Ashish Lohorung Rai

The above topic was selected by the general meeting of Chulachuli UNESCO Club the Saturday before the gone Saturday. We all the members of the club had to write an essay not more that 350 words. Our club has decided to make a book which has the collection of all the essays written by the members. But all non-members too can contribute to it. So I have also written it though I don’t have more idea about the Constitution Assembly and coming election. Please read it and post comments.

By hard searching in the Google with the high resolution images I have downloaded many pictures of Harry Potter and the other crew members. I have created a wallpaper and I have put its wallpaper on my desktop. If you want it just download it and set it as desktop background. J.K. Rowling seems like model in the wallpaper. Actually she is in the sense she is model of all fantasy lovers from general readers, directors, actors, writers to publishers.

The craze of Harry Potter seems never stopping. So it will be hard for those who loves Harry Potter if it stops coming.

She has said the concept of writing Harry Potter came when she was traveling from Manchester to London. When she wrote the first edition and went to the publishers she was rejected by eight publishers. Finally, Bloomsbury accepted it and they were astonished to see the market craze upon it. Till now it is going on breaking all the records of all the books of the past.

Long Live Harry Potter!

Though some might think that Harry Potter Craze is just time or money wasting I don’t think so. As I am one of its fan I have also bought the latest released book “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” written by J.K. Rowling. Soon I started reading it and now I have finished till 6 chapters now. I wanted to finish it as soon as possible. It priced Rs. 1540 at the Educational Book Store at Kantipath, Kathmandu. My little sister has gone to buy it. She said she even got a small piece of cake while buying it. There were also about 12 copies of various small comics as complementary.

Published and distributed by Bloomsbury this edition of Harry Potter broke all the previous records of top selling books. None of the previous editions were sold in that much numbers. J.K. Rowling became the second richest woman in entertainment business due to only selling the Harry Potter series. She has said that the concept of the whole story came while she was traveling from Manchester to London by train. At one time it is said she didn’t have enough money to pay for the rent of her flat too. She was a poor woman then. Harry Potter has completely transformed her into something very much extraordinary. She is now more richer then Queen Elizabeth of United Kingdom.

According to the Yahoo News this Harry Potter was sold 8.3 million copies within 24 hours of its release alone in United States. It means that it is 16 Arab 60 Crore in Nepal.

What I didn’t like about the News media that the whole surprise of Harry Potter was revealed by all news media that Harry Potter will not die. I felt it is very rude to the passion readers who wanted to know by reading themselves. I have too bought a DVD of Harry Potter which cost Rs. 50 from “Phutpath” but it was a very bad print. There it was written that it has all four movies but there were only two working well though without smooth. सस्तो बेसारले पखाला चलौछ ।

Yahoo News

Just now we some of the CNC staffs watched the movie called “North Country”. This movie is based on true story about a mother who was sexually harassed by her co-workers in the mining company called Eveleth Taconite Co during 1988. The lead role is played by the actress Charlize Theron representing the real mother Lois Jenson. This movie is directed after a book called “Class Action” written by Clara Bingham.

When I started the movie from half I was thinking this movie is not so much interesting coz it is moving like tortoise. But as I began understanding the situation and the story I was enthralled by it. Josey is a mother raising two children. She was raped by a man and was forced to give the first baby. During school time too she was raped by her teacher. When she made commitment that she need no any man to help her family go alive she decided to work in the mining company. But to her surprise she was sexually harassed by her co-workers. Not only her all the females working there were behaved the same way.

Finally she decided it was too much and she filed sexual harassment lawsuit against the company co-workers. At the beginning it was hard to her and everybody said she was crazy. But when he got a good lawyers team she won the case and everybody was with her side. That kind of sexual harassment lawsuit was first in the history and got attention from all over the world. Everybody thanked her and the films ends.

Finally when I searched the Google and I came across the book “Class Action” I am thinking of buying it though I don’t know it is available or not. I suggest everybody to watch that movie. I also did read this line when searching about the sexual harassment “One of every three women is sexually harassed one or more time in her life”. Most of them are ignored due to the fear that it will be whole mess of privacy. In Nepal too though we don’t hear such things it might be a whole lot of dirty things inside. Due to the lack of proper laws and its implementation we can hardly imagine the backside of these kinds of things. Everybody should be aware of it and stand forward to speak against it.

Blogging is really a great revolution for the people who wanted to post their thoughts without edited. When computer was invented nobody thought this industry will grow to this enormous height. Actually to say computer is like convergence of all technology present today. From education, data management, security forces to all levels it is now being like a daily life. The concept of blogging has caught the head of millions and it started with a great bang. With just a few mouse clicks you are connected to the whole world. Then share your opinions, comments, posts make the blogging world full of new thoughts, new ideas and new energy to live life.

Once I had read that if the industry of car making has developed at the pace of today’s computer industry then now car could be bought more cheaper than a bicycle and would be faster than a jet plane.

