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Manbhavan, Lalitpur, Nepal. Registration no. : 251/067/68 Issue: I Editor: Gokul Sharma Publisher: Line Media Pvt. Ltd. Tel: 977-1-5546194 Printing: Print Point Publishing(3P) Tripureshwor, Kathmandu 4249674/75
Cover Art: Krishna Thing
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Kailesh Kher performing at Soaltee Crowne Plaza
Indian Models walking on ramp at Soaltee Crowne Plaza
Brick by Brick
“Go Red” Sadichha
party starters
girls on wheels
manusya timi manusya hou....
gadgets
I think for hours and paint them in a canvas. Somewhere in my mind I know that domination in my art is missing. I know it is measurement; hue more on the yellowish side. But I console myself, the beauty of art is that everything is right. Not anymore, I press Ctrl+Z, I change hue,measurement and I find domination in my Art.Does that mean no more paints?
Ctrl-Z Art -- I want that. --Do I want that??? --I don’t care about I want that and do I want that??? But I certainly need this.
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Art Gadget Not that long ago, animators sketched their creations on paper and then ran to the copy machine to scale things up or down. Fixes, revisions, or creating alternate versions were time-consuming chores. Big mistakes meant starting over completely. Wacom’s Intuos3 4x5 tablet features a digital pen, a mouse, and a tablet designed for artists and graphic designers who need a degree of control unattainable with a standard mouse. Regular computer users who suffer from repetitive stress in their wrists or anyone who wants a more intuitive means to work on their desktops will also appreciate its ease of use, though a street price of $220 may be a reason to shop for the consumer-level Wacom Graphire3 tablet released last year. The Intuos3 tablet connects to your PC via USB (the old Intuos2 had only a serial connector) and includes an RF receiver for both the wireless mouse and the pen. Each component has customizable buttons, including a rocker switch on the pen, five buttons on the mouse, as well as a four-button keypad and a slide bar on the tablet. The Intuos3 comes bundled with the necessary software drivers on CD, as well as applications including Corel Painter Essentials 2.0 and Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. When you use the pen, the active area defaults to Pen mode (absolute positioning), which means it maps directly to the screen. In other words, if you rest the tip of the pen on the bottom-right corner of the active area, the cursor will point to the same place on the screen. The pen also features 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity (twice that of the Graphire3), letting you
WACOM
switch between different brushes and pinpoint precise areas onscreen. The pen is a bit thicker than a standard ballpoint pen, but the weight is similar. The gray-rubber grip feels comfortable, and the convenient rocker switch is easily accessible with thumb or forefinger. The pen comes with three nibs for a variety of feels; an eraser on the end makes it easy to clean up errors. A smooth material covers the bottom of the ballfree and optics-free mouse (it works by touch), allowing the mouse to glide easily on the tablet’s active area. When you use the mouse, the tablet switches to relative positioning, which treats the cursor like any other mouse would. If you imagine yourself using the mouse a lot, we’d recommend one of the larger models. On the 4x5 model, the mouse takes up half of the active area.
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Samsung LED 9000
Sony VAIO 3D
Nintendo 3DS
I want that
Samsung’s LED 9000 series of television sets is pencil-thin. Yes it’s just 0.3 inches wide and it can support and having the great ability to display 3D images and can convert 2D content into third dimension. You must be impressed by knowing that it can offer great support for downloadable apps, just like you’d find on the iPhone or Nexus One. Its application served via open development platform which means that any entrepreneur is able to insert content in it and can add up huge functionality, from the world of social networking clients to the downloadable games.
In order to be synchronize with BRAVIA glasses 3D laptop computer by Sony will boast of IR blaster. Lodged in F series chassis, the laptop contains display of 16”, so it can also be used for PS3. For games and videos, this laptop comes up with 1080p 240fps display. You can upgrade it from 2D to 3D with Blu-ray drives. In order to retain crystal clear picture quality, 3D VAIO uses the same technology in BRAVIA TV, with Black Frame Insertion.With just one touch button you can change between 2D to 3D. So, 3D VAIO would be a 0utstanding electronic gadget of 2011
The Nintendo 3D comes up with 2 outward lenses and 1 inward lense for taking pictures and it is compatible with 3D graphics sans glasses. With outward lens you can take picture of any person and at the same instant the user’s picture can be taken with the inward lens. It is possible to combine two images and produce a single one. Users cartoon avatars automatically created by 3DS. It also enables users of 2DS for communication. With the help of tag mode, you are able to get the details of another user of 3DS, like you can come to know about the games he or she played last.
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Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock
TV ears
Pistol Camera
Do I want that??? This Sonic Boom alarm clock with bed shaker will rouse even the deepest sleeper. It’s perfect for for the hard of hearing and elderly as well as hard sleeping teens. It’s small and portable making it perfect even when traveling. It features adjustable tone and volume, snooze, an automatic dimmer, a powerful bed shaker, and a loud (113 db adjustable), pulsating audio alarm. This alarm clock offers battery back-up (9V battery not included) and has a large 1” bright green LED display.
TV ears are recommended by hearing practitioners. These headphones make use of voice enhancement technology which emphasizes the sounds people need to hear to understand speech. They allow the TV viewer to hear dialogue while leaving others in the house undistrubed.These handy earphones have automatic commercial control and powerful 120dB amplification as well as volume, tone, and balance controls. They operate via wireless 95KHz infrared and are highly portable allowing users to tote alongfor use in many public places such as theaters, courtrooms, auditoriums, and more.
This Pistol Camera named as DORYU 2-16 is gun shaped 16mm cameras. It was given to Japan Officers.Once again the expression “taking a shot” takes a more realistic meaning.
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Third World Gadget I don’t care about I want that and do I want that??? But I certainly need this.
Once the mosquito get in touch with the swatter net, it certainly will not be able to escape, it may be either drawn into the inner net or fastened by static force to the outer net, but when any part of its body approach the inner net, it will eventually get shocks and zapped immediately. Dead bugs on nets can be brushed off or shaken off.
PHOTO: Prabin Lal Manandhar TEXT: Amrita Gurung
Innermost thoughts in his lines Spring shows up giving way to brighter sunny days. On one such sunny day, we headed towards Putalisadak to stop by the studio of artist Krishna Thing. His studio perched on the top floor of the five-storied building, is aloof from the rest of the happenings of the place. But, the only distraction even up there in that height is the noise coming from the busy streets just below the building. It’s inevitable at the same time to even try to ignore the honking of the running motorbikes and buses. It’s probably because people have forgotten that they live there or come every day in this place. Or, it could be that they have very well gotten used to the screeching of the vehicles and noise that comes from everywhere, it seems. Or, it could only be the people who embraced the noise as they did their own life of the city letting it amalgamate and foam into their own each voices. “I’m used to this noise,” accepts Krishna opening the window of his studio from where it is possible to feel how annoying the noise can be to a visitor like to this scribe.” You tend to forget it is a noisy place, and forget even that you have a studio in the chaotic place because the only thing you are aware about is you are creating an art.” In fact, the noise which is so much part of his life has stopped to bother him at all. He has embraced it as much as he has the life of an artist. Clearly, the noise, the half finished painting on the walls, dusty floor or even the smoke butts don’t seem to bother him. He has accepted all the more things that make him an artist, a self employed and self taught talent that would have otherwise not taken this up.
