FRAGMENTS OF MY LIFE

24th october 2008- a field visit on Naubise khola for our final year project. Tired of same field visits, walking the whole day in our empty belly which makes us so tired and worn out that we just wish it to end. Might it be the geology tour, hydrology tour or the irrigation tour. Dnt ask about the tour to a civil engineering student coz they have alot to say about it. Trust me there is no fun with that kind of tour as everyone would think they might be. But this tour was about to be different coz its not the tour sponsered by the college. Its the one we conducted for ourselves; for our own purpose. The start of the tour was just the opposite of was everyone might have thought. Travelling at the back of TATA mobile was definately a new experience for a long distance journey. who would choose to travel that way- except us lol!! The blowing hair of Sabina would tell how much fun it was to stand at the back of vehicle. hehe

Starting food- meat and beaten rice.. yummy rite?? but not for that early in the morning. Can't complain coz that's the only light food available at the local hotel except vaat-seems like damn heavy to me haha

Lets start walking now. A new trekking adventure has just began but what's this?? it ended after couple of hours as our leg started paining and body started responding. As we got more and more tired, crawling was the only thing we wish to do and also the only option for the steep slopes- may be the best part about tekking.

The automobile, one of the outstanding inventions of science, serves business, industry and social life as a whole for fast and easy transport of person and goods. Means of transportation has touched almost every aspect of society and therefore it’s impossible to imagine life without transportation. This is also the reason why the number of vehicles (private) is increasing in spite of alarmingly increase in daily congestion, accidents, pollution and the burning issue on scarcity of petroleum products.
With the increase in number of vehicles on the road, it has been a challenge for the highway engineers for the design of road and roadside structures. Observing the daily traffic jams, congestion and road accidents, it’s not only felt necessary but an immediate requirement to improve the performance of roadways or highways. But what are the factors that directly or indirectly affect their performance is the main question before answering how it can be improved. As in case of Nepal, maximum highways that might have been constructed following all the engineering procedure failed the maintenance process. In the absence of maintenance works, the useful life of pavement is drastically reduced deteriorating the pavement which ultimately results in the waste of high investment and sincere effort of engineers. If one observes closely, it would be found that the disturbance on the smooth operation of traffic doesn’t relay only on faulty design of pavement and intersection but the problem shifts somewhere else- somewhere o human characteristics and road user’s behavior. And it has already been proved that the number of road mishap stories due to human failure is much higher that that due to the vehicle or pavement failure.
The word ‘road user’ circumscribes all the group of people using the roadways for their journey. They include motorists, cyclists, cart drivers/rickshaw peddlers, pedestrians and highway / street child or adults talking or playing on or around the road. Human beings are directly involved in it along with their interaction with their vehicles in accordance with the surrounding environment. The road user’s characteristics may be physical, mental or emotional and psychological which directly determines their respective behavior on the road. Further more they can be distinguished as permanent type and temporary type.
Permanent characteristics:-
a. Vision:
