The Pursuit of Happiness

There are only a few movies which have touched deep in my heart. One of the latest movie i watched "The Pursuit of happiness" was also able to touch deep in my heart....so i couldn't stop myseld from writing its review. Thanks to my friend who recommended me to watch the movie and provided me its DVD.

This movie is the story of a man struggling in his life. It's also a story of a loving father. Christopher (Will Smith) the lead actor of the movie is a seller of bone density scanner (a portable medical device). He works hard and lives with his wife and his son. But their life is in misery as the income of both christopher and his wife Linda goes on paying the taxes and bills. The both couple are struggling hard just to solve their hand to mouth problem and providing good care to their son. One day on seeing the stock brokers and their luxurious life style Christopher also wants to become a stock broker "a high paying job " . But for a high school passed person like christopher being stock broker is not easy. The film is all about how he becomes stock broker. The struggles done by christopher to become stock broker is very impressive. I would love to.....but i don't want to......narrate here how he struggles and achieves his dream because if you have watched this movie you already know it and if you haven't yet watched it then, I recommend you to watch it

The struggle of christopher and his love towards his son are two of the things of the movie that touched me deeply. The director has well portrayed the father son relationship in the movie. When i was watching the movie i felt like how much do people can struggle. And behind the story of every successful people in this world there is another hidden story of struggle with life. But when we see them we only see their successful part. If we could see the struggle and understand how they overcome their difficulties then it would be a great lesson. The only lesson i learned by watching this movie is.....struggle hard if you want to be successful in life.

Early to bed................Healthy, Wealthy and Wise.

Oh shit again I forgot that today is Monday and today the class begins at 9:00 AM. Oh my god ! It’s already 8:45 and I’m still in bed. I’m in dilemma should I keep on cuddling in bed and miss my first class or...... No No No……..how can I miss Dr Onta’s class yar…….I should attend it at any cost because if I miss a class it will be very difficult for me to cover up. I’m talking about class………even missing few minutes of his lecture would be a great loss. I hurried to the cupboard, took out my pullover from hanger, put on my Versace jeans. These are the easy outfits. Then I went to the bathroom washed my face and brushed my teeths.

Oh it’s already 9:00 by now Dr Onta must have entered the class and I don’t want to be scolded again for being late. What should I do now ? I can’t rely on "Kantipur Yatayat" because it takes more than thirty miutes to reach the college from here and even not sure whether it will come or not. Even if I walk it will take around 25 minutes at minimum. No No No......…these both are not the good options. I should go on bike………but how do I get the key from dad and what should I tell if he asked me where I was going. I can’t tell him I’m going to college to attend class because if I say so he will surely scold me for sleeping till 8:45 in the morning despite having class at 9:00 am. Oh no….one more lie again............I have to make one more cooked up story again………… “Dad, I have an urgen call from my friend and I have to go to meet him. I will come on noon for launch. I will take the bike please……..” That’s how I get the key. It makes me laugh because my friends tell lie when they have to run from college…but I’m telling lie even to go to college. It’s all due to my nasty habit of sleeping till late in the morning.

Thank’s god the lecture was not yet started when I entered the class at 9:15. Onta sir has just set up his laptop and LCD and was just about to begin the lecture.

I’m one among those stupid fellows who had read many times “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” but never practiced. I can work till midnight in the night but getting early in the morning.........No way…………..Now the winter is coming and imagine how pleasant is it to cuddle in the bed till the rays of sun enter the room through the window…………

Oh ! it’s already 12:45 in the midnight and I’m still blogging. I have to go to bed otherwise again I will get up late tomorrow. But why should I worry........tomorrow is not Monday and still I have lots of work on the computer.

Review of "The White Tiger"

I first read about Arvind Adiga and his book "The White Tiger" in news in Kantipur when he won the Booker Prize. At that time I was in Pokhara and enjoying my Dashain and Tihar vaccation. After reading the news I made my mind to read the book after going to Kathmandu. After coming to Kathmandu one day I went to a bookshop to buy the book and I almost came out of the bookshop without buying the book after seeing the price. Then I console myself by saying “No. Mr Sanjeev You must buy and read this book. Don’t be deterred by its high price. You can decrease your other expenses but you must read it at any expenses. It’s not an ordinary book. It’s a winner of Booker prize…….” Then I came out of the bookshop with the book.