Krishna on a quest for artistic direction had a huge influence and exposure of art culture when he visited France with his better half in 2008 and 2009 respectively. Like a baby, he was doing one thing after another since he started off his painting career with Thangka some 15 years ago. Unsure and timid yet firm and determined, Krishna in his teenage life began to explore the uncharted areas without expecting too much from them. Some disappointed him at times. Nevertheless, the Thangka painter and the flute player of the band Ozobozo at one point or the other in his life as craftsman in search of coconut shells or just a monochrome lover, Krishna found the needed potent and juice in them all, to go ahead to know from himself that he was a step closer to Gods and Goddess, a true artist. Borrowing the motifs and styles from Thangka painting his own canvases gets flooded with spiritual gist and religious tantrums equipped with his inventions of human like creatures sometimes playfully sitting and other times watching in awe. His lines are stark and vivid giving details to each expression of life of their own. “For an artist it is important to know his limits and his strengths,” he added pointing out to his monochromatic frames hanging on the walls and some just simply lying on the floor. Krishna, who initially started playing with multi colours as a Thangka painter for some reason, opted for the tones of monochrome and found the bliss in it for many years to pass by. Then so here he is today jerking around, “I’ve added blues and reds to black and white frames because life is simply so colourful.”
cover story
Scribbling a doodle
Blind Journey Watercolor & Acrylic on paper 48cm x 68cm
Dhyan Buddha Oil on canvas 66cm x 92cm
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Search of process Oil on canvas 231cm x 156cm www.verse.com.np
Horizon Battle Mix media Acrylic and water color on hand made paper 51cm x 71cm
Illusion, non visual dream Acrylic on canvas 117cm x 107cm
Last wish Acrylic on canvas 46cm x 69cm www.verse.com.np
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PHOTO: Prabin Lal Manandhar TEXT: Amrita Gurung
cover story
His Beautiful Journey The Man behind Thangka Painting in Nepal Before meeting an experienced and prominent Thangka painter of Nepal, our friend Yanik who had readily slipped into the role of the gatekeeper that day told me that somebody is going to translate things the artist we were going to meet would say. I dreaded thinking about it. “Now that sounds like play-
“Dharyyal” is probably the biggest and reputed name in the field of Thangka painting in Nepal today. ing Chinese Whisper,” I snapped back. We walked ahead in silence till we reached one of the many blue gates to let ourselves be welcomed by his daughter-in-law to his abode in the inner residential area of Boudha. Sitting on the lounge bed in the living room in his house, he was silently waiting for
us. We exchanged greetings waving our hands not knowing what to say exactly in Tibetan. So we greeted each other with Namaste. As I went closer to sit next to him, he said something which I could neither hear properly nor understand what he wanted to tell. I heard him say “81” and his daughter-in-law added right there in time “age”. How did I not get this? He was as though a child trying to introduce himself to us that he is a man of 81 years. Wow! It got me hard when I saw in him both the eagerness of a child and creases of an old man, and knew in an instance that he had experiences probably older than him to share. Dharyyal Gngsur, who prefers to be called by his first name “Dharyyal” is probably the biggest and reputed name in the field of Thangka painting in Nepal. Although at this age he has already retired to spiritual living and home-stay, he has however not
stopped painting Thangka. Given the good condition of his health which is rare these days he wouldn’t mind sitting down to make diagrams of Gods and Goddesses on the canvases so that his pupils could easily apply colours on them. Born in an affluent artistic family of Thangka artists, his life took a different turn as his country did in 1950 with the invasion of China in Tibet. Dharyyal, who is the 6th generation Thangka painter of his family, is a witness who carries the legacy of the 7th generation Thangka artist--- his son Wangdi with him. His son is not just a witness to the legacy but his family along with others had been left back in Tibet before fleeing to Nepal, in a search for a hideout from Chinese who confiscated invaluable properties and jewelries and were only left
I used to paint Thangka in the monasteries there and fill my hungry stomach with rags. He further lamented that many of his contemporaries and friends had to end up in jail because the Chinese thought they were rich people and were hiding their precious jewels. This could not go on for long. Tired of living a life of the oppressed, and the constant fear of Chinese who would “beat us, lock up us in jail even if we wore something little nice� compelled him and others to leave the country for better. Before escaping to Nepal in 1964, he had already served for three years in jail in the Eastern part of Tibet. By then he already had a family of his own and was the father of four sons and a daughter. But, it was out of question to even think that he could escape to Nepal with his family members. And, because of religious and other matters like home and land, his family remained there while he silently fled, leaving back his family and country behind to an unknown land. By then, he was already a good Thangka painter. But due to political upheavals his country had to go through,
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he was not able to practice it as his fathers and grandfathers did in their time. Unlike the many Tibetans who fled their home for safety and good life, they were not able to accomplish as Dharyyal could. As a child, he was taught the craft of Thangka painting by his father and grandfather who were all successful painters of their time. It took him time to practice his skills in the new place. Before reaching anywhere in a safer place, he along with others had to cross the treacherous mountains for seven long days and nights almost without food to reach Solukhumbu. Solukhumbu was the resting point for most of the Tibetans as it provided many resemblances of their home culturally, religiously and geographically.
The people he met, made friends with and worked with knew his true potential of an artist which would take him to greater heights in the future. He decided to live there for some time and wait and see what would happen to his country because he had his family members waiting for him there. But nothing really changed. And, it didn’t take long for seven years to pass by as he stayed there looking for food and home. “I used to paint Thangka in the monasteries there and fill my hungry stomach,” said the revered artist in a childlike manner without any inhibition. This was the time when he could actually paint Thangka in the monasteries and exhibit his artistic skills to the people around and get work to do and earn his living. The people he met, made friends with and worked with knew his true potential of an artist which would take him to greater heights in the future. It was also the time he earned praises not just for his artistic abilities but his measurements found in ample amount in his work which was rare in others arts. “Measurement is very important
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to Thangka painting because it determines the beauty of Thangka art,” shared Dharyyal, “every image of Gods and Goddesses have their measurements that tell good posture from a bad one.” So, measurements and lines are what that helped him stand out from the rest in the time when struggles were what everybody was doing. After spending seven years of his life in Solukhumbu he moved towards the valley only to settle down here for the rest of his life. Around 1971/72 he entered the valley and felt a breath of new breeze breezing in the city. He knew he could do many things here through Thangka painting. Given his contacts and people he knew, he soon started working with Lamas of various monasteries in Kathmandu and built stronger bonds with them to work forever here. But, things didn’t go as he expected. His family members were still in Tibet while he was here alone working for and only for himself with no one to look forward to in the times of happiness and sadness. This was not what he wanted, but there was no choice than to resist the hard life. Unable to live away from his family for a long time, in 1980, he mustered up enough courage to go to Tibet to be with his children and wife. He did for some time. But what little hope he had of his country and himself faded away with the time, and it was still not a safe place for him to be there. So, this time he had to run away, leaving back his family once again to Kathmandu where he had a different life waiting for him. The only difference this time was that his third youngest son was with him. He took his son Wangdi with him giving an excuse to the rest of their family that he was only taking him for a vacation. He would come back with his son after a few months. But, this never happened. They have ever since been living in Kathmandu. Wangdi has a family of his own and it is his wife Tsering Chokey who translated the things being said by her in-law, Dharyyal. Wangdi does thangka painting and also runs a Thangka painting school opened by his father in the late 1970s. The school was opened with the intention of helping empower the youths in those days so they could earn their living out of Thangka painting. Dharyyal who then got busy with paintings of thangkas in the monasteries started getting more contracts to beautify the walls of monasteries that had slowly started to grow in those days. As a result, Dharyyal in capital has Sichen Gumba, White Monastery, Thangdu Gumba, Tusal Gumba, Swoyambhu Gumba, Kapan Monastery and Tamang Gumba to his credit. Likewise, he also painted the
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walls of Tangboche Gumba, Namche Gumba and Solukhumbu Gumba in Solukhumbu with beautiful images of Gods and Goddesses. And, there are several in India which he can’t name all. At present, he along with his other team members are researching the Thangka painting in Nepal to build a seven-storied monastery with all the images of Gods and
Goddesses in Tibet to reestablish the Gumba in his village in Eastern Tibet which was destroyed by Chinese in the time of invasion. He shares heart-rending news that he would not go to Tibet for the project. Asked why, he lightly answered in a childlike manner that he just “cannot go” flapping his hands in the air. But, his valued works of Thangka paintings will go there and embrace the walls of the monastery bringing the dilapidated state of the place into life once again, and the paintings would once again breathe his love for his country and his family even though he is far away from them all.
