MEDITATION creates miracles

ISHWAR RAUNIYAR “Jiwan bhar Ma runda, Sansar hasnu beskari, Hasdai bida hunche Dakini, Jin timi kripa garnu ti mathi” (Even as I cry, The world continues its laughter, While dakinis laugh and bid farewell, Buddha, now it's up to you to take care of this world) She says she dœsn’t really know where the words come from, but they usually appear in her head when she meditates. When she sings out the words, she holds the audience in rapture. Anupama Dahal’s life changed when she began to meditate; besides bringing her peace, meditation allowed her to become a singer, and today the spontaneous singer is healing many with her songs. Dahal learned meditation when she was 14 from Guru Shreedhar Rana Rimpochhey. She recalls the day, “I was very young and not serious about meditation. But when I sat in a position similar to Lord Shiva’s posture in films and TV serials, I was mentally at peace,” she says. Dahal originally wanted to become a Bharat Natyam dancer, and has even completed a Bachelors’ degree in the ancient art form. However, a love for song writing since her school days never left her even during her training in the classical dance form. The meditation practices that she began, streamlined her thoughts and she slowly began writing her songs down, and composing the music for them. According to her, a meditative practice called “Samatha” taught her to build the mind’s concentration levels. She experienced something surreal two years after she began practising it. She said, “I could see air pockets in the sky and atoms in the dust with my bare eyes.” It was like transcending reality and connecting with the very root of nature. For her, the unusual talent of spontaneous song writing comes from this very step. She has written over three hundred songs—especially religious Buddhist songs. She elaborates, “My songs cover the entire human life, and being closer to Buddhism, I write songs about people’s problems as well as their happiness.” She feels it depends on how one perceives things. She says, “I see the Buddha in every person I see around me.” It’s usually around a full moon or the 10th day of every month when her song writing talent reaches its crest. She is inspired by daily events and political or social problems do not escape her reality when she is writing a new song. A few of Dahal’s songs are written in different languages, such as in Urdu, Punjabi, Doteli, Hindi and Sanskrit. The interesting part is, she dœsn’t know the languages properly. She says, “I don’t know how those words come to my mind when I start writing. There are certain terms I don’t understand, but it suits the rhythm and the meaning of the song.” Dahal asks her teacher to find out the language after she finishes her writing. However, she dœsn’t credit any supernatural powers to this. She thinks it is due to meditation and the inspiration given by her guru, whom she regards as the Buddha himself. She says, “I feel proud that I have made my guru happy with this talent.” Arun Gurung of ‘Kutumba’ calls her talent a miracle. He says, “It’s a inborn quality, and it is an extraordinary talent to create and compose songs with different lyrics.” Dahal will perform at the Nepal Academy Hall along with Kutumba and Shiva Mukhiya this Saturday.

Teachers call off strike Will re-agitate if demands not met

ISHWAR RAUNIYAR KATHMANDU, JULY 30 After the government committed to address their demands, Nepal Education Republic Forum (NERF) on Thursday agreed to call off their strike. Following the NERF decision, schools will temporarily reopen from Friday. NERF, the umbrella organisation of 10 different agitating organisations had called a three-day strike from Wednesday. “The government has promised to address our demands, therefore we have called off the strike for now,” said Hom Bahadur Thapa, Vice-Chairman of NERF. “We will hold discussions with the government from tomorrow regarding our demands.” According to Thapa, the Forum will re-launch the agitation if the government fails to meet their demands. The Ministry of Education (MoE), had dealt with the teachers’ bodies earlier and on March 29, 2007, had inked a 14-point agreement with NERF. Similarly, on April 2, 2007 and again on June 15 the same year, the ministry had signed an 8-point agreement with Nepal Institutional School Teachers’ Union (NISTU). However, under secretary at the ministry Lekhnath Poudel said only a huge investment in the education sector followed by political consensus would pave the way for long-term solutions. According to Poudel, demands like making temporary teachers permanent and providing salary to the teachers of private schools equal to those of public schools could not be implemented immediately. Poudel said the agitating teachers should be more flexible regarding their demands. “According to government estimates, it will cost the ministry about Rs. 6 billion, which is far beyond what the ministry can afford.” He added, “Policy should be brought forth to provide salary to private school teachers equal to that of teachers at public schools.” What the government can do is fix a minimum salary for teachers, Paudel said. Lab Prasad Tripathi, former MoE spokesman said, “Political instability has caused this problem. Frequent change of government has become a major problem. New governments don’t want to implement the agreements reached with previous governments, and, this results in such turbulent situations in the education sector. “Political leaders must sit together to find a long-term solution to this problem.” Tripathi was also of the opinion that the government should immediately implement past agreements and rule out other illogical demands that could not met. The government has formed a three-member talks committee comprising Education Minister Ram Chandra Kushwaha, Peace and Reconstruction Minister Rakam Chemjong and Minister for Federal Affairs Minendra Rijal. NERF has since long been demanding permanent status for temporary teachers in public schools, appointment letters for all the staff working in schools from peons to watchmen, salaries for private school teachers equal to that of public school teachers, reinstatement of sacked teachers and formation of management committees in schools.

