Ashar 15 photos #ropayi #greenktm

Ashar 15- National paddy day also known as "Ropayi Mahotsav" is celebrated in the country with various programs. Many Organizations, Political parties, tourists and locals took to the paddy field to celebrate the festival by planting rice, singing folk songs, dancing & playing with the mud. Farmers are known to be happy with the adequate rain this year and are wishing for high production whereas other people are just having fun, being indifferent to the level of rice production. People also take bitten rice with curd as Ashad 15 (Ashar pandhra) is also the "Dahi Chiura Khane din"-(Bitten Rice & Curd eating day). I have also taken "Dahi Chiura" for today's lunch as the continuation of the very popular tradition.

Though I did not witness any function for the Ropayi festival in Asar 15, I went to northern side of Kathmandu to enjoy some green landscapes. Here are some pictures taken today (click to enlarge).

A woman working in the green field.

A farmer working in the field.

Green terrain and a lonely house.

Two women walking through the field.

Panoramic view of Kathmandu city from Jhor- a village situated in north side of ktm .

 

Women planting the rice.

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Pjclub announces the winners of photo contest 2069 (with photos)

Pjclub (Photo Journalist club, Nepal) has announced the list of winners for the photo contest 2069 which is the biggest photo competition in the country. With the list of winners in each category from Daily life to Nature & Wild life to News to Culture & Tourism to Sports to Nepal Smiles not forgetting the Photo story, the photo of the year has been awarded to Shailendra Kharel for the photo of two women with a child, stranded at Lete VDC, Mustang due to Landslide in 2010. But it is not clear for which category, had the photographer submitted the picture.

Photo of the year by Shailendra Kharel #pjclub #photo #contest 2069

The caption of the photo as written for the contest is:

"Local women’s of Mustang district, Nepal looks towards the landslide intersection close to Lete V.D.C after the road block on October 08, 2010. Every year many people are killed due to landslide and road accident in the various remote hills of Nepal. In 2006 alone five road construction workers and four children died after being buried by landslide at Ghaiku in Lete VDC-4 of Mustang district".

It is told that a total of 7549 amateur photos and 938 professional photos were submitted under different categories, of which 22 winners  are announced with 18 category winner (three for each six categories), 3 photo stories winner and one for the photo of the year. Photo of the year gets Rs 1 Lakh ( Rs 100,000) whereas First, second & third winners in those categories gets Rs 30, 20 and 10 thousands respectively. Mysansar.com writes that 151 photos are already short listed for the Pj club photo exhibition to be held in various cities starting from Kathmandu and it seems like those photos will only be known in the exhibition time.

Here are some winning photos for the Pjclub photo contest 2069.

Culture and Tourism winner: Sanjog Manadhar's photo at Madhav Narayan Jatra, Sali Nadi

Daily Life Winner: Suraj Shrestha's photo at Pokhara.

News Category Second: Ashok Dulal's photo of Police taking Padam Kunwar after slapping Prachanda.

Nepal Smiles Third: Narayan Maharjan Feel good photo.

Photo story second: Very touching and alarming picture

Following some photographers and photo contests closely, I now have more insights to the content of the picture for taking awe-inspiring pictures or be short listed in the winner. And that only happens to increase my zeal in photography.

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Jhola Nepali movie in the coming.

Click here for review of movie Jhola.
It may sound distressing to many, even if you hear of people burnt alive in the 20th century in our country. That time, widowed woman had to self immolate on her husband funeral fire to be called a good wife (Sati) for this life: a myth in the medieval time. Now the abolished malpractice of Sati Pratha, is being put in a Nepali movie named "Jhola: Sati Ek Kupratha" which is based on a popular short story "Jhola" written by Krishna Dharabasi. The story based on the early decades of twentieth century, has the emotions of a troubled kid with the death of his father and his mother to be sent along in the name of Sati. As the movie is being made on the shocking short story, with many dreadful sequences of Sati and aftermath, I believe they have gone through tough times for the realistic (?) portrayal. The story shows the Sati practice which is at odds with the desire of a widowed woman to live, and strongly raises women rights issue with people's belief for Sati practice in that time.
The movie is already known to be in the studio for post production and I have not heard of them afterwards, nothing for its first teaser, trailer, poster and even for its release date. But I have found the behind the scene video for the movie which says they have worked hard for the making and are of confidence of being successful. With the popular story and behind the scene video, People have already started to predict it to be Oscar contender from Nepal. But I say its too early to comment on that as the question is how the adaptation of the acclaimed story has culminated in the movie and we have to wait sometime to get the answer. And I even look forward for Jason Kunwar's music for the movie as he had given us excellent music in the movie Chadke with the traditional feel.
Writer Krishna Dharabasi is also known to be acting in the movie along with whole of his family for the plot that he has written. Garima Panta, Deshbhakta Khanal, Laxmi Giri, and Child Artist Sujal Nepal are the main actors of the movie directed by Yadav Kumar Bhattarai.