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Shakyamuni Shakyamuni (“Sage of the shakyas�), is the primary figure in Buddhism, and accounts of his life, discourses, and monastic rules are believed by Buddhists
Manjushree Manjushree is a bodhisattva associated with transcendent wisdom in Mahayana Buddhism. In Esoteric Buddhism he is taken as a meditational deity.
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The Little Store that Did The stench of rotten garbage breeding inside a sea of black plastic rises from the murky river waters. Dogs try to lap a drink, but meekly retreat unable to satisfy their thirst. The flow from upstream becomes clogged, entangled in dams of food scraps, discarded bottles and decomposing paper mountains. Embedded in the feeble footpath that snakes along the bank, wisps of white and black catch your eye, relics of a daily shop some three years prior. A passerby looks disapprovingly at the mess below, covers their face with a scarf, scrambles by and then breathes a sigh of relief. The sigh is inherently also one of complacency, for it is their garbage too poisoning the river, it is their choices ultimately contributing to this environmental degradation. Across town in Jhamsikhel, a small but dedicated team is working on creating newspaper carry bags and 100% recycled paper products. The store, Jamarko, seems a world away from the inescapable pollution that saturates Kathmandu and her environs. Yet within the confines of the small wooden shop revolution is taking place. It is environmentalism and recycling at its best. Specialising in handmade recycled paper goods, it is possible to see how waste can be transformed into practical use. Notepads, journals, writing paper, envelops, stationary,
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lampshades, paper curtains, cards, coasters, photo frames, gift wrap and gift bags are among the main recycled paper products. The store also carries a selection of mostly handmade giftware utilising natural fibres such as hemp bags, corn husk dolls, husk stools and felt laptop bags. The product designs reflect a refined and simple elegance. Although established in 2001 Jamarko initially ran out of its factory site in Galkopakha. Now, after 10 years of operation, a space has emerged for this pioneering eco-business to enter the mainstream. The showroom itself is a reflection an intimate niche market of overseas visitors and environmentally conscious Nepali youth. A 2010 study by the Dept. of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at Kathmandu University reveals that, beyond being a trendy fad, recycling is also a form of income generation and employment, particularly for low income earners. Indeed Jamarko’s social entrepreneurship extends to employing disadvantaged women, the disabled and street children. Rural communities also benefit from their work in producing Lokta paper products. The specialised and made to order Lokta paper products generates the financial stability for Jamarko to pursue more localised recycling objectives. www.verse.com.np
go green
The reach of Jamarko’s message is, however, beyond recycling paper and reducing plastic waste. The parable lies deep within the heart of a movement to create a sustainable, safe and more liveable environment. It lies within the passion and commitment of a dedicated few who can see beyond today, envisioning a cleaner and greener tomorrow. It lies within their belief that every little bit counts. Looking down at the river or into a field littered with waste, it is hard to find the motivation to change entrenched practices. Ignore the masses. Do your bit. Lead by example. Jamarko, after all, is effort. Every one of us has the potential to put in the effort and become one of those few. It doesn’t take much; Simple decisions like refusing a plastic bag for small goods which could be easily stowed in the backpack or handbag you are carrying; Popping in a reusable shopping sack in your everyday bag so when you are at the store, even on unplanned occasions, you are prepared with an alternative to plastic; Recycling paper products such as newspapers, bygone study notes or that empty biscuit box from afternoon tea; Setting up a small recycling station at home, work or college and once a week dropping the paper of at Jamarko or a similar concept store. Change is within everybody’s means. When will you start?
Jamarko in Jhamsikhel rallies Kathmandu with innovative recycling initiatives that are oft familiar, sometimes overlooked but ultimately just plain dandy
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promotion
NEXT GENERATION SPICE Spice began the process of revolutionizing the Communication & Entertainment sector; with its new age technologically advanced state of the art mobile phones. The mobile phone industry highly innovative from the beginning has recently launched a breakthrough mobile phone Mi310 powered with open source software Android2.2 and a touch screen phone M5700.It is soon going to launch a projector phone in the market.
M5700 Touch screen phone
Priced moderately the phone targets youth market. The product has been designed stylishly and using all function by a single touch makes it more interesting. Apart from the standard features, the feature packed M5700 is designed with all qualities to make it a best seller. With stereo Bluetooth, music player, video record and playback this phone has been made trendy and highly user friendly for the youth. With 1.3 megapixel one touch camera the phone is capable of offering photos and videos of a decent quality. It has supports up to 4GB of expandable memory. The dual sim supports Internet applications like Nimbuzz, Facebook, Yahoo and Snaptu. [Price: Rs. 5950, 1 GB memory card free]
Mi310 with Android 2.2.
Mi310 is built on the Android open source mobile operating system. One could include an open source desktop application for user to capture and review their exercise data in a much simpler and lower tech way than the server based solution. It is redesigned search framework from Google that provides a quick, effective and consistent way for users to search across multiple sources such as browser bookmarks and history, contacts and the web directly from the home screen. The software -Android offers the ability to build extremely rich and innovative applications. Developers are free to take advantage of the device hardware, access location information, run background services, add notifications to the status bar, and much, much more. [Price: Rs. 14490, 2 GB memory card free]
Projector phone M9000
Spice is now coming up with a projector M9000. The projector phone can project images or videos on big screen or white wall. It’s a dual sim mobile phone powered with a projector. The inbuilt projector helps to project data in the mobile to big screen. The Projector M9000 has a document viewer, through which you can view various office document formats such as powerpoint, excel, word and even .pdf files on the handset. The laser pointer helps to point the presentations. It is a very useful phone for marketing executives, offices as no need to carry separate projector. [Price: Rs. 12890, 2 GB memory card free]
Flawed Nutcracker http://amaharjan.wordpress.com/
H
ere is one good way to get an internet connection. You go to the internet head office once a day for a week or two just to get them ready to set up a router or switch or what ever so. They agree to install not because they think they should, but because you don’t seem to give up trying and they are sick of seeing your face on a regular basis. Then you wait for a month without any signs of connection. (That’s the length of time between two full moons.) The cause? Only god knows. In fact you don’t wait. You call the office every single day for twenty days and technicians come every other day to take an endeavor to make it work. Each time they come, they have an excuse for failure. Someday they don’t have a clamper (an instrument used to staple the head of a RJ-45 cable, which looks like a nutcracker), other days they don’t bring a ladder or they simply can’t tell where the problem is. After twenty days of futile effort, they decide that they are a little more than dubious about the 83 meters of ethernet cable which connects the switch on the electricity pole to your computer. Which means, an extra charge of Rs.83X20 if you had paid for this faulty cable, fortunately you hadn’t. You had decided not to pay a dime until you are assured of the connectivity, which was an apt thing to do. Now this is where things get really freaky. You call the office to say how peeved you feel at what is going on. And instead of being sorry, the man on the other side literally yells at you for not paying the dues. He wants you to pay rite away
if you want the cable replaced. But he wouldn’t say anything more than “it seems to be the only problem, can’t you see?” when you ask if he was certain that the new cable will work. You hang up confused and enraged. After ten days or so when you call the office to check if anything was going on, they send the
you don’t seem to give up trying and they are sick of seeing your face same old fellows over. This time it takes them no more than a few minutes to fix up the connection. Flabbergasted by what you’ve witnessed, you ask the man to explain. And all he says is “It was the damn clamper. We were using a shitty clamper last month.” Then you forgive them for wasting your month, for not treating you well enough, for being careless, for wasting your telephone calls, for still not being sorry. Finally, you hope that your little tale ends up happy. But you are still disgruntled, for the speed of internet connection you get can only be called glacial. You have already paid and you are helpless now. Well, I’m confident that by now you have learnt that this is not a good way to get an internet connection. Now, the part that you might not know is that this is an anecdote of mine, which I thought deserves to be written. So, all the ‘you’ in the story are in fact ‘me’. And the moral of the story? It is that the thing that looks like a nutcracker is actually a clamper, and it can sometimes be a pain in the neck. And that ‘sometimes’ is more frequent than we imagine.
