbars that have witnessed the different eras; the various dynasties; many rulers; their conspiracies and untold stories have collapsed. Our temples that have housed our millions of deities; heard trillions of prayers; answered many’s wishes and provided solace to all have crumbled; completely devastated and in ruins. Our deities are homeless like their many believers.
And our Dharahara has collapsed too. With the first seismic waves, hitting Kathmandu valley, it crumbled into pieces and 
collapsed to the ground, taking many lives with it. A hundred stories, turned to dust as it fell,. I have been seeing the photos of our fallen Dharahara ever since the second day of the earthquake in national dailies and social media hundreds of times, and it appalls me every time. It has become a symbol of this earthquake, even though other UNESCO listed heritage sites have also faced similar or more destruction. It is not a World Heritage Site, neither is it so tall , nor it has a unique architecture as such. It is a white tower, 9 stored, significantly tall in yesteryears but these years it stayed cosily amidst other high-rise building and was definitely not our “Qutub-minar” like Indian Media has been asserting. Still, when it opened a few years back for public to climb, it did attract a lot of kathmandu-ties and Nepalese from outside valley. One had to climb it at least once in their lifetime, so we all thought. And so on a packed saturday, when the earthquake hit, it fell with around 400 people in and around the tower. Continue reading
April 30, 2015
30th April! Day 6 of the devastating earthquakes that hit Nepal! A 7.9 Richter scale nightmare hit my country on April 25th and with its wide spread effects, my country is still shaking! It has already destroyed 5 of our UNESCO World Heritage sites, caused trillions of damage to the meager infrastructure of the least developed country and claimed more than 5000 lives. This doomed number keeps rising with hundreds every hour.
Our country is mourning, traumatized and yet slowly picking up, gathering strengths. The youths are organizing, gathering themselves and their country with them, fighting their own government imposed red tapes and trying to act immediately, urgently and reach out to the needy ones. With the same pursuit, we visited Sankhu today. Sankhu, a municipality few hours drive from Kathmandu core city, a very old city in itself and center of Hindu religious tale, Swasthani, is highly damaged. Approximately 166 of these were destroyed, 97 severely damaged, and 37 moderately damaged, according to sources. We ,a group of around 15 volunteers, reached there at around 1 PM, after a busy morning volunteering to bottle and package Piyush (chlorinated water disinfectant) but when we reached there, it was filled with Chinese aid, Mercy Malaysia volunteers and other supports. Because of its proximity with core Kathmandu city and motorable roads, there was even a traffic jam because of aid carrying vehicles. So the locals of Sankhu themselves suggested us to go ahead. As we moved further, we crossed Jarsingpauwa (Lapsiphedi VDC) and reached Bhotechaur , of Sindhupalchowk district.
On April 26th, that is the second day of the earthquake, the biggest aftershock of this earthquake series hit Nepal and had its epicenter in this very district. Sindhupalchowk has already lost 1587 lives and this number will also rise with each passing hour. A remote district next to Kathmandu, the district had to suffer the highest number of deaths and the second highest per capita death rate at more than five deaths per thousand residents.
The directions were confusing as we hadn’t done our research earlier. But when we reached Bhotechaur, there were 
already big trucks and vehicles carrying and distributing food and medicines to the locals there. More like looting and hoarding by the locals out of desperation. The relief materials still had no tents, only some packaged foods and medicines. Our volunteer group had no affiliation as such to any organization and we had collected a few bucks on our own and bought little relief. We were on bikes and had another volunteer’s car where we had kept few noodles and Chiura (beaten rice). Sensing that Bhotechaur has received aids and will continue to do so, because of the motorable roads, we decided to go ahead. The roads were mostly dirt roads, and we had to park car, when we couldnot take it further in the narrow trail. After around an hour from Bhotechaur, we reached Patigaun VDC of Sindhupalchowk. Not a single house was untouched by the earthquake there. Houses were toppled down, looked more like rubble. The standing ones also bore the cracks and scars of the nightmare. Continue reading
5th November 2013
For my Babu 🙂
Making a space for you, with the Ratomato, brown and pure,
Symbolizing the vast space that you own in my heart,
Which will continue to be yours for sure,
Through the years to come and part.
Babu, there I will then draw a Universe for you,
To show how much significant you have made mine,
With your very existence and love so true,
Adored, Seraphic and Divine.
With the Abir of Happy Yellows and Reds;
And the joyful hundred petal-ed flowers,
I will make sure your path is overflown with courage and bliss
where joy, contentment and happiness always showers.
