Uncontrolled traffic system of Kathmandu

The traffic system of Kathmandu is really terrible. No matter how safe you drive, you could face accident due to others fault. Road rules are not cared by anyone. Larger vehicles try to dominate small vehicles and so on ultimately making the trouble to pedestrians. Traffic tried to established lane system with concrete slabs but they seems to be obstruction for drive and threat to live during night. Pressure horns are legally not allowed but almost all bus and trucks blow even near hospital and schools areas. Passengers also use bus and truck hoods for 'safe' journey. If driver pay some money to traffic, they don't care punishing them. Haphazard parking and turns are normal at any place and any time.

People can put illegal shops even under bridge obstructing the vehicle movement. Now, the roads are also a place to show all grievances. People demonstrate putting fire on tires on road. The reason could be either road accidents or political regression and/or support. Because of these all huddles, I think you can drive any part of the world if can drive in the street of Kathmandu. Here are some scenes of Kathmandu roads.

Traffic jam due to political demonstration 'Ranke julus'

Effect of load shedding on television broadcast

I was experiencing 16 hours of load shedding so it was difficult to update with recent news on television in normal hours. Hence, whenever the power comes in, I used to wakeup and turn on the television. Some days back, it was early morning around 4:00 AM, I saw strange notice of ‘No broadcast due to load shredding’ on most of the Nepali channels. When I explored the news, I came to know that there were more than five Nepali television channels broadcasting 24 hours. They were highly affected due to load shredding for the production, advertisement management and broadcasting the programs. Because of the same, they recently formed an organization ‘Television Broadcasters Nepal’ and announced ‘Emergency on broadcasting’. They stopped broadcasting 00:00 to 05:00 every day. This was not the prime time of watching television but if they start increasing the time like electricity cut then that will definitely effect our ‘right to information’. Few weeks back government has declared emergency in electricity sector. Let us see who else will declare next ‘emergency’.

Street vendors in Nepal

Open and flee market are traditional way of good exchange and shopping. These trends are decreasing everywhere however increasing in Nepal. Either of clothes, vegetables, fruits, meats, food stalls or household utensils are available in the street market. Traffic jam and inconvenience to pedestrian was one of the major issues due to such markets. Because of the same, the government tried to stop these street vendors but vendors organizational unity and their protest pressurized government to provide them alternative or space in the street itself. What a shame? A group of people are occupying public place (street) for their business (profit motive) and government is helpless. Here are some of the pictures showing how street vendors do their business.

Windows in a matchbox

When I went to a shop to buy a matchbox, I got a nice matchbox printed with popular logo – ‘Windows’. To my knowledge, Windows was a registered trademark of Microsoft Company associated with computer software. I did not find any connection with the computer software and matchbox but the logo was nicely printed. I do not think that the matchbox is advertising the software company because the matchbox also consists of its company name and address. However, the matchbox logo was missing ‘R’ in a circle. You can see the nice matchbox yourself.

Fruits and fruit cakes

Fruits are source of vitamins, minerals and other elements. They are essential food components of human. However, all types of fruits are not available at a time since they are seasonal and production differ on climatic and altitudinal variations. I could enjoy variety of fruits and fruit cake which I would like to share with you here. Enjoy it.

Sunrise view from the middle of Kathmandu

It was early morning (6:15 AM) and winter month (28 November, 2008), I wake up for different reason but when I saw the sky with golden and red clouds, I feel like taking pictures. It was time for sunrise so I waited for the sunrise with my camera. I remembered the days of my college time and a tour to Darjeeling. We went to Tiger hill or other hill, I forget the name, for sunrise view. We waited for hours for the sunrise scene but we were not very lucky that day. Due to heavy fog and cloud, we could not see a nice sunrise however we were hit by chill wind and we were almost freezing. Today, I didn’t feel cold but have a very beautiful sunrise. Many people go to different places for such moment and there might be different experience from different places. I have experienced sunrise from many places (Ilam, Dhankuta, Nagarkot, Dhulikhel, Daman, Ghandruk….) but today I realized that the view of sunrise from the middle of Kathmandu city was equally beautiful. Enjoy the sunrise through some clips.

Nepal as it is through some pictures

I don't know when we will develop our country in terms of facilities, infrastructure and behavior but I have not seen any sign of change till now. I have seen the changes in infrastructure, i.e., many buildings are being erected, roads are dug and wires were pulled. How managed and in a systematic way were these activities are taking place is always a question. While looking the Kathmandu, unplanned buildings, unmanaged traffic, insufficient water supply, uncollected solidwaste and dust are always the issues discussed. These issues are not addressed by local or national bodies hence the problems are increasing along with the increase of population. Look some of the pictures here. How unplanned is the city? How are the telephone, television, and electric cables are pulled? What is the nutritional value of the fruits exposed to sun for whole day and sold in open roadside stalls. In spite of all these things, white mountains and blue sky are always considered as the natural beauty of the city.