fashion
Timeless Classics Start your summer with timeless class! Bring back the glamour of the fifties with flirty chiffon and cool cottons. Say it all with pretty pastels and bold black and white !! With a vintage touch - the classics never go out of style!!
Concept and Photography: Rajan Shrestha Make-Up: Sabita Khadka (Thapa) Wardrobe: Buttons [Patan Dhoka] Sphinx... [City Center]
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Shristi Neupane
Shristi Shrestha
Marina Lama
Marina Lama
Marina Lama
Pooja Shrestha
Shristi Shrestha
Shristi Neupane
Shristi Shrestha
Shristi Neupane
music
Giant Steps Jazz Everywhere
O
utside a small, nondescript bar in Thamel, a tourist district in Kathmandu, Nepal, is a handwritten window sign saying “live jazz.” Not exactly a conventional sight in a place dotted with souvenir shops, trek agencies, and guest houses—a stretch of street where life seems fleeting, hundreds of voices speak in different languages, and a cavalcade of travelers will eventually leave at one point. I entered Full Moon bar, and knowing Thamel to be a place for tourists and backpackers, assumed that it would be filled with foreigners like me. I was right, but the sight of a local audience was a welcome reprieve and presented a positive omen. The atmosphere offered a stark contrast to the transient bustle of outside —hued cushions and pillows to sit on, incense sticks burning in corners, cigarette smoke rising from ash trays, opened windows inviting the cool wind of spring, beer bottles, glasses of alcohol. While outside Thamel was all about passing and moving, inside Full Moon, it said SIT. The place was very interesting, not only because I was there as a tourist, but because I hadn’t really gone to similar events in the Philippines. I did not know what to expect.
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Jazz
l a ep
N in
Coexisting with Nepal’s already rich culture is an underrated music scene that deserves attention and appreciation from listeners all over the world. On my visit to Full Moon, I met Abhisek Bhadra, keyboardist of jazz group JCS Trio (with Jigmee Dorgee Sherpa on bass and Kiran Shahi on drums), the band playing that night. I’m not an expert on jazz, but the moment I went inside, I knew that these guys were good. Abhisek said that the jazz scene in Nepal is slowly gaining ground. It only started to develop about five years ago, when there were only about two bands playing jazz music, “and not many people who attended those gigs,” he said. “It’s hard enough making a living out of music in Kathmandu and it’s definitely harder making a living by playing jazz. There aren’t many bands who’ve made jazz records here,” he admitted. There is, however, a lot of improvement—which shows that the scene could only get better. He told me about the Kathmandu Jazz Conservatory, a major initiative that helped jazz bloom in the country: “It was founded by Mariano Abbelo, a Spanish music educator. He was able to bring teachers from abroad to teach students here, and he’s still doing the same.” This school benefits artists like Abhisek, because he gets to teach kids how to play—while currently training at the conservatory, he teaches guitars, keyboards, and music technology at the British School in Kathmandu. Today, there are weekly jazz gigs in different venues in Kathmandu, and occasional jazz festivals, which I unfortunately missed. He mentions “Jazzmandu,” an annual jazz festival that gathers musicians from all over the world. “The festival started about six years ago. It wasn’t very big back then but now [the number of] people attending this festival has grown,” he says. Learning about all of these things, I reckoned that the jazz scenes in the Philippines and in Nepal are very much similar.
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Jazz in the Philippines The influx of new music in the Philippines could make it a bit trickier for jazz, partly because it’s become clear that it is one of those genres that is not easily and immediately appreciated by everyone—an acquired taste as some would call it—and partly because the dominant music we have for the youth in Manila commonly leans more towards rock and pop. “No matter which decade we’re talking about, jazz has always been considered an elite music,” said Collis Davis, one of the producers of the documentary “Pinoy Jazz: The Story of Jazz in the Philippines.” He also believes that we are currently living in a time where jazz is not as well-received in the country as it should be. “Listening to what I would like call real jazz is more demanding of the listener’s intellect, especially when it comes to following the spontaneous, often brilliant logic of improvisation composed on fly on a theme or on a song’s harmonic structure,” he explains. He also suggests that guidance is an essential component in finding out what jazz is all about, and that it could be difficult for new listeners to look for a good introduction—it is possible that they get the ones that are “either too abstract or, if it’s conventional jazz, poorly executed.” Educating oneself with sound is clearly one of the things that jazz listening requires. “Where it needs to be taught is at the high school level while young minds are still receptive to new ideas and the performing
arts in general,” he added. “Usually, the way one learns to listen and enjoy jazz is to associate with folks who are already into the music. They can serve to introduce the novice into how to listen to jazz, and share recordings by the jazz masters to enable the novice to engage with the best examples in the history jazz. This is key—introducing novice listeners to excellence in improvised music, either American or Filipino in origin guarantees their life-long dedication to the music.” Filipino Jazz music made for and by younger generations has been doing pretty well for years. Artists such as The Radioactive Sago Project, Mishka Adams, SinoSikat?, Nyko Maca, and Mike’s Apartment each have their own distinctive jazz sounds, providing listeners with new approaches and fresh technique on the old tradition. The recently-concluded Philippine International Jazz Festival has also shown that the scene is more powerful than ever. “As the PI Jazz and Arts Festival grows each year, I would surmise that the music is gaining more attention among youth audiences due to the many free concerts that are staged around town,” said Davis. Aaron Gonzales of contemporary jazz pop band Hidden Nikki said that there are no problems with regard to album sales and gigs. He said that the records do sell, but they are still outnumbered: “Jazz in the Philippines is like jazz in any other country. It is appreciated by people but is still part of a minority. There are fans and followers but of course, not as strong as alternative or rock,” he explains. “Jazz survives because it is one of those genres that never die. Despite constantly not being the current fad, it’s always there unlike Rap Metal, and ‘acoustic’ that pretty much went down the popularity scale years ago. It is a timeless genre.”
Firm, giant steps
Heading out of Full Moon after the JCS set, I was beaming with excitement and new material for an artile that was originally supposed to feature the jazz scene in my country. I was lucky to catch a glimpse of a burgeoning jazz community in a country that already boasts so many wonderful things. Jazz, in places such as the Philippines and Nepal, is like the dark alley of guest houses and closed shops. TEXT: Tucked away in corners is a scene that may not be as loud as the rest of the place, but is powerful enough to make you sit, stay, and listen.