Vision is a pre-requisite for safe driving. Without vision a person is incapable for safe driving although the technology might make it possible, if not now may be in future, but when it comes to safety a person must need to go through the perception- reaction to traffic situation before the actual collision or accident. In vision, the main concern is visual acuity; which means the ability to focus quickly and see fine details clearly. It includes depth perception- needed for distances judgment and speed during maneuver, peripheral vision- relates to an individual’s ability to see objects outside the cone of vision (limit of fairly clear sight is within cone of angle 10-12 degrees); color blindness – as about 8% of men and 4% of women are estimated to be suffered from color blindness and hence reduces the ability to distinguish between red and green, night vision- for night driving with headlights. Glare recovery is also important factor to be considered as glare from approaching headlights greatly reduces visibility. Hence form above, it is clear that the present tests which are carried out during license trial are superfluous and static in nature and need to be improved.
b. Hearing and smelling:
Hearing is the next important characteristics. The research has shown that drivers having hearing problem can have 1.8 times more accidents. Hearing is used to derive information about vehicle engines. Sirens, traffic signals, horns etc. in case of drivers here, half of the hearing is occupied by the music player which reduces the alertness. Smell, though not as important as vision or hearing, can help detect the leakage of petroleum or problematic tyres and hence can’t be neglected.
c. Sex:
Though not significantly, it is seen certain variation on the behavior of male and female. Males tend to drive faster and ready to drink and drive, whereas females are less experienced in the art of driving, slow in judgment process and easy to get distracted though not necessarily.
Temporary characteristics:
a. Drinking effect:
Alcohol, which after get absorbed into blood, affects directly to the brain and reduces the alertness of driver. This increases the reaction time as the visions is blunted and ultimately make them prone to accidents. As the mental process gets slow, the alcoholic tend to take more risks due to the ill-judged maneuvers. In Nepal it is seen that drinking and driving is mostly done during night which adds more risk to accidents as the low night visibility adds up the delay in reaction to stimuli.
b. Accident proneness:
Studies have shown that certain group of road users is more prone to accidents. For example drivers under 30 years are more likely to have accidents than those over 30. Women get into accident very less than men. Middle class drivers are less likely to suffer accidents than working class drivers, similarly highly trained/ experienced drivers are less likely than poorly trained ones. The other studies show the accident repeaters registered by the authority have aggressive tendencies, single, divorced or separated, also the more are semi- skilled or unskilled social groups, unemployed, consume excess quantity of alcohol regularly etc.
C. illness:
People having illness like heart ailments, epilepsy and diabetics shouldn’t drive. The illness may cause physical inability to drive, mental tension and lack of concentration.
Psychological factors:
Emotional factors as attentiveness, impatience, general attitude towards traffic and its regulation, maturity affects the reaction to traffic, situation to great extend. With the motive of getting more passengers, the drivers are found to divert their eyes on pedestrians rather than on the road. The struggle to reach a bus sop faster than next vehicle is the main reason of vehicle collision. The impatience in pedestrian, while crossing roads boarding a bus or getting off, may born many unexpected accidents. Due to the flexibility of traffic police (taking bribes to forget the drivers’ mistake) encourage drivers to be careless about the rules and hence disturb in the smooth operation of other vehicles. Distraction caused by non traffic events, absent minds, fear, anger and worries reduce alertness to traffic situation. There is always one in every five driver who is driving who is driving in anger that may be due to his or the conductor’s arguments with the passengers or simply because of the driver of next vehicle who has taken all his passenger. Most of the drivers don’t pay due respect to the traffic regulation whereas some other think they are the only one on the road.
The existing condition of road user characteristics and behavior can only be changed through efficient formulation and strict implementation of traffic rules and regulation, education and motivation to the people and awareness to the drivers and pedestrians. The change in the human behavior is not impossible but a slow process that may take long time. In spite of being slow, it must be carried out since we don’t have a choice.

