The one with divisions

So yesterday, I was having a chat with my mother when I came across the Cavery watersupply issue happenning in India right now. Since my sister and brother-in-law were supposed to travel to Bangalore today, I told my mother to inform of the tiring time and curfew in the area. By evening when I was speaking with my other sister, she told me that they had postponed the plan for another week and there was a strong disagreement for their visit in the unstable time. My mother filled me in on the issue about the river and the rest of it I got to know for my faithful google. Fast forward to this morning, I got a catch up message from one of my juniors from high school studying in Bangalore; she mentioned in the conversation that her college was closed due to the protest happenning in the state. 

I have been having intensive French week in my college at the moment and I have a group of Indian collegues in the same class; after the class today we were asked to join the open ground for separating our group for tomorrow's field trip. When we were in the field one of the indian guy was speaking to other indian guy saying, "oh you forgot my name, didn't you?" to which the other guy replied, " ya, but i remember the state you are from." To my surprise all I said was,"Aren't you guys all from India?" to which he laughed and said, "Ya but India is big and there are so many states" To that all I could say was,"No one else from amongst yourself will remember which state you are from, they will only rememer your country 'India'".

Now shifting the gear towards Nepal. No one wants to admit it but we are divded in Nepal as well. Whether it be disparity based on caste, religion, richness or even gender. I do not know much about other sub culture but even within Newar community of Nepal, which happens to be my cultural niche, people are divided. There is one thing to be proud about your heritage but it is completely different thing to quote other different on the basis of it. 

I enjoy the fact that Nepal has all the beautiful cultures. All the different food, the literature, the dance, the music and the asthetic each one carries is beautiful in itself. As much as I am love eating newai food, I adore dancing to Tamangselo songs and listening to bhojpuri music. It would be nice if people could stop dividing themselves into social construct which stops them from achieving greater good. Preservation does not mean solidarity. Inside, all of us are bone and flesh, we feel sad when we are hungry or hurt and we all crave love. 

People should just stop fighting for what was something that was given to us, it is not something that you have chosen. The birds, the rivers and the winds cannot be stopped by the borders and divisions. What have we really achieved by creating these borders or accepting it? In this era of information, one really cannot remain ignorant. Its time and oppurtunity for us to choose, so lets choose wisely. 

French e, è, é, ê, ë – what’s the difference?

Tomorrow happens to be my french placement test and I am trying to find out how to pronounce the different e, è, é, ê, ë in french. I have not reached there yet. Like the nepali अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ए  things change here as well. Hopefully by the end of this session I will have a direct french to nepali translation to the pronunciaiton to the words. Or english translation to the pronuciation.

okay here are some ground findings french e is pronunced like english a or in case of nepali अ so french le becomes nepali ल
french les becomes nepali ले
This also happens because the last letter is not pronunced in french.

Going with the simplest é is pronunced as [a in jail] in nepali ए
ê is pronunced as [eeh in english] so tê becomes [teeh]
è is pronunced as [eh in english] so père which translates to 'father' sounds [pehr]
ë is pronunced as [aae is english] so noël beccomes [ naw ell]
and again e is pronunced as [a in english] in nepali [अ]

This may not enitrely be accurate. I would love for some suggestions below.

The one with the grave of the fireflies

I had been trying to avoid this movie for sometime now because of the delicate subject matter the movie pandered. But today, my first weekend in France and also being locked inside my apartment for the day, I decided to watch this movie. To sum it up, I have been deeply shaken. Before I went into this movie, I knew what it was about. Prepared as I was, I was left by the end of it feeling as if I have a hole in my heart. I do not remember the last time I had cried so much. 

The effect of war on children is beyond imaginable. We have had two floating pictures of children in Syria, one of the kid who was bombed and saved; and the other where the child did not make it to the shore. We as a generation of the smart ones have failed humanity. Everyday there are children not just in Syria but all around the world suffering in the life that we chose for them, the blind eyes we gave them. 

Despiration! I for one have understood that it is not regret that taunts the heart the most, it is the despiration. The lengths of fight people put up to. The only thing true about this world is that it is unfair. I do not have much faith in god but I do want to belive that heaven exists and these children will go to heaven for a better afterlife. 

There is nothing more honest than a child's heart. No child would have to suffer the consequence we put on the world. Why are we so blind to not see the suffering we have caused on people who do not have the choice or power to see it? The associations, countries, leagues, we are all divided and lost in ourselves, blinded by selfishness and greed.

For all the rant that I have put above, I truly feel powerless at this moment. Today also happens to be the day of Teej where married or unmarried woman in Nepal celebrate their womanhood in a sense by spending money lavishly and turning themselves into a red painted doll, but this is not the celebration of just womanhood, it is by all means a mark of partriachy. For me the essences of a woman is her love. For the child, for a man to show how she cares. 

So this happens to be my Teej where I feel womanly and celebrate my womanhood by talking about these lost stars, innocent souls who could have had things otherwise. And aren't children the real stars on the earth? For now all I have is good will, prayers and determination for a better future. May the ones who have departed, their souls rest in peace. May the ones who are struggling find hope. May the one who has power be insightful. May there be a wave of CHANGE.

One week to go

Albert Einstein once said that life is like a bicycle ride, to keep balance, once must keep moving. A new chapter of my life is beginning in a week's time. So this blog post is one of the humble beginnings to the new ride.