TEXT: Ofelia T. Sta. Maria First published in the Philippine Online Chronicles (http://www.thepoc.net). Licensed under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA-3.0 Philippines (Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike).
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Anorexia “Thin is in” BUT Couple of years back, that’s at some stage during my college life, I had this neurotically skinny roommate who for myriad hours would be super glued to FTV scrutinizing stick thin models who were just her genetic copies. She immensely bored me because her utterance was highly restricted to calories, exercises, zero size “THIS diet plan” and all that jazz that comes along. She hugely bored me. I didn’t converse much with her and wasn’t really involved in her lifestyle until one day when a common friend of ours asked her if she were an anorexic? Now what was that? A geek I was and with queries playing hide and seek with my wit, even forty winks became impossibility. Trying hard and still not getting a sleep, I opened my laptop to research what anorexia means? Google was flooded with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, a virus of a similar kind. My research will take the wind out of your sail henceforth, inaugurating with Anorexia nervosa. What I speculated was a bug or a disease but after my search I was surprised to myself to know that it’s an eating disorder typified by refusal to maintain a healthy body weight and an obsessive fear of gaining weight. People with anorexia nervosa continue to feel hungry, but deny themselves all but very small quantities of food. The average caloric intake of a person with anorexia nervosa is 600-800 calories per day, but there are extreme cases of complete self-starvation. And then comes bulimia nervosa which I spoke of formerly typified by restraining of food intake for a period of time followed by an over intake or binging period that results in feelings of guilt and low self-esteem. The
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median age of onset is 18. Sufferers attempt to overcome these feelings in several ways. The most common form is defensive vomiting, sometimes called purging; fasting the use of laxatives, enemas, diuretics, and over exercising is also common. After evaluating all that I explored on the web, my feeling is the emaciated waif look that has caused women to tale-spin into the world of Eating Disorders that can literally kill you. And if you I think I am kidding, you just like I surely had failed to spot some very imperative international headlines stating. With model’s death, eating disorders are again in spotlight - Americas - International Herald Tribune The death of a 21-year-old Brazilian model from complications of anorexia has reignited debate about the fashion industry and eating disorders at a time when various cities around the world are considering banning the ultrathin from the catwalk. Then came another caption in the tabloid of a model named Ana Carolina Reston, who weighed just 40 kilograms, or 88 pounds, when she died in São Paolo, succumbing to an eating disorder again. The world was still pacing with anorexia and bulimia when there was another caption of a model named Luisel Ramos of Uruguay who died of heart failure during a fashion show, finally prompting Madrid to ban severely underweight models from the city’s fashion week that autumn. I somewhere fall in with these scandalous news being pretty terrifying but then what does an ordinary obese girl do in a world where the small screen is drenched with skeletal images of Lindsay Lohan and Keira Knighteney? In a world where chubby teenaged
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health girls are bombarded with messages saying, “Thin is in”. In a world where plump girlfriends do not want to be seen in “this bathing-suit” or “that pair of shorts” or in a world where every disproportionate figured wife is so frightened of the spouse drooling towards infidelity that her first question to him is not “whether you want food? Or how was your day?” but “do you think I look perfect in this?” I know that all the lasses reading, my previous paragraph want to chop my fingers into petite pieces and heat it for some spicy feast but trust me I myself being a girl don’t want to term as a couch potato. Since I don’t want to be termed as a couch potato, what do I do? Go through some plastic surgery or get “taped-up” to mold
my body just like the models do or probably starve because my boyfriend wants to see me in “that swim suit” or fight it all. Fight it all beginning with the former and ending on the Pop-culture’s imposed definition of “the ideal body” combined with the diet industry’s drive to make more money because I being a rational ultimately, know that Anorexia, Bulimia and Compulsive Overeating are NOT about weight and food. Rather they are complex disorders where each sufferer is plagued with low self-esteem, an inability to cope with their own emotions and stress, and many underlying issues that have lead them to their disordered eating.
TEXT: Roli Mittal Jalan
doctor’s corner
DENTAL IMPLANTS A BETTER SOLUTION FOR MISSING TEETH
For centuries man has endeavored to find a more natural replacement for missing teeth. Modern, space age materials have allowed that quest to become a reality. Today’s dental implant is possible because of these materials combined with years of research and clinical trials. The dental implant is truly a better solution for missing teeth. For years the best solutions for missing teeth were bridges, removable partial or full dentures. But now since implant is here it offers solid, non-mobile support for replacement teeth which act and feel like natural teeth. It is a small titanium screw similar to root of natural tooth .Since implants are placed within jawbone they can provide distinct advantages over traditional methods of replacing missing teeth.
• • • • • • • •
Implants restore proper chewing function and so you can enjoy foods previously too “difficult” to eat. You feel confident that your replacement teeth won’t move or loosen. You regain the closest thing to the look, feel and function of your natural teeth. Forget about unsightly partial denture clasps which place damaging pressure on remaining natural teeth. Eliminate irritated and painful gums. Improve your speech by eliminating or reducing the “fullness” of full or partial dentures. Replace missing teeth with the look and feel of natural teeth without having to “cut down” healthy teeth. Dental implants help stop the progressive bone loss and shrinkage of your jawbone by “mimicking” the roots of natural teeth. • Dental implants are clinically proven with a better success rate provided it’s placed with proper treatment planning.
Clearly dental implants are one of the finest treatment options dentistry has to offer. With their ability to improve the quality of your life and health it’s easy to understand why they have become the accepted alternative to traditional methods of replacing missing teeth. Dr. Bipul Man Singh Dental Surgeon and Implantologist SMS-ORTHO DENTAL CLINIC Jawalakhel bipul.ms@gmail.com
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Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is undoubtedly one of the best pieces of literature written till date. Set in the 19th century, it presents the then era, people’s way of thinking and the social aspects. As in all her other novels, Austen has established female characters as the main protagonist. This book tells us the story of the Bennet family, a family of five daughters, Jane, Elizabeth, Lydia, Kitty and Mary. Back in those days, the only thing expected from a lady was to get married with a well-settled gentleman. As we go on reading, we can see Mrs. Bennet’s woes that her daughters might not lead a happy life in the future, her endeavors to get her daughters married properly and the girls trying to
lead their own life. It is said that the tragedies Austen had to face during her life have a great effect on her writing. The love among family members, the caring for one’s siblings has been portrayed beautifully. The bond between Mr. Bennet and his daughters, especially Elizabeth and the understanding between the two eldest Bennet girls can be felt while reading. Shy and extremely beautiful Jane falls hopelessly in love with Charles Bingley, the most amiable and eligible man. Independent and stubborn Elizabeth thinks of Mr. Darcy, the handsome and very wealthy Mr. Darcy, who falls in deeply for her, as nothing more than a haughty and unsociable man. And to add to their problems, there is Lydia. Among
Out Here in Kathmandu - Mark Liechty The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking The first major work in nearly a decade by the world’s greatest scientist, The Grand Design presents the most recent scientific thinking about the mysteries of the universe in language marked by brilliance and simplicity.
A second book by anthropologist Mark Liechty, Out Here In Kathmandu is a collection of nine essays that charts the trajectory of the Nepali modernity by discussing the practices of the middle-class Kathmandu.
The Naive and Sentimental Novelist - Orphan Pamuk In The Naïve and Sentimental Novelist, Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk meditates on the art of the novel. A compilation of The Charles Eliot Lectures that Pamuk gave in 2009, the book is a mandatory read for writers and aspiring writers alike.