In the evening after seeing the book in my study table, a question asked to me by my brother made me laugh. “Dada is this book the English translation of Nepali book Seto Bagh by Diamond Samsher”. I just laughed and said “first let me finish this book then I will say whether it’s an English translation of that Nepali book or not”.

I began reading this book through the comments on its jacket (I do same with most of the books). The words written inside the jacket made me excited. “The white tiger is a tale of two Indias. Balaram’s journey from the darkness of village life to the light of entrepreneurial success……………… “. I was happy to read that this book is about entrepreneurial success. In last two years, after my involvement in Altertnatives and reading a book “How to change the world” by Bill Drayton and reading life histories of many other social entrepreneurs, books about social entrepreneurs had become one of my favorites. Fortunately this book was also on entrepreneurship so I was too excited to savour it.

When I was almost halfway through the book I didn’t find it interesting. I don’t know whether I had expected more from the book as a booker prize winner or I was not able to grasp it……. the book was not able to produce any excitment in me. After reading the comment on the jacket I was expecting some stories on entrepreneurship but it didn’t appear till I was almost 3/4th finished. Sometimes I felt like giving up reading it….but still I kept on turning the pages hoping there would be some interesting story a head. And it was there in the last chapter.

This book is a story of a driver of a master turned to Master of drivers. The hero of story is Balaram who works as driver in a very rich businessmen’s house. He kills his own master Mr Ashok and runs with a large sum of money his Master was going to give to a politician as a bribe. Mr Balaram then starts his own business with the stolen money in Banglore and becomes a famous entrepreneur. His new business is to transport the employees of Call Centres to and from their office to work in the midnight. Thus the same Balaram who once used to work as driver to Mr Ashok now owns twenty six vehicles and employes other sixteen drivers and becomes their masters. The way Mr Balaram handles the situations as an entrepreneur and promotes his business is interesting. It was hard to believe that such a naïve driver became such clever and tactful entrepreneur. The writer has very successfully portrayed the life of a very poor Indian and a very rich Indian through his character “Balaram”.

I don’t know why but the chapter in the middle of the books are too insipid. When I was in the middle I thought like “How did this book got the Booker prize yar ?”. But once I read the last chapter and started reading the entrepreneurial success of Balaram……I didn’t like putting off the book. Even when I was finished I felt like the writer has written more and novel would never finish. So I read the last chapter twice.

Though I found the book boring somewhere, in overall I enjoyed reading the book. If you don’t have time and you are afraid of its size don’t worry I will give you a simple technique to finish this book faster. First read the first few chapters and then directly jump to the last chapter. You can easily understand the whole novel.

The Magic of Magik

I was never impressed by the promos of the movie “Rock On”. When I first heard the songs, they were also not good to my ears. I had always thought like “this type of movie is not my cup of tea.” So after seeing the promos of “Rock on” I had made my own perception about this movie which was like this “this must be a musical film and there is no any story …….. so I’m sure I wouldn’t like this film”. Due to my own false perception I didn’t watch the movie though I had many opportunities to watch it in my computer as well as in Cinema Hall.

But today when I went to Jiban’s room, just before I was about to depart he offered me “lets watch the movie Rock On together”. Jiban also had the same perception like me about this movie. And lately he had grown desire to watch the movie as he had heard lots of positive feedback about the movie from his friends. As I was also free, I accepted the offer and we together watched the movie in his laptop.