This line itself tells the significance of this great technology. So I salute it for the convenience it has created in our lives. BIG THUMBS UP TO YOU!

Here is a brief timeline of the history of blogging:

Dawn of Internet Time: Tim Berners-Lee at CERN begins keeping a list of all new sites as they come online.

June 1993: NCSA’s oldest archived What’s New list of sites.

June 1993: Netscape begins running it’s What’s New! list of sites.

Jan 1994: Justin Hall launches Justin’s Home Page which would become Links from the Underground.

April 1997: Dave Winer launches Scripting News. His company, Userland, will release Frontier, Manila and Radio Userland, all website and blog content software.

Sept 1997 Slashdot launches their news for nerds.

Dec 1997: Jorn Barger coins the term web log.

November 1998: Cameron Barrett publishes the first list of blog sites on Camworld.

Early 1999: Peter Merholz coins the term blog after announcing he was going to pronounce web blogs as “wee-blog”. This was then shortened to blog.

Early 1999: Brigitte Eaton starts the first portal devoted to blogs with about 50 listings.

July 1999: Metafilter’s earliest archives.

July 1999: Pitas launches the first free build your own blog web tool.

August 1999: Pyra releases Blogger which becomes the most popular web based blogging tool to date, and popularizes blogging with mainstream Internet users.

News Source: http://www.blockstar.com

Some of the useful links:

Ten Tips of Blogging

Ten Tips For A Better Weblog

Blogging for Beginners

15 Blogging Tips For 2007

14 th of this month I woke up as usual and went downstairs. I drank a glass of water and sat on the chair when I got the overwhelmed and unexpected surprise. My two younger sisters had planned something else to wish me my birthday. They wished me with cheerful smile and handed me a small gift. That was my really surprise moment because I have never thought of it. Though I was aware that soon my birthday was coming but couldn’t guess that it was that day. For the first time, I forgot my birthday. It is really hard for me coz I was surprised myself. I am wondering how could I forget my birthday? Is that the sign of something else? Was it the sign of some forgetfulness type of thing? I know that can’t happen to me but I think that is much of co-incidence. I at once checked my digital diary for the evidence. It was cent percent right.

I made up my mind to celebrate it in my own way. I planned to buy some sweets and distribute to my colleagues. I bought some wired kind of sweet which I haven’t know before and took it to office. When I got to office and greeted my friends, Laxman Ji pointed to have a piece of cake. I was surprised that what is that for. Though he tried to hide I hardly guess it was just like that. I haven’t revealed till then that it was my birthday. I took out the sweet and showed to them and said it was my birthday. He was surprised to know and asking as if I was lying. I asked the reason for that and he replied that the another staff had his birthday too in that day. I was shocked for the second time of the co-incidence that was following me as if an angry bee. His name was Kunjan who is the senior creative designer and the owner of the company. Soon everybody knew about the wonderful incident happened there. Ranjan Ji soon planned to have lunch with all the staffs together. We Me, Kunjan, Ranjan, Pradeep, Raju and Suranjan had the lunch at nearby Kamaladi restaurant with great fun. When I returned home I bought some cakes from Thamel and had them with my family with the blowing of the candle and the “HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO U……” song.

Though some people say that celebrating the birthday like this is not our culture. It is imported from the west. I have seen whatever somebody thinks if you wish him in his birthday then he will be happy like he’s got some special gift. It is not necessary to give expensive gifts and do wired things. The most important is to remember one’s birthday. I have heard from my sister that the greatest gift you can give to other is the purity of attention. Likewise, there is no any gift special more than that. The very and the most special thing of anyone’s birthday is its uniqueness. Though sometimes more than one people have birthday at the same day, most of the time it is unique. You feel very much extra and privileged at the moment and that feeling happens to be the happiest moment of your life.

It is the fact that many people celebrate their birthday with great expenditure and unnecessary things. We should discourage that in the sense that, in such type of birthday party there is more self enjoyment rather than the true feelings. If we could share the feeling more then the world will become friendlier. Let’s start this attitude from ourselves first.

One of the top story writer Shedney Sheldon died on Jan 30. He was 89 years of age. This is very bad news for all the fatansy lovers. Though I am not a severe and passion reader of novels and stories I have a strong reason to post this blog. About 4 or 5 years ago my father brought a novel called “Master of the Game” written by him and translated by a Nepali writer, Tej Rai. Then we all family became fan of the writing skills and the imagination. We all have read that novel. Every time you read that novel it makes you read even more. I couldn’t explain its importance.

The novel starts with the dangerous journey of Jemi who travels from Europe to South Africa in search of diamond. His close black friend Banda and him together goes in a mission to steal the diamonds from Bhander Marb who claims all the diamonds of Jemi making a forged document. They becomes successful in doing so and he builds the largest business in Cape Town. After the death of Jemi, his daughter Kate becomes the world’s number one business woman and becomes the “Master of the Game”.

