Sunday, May 31, 2009

Ties That bind


I ran into a stranger as he passed by,
''Oh excuse me please'' was my reply,
He said''please excuse me too;
Wasn't even watching for you."
We were very polite this stranger and I.
We went on our way and we said good-bye.
But at home a different story is told,
How we treat our loved ones, young and old.
Later that day, cooking the evening meal,
My daughter stood besides me very still.
When I turned, i nearly knocked her down.
''Move out of my way,'' I said with a frown.
She walked away her little heart was broken.
I didn't realize how harshly I'd spoken.
While I lay away awaken in my bed,
God's still small voice came to me and said,
''While dealing with a stranger, common courtesy you use,
But the children u love, you seem to abuse.
Look on the kitchen floor,
You'll find some flowers there by the door.
Those are the flowers she brought for you.
She picked them herself, pink, yellow and blue.
She stood quietly not to spoil the surprise,
And you never saw tears in her eyes''.
By this time, I felt very small,
And now my tears began to fall.
I quietly went and knelt by her bed;
''Wake up little girl, wake up'', i said
''Are these the flowers you picked for me?''
She smile''I found them out by the tree.
I picked them because they are pretty like you.
I knew you'd like them specially the blue''.
I said''daughter im sorry for the way i acted today;
I shouldn't have yelled at you that way''
She said''oh mom thats ok. i love you anyway''.
I said''daughter i love you too,
And i like the flowers especially the blue''

Are you aware that-
If we die tomorrow the company that we are working for could easily replace her in a matter of days.
But the family we leave behind will fell the loss for the rest of their lives. And come to think of it, we pour ourselves more into work than our family-an unwise investment indeed. So what is behind the story?
You know the full word of family? FAMILY=(F)ATHER (A)ND (M)OTHER,(I) (L)OVE (Y)OU.
It is worth while to share more time with them as they are getting older. Make balance among all the things. Fill life with love and bravery and we shall live a life uncommon.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Feild Report


A Trip to Changunarayan.
We had a trip to changunarayan for our field visit. After a long journey in the bus we finally reached our destination. We were guided by Nirmal Mani Adhikary sir and Gonga sir nad one of the residents helped us explore about the temple and its origin. We were supposed to write a report of the visit which goes along the next para.
The Changu area seems to live the legend. It has many old outstanding stone, wood, and metal carvings dating from the Lichhavai period. On the intricately carved painted roof struts of the temple are intricate carvings of the ten incarnations of Vishnu and goddesses.
King Mana Dev added a commemorative, a huge stone pillar on the north-western corner of the Changu Narayana temple, intending to immortalize the great victories made by him during his life time, in 464 AD.
A life size 5th century statue of Garuda, the carrier of Lord Vishnu kneels with his hands folded before the temple. Besides Garuda is one of the oldest Licchavi stone inscriptions. In front of the temple here is a statue of kneeling King Bhupatindra Malla and his queen.
There is a sixth century stone statue of Vishnu Viswarup, the universal form of Lord Vishnu that Lord Krishna showed Arjuna while speaking the Bhagavad Gita.
On the Lakshmi Narayan Temple there is an 8th century statue of six-armed Trivikratha (Lord Vamana), and next to it is a statue of Lord Narasimha, the man-lion incarnation of Lord Vishnu. Behind the last two statues is a little black slab that has an image of Narayan lying on the traditional serpent Ananta and above it Lord Vishnu with 10 arms and heads. In the northwest corner of the courtyard is a sculpture of Lord Vishnu riding on Garuda, which is on the Rs 10 Nepali banknote. Above the main door is Lord Vishnu holding his four symbols.
The beautifully gilded door is guarded by stone lions of it and has intricate gilded windows on either side. On four pillars in the four corners are the symbols representing Lord Vishnu: the chakra (disc) and conch shell, the lotus (padma), and club (gada).
It is said that, During the Mila Punhi festival, held on the full moon day of the month of Magh (Jan/Feb), the silver kalash of the Deity is carried in procession. To be greeted by the Goddess Kumari at the Taleju Temple, in Kathmandu.
Our hunger was increasing seconds by seconds; we were running like insane, every peace of art was better than the next. Oh, an open museum. It was like spirit of our ancestor.
Though the place was incredible, the place need much attention, It needs to be preserved, protected, for us, for our children to tell the tales of our parents. The palace surrounding the temple seemed neglected, the Big bell calling for eternal peace has cracks on it, our ancestor praying lacks head, oh, it needs to feel safe and it’s our duty to make them feel safe.
I would like to appreciate a private museum owner who had tried to preserve our history, the way of living, our past. I was amazed to find coin collections since the very first Manaxya, a leather coin of King Mana Dev to the 5000 Rs Coin of King Birendra. The museum also had various other collections of ancient house hold equipments, generally used tools, and many more.
And after all the fun and knowledge it was now time to return home. so we were back.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The Teacher Who Changed My Life