I have now realized how wrong was my perception about the movie. The movie is so good and I developed such perception without watching it. It reminded me one quote “Never judge a book by its cover”. And I did mistake by judging the movie just by it’s promos. This movie is about four young guys and their band Magik. The movie is also about friendship, misunderstandings, scuffles and reunion. The way the film has presented the story is very good. It reminded me of somehow of the movie “Dil Chahta Hai”. I can’t count how many times I have watched this movie (Dil Chahta Hai) and I will watch it many times in the future as well. Dil Chahta Hai and Rock On have many things in common but still I enjoyed watching the movie Rock On very much (but not as much as I enjoyed while watching Dil Chahta Hai). Fahrahn Akhtar (The director of Dil Chahta Hai and one of the lead actors in Rock On) is marvelous. I envy him. How do these guys become so talented yar…………

I don’t know what magic is there in the songs played by the Magik, the songs which were not good to my ears in the beginning are now pleasant to my ears. I have all the songs of Magik in my mobile and I play them at least once in a day.

One day ride to "Mattikhan"

Sorry mom I lied to you. Had I told that I’m going to Mattikhan with my friend on bike you wouldn’t have allowed me to travel that long journey on bike. That’s why I lied to you and told that I’m going in my previous office’s vehicle with my colleagues and also told that I was invited to participate in training as a facilitator. But all this was fake. Neither I was invited as facilitator in the training nor I was going in the office vehicle. I was going on bike with Pankaj and Rajesh and our sole purpose was just to travel in bike in a long journey in a new and beautiful place.

Mattikhan lies in boarder of syangha and Kaski district. It is one of the potential tourist destinations. It can be a good destination for hiking and trekking from Pokhara. It takes around 6-7 hrs to reach to Mattikhan by walking from Pokhara. We were in Bike so we reached in around 2 hrs. As it is in the hill, there is already a tower of Gandaki FM and I’ve heard that world link is also going to build another tower in Mattikhan. According to the senior citizens living there on a clear day, from Mattikhan we can watch 22 districts from Mattikhan. I don’t know whether it is true or false……but if it is true then Mattikhan can be a new tourist destination near by pokhara and the only spot in Nepal from where we can see maximum number of districts.

Me and Pankaj on the way to Mattikhan

Mattikhan provides a very different view of Pokhara city. From Sarangkot (another hot destination in Pokhara) one can see the Phewa lake and north parts of Pokhara valley. But from Mattikhan we can see the complete view of Pokhara valley except that of phewa lake. As we move more towards Syangha we can see the tail part of Machhapuchhre. The view of Machhapuchre seen from here is completely different from what we see from Pokhara.

Anyway, Rajesh, Me and Pankaj had a nice ride to Mattikhan of Syangha district. We enjoyed the panaromic view of Pokhara from there….a complete and distinct view which we have never seen before from Sarangkot and Kahun danda. I also enjoyed one more dashain and tihar vaccation day by riding to a new and different location in Pokhara. While returning we took a new and short cut way. It was new way which joins chhorepatan with Mattikhan and the road was still under construction. People were still working on it while we were riding. But still we rode through this road and returned to Pokhara at around five in the evening.

Rajesh and Me in Mattikhan

Review of "Antarmanko Yatra"

Among some of the books from Nepali literature which I have read, some of the books worth remembering are Pagal Basti (Saru Bhaktta), Palpasa cafe (Narayan Wagle), Gauri (Madhav Ghimire) and Ghanachhakar (sanjeev Upreti). And another book is going to be added in this list that is "Antarmanko Yatra" by Jagadish Ghimire.

I made one record in reading this book. It took around ten days for me to finish the book. But I finished it just in three sittings in different settings. The first sitting was on a small hill behind my home in pokhara, the second sittting was in the bank of phewa lake and the third sitting was in my own study room.

After I finished reading this book, one question striked in my mind, "Is this a novel, autobiography, monologue, travelouge or daily journal of writer ?" Though writer has called it a Aatmalap, it's a mixture of all so i calle it a mixologue (my own word).

It's a story of a writer, how he became writer and what were the challenges faced by him when he was aspiring to become a writer. The writer has raised one question "In Nepal can one make his living just be becoming a writer ?". Jagadish ghimire has proved that during his time it was not possible but I think it is possible in todays context.