I will make stars of Tyaa for you too,
And will scatter them around your universe,
I will then put all my gods next to you,
To protect you from all the evil and menace. Continue reading
20th December 2012
It was late, cold and dark, a typical winter evening. I was waiting for a tempo, at Bijulibazaar, to take me home. Tempos are 3- wheeled public vehicles that run on Electrical / LPG Energy also known as TukTuk, rampant on the Kathmandu roads. Lifehouse Band was playing “Blind” in my ears. After a long wait, a tempo arrived. It took me a second to register the route, had to ask the boy at the front seat, where the Tempo was headed.”Lagankhel”,came the shrill reply. “The driver could have put on the front lights,” I murmured to myself and got inside the back of the tempo. The tempo was pack. A tiny bulb was lit inside. After making myself comfortable in the little space, available for me, I stared at the passenger across me. A middle-aged lady, with a big, golden earrings stared back to me. I then looked left and right to her. One of my fellow co-passengers was a college girl, in uniform; two were uncles, one with a mustache and the other without, while there was a young mother at the far right, with her infant on her lap . There were 3 more ladies to my left and an elderly gentleman to my left who was asleep, drooling at his mouth, head resting on the window. I also threw a glance at the front too. The driver was a lady.
After glancing 120 degrees, and getting stared back at, I began examining my Wellington boots, all worn and dusty! “My poor Wellingtons!” I sighed. “Victims of the road expansion drive, Jai Baburam!” A few minutes later, I realized that the tempo was moving at a snail pace. Tempos are, by default , slow moving vehicles, but this one was unnaturally slow. I took off my earplugs and stared at the lady across me. “Why is this moving so slow?,” I inquired She pouted her lips and replied, “The front light stopped working, re!” Other passengers also nodded in unison, disapproval clear in the nods.
I shot a look at the front seat. Without the earplug
s, now I heard the conversation. The kid was looking down from the window and telling the driver, his mother to keep moving. “Its okay, no holes”, he would say to the driver, and she would keep the vehicle rolling straight. He would also flash lights occasionally to where the front tyre of the tempo is, making sure the tempo wasn’t heading for a hole or depression. The people were angry and restless. “Its getting late”, the lady with the baby shouted to the driver, “If you cant take us fast, then let us get off and take another vehicle, that will go fast.” The driver, without looking behind, made a meek reply, “The light was working till Maitighar, I don’t know what happened suddenly. I cannot see the road without the light. That is why; I am driving slowly, to avoid accidents”.
September 15, 2012
“Youths” If you google the word, there will be more than 795,000,000 results in less than 0.39 seconds. Read any national daily, the word will be mentioned at least twice. Policymakers, leaders, social-workers, writers all love the dearly. “Catalysts of change”, “Backbone of the country”, “Pillars of the nation” are how youths are defined, attributed and referred to. Youths, who together make about 18% of the global Homo sapiens population, are the major focus of any system or ideology. Because youths are a good resource for any country, if a country invests on youth, it ensures sustainability of the country. Globally, Billions of dollars projects run on youths alone. Name any area, you will find many youth clubs, networks and organizations dedicated overtly to build the capacity of youths. Come August 10, the whole world focuses on youths; with the whole day dedicated to youths, many competition, program, trainings, events will be organized globally and locally for youths. Why are youths important? The youth is the future, and timely, effective investment in youth is the key to making that future prosperous and viable, both economically and socially. The future is changing rapidly. The trend of change is so dynamic that within years, we have moved from tapes to flash drives, from desk phones to touch pads. The change is dynamic, inevitable and the youths are the agents of these change. Youths can accept the change and acclimatize the society with the change. I am a youth myself, a 22 year old; with all the zeal to bring about good changes and the grit to hang on till I make my mark in this “youth-friendly” world. I was quite lucky to get some of these trainings; prove myself at such competitions, learn from various occasions. We travel around, and take part in seminars, and when we cannot, we google around and take part in webinars but learn anyway. In this information age, with all the “youth-friendly” opportunities I and my fellow youths strive for knowledge, find opportunities at our fingertips, learn, share and grow. Lucky us!
5th April 2012
We have all heard about Joker, Venom, Dr. Doom and Penguin, haven’t we? They all have horrible laughs and are always intent on hurting mankind; till the superheroes such as Batman and Spiderman avenge them and save the planet. Similarly we have all loved transformers where, optimus prime and company defeat extra-terrestrial villains like Megatron and his fellow decepticons in a superb hi-fi way! So, this is also another “superhero V/s super villain” story!
The super villains! They are small, particulate matters but not alien. These villains have been born and bred by the humans and can be seen in fume, hazy shapes. They are worst as they can be colorless too. Though born unintentionally by humans, they have been attacking humans with their toxic nature and making them sick. They have silently killed 750000 people in China alone in 1 year and many more millions sick worldwide. The most dangerous part is no one can finish them totally, their existence can be controlled/ minimized but once they reach the earth, they are invincible. The most prominent ones among these super-pollutant-villains are Hydrocarbo-tron (HC), Nox-ions (Nox), Sox-curs (Sox) , Dr. VOC and Carbonmonoxide-zion and they are emitted from tail pipes of vehicles! Continue reading
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kritysh 