While I was in school, I had a poor academic status. My teachers hated me because I was the most stubborn child of my batch. But only one thing that sounded great about me was my accent, and the way I spoke to the people would magically impressed them. But still that did not value much for my grades in exam. My friends used to tease me because I used to read aloud in an American accent in the class. I was always humiliated, but again always was fascinated by my English teachers. My English teacher in the junior classes always made me take part in school’s debate, speech or poem competitions. I always avoided them, because I never won any of those, but still she continued to do so. 

I felt irritated because of her pressurizing me. I then was in my senior years of school when we had a Male English teacher. He hated so much for I was never attentive in his class; I was mischievous, and fought with the boys. But he always wondered about how I always scored best of the marks in his subject. It was time for our pre-send-up exam when he decided to give a spoken English test. When the principal asked him about the result one sudden day, in front of the whole class humiliating me, personally stating that I obviously failed, my English teacher smiled and said that I was the one who scored the highest.

Later when I was in my high school, in grade 11, I was new in the city and the college, all so big and lots of people. I always kept quiet and only spoke when I was asked to. After one year of my silence, when I was in grade 12 my college got split and more than half of our teachers were new. And once again in my life came a new English teacher, and again who hated me because I was stubborn and mischievous. He never looked at me while he was giving lectures, because of which I vowed to myself to persuade him to appreciate me some day.

Now it was time for our juniors to join the college, and I was asked to give an introductory speech on the behalf of our college in the orientation program. I was honored as well as very happy because I got a chance to prove of my capabilities to my English teacher. I prepared a lot for my speech and personally requested him to stay in the program that day. Finally the day came and so did my turn for the speech. I went to the stage and before beginning, I searched for my English teacher, when I found him sitting at the back with no interest in my speech, I felt full confident. I never hated my teacher, nor I had an ego against him, it was just that I had to impress him because he was so good and reflected my ideology, as I always dreamt of a perfect teacher. I was going very well at the beginning and continued well but suddenly I felt nervous and concluded very badly. My that attitude to impress my teacher to show him that I was smart not ‘over’ added in front had all faded , and bowing my head I was returning back stage, where I found him waiting for me. When I saw him, I was so scared and then he smiled and said, “from today I'd like to call you 'TEJASWI’”, which in pure Nepali sense means a ray of light so powerful. I was shocked to hear that.

After that day he always encouraged me to do things under my capability and because of which I won many many debate and speech competitions and the most valuable thing in my life I won the Inter College Public Speaking Contest. And still today the juniors in my high school some of whom I don’t even recognize, remember me as Voice Of Caspian,{Caspian is the name of my High school} and my friends and teachers recall me as “TEJASWI”.

Feild Report


Madan Puraskar Library
The library consists of newspapers and books published 50 years back, which shows it has a long history of books and news papers. the purpose of the library is to collect,conservr nad preserve the older photos, handrwitten notes posters etc. Since the technology is supporting today's world information is also available online about the libraray and its contents. The total collections till the date are:
1. Nepali books-26844{old data}
2. Newspapers-5125{with different names}
3. Photos older than 100 years-7000
4. Handwritten material-700
But the library is kathmandu centric and is famous more outside the country, mainly Darjeeling. The library also consists of first book of nepal published in 1820 A.D. naming''grammar of Nepalese language''. most of the older books comes from Banaras. And the first book printed in Nepal''The Holy Bible'' in 1927 is also available in the library. The library also consists of first news paper of nepal 1995 named 'sudha Sagar' and another oldest newspaper 'Sarada' of 1991.
Therefore the main aim of the library is to protect teh valuable books, newspapers, pamplets etc and till now it is dong its best in reaching the aim.