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all this, the girls’ search for true love rather than just a beneficial marriage continues. Some of my personal favorite parts to read in the book are Mr. Darcy’s letter to Elizabeth, the conversation between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth at the Bennet house and the conversation between Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy almost at the end. The change of initial prejudice along with the passing events can be noticed easily and it makes the story more interesting. As it was written in the 18th century, the language and the way it has been written might be bit difficult to comprehend sometimes but the pleasure obtained from reading the book overshadows it. For all the book-lovers out there, this is a must-read novel, one you should definitely not miss.
TEXT : Suraksha Nepal
Show this page and get 15% discount at the Bookworm Store
Gyanmandala, Jhamsikhel www.verse.com.np
book review
Mom’s fishing for husbands - But the girls are hunting for love...
The Darjeeling Limited Okay, not a very sound analogy. But The Darjeeling Limited (2007) seemed like one of those films you had to watch during a stay in Nepal. Just as The Beach is to Thailand I thought The Darjeeling Limited is to the subcontinent. Disheartened by Leonardo Dicaprio’s romanticised affair with a secret paradise in The Beach, I was ready for the long played out Hollywood drama of American goes East on proscribed travel book soul searching mission. The only saving grace is that The Darjeeling Limited is after all a Wes Anderson film, yes the Wes Anderson of The Royal Tenenbaums fame, so perhaps it couldn’t be all bad. As expected, The Darjeeling Limited follows all the conventions of your typical travel drama; three bumbling brothers, an exotic subcontinent destination and a spiritual journey of self-redemption and enlightenment. Fortunately and unexpectedly, though, that is where the clichés end. From the opening slow motion sequence of Peter running to catch up with his brothers already waiting on the train, to the quick reunion, the absurdity of Francis’s head injuries and the awkward declarations of
brotherly love, The Darjeeling Limited reminds us that it is not the destination but rather the people and the journey that define who we are and how we cope. Francis (Wilson), Peter (Adrian Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) capture your imagination for 107 minutes of atypical and unpredictable adventure. Endeavouring to finally heal from the death of their father and seek answers from their Catholic missionary mother, the trio embark on bonding journey to India, limited edition Louis Vuitton luggage in tow. Representing the emotional baggage weighing each of the brothers down, a serious of mishaps see them removed from the train and left in the middle of the desert. Anderson skilfully plays upon his common motif of the privileged family with long pan shots of the suited brothers trudging in the desert. Displaying a maturity in his work, Anderson builds on the theme in this film indicating that wealth cannot indeed buy happiness, sanity or a sense of belonging. The recent novel and subsequent film success of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love reflects an often
Source Code
Rio
An action thriller centered on a soldier who wakes up in the body of an unknown man and discovers he’s part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.
When Blu, a domesticated macaw from smalltown Minnesota, meets the fiercely independent Jewel, he takes off on an adventure to Rio de Janeiro with this bird of his dreams.
Sucker Punch
A young girl is institutionalized by her abusive stepfather. Retreating to an alternative reality as a coping strategy, she envisions a plan which will help her escape from the mental facility.
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movie review western idealism of soul searching in far flung locations, adopting practices and a lifestyle far different from one’s own. Again, true to his style, Anderson subtly subverts the burgeoning journey genre, the soft satire making a mockery of your usual life changing, ashram seeking hippy. Indeed the characters perchance for over the counter pain killers and Indian flu medicine reflects their disconnect from the ‘all the spiritual places and temples’ Francis has so meticulously planned that they ‘need to see’. The magic of the film lies in the quirk of each character, a melting pot of modern mental health ailments which are in the end not cured by all the medicines or the pilgrimage sites but rather the death of a young boy. This in turn forced the bereaved brothers to
confront the reality of their father’s death. In one of the most poignant scenes, the brothers make their way to the young boy’s funeral. With the Kinks 1970’s classic ‘Strangers’ playing in the background, they emerge from a hut dressed appropriately in white. The long pan shot depicts a sense of collectiveness among the different which reminds us ‘we are not two, we are one’. The Darjeeling Limited makes you laugh, but not as hard as I thought, it makes you cringe when they just get culture plain wrong, it makes you cry out of raw humanity for the brothers, and it makes you reflect upon your sense of place in a world where we are all struggling to find an identity.
TEXT: Laura McManus
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Melba Devi Mahotsav The Melba Devi Mahotsav is the first of a series of musical initiatives that will emphasize the importance of the archival and documentation of the musical heritage of Nepal. With this motive The embassy of India and the BP Koirala Foundation in association with Kalakuti a nonprofit organization took initiative to introduce one of the pioneers of Nepalese musical industry, Melba Devi Gurung, Nepal’s first female recording artist. Melba Devi born in the village in the remote part of eastern Nepal was admitted to Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher’s court as a trainee singer at the young age of five. She retired from court- singing at the age of 21 as she got married to a tabla player and moved to Kolkata. In 1928, she recorded her famous song ‘Sawari Mero Relaima’ which made her first Nepalses woman to record a song that set path for aspiring Nepalese female singers. She was a renowned singer, composer, lyricist and playwright. We lost such a great artist at the age of 55 in an accident. To pay tribute to the singer’s life and times Kalakuti organized the two days program at the Army Officer’s Club on 11th and 12th of April 2011.The Mahotsav was inaugurated by His Excellency the Indian Ambassador to Nepal- Rakesh Sood. The first day program began with screening of 5- minute documentary about Melba Devi’s contribution to the Nepalese music indus-
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try. Gramophone era was revived when the first record of Melba Devi was played on an antique gramophone on stage. This program was continued by a lecture and performance by Vidya Shah, renowned Delhi based classical singer, composer, writer and music scholar titled
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“Women on Record”. Then there was a performance by Nepali and Indian artists. DAFA Band opened the evening’s performances with ‘Raag Kedar’ which was dedicated to Melba Devi. This is a classical music band that was established in 2000 A.D. with the motivation to promote a classical music. The group consist Rabin Lal Shrestha, Prabhu Raj Dhakal and Suresh Raj Bajracharya. Then, Hari Maharjan Duo- Hari Maharjan and Sujan Lama covered Melba’s song ‘Auna Basha Piyari’ in Gypsy Jaaz style. Without losing the true essence of the song they blended well the melody of the old era and the jazz. The second day took place at Yala Maya Kendra, Patan and featured a series of panel discussions on women burn victims- Melba Devi was also the victim of the tragic burn. Senior journalist Kanak Mani Dixit and Dr. KD Joshi of Bir Hospital conducted the discussions.The
discussion was continued by legendary Nepalese classical singers Jagat Mardan Thapa, Prabhu Raj Dhakal, Situ Kharel and sound engineers Pradeep Upadhyaya and Sunit Ratna Kansakar on Melba Devi’s life, music, times and her contemporaries, change of playback technology. The Mahotsav concluded with a certificate of appreciation given to all the panelists by senior musician Dambar Ghandarva and a performance to pay tribute to Melba Devi sarangi player Barta Gandharva, her niece Laxmi Gandharva and her father Dambar Gandharva from Bhojpur along with Binod Gaunle and floutist Umesh Pandit played on ‘Thapa Ra Thali’. This event was a great example that showed there are many such artists who have contributed to the Nepalese musical industry and are not yet recognized.
