Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is thanksgiving day. I am writing these lines from my laboratory. Its a 4 day long weekend. The entire campus is empty. Nobody is in my lab except me. I am probably alone in this huge building. People are celebrating this holiday with their family/friends. Actually my lab mates were in holiday mood yesterday and they left lab early. Some times I love to work during night because there is nobody to disturb me, its calm and quite. Today there is no body in the lab and its quite enough but I am also feeling the festival mood.

Its a traditional holiday in North America. Its one of the biggest festivals in US. This was started to give thanks for the things that one has at the conclusion of the harvest season about 400 hundreds years ago. Turkey is the main meal for this festival. People cook whole turkey, in some houses more than one depending on the size of the family and guests, serve with wine. I am also invited to join the thanksgiving party in one of my american friends house today evening. This will be my first thanksgiving celebration. Last year I didn't realize that this is the biggest festival and it is so important to north Americans like Dashain and Tihar for us.

The day after thanks giving day i.e. Friday is called black Friday. Economic activity drastically increases during this time. Almost all business companies/malls announce sale on many stuffs. So its good time buy something if you are planning to buy and if you find good deals.

Unlike our festivals in Nepal, almost all festivals in USA are always in weekends or in last days of the week. For example this THANKSGIVING is on Thursday, some others are in Friday. But, interestingly, always on the same days. This might be because they are more concerned with their work and always want to celebrate their festivals during weekends so that they don't need to spend weekdays.

more about thanksgiving

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving

http://www.history.com/minisites/thanksgiving/

Air Pollution in Kathmandu

Air in Kathmandu is polluted. It doesn't require any test from any scientists. A person who goes to the city in the morning and comes back home in the evening can feel the effect of air pollution.

Photo: www.ekantipur.com

This photo taken recently from airplane shows the effect of air pollution in Kathmandu's air. The reduction of visibility is due to polluted air. The first one on the left side is taken from above the polluted air. You can see clear snowy mountain peaks and down there is layer of polluted air. The second picture on the right side was taken from below the polluted air and you barely see the beautiful mountains because the polluted layer of air blocks and visibility is very poor.

How many hours on internet?

Internet has become a part of our life-most of the people in developed countries, though very few people in countries like mine(Nepal) have access to internet. Living in a developed country and working as a graduate student makes much more dependent on internet. Besides searching for literatures for research and course, I do use internet for communication and to be in contact with friends as well.

Everyday I surf news sites. Even during my exams or deadlines, I anyhow make time for these sites. My day begins with checking my email. I always try to reply emails instantly. After checking emails, BBC nepali service is my next choice. While listening to this radio, I quickly go over bbc world news. Some online research journals are next to bbc news. These online journals keep me updated to research going on in my field. Everyday I check Environmental Science and Technology, Analytical Chemistry; Science, Nature and other related journals once per week.

Nepali news sites from around the world are other ones. Reading ekantipur is like my regular duty. Some others are: nayapatrika.com, newsofnepal.com, nepalihimal.com, nepalnews.com, nepalipost.com, nepalbritain.com, samudrapari.com, nepaljapan.com etc. Mysansar.com is a blog but like most of others I use it as a source of news.

Internets sites not only provide you information-news and research resourses but also they are good sourse of entertainment. I watch youtube.com for videos and nepali videos are my targets there. nepal123.com has very good videos like nepali comedy, TV serials, movies and much more. Some other entertaining sites are cybersansar.com for models watch, murchunga.com for online live musics.

There are some community making sites in which I am in like hi5.com, facebook.com, orkut.com etc. I have contacted many old friends through these sites. We can interact and discuss on some topic, share photos and videos. We have our one group and networks. For example there is Nepalese Chemists group and Nepalese in Corvallis group in facebook. sajha.com is another popular site in Nepali community. I like to read story in it.

In fact, we are so dependent on internet that without internet I can't imagine life. Some time we make joke that internet is somebody's girlfren/lifefren. Specially it is helping a lot to stay away from home.

I would like to ask the viewers of my blog to share their view.

HAPPY TIHAR

photo from pokharacity.com