Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square-My Experience

The palace of Kantipur or Kathmandu in old days used to be in Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square. There are hundreds and thousands of small temples and statues of different Hindu gods inside and outside the palace. The name Hanuman Dhoka came from the word Hanuman and Dhoka where Hanuman is a popular and dedicated disciple of the Hindu god Ram and the dhoka means door in Nepali language. There is a statue of Hanuman near the gate of the palace so the place has been named as Hanuman Dhoka. There are so many god and goddess around the palace that it would take years to study all of them, well if you are permitted to enter the premises that is.

Since my childhood I have been up and down the road of the square and I have always noticed lots of tourists wandering around the premises of the durbar square. The main festival where lots of demonstration of the jatra (festival) occurs in one of the important jatra called Indra Jatra. Most of the temples which are closed throughout the year will open in this day. This Jatra mostly occurs in the month of September but is celebrated according to the Newari Tithi (Newari Calendar). Nowadays lots of Nepalese teenagers, mainly couples, can be seen scattered all over the places in the durbar square. Nepalese people have very conservative thoughts and kissing in public is not quite allowed. They think it as a private thing between a committed husband and wife and advise the younger ones not to practice that in the public. But the changes in the teenagers and mostly as they are westernizing the kissing is not a new thing these days. You can find lots of teenage couples making out in some places below the temples or on the street wherever there is some place to sit. It is quite obvious that even old people are used to it as they are often seeing those sorts of scenario quite often. Yet the majority of the people take it in a negative way as they think temples are the holy place so no one should practice such acts of privacy in public especially in holy places.

Those are the things I usually see when I pass by the Hanuman Dhoka Durbar Square. I am sure in years to come the generations will be changed with the world changing day by day and I wonder what our future would leads us to…

Importance of Sex Education

I live in a poor developing country, Nepal. Amongst lot of problems, two of the main problems of our country are economy and illiteracy. Albert Einstein said, “Little knowledge is dangerous,” but I say lack of knowledge is like living in the same world where everybody lives but as an alien. Whenever the term “sex” arises there have been different views, meanings, and thoughts from different people. In this post, I am describing it as the relationship between a man and a woman and how it is important to have the proper knowledge of it.

In poor country like our and mostly filled with illiterate ones, the term sex is considered as a bad word and rarely anyone talks about it. Mostly in old ages, even the teenagers would not know what sex means. Parents would not talk to their children about the proper sex education and the proper knowledge of sexually transmitted disease (STD). Even the responsible parents wouldn’t know about it. For them sex means just having sexual intercourse between a man and woman. They wouldn’t even know how sex can make a relation worse or good. They wouldn’t know about having sexually transmitted disease can occur when you have multiple sex partners. Lots of wouldn’t have sex before marriage. The ones who would have known would be so careless and have sex with different partners. So basically they are on their own without knowing the benefits and risks of it. With the proper knowledge anyone’s sexual life can be just so romantic and safe too. Due to the hesitancy of talking about sex any child can be more curious about the issue and it can mentally affect the child’s behavior too. So it is better to give them proper education then keep them in the dark.

Ozone In The Atomosphere – Its Birth and Decay

In Kathmandu, the magnitude of atmospheric pollution has been increasing rapidly. Further, this polluted atmosphere is multiplying by unwanted waste materials from garment industries, pollutant gases from worn-out vehicles and plenty of dust generated by unplanned urban scheme It is now the high time for the government of Nepal to pass and implement laws pertaining to the environment. By saving nature we will save our lives.

Something about Ozone in the Atmosphere:

Ozone is an allotropic form of oxygen, containing the oxygen atoms in the molecule. Its chemical symbol is O3 in contrast to ordinary oxygen (O2) where there are only two oxygen atoms. It is a bluish gas, very active chemically and a powerful oxidizing agent.

