Great lessons from 'The Alchemist'

Whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it’s because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It’s your mission on earth. And when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

I just finished reading one of the best-selling book 'The Alchemist' by Paulo Coelho. It's extremely inspirational for anyone who wants to reach their destiny. Really, it has the power to change our life. It relates the life of a Shepherd who yearns to travel in search of  worldly treasure. He travels from his home in Spain to Pyramid of Egypt and he encounters with the alchemist. Most importantly it urges us to pursue our dreams, the universe will help us. Practically, we may face many hurdles and the whole universe may not be in our favor but passing by the obstacles with strong desire and perseverance, its sure, we can reach our destiny. We can learn from our own journey and we should never lose our control. The alchemist tells as the boy sometimes afraid of not getting the treasure, "Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams."

I believe, it will enchant and inspire an even wider audience of readers for generations to come. I will follow my favorite for obvious reasons.

Destination Manakamana -- Hiking

Date: January 11, 2009                                                                     Route: Kurintar-Manakamana -Kurintar                                 Duration: Around 8 hrs                                                             Sponsor: D2HawkeyeServices

The team: AlinaS, AnishB, Mrs. Baidya, SabitaK, SureshG, RoshanG, PravindaR, DeepakL, SameerT, PrajwalS, KapilP, RameshwarY, RajendraB, RajendraS

It was 7 am and of course, I was in bed. I received a call from DeepakL -- it was office's number and I woke up as he requested me to join the hiking team. Though I had no plan to hike that day I became ready accepting his request and van picked me up from Baneshwor. Cold season and the mercury level in Kathmandu was very low. We all were wearing heavy cloths but unexpectedly we faced the sunny day there. It made  us very difficult to walk uphill wearing warm cloths. But we all enjoyed hiking together.. Anish Dai enchanted us with great Nepali Songs on the way back to Kathmandu.

Bequest of few drops of blood

Event: Blood donation program                                                 Date: Saturday, December 27, 2008                                    Location: Bishal Nagar, Kathmandu, Nepal

"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."  ~John Wooden

Indeed, none can pay back to us for our altruistic work; no matter how big the help means to others. I made an another perfect day by donating blood. And the moments:

 

Special thanks to Bhaskar N. Bhattarai for coordinating this event.

Planted few saplings at Kakani while hiking

Hiking Route: Kaule – Shivapuri Nikunja - Kakani
Date: Sunday, Dec 07, 2008
Participants: Aalok Pokhrel, Keshab Ghimire, Neeraj Dhungana, Prabhat Man Sainju, Rajendra Banjade, Rohan Bhattarai, Sudeep Ghimire, Sudeep Khatiwada, Tejaswee SJB Rana, Ujjwal Shrestha Sponsor: D2HawkeyeServices Pvt. Ltd.

As earlier hikes, all nice guy team and a serene place - Kakani. And our small effort to save our environment by planting few saplings there. Some optimists who believe small effort like this counts and promise to keep this effort alive were the participants in this hike. After a 3 hours walk along the village, jungle and water fall, we reached Kakani. There was a scout training area and we selected to plant some young trees there. We irrigated for the day and asked the scout office staff for further irrigation. On the way back to Kathmandu, we distributed few copies and pencils to the school children as an inspiration for further studies.

More details: http://www.everestuncensored.org

We will follow up..

D2 Cultural program (Novafest 08)

Event: NovaFest 2008
Organizer: D2HawkeyeServices Pvt. Ltd
Type: Cultural Program
Date: Saturday, 22 November 2008
Venue: Rastriya Sanskritik Sansthan[Rastiya Nach Ghar]
Location: Jamal, Kathmandu, Nepal

A wonderful experience in my life. It was my participation in a cultural program as a performer and an audience; organized by our office as its continuation of last year's cultural fest. The program had 25 items in line up -songs, dances and dramas. Last year, I enjoyed the event at Yak & Yeti as an audience only but regreted not being the performer.

This time, after a regular training and rehearsal at Star Entertainment training Center, Old Baneshwor and at office with the mentorship of a dance teacher, we became able to perform well. Well in the sense, we were not professional dancer and we made it with great enthusiasm making some time apart from the hectic schedule of office work and personal activities.

Initially, we were practicing for a group dance in a song 'Ban ma fulyo ful' but later on we dropped it. And then, started dancing in a song 'Herda ma ramro', a very sweet and enchanting variety of folk songs and the dance is performed with the rhythmic sound of the "Damphoo" musical instrument which the dancers carry in their hands. It falls in the category of Tamanag selo.

The team:
[Rajiv Shrestha, Rajendra Banjade, Deepak Lamichhane, Mamata Ojha, Rina Maharjan, Jasmine Bajracharya]

For more detail:

http://www.everestuncensored.org/3395/2008/11/28/nova-fest-2008

LAJJA (Shame), a novel which I just finished reading

I just finished reading Lajja (Shame), the controversial novel by Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin, is a savage indictment of religious extremism and man’s inhumanity to man. It is based on the upsurge of communalism in Bangladesh that is making it exceedingly difficult for the minorities to continue to reside there.

The Duttas—Sudhamoy, Kironmoyee, and their two children, Suranjan and Maya—have lived in Bangladesh all their lives. Despite being part of the country’s small Hindu community, that is terrorized at every opportunity by Muslim fundamentalists, they refuse to leave their country, as most of their friends and relatives have done. Sudhamoy, an atheist, believes with a naive mix of optimism and idealism that his motherland will not let him down... And then, on 6 December 1992, the 450-year-old Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in India is demolished by a mob of Hindu fundamentalists. The world condemns the incident, but its fallout is felt most acutely in Bangladesh, where Muslim mobs begin to seek out and attack the Hindus.... The nightmare inevitably arrives at the Duttas’ doorstep—and their world begins to fall apart.... Unremittingly dark and menacing, the novel exposes the mindless bloodthirstiness of fundamentalism and brilliantly captures the insanity of violence in our time.

Not in that scale, such kind of communal riots take place sometimes in our country also. In my understanding, only few people break away the communal harmony for the sake of their own or for some political benefits. They don't think about the communal devastation that might be created across the world which begins from a small cottage. There are so many ways to solve the problem, if any, but communal problem still haunts us. When will it end? Is is increasing or decresing?

I am Hindu by birth but secular. I stand up for religious freedom in the world and secularism in their behavior. And I do not think it suggests that either of Hindus or Muslims are bad in any way.

"If we allow fundamentalists to go unopposed, no society will be safe," - Taslima Nasrin

Bidding farewell to Sudeep G

Time has come to bid farewell to one of my friends - Sudeep Ghimire, who is leaving to pursue his further studies in Portugal. I met him over 6 years ago when I joined Pulchowk Engineering Campus. Since then, we were together -- 4 years in College and 2years in D2HawkeyeServices Pvt. Ltd. He was helpful and had good sense of humor that we all enjoyed.

He has got a prestigious Erasmus Mundus Scholarship to study Masters degree in Computer Science in Europe.

I wish him all the very best.

Good bye. And GodSpeed you, Sudeep..