If you want to listen the short story Jhola (originally published in 2060 B.S short story collection of the same name), here is the audio book in YouTube as presented by Achyut Ghimire in Radio Bachan.

Here are some stills from the movie Jhola.

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Google to use network of ballons for internet in remote areas.

Google's next big announcement after project glass and driver less car is an innovation to provide internet access in remote areas. As 2 out of 3 people on earth are out of reach to internet, Google intends to use hot air ballons, flying 20 km above the earth to provide wireless coverage below where terrestrial connectivity is too much to get.

Named as project loon, Google experiments the use of series of solar powered ballons that flows with the wind in the stratosphere (above airplanes and weather) to provide 3G like internet speed. 13 meter high such ballons are equipped with special radio frequency devices to connect with each other and then to the ground (40 km in diameter coverage to earth per single ballon). Each user in the coverage area also need to have special antenna fixed in their home for connectivity with the ballons. The operational frequency is known to be in ISM band (2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz) that is freely available to anyone. The ballons are also known to be having GPS, parachutes and other equipment for monitoring weather conditions to keep itself in the right place.

As the pilot program for the project is just launched in New Zealand for 50 testers from 30 ballons, it is still being tested for problems and complexity before making it available worldwide. Some people even dub it as a cellular network with ballon instead of towers. 

If the project loon is found viable and launched worldwide, then the internet ballons will be beneficial to reduce the global digital divide: the gap between have and have nots, enabling advancement in education, agriculture, health, small business sectors in countries like Nepal with remote areas where terrestrial internet is a big challenge and also not forgetting the internet reach in disaster affected areas. But there are still some chances if the project turns out to be a loony one (as the name has it), due to the challenges in stability of the ballons and other complexities. We all wait for the future.

Here is a video in YouTube for the introduction of project loon.

Source: www.nepalitelecom.com

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Karkash Nepali movie review

Famed music video director Asif Shah's directorial debut Karkash has opened pretty well with good occupancy in theaters. The QFX show I watched was almost full, which I think is due to the huge publicity, humor content and the popular actors. Now the real concern is if it is going to maintain the good start.

***********Spolier alert**********
Karkash is a dark humor with a very nice script and shocking comedy that arise well along the 2 hour long adult certified movie. Karkash- a rock band in Thamel is in search of a vocalist as the current singer left the band with the bizarre behavior of other members: satyr 'Andy'- Drummer played by Dayahang Rai, stutter 'Prabhat'- lead guitarist played by Satya Raj Acharya and hearing impaired 'Sandesh'- bass guitarist played by Reymon Das Shrestha. They want a singer to take part in a band competition that could make them win 1 lakh cash but when they met a pub owner Ivan (Suraj Singh Thakuri), the story takes a big turn to different side other than music. Drug/money smuggling, sex/relationships, and the escapade not only makes a good plot but makes people interested throughout the movie. There is not a single moment where you want to take a break, not even for your full bladder.

Some shocking comedy like Police Inspector (played by Rajan Ishan) manhandling Prabhat for previous revenge and single woman landlord's relationship is truly hilarious and done simply without vulgarity.

The loose ending may disappoint some for which I would say it could have been better with such an interesting plot but it is their choice to end their movie (not bad though), nonetheless Karkash is full of entertainment and has much creativity and effort in the making from cinematography to songs to direction to acting. Some cameos from popular artists including the director himself as a clumsy music video director, are worth the additional enjoyment. Though it seems like all actors are given equal roles, Dayahang Rai's performance overshadows other actors including much hyped Suraj Singh Thakuri. Songs like 'Thamel bazaar and 'Taremam are superb whereas other popular songs like Summer of '69, No women no cry, Born to be wild, instrumental piece of Metallica song and Maya meri Maya makes good environment for music lovers in the cinema.

With such clever script and apt performance from actors that enthralls you in a big way, the movie will surely maintain the opening collection despite few cliches. Don't miss this Nepali style black comedy.

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