Atmospheric phenomena associated with the earth’s magnetic and gravitational fields extend outward for several thousand kilometers. The largest concentration of ozone is found to occur near the outer limit of the stratosphere (20-30 km). This layer is called ozone layer. The ozone layer is extremely useful to you as it filters the harmful ultraviolet radiations coming from the sun into the earth’s surface. The ozone layer protects us from the harmful UV radiations from the sun by absorbing and thereby screening out them which otherwise can cause skin cancers. When the UV radiations are absorbed by the DNA present in the cells of all living beings, the resulting disorder called the “DNA disorder” can lead to mutation, genetic defects, and skin cancer. The depletion in the thickness of the ozone layer is now positively exposing the plants, animals, and human beings to the UV radiation thereby adversely affecting their yield, health and genetics.

Many substances participate in the decay of ozone by different processes. Scientists know a lot about it. There are only a few substances that react with the ozone strongly enough to “eat” it. The chlorofluorocarbons (CCl2F2), methane, and nitrogen oxide gases have the capacity to react with ozone and convert it into oxygen. CFCs are very stable compounds which escape from the leaky air-conditioners and refrigerators. These slowly reach the ozone layer of the atmosphere and come in contact with the UV radiations which are capable of breaking CFCs and releasing chlorine from it. The chlorine atom acts upon the ozone and produces oxygen and ClO. The ClO in turn acts upon another ozone molecule to produce two molecules of oxygen and release one of chlorine and again the chlorine atom acts on new ozone molecule. Thus chlorine acts as a catalyst and just one chlorine atom can destroy several thousand of ozone molecules before the released chlorine gets converted into the dilute HCl which comes down with the rain. Similarly, nitrous oxide produced by the biological denitrification slowly reaches the stratosphere where it gets oxidized into nitric oxide. The nitric oxide acts upon the ozone molecule to produce oxygen and nitrogen dioxide. The nitrogen dioxides eventually acted by water and acid precipitates in the form of rain. Besides the aerosols from cfcs from refrigerators, spray packs of fresheners, hair sprayers, fly killers release aerosols which float in the air and slowly reach the ozone layer. The other main culprits for depleting the ozone layer are synthetic chemicals, foams, electronics industries, carbon tetrachloride used in pesticides and paints, etc.

Royal Chitwan National Park

Nepal has wide range of green forest throughout the nation. It has lots of wild national parks to perverse the forest itself and the animals that live inside it as well. The illegal poaching and hunting has made so many of the animals extinct in Nepal as well. So these national park helps to prevent those sort of illegal activities.

Amongst all Royal Chitwan National Park (RCNP)is the oldest national park of Nepal. It was established in 1973 and was granted the status of a World Heritage Site in 1984. It nearly covers an area of 932 km². The RCNP is located at the foot of the Himalayas in the Terai region. It xtends up to Chitwan, Makawanpur, and Bara districts of Narayani Zone of the mid-development region. There RCNP is home to at least 43 species of mammals, 450 species of birds, and 45 species of amphibians and reptiles in Nepal. A few of these animals include sambars, chitals, rhesus monkeys, and langurs. Amongst these animals the most precious and rich in flora and fauna are single-horned Indian Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis) and the Bengal tiger. The climate of this area is tropical.

Lots of kings in the past used it as their big game of hunting until 1951 A.D. The park now is the main attraction for tourists who are nature lover. The tourist from different countries come here for rafting, safari, trekking, canoeing, elephant riding, etc. There are many hotels, lodges, and resorts outside the nation park for the comfort of the tourists

Dakshinkali Temple

The word Dakshinkali is made up of Dakshin and Kali. Dakshin means south and Kali is derived from one of the Hindu goddess Kali. So it basically means the goddess Kali of the south. So the Dakshinkali temple is situated south-west part of the Kathmandu which is just 45 minutes drive from Kathmandu. The sanctuary and its surroundings are dedicated to goddess Kali, the deity who claims at least twice (Tuesday and Saturday) a week a good portion of fresh animal blood. So lots of devotees gather there in a huge mass especially on Tuesday and Saturday where they usually sacrifice cocks and he goats.