TEXT: Monisha Pradhan Alka Pant
Barta Gandharva, her niece Laxmi Gandharva and her father Dambar Gandharva from Bhojpur along with Binod Gaunle and floutist Umesh Pandit played on ‘Thapa Ra Thali’
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tech
Why Linux? And there are plenty: Cost -- Linux is free, and that includes all the apps. Microsoft is greedy. Vista Home Premium and Ultimate cost hundreds of dollars, even when upgrading from Windows XP. Moving up to Office 2007 involves handing over another bundle of dollars. Resources -- Even the most lavishly equipped Linux distros demand no more resources than Windows XP. Vista is greedy: a single-user PC operating system that needs 2GB of RAM to run at acceptable speed, and
A couple of years ago, the Linux desktop was a pimply adolescent with half-baked ideas. Today we see a handsome, well-dressed grown-up who handles a range of tasks with confidence and even performs fancy tricks. No longer need we make allowances for his dress sense or his strange habits. The timing couldn’t be better. Vista is a Wagner Opera that is usually late to start, takes too long to finish, and is spoilt by floorboards creaking under the weight of the cast. Mac OS X Leopard, meanwhile, is the late show in an exclusive nightclub where the drinks are always too expensive. In contrast, the Linux desktop is the free show in the park across the street -- it imposes some discomforts on the audience, but provides plenty of entertainment. The first challenge is getting hold of tickets, since you can’t just choose your new PC and then tick the Linux box in the list of software options. The good news is that installing Linux is no longer a challenge that rivals splitting the atom. With a handful of mature distributions designed for simple users, the benefits Linux offers are much easier to verify.
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Mac OS X Leopard, meanwhile, is the late show in an exclusive nightclub where the drinks are always too expensive. 15GB of hard disk space, is grossly obese. Performance -- Linux worked faster on my Dell Inspiron Core Duo than XP, at least the way XP worked out of the box. After cleaning out the bloatware and trading McAfee’s Abrams Tank for the lightweight NOD32, XP and Linux (with Guarddog and Clam-AV) perform at similar speed. No bloatware -- Linux is free from adware, trialware, shovelware, and bloatware. Running Linux is like watching the public TV network. Security -- Last year, 48,000 new virus signatures were documented for Windows, compared to 40 for Linux. Still, most distros come with firewalls and antivirus (AV) software. Programs like Guarddog and Clam-AV are free, of course.
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Dual booting -- The best Linux distros make dual booting a simple affair, along with the required disk partitioning (so you don’t need to buy partitioning software). Windows on my Dell laptop is still intact after installing and uninstalling a dozen distros. Installation -- Anyone who’s done it once knows that installing Windows from scratch takes hours or even days by the time you get all your apps up and running. With Linux, it can take as little as half an hour to install the operating system, utilities, and a full set of applications. No registration or activation is required, no paperwork, and no excruciating pack drill. Reinstalling the OS -- You can’t just download an updated version of Windows. You have to use the CD that came with your PC and download all the patches Microsoft has issued since the CD was made. With Linux, you simply download the latest version of your distro (no questions asked) and, assuming your data files live in a separate disk partition, there’s no need to reinstall them. You only need to reinstall the extra programs you added to the ones that came with the distro. Keeping track of software -- Like most Windows users, I have a shelf full of software CDs and keep a little book with serial numbers under my bed in case I have to reinstall the lot. With Linux, there are no serial numbers or passwords to lose or worry about. Not a single one. Updating software -- Linux updates all the software on your system whenever updates are available online, including all applications programs. Microsoft does that for Windows software but you have to update each program you’ve added from other sources. That’s about 60 on each of my PCs. More icing on the Linux cake is that it doesn’t ask you to reboot after updates. XP nags
you every ten minutes until you curse and reboot your machine. If you choose “custom install” to select only the updates you want, XP hounds you like a mangy neighborhood dog until you give in. More security -- These days, operating systems are less vulnerable than the applications that run on them. Therefore a vital aspect of PC security is keeping your apps up-to-date with the latest security patches. That’s hard manual labor in Windows, but with Linux it’s automatic. No need to defrag disks -- Linux uses different file systems that don’t need defragging. NTFS was going to be replaced in Vista, but Microsoft’s new file system didn’t make the final cut. Instead, Vista does scheduled disk defragging by default, but the defrag utility is a sad affair. A wealth of built-in utilities -- The utilities supplied with Windows are pretty ordinary on the whole, that’s why so many small software firms have made a nice living writing better ones. Linux programs are comparable with the best Windows freeware, from CD burners to photo managers, memory monitors and disk utilities. PDF conversion is built-in, both into OpenOffice Writer and into the DTP application Scribus. All you do is click a button on the task bar Well, thats pretty enough to make anybody understand why linux rocks. If you really want a real linux experience: try once, believe me you are gonna forget things like windows. Linux recently celebrated its 20th birthday and has won over each and every field from mainframes to super computers and tablets to phones except desktops. Soon linux will be all around. Get yourself rocking, get linux!
TEXT: Chandan P. Gupta
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A
ssassins Creed Brotherhood is the latest in the Assassins Creed series by Ubisoft. The series is based on free-roaming combat/ stealth/movement gameplay, based off Desmond, a modern day Assassin, reliving genetic memories of his ancestors through a machine called an Animus. The game starts back with Desmond, a modern day Assassin, on the run from a corporation lead by Templars that are trying to take over the world using supernatural artifacts. The Assassins are currently set on acquiring on of the said supernatural artifacts, which involve Desmond going back to the life of Ezio, the protagonist Assassins Creed 2 (AC2). This time you visit renaissance Rome, which has fallen into poverty and decay due to Templar rule. You set out to restore Rome and kill Cesare Borgia, the captain of the Vatican military forces, whom is intent on conquering all of Italy. The real world gets a little more use than previous AC games, with more time spent doing stuff in outside the Animus, as well as the option to leave the Animus and talk to your fellow Assassins, as well as run around outside. It’s a nice feature, considering there’s so little real world in the previous games it makes the small bits of character development and interaction all the sweeter. Unfortunately the story itself isn’t quite on par with it’s predecessor AC2. Cesare as the antagonist is an amazing idea, having someone who actually looks like he could prove a challenge is a nice change for the series, where half the bad guys are overweight and can’t defend themselves. Truth be told the only thing that was keeping them alive was plot armor, and the only difficulty in fighting them is they have an unreasonably large damage resistance.