It is not the story of a writer only, it is the story of a successful development expert who has worked in highly responsible posts in international non governmental organisations. The lessons of organistion management that writer has shared is very useful for the readers. I completely agree that "In any organsition human are the core element in its success or failure" because I have also realised this during my two years of professional experience.

The works done by Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti is vey appreciative. It has forced me to plan to travel to Ramechhap. Once while I was studying Bachelors, we guys from college had planned to travel to Ramechhap but at that time it was cancelled due to some reasons. After reading the success stories of Tamakoshi Sewa Samiti, I'm desperate to visit that place and i think i will do it soon.

I was laughing alone in my room when i was rading in the book that "When the writer was DG of CRS company, Radio Nepal didn't played the advertisement of condom and it was played latter on only after King Birendra gave order to play that".......it was too funny..........

The book has helped me in hating the dirty political game of Nepal, which I have always hated the most. The story of Jogi shared by the writer in this book is very much pertinent to the political leaders and maoists of today.

The only flaw I found in this book is that while reading the book, somewhere I felt like the writer is trying to prove himself innocent in some of the accusations of which he was charged during his life. It seems like the write is advocating in favor of himself. So one question arised in my mind "was that necessary ?"............ Otherwise the book is flawless.

Though there are many, I just like to pointout three quotes from this book which impressed me very much.

• Live every momment of your life as if it is the last moment of your life.
• Neither friendship nor rivalry is good with bad people.
• It is better to be envied than pitied.

After finishing the book, I was thinking "Where would Nepal have reached today if every citizens of Nepal have thought like that of Jagadish Ghimire, If every Nepali have loved Nepal like Jagadish Ghimire and every NGO have worked like Tamakoshi Sewa samiti ? "

Review of "The Kite Runner"

I just finished reading “Kite runner” by Khaled Hossini. This Novel came to my hand when I was accumulating the books to be read during my Dashain and Tihar vaccation in Pokhara. Thanks to brother pradeep who provided me the book

I found the novel neither too interesting nor too boring. I must say it’s just an average type for me. But undoubtly there are some suspense and twists and turns which keeps the readers turning on the pages. The plot of the novel moves through Afghanistan, USA and Pakistan. It’s about an Afghan boy Amir raised by a rich single father “Baba”. In the family of Amir there are other two persons as well Rahim Khan and Hassan. Rahim khan and Hassan are servants to the Amir’s family. Rahim khan is of Baba’s age and Hassan is of Amir’s age. Though Rahim khan and Hassan are servants to that family they were like friends to Baba and Amir. Hassan belongs to Hazara class, a class considered too low in Kabul. It’s due to this reason that whenever Hassan and Amir go around the city Hassan is teased by other guys. Amir doesn’t like this but he does nothing. Amir considers himself guilty for being unable to do anything in defense of Hassan. Once Hassan is accused of theft, then Rahim khan and Hassan leave the house. Latter on when Russians invade Kabul Aamir and Baba also move to US. The plot of the novel then goes to US. Later on Aamir comes to Afghanistan in search of Rahim and Hassan. He meets Rahim Khan but he can’t meet Hassan as he has already passed away. Aamir knows that Hassan is also son of Baba born from his illegitimate relationship with a Hazara servant. But Hassan is survied by a son named Sohrab. Aamir makes a very risky journey to war ravaged Afghanistan to find Sohrab and returns to USA with Sohrab.

The strengths of the novel is that it has symbolically shown many things. The relationship between “Baba” and Amir is too placid and compels readers to think why so? The Novel has shown the situation of Afghanistan as resulted by the war. Many people and children are killed everyday in bombings. The children living in orphanage are also physically and mentally tortured. This gives another message that war never does well for any country. And children are more severely affected due to war in any country.In my opinion the novel also provides a good understanding of the culture and lifestyle in the Middle East. So if anyone wants to know more about the lifestyle and culture in middle east then going through this novel is the most.The write has linked kite running event in Afghanistan in a very interesting way in the novel. In Afghanistan anyone who is able to fly the kite in sky for longest period of time by cutting other kits becomes very famous and once Amir wins this event. And finally the Novel ends with Amir and Hassan’s son flying the kite together in USA.