Technology is a general term for the processes by which human beings develop tools and machines to increase their control and understanding of the material environment. It implies a thinking process which deals with the casual relationship with the material world with the employment of the experimental methodology those results in empirical demonstrations that can be verified by repetition (scientific methods). The word technology has a broad history that existed from the existence of mankind and certain modifications have been made in its meaning from time to time. It can also be said that it moves with the evolution of early humans from the period of simple tools( that are mostly made from flaked stones for chopping and scraping) to the modern sophisticated large scaled networks that has influence the present life to a great extend.
All the external factors affecting an organism is called the environment. The earth is the habitant of the entire living organism living together as an entity. There is a close relationship between all the individual components of the earth that may be biotic factors, different living organisms, and the abiotic factors (also called non living factors) such as wind, rainfall, temperature, ocean current etc. Together they form an ecosystem within which the whole lifecycle moves.
The inter-relation and the interaction between the human beings is called society. The number of people living in a place having a same shelter makes a family and these certain group of families living and interacting together for their day to day life forms a society. As we see the society is the group of different people living together making a community and working interdependently to carryout their day to day life.

As we go through the technology, environment and society we find there is a very close relationship among these three. The living beings which are closely concerned with these three terms, technology, environment and society, are humans. It is the humans who are responsible for the development of the technology. The progressive ideas and innovations of the human beings presented forward for the benefit of themselves and society (which also their own consequences) gives rise to the technological break through. These ideas and innovations of individuals directly concern with the society usually transforming the traditional cultural systems which may be either constructive or destructive. And as there is a change in the living of the mankind, it directly or indirectly affects the environment causing a change in the ecological cycle. Most of the technological developments are applied for the benefit of mankind. It raises the living standards and helps in the smooth functioning of a society. The development of new ideas eases the works that were felt difficult before the inventions and as a result there is impact on the environment. The application of technology which helps for the group of people living in a society may or may not help the other factors of environment. This is the universal theory that the development or the advantage of one group definitely has some negative impacts on the other though the magnitude of its effect may be small. In the similar fashion, the evolution of technological development is also influenced by the nature of environment. It is a well known fact that no one can ever go against the environment. Environment is the driving factor that causes most of the modification on the lifestyle of people living in a society. It is the environment that determines the types of culture and commence of certain activities of the community. As per in case of Nepal the people of Terai rarely wear woolen clothes or thick jackets as the temperature is mostly hot there. Not only is the society, the technological boom in different places is also governed by the type of environment at those places. The technological development occurs by concerning with the environment. For example as in case of this modern world where we have scarcity of land, people are more concerned with the ideas of high production in small area or laboratory growth of agricultural products. Most of the time people are willing to take the challenges and beat the environment. The environmental condition available determines the way of thinking of the people.
The technological development has touched almost all the field of human life. Each and every person’s day to day life come encounter with the instruments invented through the technological development. No one can disagree with the fact that in present world life without these developed items cant imagined. From the very simple tools to the large-scaled networks human being has always felt their necessity and they lives have always been dependent on them. We can hardly imagine how life was when people don't know how to make fire. Their life was changed from hardship to easiness when they started making variety of tools like scrapers, knives, and other instruments of stone, bone, and other materials. It helped them find food for themselves. They had also begun to use tools to make clothing and build shelters for protection from inclement weather. From the obvious benefit of heat and light, people started using fire for cooking grains in the pot. Early people were dependent on the meat which was obtained from killing animal but the next technological development helped them find how they can survive by eating plants. They knew the idea of using animals for working with growing of crops so they saved their energy. By the time of Bronze Age, human beings have done a number of technological developments like development of bow and arrow, animal-oil lamps, and bone needles for making containers and clothing and shifted their lives from hunting and herbing societies to the more settled practice of agriculture. And with this shifting people didn’t have to depend on meat only anymore. They didn’t have to go for hunting anymore because they could grow the crops they liked and life was easier as it prevented people from staying hungry when they didn’t catch any prey. People started living in a group forming a community and then they started constructed stone buildings so they didn’t have to stay at cave anymore. They stayed protected at their homes. Later on human civilization took place near the big rivers like Nile River. They started using the water of the river for the irrigation purposes so they can use the water during the dry seasons. Several innovative thoughts were implemented and invention of wheels has made it easy for quick transportation. The construction of aqueducts, roads pavements during the Roman age can’t be neglected when it comes to the technological advancement. People started involving in business, known the values of precious metals and process of extracting them. The world was changing and the number of people was growing day by day. For the safe and planned habitant, cities were created. To fulfill the growing demands of growing people industrial development was introduced. With the advancement of technological development people started focusing on sustainable development. They knew the unplanned development can hamper the environment and hence they started Environmental Impact Assessment. Coming to the modern age, people don’t have to lift a finger. Everything can be done by machines. Computers, robots, automatic machines can make the life of people easy and fast. Now people don’t have to remember a single word. Everything can be saved in a chip which is even smaller than our finger tip. With the invention of robots the risk of loss of human lives during working in the dangerous situations has been minimized.
There are a lot of cons of technological development. With the development of early tools human beings have started killing a lot of animals. The construction of human habitants and acquiring land for agriculture adversely affected the wild life as they started destroying the forests. The mining of metal ores degrades the property of soil which can also leads to soil erosion resulting the slip or failure of soil. The main issue of technological development is the growth of population. The newly invented medicines are effective and can prolong the lives of people and decrease the mortality rates. This increases the number of people living on the earth. They have to live on the limited resources and hence they start exploiting the natural resources. Water pollution, soil erosion, wild life extinction, global warming, climatic change, ozone layer depletion, air pollution are some of the problems born due to the skyrocketing growth of population. The more the people the more they affect the environment. With the advancement in technological development the rise of military system for the defense purposes came into existence. In the name of protecting country people started making weapons, arms, bomb etc and in the name of power they started taking over the weaker ones. This created violence and war within the countries and result is 1st and 2nd world wars. These war left people with nothing but destruction and deaths. The means of transportation system helped in fast movement but threatened the lives of people which can be clearly understood by the daily news of road mishap. The modern luxurious life has made people dependent. People can hardly deny their dependence on the new inventions. They are more and more habitual with the technology. Everything they need is available and this has caused laziness in humans. Now we can’t live without the facility we are using. All the works are done by the machines which gave less exercise to humans.
Above all there are both pros and cons of technological development. What’s important for present world is we must seek for the sustainable development and find the best possible way to affect the environment least so that the development would last longer.