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But whilst the character is fairly interesting, the executing is disappointing. Just as the ball gets rolling in Rome he leaves the city, and only arrives back near the end of the game, and then appears very little before the end, so doesn’t get enough screentime to really flesh out his character, and ultimately the plot suffers a little for it. The main missions follow the same formula as twice before in AC2. Befriend the thieves, courtesans and mercenaries. Then do missions for them. Then more story missions. Then end boss. It’s not a bad formula but it’s getting a little stale since we’ve done it twice before, the only difference is most of the missions are a part of the sandbox, not the storyline, so you can breeze right past them by accident and not really consider doing them. Which I did. However, while it’s not the best, the story is still above average game writing, and is in no way a deal breaker. Especially when considering the upgrades to gameplay, which is much the same as AC2, with some noticeable improvements to, well, pretty much everything everything. Combat has been altered to include chain kills, where you can instantly kill an enemy by attacking him as you’re performing a counter kill, and you can start a counter kill whilst you’re performing an action, meaning combat is now quicker and more fluid, as opposed to previous titles where combat was pretty much waiting for people to attack and then counter killing them. While this would normally mean combat is incredibly easy if it was used against enemies in AC2, Brotherhood has a higher concentration of enemies to dispatch and requires you to use different moves in order to defeat the different guard archetypes, which means it keeps the
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same challenge combat had in AC2. In addition to this the existing weapon system has been updated so that some of the ranged weapons, i.e. the hidden gun and throwing knives, are ‘attached’ to the primary and secondary weapons respectively, so in combat you can hold attack to use a quick ranged attack which is immensely helpful with the inclusion of more difficult enemies and a horse riding guards, and adds to the combat system so it flows even better. Also included is 2 new weapons, the crossbow and poison darts, which make stealth game-
moving around Rome a lot easier, huge as it is. After a while you can also train rebels to become Assassins which you can send on missions to gain them experience, or use them in combat during the game, it’s a cool little system, and definitely can help during a tough mission, but feels like it should have been expanded on more, maybe specifying Assassins to combat roles or something. The missions themselves are sometimes extremely creative and intuitive, and other times “Go to x, perform
play much much more practical, which was somewhat of a problem in the first two games. You can also now carry heavy weapons, if you purchase the appropriate equipment for carrying them. Oh, you can also throw heavy weapons. Into people. Very hard. Movement on foot is the same, however horses have been improved dramatically, with the ability to ride horses around the city, jump off them onto poles, jump from horse to horse and assassinate someone, a whole bunch of horsing around really. It adds a lot and makes
standard action Y”. Something that helps is the 100% sync, a system that gives you optional rules for the mission, e.g. do not be detected, do not touch the ground, do mission in allotted time. It adds a bit of playability to the game, added with the ability to revisit different parts of the game at will, but it’s sometimes more annoying that interesting. The city of Rome is extremely impressive as cities in the franchise are, having interesting ruins to explore, amazing buildings to climb, and the standard amazing
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AC world system of civilians and soldiers mingling in an amazing display, complete with different amounts of poverty as you renovate the city. It’s also HUGE. Huge enough horses are required. Maybe too huge, reminding me of the San Andreas problem of taking forever to get anywhere, but a fast travel system is included and usually easily accessed, as long as you remember to fix up the access points. The multiplayer component of the game is a very interesting idea. When I heard of AC multiplayer, I assumed it would be terrible due to the out of place combat system. I did not assume they would remove combat entirely. I also did not assume the fun.
environments, combat skills, characters, money, movement abilities. Something new is regularly happening, whether it be Carnevale in Venice, finding new factions to ally with, or being trained in new combat styles, either something interesting is happening or you have a definite goal. And in addition to that new side missions would appear every so often giving you the option to play them if you wished some quick fun action of your choice, or you could leave them for later and do more story missions. However in Brotherhood they’ve put more content into the open sandbox mode, letting the player theoretically choose their own pacing of whatever.
It’s a game based on many objectives, though the main experience is assassinating. You lock on, press attack, and it’s an instant kill. However you can stealth around, hide in crowds of look alikes, and outrun people to avoid getting killed, and use many different techniques to kill, getting more points for kills based off stealth rather than high profile moves. It works well, but it contains an unlockable weapons, items and perk system which is apparently mandatory for multiplayer games now, and the unlocks are so very unbalanced it makes my brain hurt. It’s very fun, but it’s often luck based and item based rather than skill based, and it’s pretty likely if not certain the multiplayer community will die fair quickly, but is a good experience nonetheless. Something I’d like to come back to is the pacing of the game. Assassins Creed 2 has superb pacing. Hell, it might be the best paced game I’ve ever seen. It uses
However there’s an issue. People suck at pacing. They’ll often feel obliged to do one thing or the other, and if you don’t break it down into small chunks at semi-frequent intervals they’ll either do too much mindless fun and get bored or not enough and get bored. And as a result of the moving of content, the story doesn’t have enough raw content, making it feel short, while more content is put into the sandbox, which feels rather inconsequential as a result. Still fun and creative missions, but if they aren’t supplemented with regular story/character/whatever development, they feel like they really don’t matter too much. I mean, of course they don’t matter, they’re side-quests, the idea is to make them feel like the matter. Overall however, Brotherhood is a very fun game, includes many improvements to the AC formula, including an entertaining multiplayer. Definitely a worthwhile entry in the franchise.
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In a state of confusion - Mani Lama
smoking out the gods for peace
state of confusion
this life sucks www.verse.com.np
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reaching out, almost there....just like the new constitution
loneliness by the river 66
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not CLEANING Bagmati
Remembering the happy days www.verse.com.np
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- Chris Rainier
Chris Rainier is one of the leading documentary photographers working today. He has been filming on the remaining natural wilderness and indigenous cultures around the globe and use images to create social changes. www.verse.com.np
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fiction
A Salute to the Artist of Life
I
t was her eyes; the eyes shimmering like a pure dew in the dawn, like a precious diamond on a golden ring, like a pearl in the ocean, the eyes that were seeking for something priceless – a thirst deep inside to be quenched; a thirst for an art, the masterpiece that she could solely own and be proud of, a beautiful dream to be accomplished. It made her desperate, desperate enough to do anything for it. She slowly drew an outline of a dream: the creation she dreamt of. Her glowing eyes portrayed that she knew what she has to do further. With long deep breath of satisfaction; she further brought all the pieces together to arrange them so that they can fit the outline. As one piece added up another, the glow in her eyes raised up. No power could stop her from making it. She gave her art a shape; she caressed it with her soft, gentle touch, her smile and purity added upon its beauty. She wanted her art to resemble her: but yet be unique. As she got the figure she wanted, she gave a wide smile. Then she swiftly moved towards the boxes of emotions that she treasured for her masterpiece. One by one she opened the boxes and poured it in her art. Happiness, sorrows, sadness, excitement, pain, affection, anger, hatred, kindness, greed, and so on, till she opened the final box; golden box of love that ruled over all the other emotions, within a pint of time, her art glowed magnificently with the essence of love. Yes, this was it; this was her masterpiece, her art, everything that she owed. But why does she not feel the stream of happiness. She should have been the one who is the proudest and happiest; she wanted to, but couldn’t. The art was not complete, she did everything she could, but yet the art was incomplete. This made
her more desperate, she flew round and round, she went up the stairs then down the corridor.………….. No answer; no solution ………………… she couldn’t figure out what she missed. With pain she gasped- “I failed………………..” Her eyes were low with ocean of sadness flowing over; she couldn’t bear that she failed. The sky went dark, the clouds were sad, the sun didn’t smile, the thunder roared as her tears fall apart. The birds didn’t sing, the trees didn’t move, the rivers didn’t feel like flowing, the wind cried in pain as well. Suddenly, it twinkled; her heart twinkled with all possible shine. “That’s it, that’s what I have missed” was all she said. With glowing eyes and magical smile, she moved towards the art. With a knife in her hand, she tore her chest and cut a portion of her heart- “The Golden Heart”. The sky, the clouds, the sun, the thunder birds, the tree, the river the wind everyone screamed feeling the pain that she had, extreme and unbearable pain. But this didn’t affect her magical smile, it grew wider, the pain satisfied her, it made her happier. As she added the portion her golden heart in her art, it gave her a glistering smile and uttered- “MOTHER “she collapsed as she couldn’t hold the burden of pain and happiness mixed up in her heart. All that she could say was – “human-my child-human”. Finally, she created her masterpiece-“Human”. Even today when her art is destroyed, her heart pains she cries in pain. She comes to hold her art, her creation, her child, as this is everything for her. At times, she travels around to spread her magical smile and few times gets angry as her children don’t respect her. If you see her anywhere around tell her that I with all my heart salute her-“the nature”: the “Mother Nature”; the artist who created life.
TEXT: Resika KC send us your fiction articles at fiction@verse.com.np
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