I Love Loadshedding

I love load shedding. You might be wondering what a stupid person is this, who loves to live in darkness in this 21st century. But I’m not joking. I really love load shedding very much. I have once read somewhere, “If there is no any option to run away from something you hate the most, then try to love it”. I’m doing the same. Inverter is not yet installed and I hate the noise of generator. So to enjoy the service of our government (i.e. load shedding of 48hrs per week), I began enjoying the load shedding.

Really load shedding has changed my life. It has brought changes in my reading habits. Previously during summer when there was no problem of load shedding, I was busy most of the times surfing through the net, it used to be blogging, uploading photos in Hi5 and facebook, downloading songs and chatting with friends. In rest of the spare time I had to go through the course books. So I had very little time or none at all for my passion which was reading Novels. Thus it used to take almost one month for reading one Novel. Thanks to load shedding, because these days I love reading Novel in the evening time by sitting in the verandah, lighting a candle, a cup of coffee in one hand and book in the other. I really love that cool environment in the evening where there is darkness everywhere and a dim light of candle in my table only. I have made the schedule that whenever there is load shedding every evening I will read Novel in the candle light. Then see the results……. I have finished two novels in on week. Previously it used to take around one month to finish one novel. Thanks to load shedding I have already finished seven novels in just one month and there are still more waiting for me in the cupboard. I will finish them too soon because the load shedding is not going to decrease rather it is increasing.

Another opportunity Load shedding has provided to our family is of candle light dinner. Previously we had to go to either Thamel or Kingsway for Candle light dinner and it used to be just once in a month. Now we can have Candle light dinner three times a week. Oh my god! I just love that environment during dinner time in our kitchen where we all family members sit together in dining table and have candle light dinner. We all have gone so crazy that during the day of load shedding in the evening we just wait for load shedding so that we can have candle light dinner. Thanks to the government and Nepal electricity authority for this wonderful Load shedding. I love this load shedding.

A Generation awakens

For most people Dashain is over once they receive tika and blessings from their family members and relatives. But for some youths from Pokhara, Dashain is more than that. For them Dashain is not over until and unless they visit a special place in Pokhara. This special place is Bridhaashram (elderly home) of Pokhara. For some Pokhareli youths it has become a culture to visit the elderly homes during Dashain, receive blessings from the senior citizens living there and enjoying one full day with them by singing and dancing in Bhajan. Giving continuation to this tradition, some thirty youths from different parts of Pokhara went to Harihar Bridhaashram located in the upper hill of Bhalam during this Dashain as well. The program was jointly organized by many youth organizations like, Alternatives, Youth Initiative, Yuwa Forum, Paila and HRERLIC, Kaski.

The main objective of this programme was to lessen the generation gaps that exist in our society between the senior citizens and youth. Senior citizens are ornaments of our society. They are like ocean of knowledge and experiences which they have accumulated over their age. If they could share their knowledge and experiences with young people then young people would be enlightened. And yes the thirty youths who have visited the Bridhaashram, have been enlightened by receiving tika and blessings from senior citizens and listening to their experiences of life.

The Harihar Bridhaasharam located in the middle of a thin forest in the North side of Pokhara, is at a distance of one hour walk from Bagar. From the bridhaasharam we can see a panoramic view of Pokhara city. When we reached the Bridhaashram, water fountain in the middle of the boulevard, flowers of different colors, cool and fresh air blowing from the nearby trees and the Bhajan in the background held us spellbound. We felt like we were in heaven. Talking to the senior citizens living their and listening to their experiences of life was really wonderful. After brief introduction we received tika, Jamara and blessings from the senior citizens. Then we handed over some of the daily utilities which we have bought by our self contribution. After that we enjoyed by singing and dancing in Bhajan. Finally the Bridhaasharm family also offered us some snacks and we returned from there at around five in the evening.