On the way, the sight of the gorge is impressive and it is worthwhile to walk down and across the old suspension bridge, throwing a glance down into the very narrow and deep chasm. In the midway near the village of Pharping, lies the the pleasant spot called Sheka Narayan. There is a pond filled with crystal clear water and lots of gold fish type fishes swimming around. After some minutes of drive from Pharping you will finally reach to the destination of the Dakshinkali where you now have to move downhill as the goddess is situated at the bottom of the hill. The view is just spectacular with all the green vegetation around and the weather is just too awesome around there. Not only the Hindu devotees but we can find lots of other groups of people going there to enjoy their picnic as well. Since the place is quite far away from the valley and there is less crowd and less noise and other pollutions, people prefer to go there to take a break and have a nice picnic with all their friends and families.

So this place is important with entertainment prospect as well as holy place. People do believe that if we pray to the goddess and offer sacrifices our enemies will demise and we will be victorious in our way, and lots of other people do make their wish to the goddess and they believe the goddess will make those wishes come true if you wish from heart and offer sacrifice to the goddess. Well that’s about the place and the rituals of Dakshinkali. I suggest that every tourist should at least once visit this holy place to experience the peaceful surrounding over that place.

Aurora – Northern and Southern Light

Long time ago my professor Nirmal P. Shrestha had written a post about Aurora. I find it so much interesting. I haven't gone through the details in net as of yet but I think by reading what he wrote everyone will get the idea of it pretty much. Here is what he had said and written 10 years back.

Aurora may be described as the luminous display in the sky which lasts for times of few minutes and on occasions even form sunset to sunrise. When it occurs in the northern hemisphere it is known as aurora borealis. Although no two displays are ever exactly alike, a few appear to follow general pattern. The display commonly is in the form of a pale yellow-green color which may be steady or suddenly start moving and fluttering like drapery struck by wind. Many of the forms show enhanced color effects with yellow, green, crimson-red, and violet.

The lower borders of most of the auroras are at about 105 km, and the upper border of the diffuse type are several hundred kilometers above the earth. Regarding the geographic distribution, the region of greatest frequency of auroral occurrence has an average altitude of 67 degrees for the northern hemisphere and perhaps 72 degrees in the southern hemisphere.

A relatively detailed study of the motion of aurora has recently been made possible by the use of “all-sky cameras” (first invented by a German scientist Dr. Willy Stoffregen).

The horizontal thickness of relatively quite aororal arcs as measured at Churchill is 8km. The horizontal length of arc may exceed 2000 km on occasion.

The earth is surrounded by a magnetic field. During storms on the surface of the sun a stream of protons and electrons moves out from the sun at speeds of approximately 1600 to 2400 km/sec. On reaching the earth’s upper atmosphere they collide with the atoms and molecules of oxygen and nitrogen of the atmosphere. Oxygen atoms exited by electrons give out a greenish yellow light while oxygen molecules produce a crimson red glow. Ionized nitrogen and Nitrous oxide molecules also contribute to this phenomenon.

Radio Aurora

An abnormal ionization is associated with aurora (first reported by sir E.V. Appleton and his colleagues). Since 1947 a great variety of techniques have been used to investigate this phenomenon. The term radio aurora is used to the ionization concerned.

Measurements of the height of the aororal ionization carried out by radio techniques have shown that most echoes originate in the height range 100-120 km. Motions of auroral ionization have been deduced from Doppler shift. The velocities involved in the motions are usually in the range 100-600 m/s.

Many attempts have been made to establish a close correspondence between radio aurora, but the results are far from conclusive.

Manakamana Temple

Ever thought of having a die hard wish that you need to get fulfilled? Well if you do have faith in Hindu gods, there are many ways where you can pray and wish for your wishes to come true. One of the Devis (goddesses) is Manakamana, where “mana” came from the word “mann” which means heart and “kamana” means wish. So it is believed that if you wish it from your heart the goddess Manakamana fulfills those wishes. I have been there thrice in my lifetime but with my family, mom and dad, who had made their wishes. I don’t know what they wished for and if it did come or true but I believe it must have as we have been their thrice.