181,000 new vehicles registered in last 5 years

Kantipur Report KATHMANDU, July 30 - Regular traffic jams inside the Valley are no surprise, but if one considers the increase in number of vehicles, and compares it to the increase in the length of roads inside the valley, there is but one conclusion: there are more vehicles in the valley than what the roads can handle. While 2004-05 saw 23,749 new vehicles registered in the zone, 2008-09 saw nearly double that amount, 50,090 new vehicles being registered. In fact, there were around 235,000 vehicles registered in Bagmati till 2003-04, but in the last five years itself, a staggering 181,000 new vehicles have been registered. Also, Bagmati accounts for more than half of all the vehicles in the country itself. Metropolitan Traffic Police Superintendent Rabi Raj Shrestha said, “The number of vehicles inside the valley is easily more than what its roads can take.” He claimed that if all the vehicles inside the Valley came on the streets together, there wouldn’t be any space at all. Strangely, the Department of Roads does not have the data regarding the increase in the length of roads in the last five years. However, the Budget this year stated that a measly 62 km of roads were added across the whole country in the first eight months of fiscal year 2008-09, whereas in the last year itself, 102,570 new vehicles were registered in the country. Data on the Department of Road’s website states there was a mere 8.57 percent growth in the Valley’s roads in the two years between 2002 and 2004. Sharad Chandra Paudyal, director-general at Department of Transport Management denies that the Valley’s roads are overcrowded. He blames the traffic management rather than the length of the roads. “The traffic management should be systematic. Drivers should park vehicles at the right place and the traffic police should manage the situation better.” Suraj Sigdel, senior divisional engineer at the Department of Roads said, “Roads have not been increased in terms of length. Only the maintenance is done.”

Waste disposal continues to be stalled

ISHWAR RAUNIYAR

KATHMANDU, July 28 -

The collection of waste in Kathmandu Valley remains uncertain following an inconclusive end to the meeting between the local struggle committee, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) and the Local Development Ministry on Monday.

Okharpauwa locals have been obstructing waste disposal demanding a written commitment from the government to fulfill their different demands since last week. “We couldn’t reach an agreement due to the irresponsibility of the government,” said Ramesh Prasad Paudyal, coordinator of the struggle committee.

Paudyal also said that the committee hasn’t asked the government for any money but has demanded development works be initiated at the land fill site in Okharpauwa. However, Paudyal said “the government is never serious about our demands”,and that they will not let KMC dispose garbage “untill the government gives a written commitment”.

Waste disposal has been obstructed time and again by protesting locals. The current obstruction has already seen at least 2,500 tonnes of garbage lying unattended in the Valley. The three cities inside the Valley generate at least 500 tonnes of waste everyday.

Rabinman Shrestha, chief of the environmental department at KMC, said, “Locals form a group consisting of three or four members, and come up with different demands every time to obstruct waste disposal, which has made it difficult for the government to fulfill their demands.” He said that there are at least two dozen such committees.

According to KMC, over Rs. 90 million has so far been invested towards the development of the Okharpauwa landfill site over the last four years.

Shrestha said a “trend” of obstructing waste disposal has developed among locals of landfill sites to pressurise the government to meet their demands. He said some of the demands may be valid to some extent and those need to be addressed, but the government should take stronger initiatives in finding an alternative to the problem.

The government is planning to develop Banchareydanda, between Nuwakot and Dhading, as a long-term solution for disposing the valley’s waste.