(refence from Microsoft ® Encarta ® Reference Library 2005)

Today I opened my diary and this is what I found- A long forgotten memory. Then I thought I should add it up in my blog so that I don't have to loose it again!!


7th April 2001, as like every Saturday, today I went to Nilbarahi. Its not being so religious but I just love hanging out with my guys. While getting back Dipen got a call from his friend who was asking him to guide her two Korean friends through Bhaktapur. My friend couldn’t refuse, real Newari habit hehe, I guess. It was Pranisha, I know her. She was also form the same college where I and Dipen had studied. After slapping his mobile off, Dipen asked me to go with him. Sounds cool to me, visiting places with some foreigners will be fine- the pretty nice way to kill my time. I love this, as I have been friends with a Chinese girl during my camp. So I said yes.

NINJEE AND BOKYUNG AT SIDDHA POKHARI


At 10:30am or 11, I suppose, we went to find them at the bus station of Purano Thimi. Though it took sometime, the means of communication made it easy to locate where they are. They were three. I saw them from distance. Pranisha was the same, like during college days. Here eyes lit up seeing Dipen but I can see some kind of dissatisfaction in her face seeing me (may be just my illusion). She introduced my friend to her friends and my friend introduced me. I quickly looked at the two foreigners, both of our age, one with spectacle on her nose, white complexion and an attractive hair make-up. She had worn a Lahenga like long skirt with scattered colors. She had worn a pair of socks and nice shoe I should say (don’t know how this girly thoughts come in my mind lol). Later on I came to know that her name is Ninjee, very difficult for me to remember. The other was a bit taller than Ninjee. She had some sort of spark on her face(I didn’t have a crush on her if you want know hahaha) and worn Pajamas with a light weight sandals. Her hair was a bit short; step-cut may be I don't know about the hair style hehe, and straight. While resting at Siddhapokhari I had asked her if her hair were straight naturally or she used something, she told they were natural, quite a silly question to ask though. I looked into their face clear and couldn’t understand whether they were expecting me or not.

DIPEN AND PRANISHA(BELOW)

We boarded the bus to Bhaktapur. Pranisha and my friend hadn’t met for a long time so they had a lot of things to talk. They went on the whole way. We got off at Bhaktapur Bus Stop and started walking from there. Everyone must be thinking how to start the conversation then Ninjee broke the ice asking was what’s the name of this place. Definitely Bhaktapur Bus Stop- our answer. At first I felt a bit uneasy and shy but quickly I took up the pace. I asked Pranisha if they know Nepali as I have seen a lot of Koreans talking Nepali easily. My guess was right, they could talk Nepali. They have been to Nepal for
only two months and their Nepali is good, I simply couldn’t believe it. The first thing I wanted to do remember their names as I have a pretty bad memory in remembering names hehe. Bokyung and Ninjee. That’s far more difficult for me to remember. Pranisha told me that they were here to serve the children in their education and they will be here for about six months. I asked Bokyung how many places they have visited. “Only Kathmandu” was her reply. Then I went on with my Pokhara trip. ‘Nice place to visit, so many things to see!! They were planning to go there. They asked the nice places of Pokhara. Actually every place is nice and different attraction. The place I liked most was World Peace Stupa.