Since 17th century the Manakamana temple has been widely venerated, as of the obvious reason of believing that Manakamana Devi (goddess) fulfills all wishes. It is located just 102 kilometers from the capital, Kathmandu, en route to Pokhara and Chitwan and banks of Trishuli River which is famous for white water rafting.

My first visit to Manakamana was when I was a kid. I can hardly remember all the details but I do remember my brother-in-law did carry me in his shoulders for couple of minutes on the road. So that again means I really was a kid back then. We had hiked 6 hours up the hills to reach to the final destination of Manakamana Temple. Though for the normal people it takes just about 3-4 hours to reach there. We might have gone a little slower enjoying the beautiful views and scenario of the beautiful hills seen from there; that I still remember. It was quite fun back then.

Since the popularity of the wishing goddess became overwhelming that now we have better ways and faster ways to get to Manakamana. They made it easier with installing cable car to the hill. This is the first and only cable car service running in Nepal. So instead of the four-hour arduous trek, the shrine is now accessible in just 10 minutes in the cable car which is using the world-renowned Doppelmayr Technology of Austria. So with the abundant time in hand we can easily visit the shrine and make our wish. Yet the number of visitors are increasing day by day. There will be a long queue not only on the way to cable car but to the holy shrine as well, but it is worth it as now we can visit and return in a single day without having our time lost in the hard uphill hike. Yet there are lots of groups who still trek uphill as they love to hike and enjoy the beautiful scenes of the hills and mountains of our beautiful country Nepal.

Uses And Abuses Of Science

I just was reading an old magazine and I found this interesting topic about “uses and abuses of science.” I read the whole article and I am now trying to share it to my blog about what I read in that article.

It started with one beautiful quote made by Shakespeare, “Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so.”

Science is neither good nor bad. It is neutral. It does good to the man if it is so employed. It does harm to humanity if it is used otherwise. The majority are the uses of science. It has given us numerous things of everyday life. It has changed the world rapidly. Bertrand has Ressell rightly remarked, “Sconce has changed the face of the earth and the world has changed more during the last 100 years than during the 4,000 years previous to that.”

Science has given us remarkable things. Radio is one of the earliest invention and part of science. We hear distant speakers sitting in our home. We enjoy the songs of famous musicians on it and important news is broadcast everyday. Television sets present us the pictures of distant place with the same news broadcast, music, and lots of other information everyday. Telephone is another gift of science. It facilitates a talk between two persons living at a great distance. And now we got computers which basically combine all of the latest technologies and helps from a kid to a big business tycoon.

We have rapid means of transport these days. Journeys of months can be completed within days or even hours today. There are the motorcar, the trains, and the airplanes. To travel 50 or 60 miles in an hour is an ordinary thing. An airplane covers hundreds of miles per hour. Science has really shortened time and distance. The work that took months of years can be completed in hour or few days now. Printing press has enabled quick publication of books. The production of mills is thousands of times quicker than that of the village weavers. Again long distances are covered within short periods. Diseases have also been lessened by the scientist and doctors. Medicines and injections cure many incurable disease of the body. Science has mechanized agricultural wok. It has revolutionized the fields of production. We can find a whole lot of benefits of science and a simple post isn’t enough to state all its benefits.

But there are many disadvantages of science as well. It has also given the deadly weapons in the hands of the man. The guns and canons are the things of the past. This is the age of Atom and Hydrogen bombs and Rockets. It is feared that the human order may come to an end in the war of Atom bombs and Hydrogen bombs. Machines themselves have done much harm. They have thrown an army of laborers out of employment. They are held responsible for the creation of overcrowded cities with unhealthy surroundings. They have created class problems by creating wealth in the hand of a people. Science has made man too materialistic. People have forgotten their soul. They fail to recognize the Almighty, the creator of the universe.

The advocates of science speak of comforts and advantages provided by it but the destructions and disasters caused by it is also to be considered. We are to realize that man himself is responsible for its uses and abuses; its proper use will bless him, its misuse will destroy him.