That novel is the mixture of adventure, love, romance, sacrifice, bravery, politics, passion, art, skill, strategy and so on. I think being in Nepali made it more fluence to understand and get the real taste of story.

Source of Photo: Himalayan Times.

Just today I am feeling better because our final of the final examination is over. I don’t have now any tension of college now. Today was the exam of Comprehensive where we are asked questions from three subjects ie. C++, Visual Basic and Oracle. It was tough coz we don’t get enough time to study and we gave exams using our intuition.

From tomorrow I will be going to office and do the regular job. I really missed my blog site. I apologise for not updating more. Just now I got time and posted this blog.

Though I think it is the time for relaxation but it is wrong in the sense that more things and responsibilities is coming as the time passes. The question of the future and career is always eating my head. Though I am not weak to give up.

From 27 th of this month is going to be my final of the final examination of BScIT ( Bachelor of Science in Information Technology) ie. the final examination of the last semester. I am working at office till today. I have asked to Ranjan ji about my holiday and he allowed. I am staying till 30 th of this month at home. I don’t know how could I do that because I have habit of staying out late.

Though I know I have prepared nice for sitting in the examination hall I have the courage to do it. Actually we don’t know why we like to watch so many things in the TV while examination is near. Do wish me good luck for the coming up harder days. I should be really boring to sit and stay all the day at home and study. But this is my quest of life. Everyone should be able to do that not only me. I have heard in a TV show that the one and only friend of yours entire life is only YOU. If you pay respect, love, care to him/her then only you will get success. I felt whoever told that is absolutely right. If you learn to love yourself then only you could love others. Loving others means not only the girlfriend or boyfriend but also to the nation, family, friends, work, hobbies and finally to YOURSELF.

We have four papers to give in our every semester exam. This semester we have WML/XML, MIS, SQA and one is comprehensive paper which is the remix version of Oracle, C++ and VC++. Every paper is of 200 marks. All questions are of objective type. So there is some kind of benefit but have some kind of demerits too. This kind of technique of giving examination has degraded our writing skills. So this time college told us to give the hand written assignments which was tough.

It is so wired that less than 5% of what I have studied has only come to use during my work. It means that our study is completely theory based not practical. So college should focus more on practicals. Otherwise, this type of education only makes politicians not the professionals.

After the hard work of the report, assignments and project preparation again the exam comes. I haven’t read a single day of any of the text books beside going to the class. So I was to be the worse nightmare to give exam in such situation. Though due to the pressure of cutting the marks if not attended in the exam I was ready to do whatever comes in my mind. It is easier because of the objective type questions. Though college has given some of the subjective type questions too because they thought our writing skills is degrading. Students feel really bored to give such subjective type questions coz they had already the habit of it when enrolling into this college.

And to make more worse the college told us to give assignments in hand written form not computer print. Due to the time constraints I was not able to write all the assignments myself, I handed to my sisters to do the tasks. I said I would pay for it. They were ready and helped me a lot. Within a short time I finished the assignments. After all the stuffs the exam is ready with its big mouth open to engulf me.

Though I copied the schedule of the exam, to be worse I lost it inside my bag. I searched a lot and all in vain. I called the college and wanted to know they were surprise to hear that I don’t know the routine. How could I explain all the stuffs?

At last I went to the examination hall yesterday. It was very late about one hours. I thought I will do everything in one another hour time coz it was all objective type questions and I don’t know much of them so how could I take more time? When I entered the room my one of the teacher told me I am not allowed to take exam because some students are already outside and there may be the chance of leaking the question papers. Though I hadn’t met any of my friends I gave up and resigned to give the exam. Many other students also do the same but they won’t get punished.

Just today also I saw a student coming to the room after one and half hour and he was allowed. Why only me? That was my question but I never asked to anyone coz they don’t understand. Perhaps this blog will shout it out to explain all these things in detail.

After that I went outside and headed to my office. It was really early but what to do ? Going to the home takes much time and expenses are more. So I decided to go office and do surfing. As I was walking from Maitidevi to Kamaldi many things came to my mind about resigning the exam. It felt very odd that I have done something very punishable or criminal. I didn’t know I was completely blank. I have felt such incident very rare in my life. That was really off and I can’t explain in words how did I felt. It was like the situation after a huge earthquake. Nothing can be guessed what is going to be next. How many times I was telling myself that this is not a serious thing, my another mind conflicts and take me to that wired situation.

During the whole day of my office I remembered that and my day was like a blank. Whatever I did in the office was good but I couldn’t forget it. After that I decided to wake up early in the morning and go to the exam hall fast. So I did as I thought and I gave today’s exam well but not great. Whatever at last I am feeling recovered but don’t know what the college will do to my exam bunk yesterday. Whatever may happen I pray to god that will result in good consequences. Finally I am back to my office writing this blog.