Autism kids’ plight in focus

ISHWAR RAUNIYAR KATHMANDU, July 26 -

Family members, especially her mother-in-law, started ignoring Nilam Gautam after finding out that her three-year-old son had autism. Nilam bursts into tears when she remembers her son's abnormal behaviour. "I am going through a great difficulty," she says, "because my son -- Dikshan Gautam -- does not act like normal children." Her ordeal does not end here. Owing to autism, her son has been deprived of education. Time and again, she tried to enroll her child in school. "It will harm our business, so we can't admit your son," she quotes teachers. On the other hand, Darshan Deuja, whose son also experienced autism, had to quit her job as teacher to look after her son, Darshit. "I worried about my son's future," she says. She thought her world had turned upside down when she first discovered her son's autism. "It was like a nightmare." Despite the bitter fact that there is no reliable treatment for autism, not even in developed countries, she never gave up. However, she has started seeing some rays of hope -- Darshit, who is her only son, is slowly doing worldly things. She is determined, "I will stop giving birth to other children" and will spend the rest of my life enabling him." According to doctors, autism is a disability that develops due to abnormal growth of children's brain. Tanya Savko, executive member of Autism Society of Oregon, while addressing mothers of children with similar problems, said autism is not a tragedy. "We live far away. Our lives, jobs and cultures are very different. But, we have one thing in common -- our children". Savko also has a 14-year-old child who is autistic. Nikki Scarbrough, Executive Director of Knowledge for people said, "There is no medicine for curing autism, neither is there any particular reason behind the case". She added, "The important thing is that family members should be involved in looking after the autistic child with lots of love and care". Autism is mainly characterised in three ways: Problems in communicating, interacting socially, and it is repetitive in its motions. Autistic persons are either very hyper or very passive. They do not like to play games like normal children. They don't like change and avoid eye contact. They echo words or phrases and can't understand danger or have no fear. Dr. Sunita Amatya, Vice President of Autism Care Nepal (ACN) outlined the possibility of danger for autistic children because they don't understand danger. "It might result in a huge accident". President of ACN Hem Sagar Baral suggested that family members should not hide autism in the family due to fear of social stigma. They should own the problem and try to provide treatment for those children. In this connection, he also called on the department concerned to look into the issue. Posted on: 2009-07-25 20:50:11

When Animal Attacks Men 6 leopard attacks within last year

By ISHWAR RAUNIYAR & JENEE RAI KATHMANDU, July 22 - Shyam Krishna Maharjan dreamt of leopards chasing him for three consecutive months, and is still afraid of any bushes or dense forests. He was attacked by a leopard a year ago in Manamaiju. “My hand had completely gone inside its mouth. But I used my other hand to push it away,” he said. The big cat had entered his village during the evening, and a crowd of 200 had gathered around the bush where it was hiding. Maharjan was part of the crowd, and had pushed himself to the forefront to get a better view. “It suddenly attacked without any provocation. My entire life flashed in front of my eyes.” Within the last year itself, six cases of leopard attacks have been recorded in the valley. At least three leopards were killed by various groups—villagers and the police—in these attacks. Data available with the Wildlife Watch Group (WWG), a non-governmental organisation, says that at least 25 people have been killed in the 10 years up to 2004 inside the Valley and neighbouring Kavrepalanchok, and at least 102 have been injured in attacks. Wildlife expert Karan Shah believes it is the fault of humans who provoke the animal by trying to "behave like heroes" when they saw a leopard. He said, "They collect weapons and try to chase the animal down, instead of informing the concerned authorities." According to him, leopards come most into contact with humans when they leave their mother's care in search of new territory. He added, "Inside the valley itself, the only way for the cats to cross from the Nagarjuna forests to Gokarna forests is through the streets of Kathmandu." Ghanshyam Gurung, conservation officer at the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, said, "Leopards are fond of dog meat, and enter the city in search of stray dogs." He thinks increased poaching of animals that form the leopard's natural prey has resulted in scarcity of food. Conservationists believe a multi-pronged approach is needed to limit the man-animal conflict. Shah believes the government should strictly implement prevailing wildlife laws. Mangal Man Shakya, chairman of WWG, said, "The habitat of the leopard should be mapped out and people should be made aware about protection."

Information whiteout No climbing, no phones, no cameras, no reporting

ISHWAR RAUNIYAR at EVEREST BASE CAMP

CHARLES HAVILAND

IRON CURTAIN: A temporary police checkpoint near Everest Base Camp where expedition gear is checked for pro-Tibet flags and material. All video cameras, satellite phones have to be surrendered.

