Computer Association of Nepal has self awarded another accolade to their success list. Five-day long CAN InfoTech program for the year 2006 has finally come to an end. The exhibition was held in abeyance due to the unstable political situation of the country. Mr. Biplav Man, the president of CAN fancies the program as a complete success due to the increase in the number of visitors and in the volume commercial activities. But not everyone share his perspective.

I visited CAN InfoTech the day before yesterday despite of the negative feedback from all I know who had already been there. I thought may be it was like going to study in US and moreover it is like Easter to the IT people of Nepal. So I was certainly not going to miss it. Now, I miss the 50 rupees note that went into the yearly allowance of CAN.

Ideally the exhibition should have been a demonstration of the achievements and scope in the field of Information Technology in Nepal but it was more like a showcase of flat screen monitors. Do you know which stall was the worst and least populated? That of IT Park, the biggest government funded IT organization. Few years back, there was a huge hype about the employment opportunities that IT Park was to create. A bomb blast by Maoist and everything cooled down. Today I declare that Nepal is not making any significant progress through IT.

CAN InfoTech 2006 posted by Pradeep Chand @ 10:44 AM  2 comments

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Dear All,

Saw this movie ''Rang de Basanti". It may sound funny but sincerely, after childhood days, for the first time I really got inspired by a movie. I really started to think about Nepal and the political crisis continuing. Lack of interest in country's system and adequate patriotism prevails in Nepal too, I felt that. That doesn't imply that the solution is to kill someone as shown in the movie. I tried to see within myself, what is my contribution? Found its ok, I am studying and becoming a manpower for the nation. But went through the news from Nepal and this time I could not satisfy myself. Going regular is not enough; felt that. It's high time for each of us to try to do something more than the regular! On the process, what can I do at most now, I found I can share my understanding of the crisis to my friends and then forward it to maximum Nepalese as far as possible. There might be various view points on that between us. This is one amongst them. PLZ READ IT ONCE. GIVE A SECOND THOUGHT ON THAT. AND IF YOU DONT AGREE, IT'S YOUR RIGHT NOT TO . BUT I BELEIVE MANY OF YOU WHO'LL READ THIS MAIL WILL CERTAINLY GET CLEAR ABOUT MANY THINGS. And in due course, I'd be grateful to get your opinions as well. This way we can interact and start to think about the country more seriously. UNTIL AND UNLESS WE START A STEP, NO THING BIG WOULD BE ACHIEVABLE. Believing on this, I am sharing my opinion.

"As we see the situation in Nepal, anyone would think that the problem lies between the King, seven Political parties, and Maoists. And why? What each of them wants? We'd find answers for that also. One may say political parties want full-fledged democracy. Similarly Maoists want the communism, and King wants to reestablish Panchayat or something like that in other form. It may sound weird to you at first, but I see this crisis in completely other way. This is not any kind of conflict between Nepalese themselves. This is something between India and Nepal. It's a grand and interesting game. At the same time, highly challenging for both the states.

India 's average economic growth rate has reached around 7.5% which is one of the best in world today. India is second largest market in the world in terms of population. Foreigners are seeing China and India as the new markets of this age and investing here rapidly. Bottom line is- India is developing. But how long people will invest in India if basic infrastructure is not there? How much investments would be there in Agricultural industry if outsiders don't see basic irrigation facilities in the field? In other way, when other area is developing, what about large Indian farmer population? When they'll prosper if irrigation is not there? And most importantly, energy is vital for all development- industries, technology and everything. India is not capable of producing the required amount. India has successfully taken control over Bhutan's energy resources and already started to have the benefit. Bhutan is also getting something out of it but in cost of sovereignty.

Change the non cooperative government of Nepal. Keep people in power that will be ready to sell the resources of the country fro some money. And if required, will be ready to sell the whole country. India knew that until and unless royal family is in power, it's not possible. This is because for the royals, Nepal is the only place in the world where they will get highest degree of respects and they'd never sell the country. For that, India played the key role to instill democracy in 2046 and implant corrupted people in the government. According to the plan, some leaders of ours sold out rivers and lands during the 15 years. That we all know.

It'll be a very appreciable opinion if you say what those pancheys are doing again here? We should not forget that democracy is nature's law. When you are born, you come along with your freedom. No force can stop u for that. Let's see the cause and what's happening around. Democracy within the boundary is so important? Or democracy in a country will be there when a country will b there? Let all Nepalese get together and stop the external force for some time when Nepal will try to lift up in a position from where no force would be able to bring it down. Democracy is always there. When Nepalese can change the government in 2046, same Nepalese can change the government again in 2066. And if required, forever free Nepalese could change the system around the world. We don't have to doubt in our capability. But the current need is not "restore democracy" as India is saying. Current need for each and every Nepali is to "save and raise the nation". When US envoy to India made one statement related to India's internal politics last week, whole India shouted back to the ambassador. This is something good we need to learn from Indians. When India, and other far away nations are repeatedly trying to interfere our internal matter, our corrupted media (do I have to name the media which have bosses of Non Nepalese origins? Or u find it yourself) is not tired of singing their songs everyday. These Medias are responsible for creating a pessimistic environment in the nation. People are not protesting those external interferences which are vital in present. Restoring democracy is not the issue as far as I understand. What if democracy is restored tomorrow immediately? Same old faces who tried to help the neighbor more than own country itself will be back to power. And the process of losing the nation's independency which has been stopped temporarily through king's move will get momentum again.

But if Nepal and Nepalese succeeds to pause that external force for some more time, its strength will be minimized. Many things can happen within few years. Zest is- country first!
Now, If you don't agree on this, I m open to have your opinion. If you feel that there is some logic in what I have said, please forward it to as many Nepalese as possible. There is nothing good happening to you within 24 hours or 3 days or 1 week or so forth. But only God knows, long term benefits could be there.

Anonymous patrioteer posted by Pradeep Chand @ 12:59 PM  14 comments

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Heavy showers of water were dropping on the roads even through there was no rainfall. Today, even air had color because holi was in the air. From about 9 in the morning, holi started. The whole ambience was echoing with laugher and screams. People covered with abir, with red faces and red clothes, where roaming around the town as carefree as ever and those with water-ambush were throwing buckets of colored water on them. Few holi gangs could be seen singing, as they moved from house to house of their friends and relatives and few were flying high with bhang and ghatto.

Yeah… it was all fun but could this be the calm before the storm. Maoist rebel supremo Prachanda has declared that it will be all over this month. We hope the same, but in a peaceful manner.

Holi paints smile posted by Pradeep Chand @ 10:27 PM  0 comments

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The clock stroke 9 and there was a black out, as cruel... as punctual as death. And there was a loud collective cry of anguish from the whole locality. Many still do not know about the exact schedule of load-shedding and thus every time it occurs, people unexpectedly loose their business; miss their favorite TV Serial; are forced to go to bed; and thus they add few more sentences to the frustrated feeling of being a Nepali. Here is the time table for load-shedding in our sector, lading 5 hours of darkness each day.

I don't want to repeat the cliche but Nepalstill fancies itself as the second richest country in water resources but now the time has arrived to look for the alternatives of hydro-electricity. This year the climate has been as relentless as the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) can be more in the years to come. That is why NEA must try to move partly into petrol, coal or nuclear power plants.

There is another option for NEA in today's Kantipur Daily. Some experts believe that behind this entire load-shedding problem, there is a huge role of management discrepancies within the electricity board. And they believe that privatization of NEA can mitigate the problem to a large extent, if not solve it entirely.

Load-shedding strikes posted by Pradeep Chand @ 1:48 PM

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