| Biswo |
Posted
on 09-Oct-03 01:17 PM
Keshav Sthapit is again the mayor of Kathmandu. While I disagree with the way this whole mayorship-distribution was done, I think Mr Sthapit is a good choice. As they say, if there is going to be any son-of-bitch working as a mayor, better it be my own son-of-bitch.
Problems in Kathmandu are aplenty. You go to Kathmandu, and you think like you are in a motorbike country. Depending upon which report you believe, there are 1,30,000 to 1,60,000 motorbikes. Also depending upon which report you believe, the normal adulteration rate of petrol/diesel in Kathmandu is from 30-60%. Hence, the air in Kathmandu is full of suspending particles, and these motorbikes, in cooperation with the old rickety buses and cars(ever wonder where those cars of Vietnam-war era ended up? Right there in Kathmandu! I am not kidding, most of the Japanese taxis are that old!) have created a hell out of Alakapuri.
I wish Mr Sthapit good luck. He had shown guts in the past, and I hope he will show it again.
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Planes fascinated me since long. Always wanted to fly one. While in Auburn, there was one advertise during summer break that offered $15.00 per hour training for flying small plane. I always regret not taking that opportunity. This 9-11 thing has made flying lessons very difficult to take without incurring unnecessary interest from authorities. In Nepal, there are reportedly more than 30 airlines now, half of them bankrupt though. Yet, small planes offer great services, and domestic accident rate has been lowered recently.
One of the major surprises of my life was when I was driving along I-70, and had unknowingly been to Wright brother's hometown in the border of Indiana and Ohio. I couldn't believe a pair of cycleshop owners from a village so deep inside the country could do such magical discoveries.
Chinese are sending men to orbit this time. There was a man in sixteenth centry China , Wan Hu, who once attached 47 keg of rockets to a big chair and lighted it to lift himself off to the tour of space [of course, he died.].
In Nepal, during the Rana regime, it was said that Achyut Sharma was a wanna-be-scientist who attempted to fly 'something' in the sky of Kathmandu and was later chastised by Ranas who didn't want any commoner higher up than where they lived.[ I recall a similar experience in Tandi: when king Birendra was coming to visit Tandi campus on Poush 29,2042 , the police personnels had made sure that people come down from the top floor of three story buildings. What a vainglorious life Rana/Shahs lived!]
Despite these contretempts in another part of the world, scientists in this part of hemisphere persisted, and made it possible for the humankind to go up to and beyond the stratosphere.
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