The programme has raised the feeling of social responsibility in Pokhareli youths. After being born as a human being in this world each and every individual has some social responsibility and he/she must fulfill it, otherwise he/she is no more different from an animal. This is just one benchmark stepped by Pokhareli youths in the field of social responsibility and such programs will be continued throughout the year.

SANO SANSAR

After reading the critics as well as appreciation of the movie “Sano Sansar” regularly in many National newspapers, I was desperate to watch the movie. On Tuesday the classes were off, so I went to Jai Nepal with a friend of mine to watch the movie.

The movie is too good. Each and every teenager who watches the movie feels like it is his or her own life. I can vouch that the incidents and events that are shown on the movie must have happened on the life of each and every teenager at least once. When Rabi chats with Los Angels one feels as if he/she is chatting. The scenes are just too good. I have never seen the New Road and Sigha Durbar road so beautiful and scenery. In the beginning when I saw the new road in the movie I couldn’t believe my eyes and asked my friend “Is it the same road through which we just came?” One of the greatest strength of the movie is that the places through which we have walked many times have been shown very beautifully in the movie. The attires of the actors are too fashionable. The chatting is lively and has been portrayed very well in the movie. The film has portrayed the real life of teenagers. Without any hesitations the director has shown in the movie how the teenagers communicate with friends, what does a teenager has in his mobile and how teenagers spend the leisure time. I think this is strength of the movie Sano Sansar. There is no any new love story, there is no any fight scene but whatever is shown in the movie is a real life story of a teenager. Thus rather than copying the stories of the super hit Hollywood and Bollywood movies the script writer has shown creativity by taking simple life of a teenager. This is one of the strongest parts of the movie. The music is also mind-blowing. All songs are arranged and composed beautifully with good lyrics. When we came out of the movie I felt like everyone was singing “Sano chha gaun….sanai chha sansar…….” because I was singing it.

There are some shortcomings too. Sometimes there is no fluency in the delivery of dialogues and it seems as if it is artificial. There are some dialogues and some unnecessary scenes which may be disgusting to watch together with family members. But that’s the reality and that’s how teenagers behave among friends. So the movie crew must be appreciated for this. However the movie has failed to represent the life of teenagers living in rural areas.

Nepali film industry has moved a long way but the list of very good movies can be counted in fingers. The Sano Sansar has created a new benchmark in Nepali film industry. If Nepali film makers go on giving such movies then it’s sure that Nepalese youths will not run after the English and Hindi movie just like they do now.

Celebrating Dashain in a different way.

There are different ways of celebrating Dashain. Some celebrate dashain by going in a long journey, some enjoy it just by playing cards and some enjoy it only with family members and relatives. Some youth from pokhara celebrated Dashain this year with family members but a very different and new family. We found a new family in Pokhara Bridhaashram (Elderly home). The family members of the bridhashram were twenty four elderly people. We consider ourself fortunate enough to celebrate the Dashain this time with elderly people of an elderly home. We youth from different backgrounds found a new family. It was a dashain we have ever celebrated in such a large family.

The programme was conducted from self contribution of Rs 50 each. We bought some fruits from the money we raised by ourselves and ate it together with the elderly people. One of our colleagues was generous enough to contribute blankets for the elderly people in memory of her father.

The main theme of the programme was "youths celebrating dashain with elderly people." Elderly people are the ornaments of our society. They have experiences and lots of things to share with young people. They can be a source of inspiration for young people. We met the elderly people and sought tika and blessings from them. The young people were too happy to offer their blessings to the very young generation. After receiving tika from the elderly people it was now time to sing Bhajan. The youths very actively sang in tune with elderly people in Bhajan. People as old as 100 yrs old danced in the bhajan and youth gave company to the elderly people in singing and dancing. There were all together thirty youths and twenty four elderly people.

This programme has raised some kind of responsibility in youths. We all have realized that one day we will also grow old. Being old doesn't mean being useless in the society. Elderly people also can contribute a lot in the society and elderly people deserve lots of love and care. We celebrated the dashain of this year in a very different way. And all the youths that were present there will never forget this day in their life. We all youths have realized that we will give continuation to this kind of programme in future as well.