The ice pillars on the Khumbu glacier sparkled. The seracs on the Nuptse wall were blue-green and translucent.

We felt elated despite the 5,000m elevation as we walked towards Base Camp on Monday. Both the army and a trekking company had assured us as reporters we might be able to seek exemption from the ban on satellite phones and video cameras.

But minutes after arriving at Base Camp and being escorted to a temporary post by a friendly plainclothes policeman, Deputy Secretary of the Tourism Ministry Prabodh Dhakal took charge of us. "You are not allowed to talk to any one here," he said sternly. "If anyone is found talking to you, they will be expelled."

No journalist was allowed to enter Base Camp without a permit. "You are also unofficial here, so leave this place as soon as possible," Dhakal told us.

The government has ordered an information blackout at Everest Base Camp. Not only video cameras and satellite phones, but also satellite internet and walkie-talkies, essential for mountain rescue, have been confiscated. We were told we could not even cover non-political subjects.

When I asked why I, as a Nepali, could not stay, Dhakal said repeatedly that these were "exceptional circumstances". He told us to come back after the Olympic Torch had reached the summit via the Chinese side.

"You have heard that Chinese officials have been meeting the Prime Minister and other government officials. It's an order from the top. You are not allowed to stay here: you don't have a permit," he said.

This Base Camp is on the Nepal side of the mountain, but it might as well be in China. Nepal has officially closed the southern side of Chomolungma until at least 10 May from Camp 2 (6,500 m) upwards. In addition, all foreigners without a climbing permits have been ordered to leave Base Camp from 1-4 May. That includes photographers, team leaders and spouses of climbers.

As a Nepali I felt sad and humiliated. A Nepali mountaineering official, who didn't want to be named, explained: "Nepal is a beggar country. We are getting lots of economic help from China, so we can't jeopardise our relationship." But it's not just geopolitics, mountaineers' lives are also at risk. A climber at Base Camp who also didn't want to be quoted, fearing expulsion, said that the longer the mountain was closed, the greater was the danger. "Within 10 days, we could have made Camp 4 ready for the first summit push," he said. "But the longer the closure, the greater the danger of ice falling on us. It's endangering our lives."

The reason for all this bandobast is that China doesn't want any embarrassing Free Tibet banners at Base Camp or on the mountain during the torch's journey to the summit. Chinese ambassador Zheng Xianling flew into Base Camp this week in an army helicopter. The police had found a Free Tibet flag in the rucksack of an American mountaineer, he was sent down the mountain and later deported.

There is anger along the Everest Trail for the decline in business and employment this season. Dendi Sherpa, a lodge owner, said the restrictions were a sign of the Nepal government's weakness. "It's China that is holding the Olympics-why should we have to close all these things?" asked Dendi. Trekkers are also unhappy they aren't allowed to use video cameras near Base Camp.

The Rinpoche of Tengboche Monastery has said he was "extremely worried" that the home ministry had sent armed soldiers to Chomolungma. But for Major D B Thapa in Namche, it is clear Nepal can't jeopardise relations with China. He said: "We want the Olympic Torch to reach the top of Sagarmatha successfully."

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Torch nearing summit

COLD BEAUTY: The summit of Chomolungma peers from behind the Nuptse ridge on Tuesday. The Olympic torch is being taken up to the summit from the Chinese north side of the mountain sometime over the weekend.

The Chinese took the Olympic Torch to the summit of Mt Everest on May Day itself in an expedition that has been shrouded in secrecy.

The Olympic flame arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday. Another torch was taken to the north Base Camp last week and is said to be making its way to the top. The Olympic flame split in Beijing last month, with the main torch heading to Europe, the United States and Asia on its protest-marked world tour.

Western reporters at the Rongbuk Glacier on the north side of Everest have said there is no information about the torch. The flame will be carried in a lantern, allowing a carefully designed torch using special fuel to be lit in the thin air of the summit.

Some had speculated that the team hoped to make the ascent Wednesday, exactly 100 days before the Olympics and amid celebrations in Beijing. The torch may have been delayed because of gale force winds at the summit this week.

There has been Chinese air activity over the summit on Tuesday and Wednesday which could indicate the torch is nearing the summit. Chinese CCTV reported mountaineers had completed the setup of a staging point at 8,300m for the final assault on the 8,850m summit.