I didn’t know they charge a handsome amount for foreigner to enter the Durbar Square premises. It cost 750 per head. That’s where the national economy is collected but where does it goes!! Not of my concern and don’t know whose!! I asked them if they search for something while visiting places. They told me they visit places just of fun and look around. That was nice reply. We went to the Art gallery. It was an archive of very old arts of Bhaktapur of about 14th to 16 centuries. Bokyung must have loved I as she was a student of architect discipline. They took a lot of pictures. We visited the Golden Gate, Nyatapola,
Dattatraya and watched thousands of art work and wood carving. Bokyung and Ninjee didn’t miss to capture them into their cameras and even sitting on a statue of lion at Nyatapola. It was so much fun and throughout the way we laughed and shared things. By this time, they had known my name. we talked a lot of things. Sometimes it becomes so difficult to make them understand which I loved the most. I pull my full efforts to make them understand and at the end when they understand I feel like I have doe something great (just a silly feelings hehe). Soon we clicked to each other. Every time they were busy taking pictures- seems like they want to take Bhaktapur in their camera hehe. I was having fun giving them information I read form the walls or stone carving. Our last place was Siddhapokhari, where we joked a lot. I have a lot of close friends but never spent time like this. May be I am missing out something. Everything was so great when it become time to leave. We boarded the bus to Lagankhel. Me and Dipen got off at Purano Thimi. It was an end of a wonderful day. I guess I will remember it for a long time. I would love to see Ninjee and Bokyung in future if that’s possible of course!!


PRANISHA NEAR THE GOLDEN TAP

This a small video clip taken by my friend Dipen during a day out with Pranisha,Dipen me and two friendly Korean girls Ninjee and Bokyang. It was great and realy miss u all guys!!

First time i saw the snow fall in my small village. It was really nice and i cant forget the moment

5 IN THE MORNING. Before I get off my bed I heard my mom, auntie and grandma praising someone for getting up early and collecting sand from the river and complaining the rest who are still asleep in the family. Yes it’s the start of another day.
Today is the beginning of our greatest festival DASHAIN- supposed to be a different day but I could not find it different than just an ordinary day. This is my same bed, same me and same start of my day with my mom banging at my doors. Well it depends on how you see it.
First day of NAURAAT which means for 9 days we wake up early in the morning, grab our toothbrush, go to the river with friends, wash our face with little praying, and get back home. I must say we used to... Gone are those days when we put on the alarm just to make sure that we don’t wake up late. Those days we would be in a competition with our friends to see who wakes up whom!! Then we would gather together waking up everyone and go to the river talking all the way. We would even share our toothpaste if anyone forgets. Waking up early in the morning was definitely not difficult those times instead we would wake up before anyone does in the family. It was a lot of fun to gather together at the tea shop and have hot HALLUWAS. Then we would go for a football game when it’s still dark. We could hardly see our team mates haha. We were crazy football players. That was really silly but nothing could be more fun than those days. We would fall, hurt and break our toes but nothing could stop us playing the game. There was no age limit. No one was short and no one was tall. Anyone willing to play the games just has to contribute his part of bet (we used to collect Rs. 10 for a game) that would be collected from a team to compete with the opponent. When we get back we would be tired to death. And also be ready to get a loud scold from our moms. I even get scold a lot of times these days but for the reason of getting up late. On the contrary I got scold for getting up so early those times. Whatever you do my mom always has an objection. Lol.
Nowadays I hardly wake up at 7 that’s of course if my mom bangs at my door. lol .But today I have no choice. First day of NAURAAT and I have to collect sand from river that will be used to grow JAMARA (cornflake plant) which will later be used to worship god. My dad never collects sand from the river because its my family rule (not for others just my family rule). My bro hardly collects it because my mom has to fight with him to make him do something early in the morning. This leaves me the only person doing the work. I don’t want to do it but I guess I don’t have the choice. Reluctantly I woke up and all set up to start my at 5 am. With a plastic bag in my one hand and hesitantly I, along with my three cousins, went to the river. As I came out of my home I find something has really changed. It used to be icy cold that we have to wear jacket but this year its not. I would see a lot of people but now I can hardly see five or six. The charm of the tea shop was lost which used to be filled with the customers. Everything felt so different. Everyone has gone busy with their own works and the so called fun are somewhere lost –can only be found in memories. I am not sure how many of us really miss those days. For sure I would not have missed it had my mom not forced me to collect sand this year. Hehe. Of course this day was no fun but I tried to make it sound like a fun haha. Nice try. I snapshot some of our pictures so for those who really thought those days were fun would die to get it back. But I am sure even if someone tries cant get them back. After all those days are good to be kept in memories.