The Nepal Digest - June 28, 1994 (15 Ashadh 2051 BkSm)

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Date: Tue, 28 Jun 1994 08:13:33 -0500
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The Nepal Digest Tuesday 28 June 94: Ashadh 15 2051 BkSm Volume 28 Issue 6

Today's Topics:

        1. TAJA_KHABAR:
                    Visa fees reduced
                    Children learning
                    Environmental news

2. KATHA_KABITA:

Will Your ?

        3. KURA_KANI:
                     I. Social Issues
                            Re: Women in Hinduism
                            Top ten greats of Nepal
                            Re: Hindi on the phone

        4. JAN_KARI:
                    Looking for Ms. Ranjit - Binaya
                    Royan GIS again

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********************************************************************** Date: Fri, 17 Jun 1994 12:46:49 +1000 From: Subas Bastola <s9100209@chudich.cse.rmit.edu.au> To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu Subject: KURAKANI

Top 10 Greats of Nepal in this century
---------------------------------------

I am compiling a list of top 10 great Nepalese of this 20th century. Very soon I will be publishing the list in a popular weekly newspaper in Nepal. Starting from the 10th great personality,it will be published every week,accompanied by his/her biography and the justification on why he/she deserves that position. To define what is meant by 'great' is futile and meaningless term. Morality and virtues are relative terms and they change with the passage of time. Therefore the criterion I am using for that purpose is the impact they had on the Nepalese society(no matter good or bad).These are the people who shaped the face of Modern Nepal. Interestingly,I found that the list of 'greats' was exhaustive.I had a great difficulty in sorting out the top 10 ones. Before I publish the list, I want to know what my fellow netters think about my choice. Plese comment on my choice and their ordering( 1 to 10).Also if you think that Dear Old XXX should have been included and that dirty YYY should have been excluded from the list, please let me know. Your comments mean alot to be.

Rank Name
---- ------- 1 King Mahendra 2 Gaje Ghale (symbolically representing the Gurkhas) 3 Chandra Samsher 4 BP Koirala 5 Laxmi Prasad Devkota 6 Subarna Shamsher 7 Tenzing Sherpa 8 Madan Bhandari 9 Narayan Gopal 10 Surya Bahadur Thapa

My justification:
_________________

1) King Mahendra led Nepal successfully through the turbulent period of the 50's-the starting of the cold war.He was a true nationalist and in order to maintain the sovereignty of Nepal,he used his diplomatic skills-playing 'wild' card between India and China.Whatever be his contribution in fostering democracy in Nepal,there can be no doubt that he was instrumental in stopping Nepal from being another Sikkim.

2)If we Nepalese look back in the last century and reflect upon what we acheivedduring the last century-something to be proud of in the international stage, undoubtably it is our bravery and courage shown during the WW I and WW II.The story of Gurkas in Gallipoli and in the jungle of Burma have taken almost the mythical parallelism. Anywhere in the world, we have no option but to introduce ourselves as Gurkas. No doubt, the kudos goes to the thousands of the Gurkha soldiers who fought fearlessly in the the face of the formiddable enemy. Gaje Ghale represents those soldiers. He himself was an awardee of Victoria Cross(VC)the highest international military honour.

3)Chandra Shamsher initiated the process of industrialization(which was halted after his death).Until today the only railways we have in Nepal is what he built in Janakpur. Transport, education( Trichandra College..)sector were
,for the first time were begun to be realized as a government responsibility. Above all his URDI to make DAS PRATHA(slavery) illegal was monumental.In fact he successfully freed thousands of Kamara-Kamari and that was nearly hundred years ago.

4) BP Koirala is unique in that he was the first person from the rank of the Raiti-Dunia and to lead Nepal. Until him,the only leaders we knew were the Royals. He brought the politics to the mass level and was first to introduce the concept of democracy in Nepal. Nepali Congress, a brain child of him is presently running the country and is a force to be reckon with in the future.

5)Laxmi Prasad Devkota represents the start of Modern period of the Nepalese literature.He was a gifted poet,immensely popular and his Muna-Madan holds the record of highest sell in Nepal.

6)Subarna Shamsher is the man behind the scene in for a long period of Nepalese politics. Not only was he extremely rich but he had the heart to spend his wealth for the cause of democracy in Nepal. Success of the 1950's Anti-rana movement would have been impossible without his generous support.

7)Tenzing Sherpa epitomizes the start of Tourism in Nepal. His courage and the success of climbing the Mt. Everest drew the world attention. From then on we realized how can capitalize on our mountain and natural resouces. Until few years ago, tourism was the major export of Nepal.

8)Madan Bhandari moulded the disorganized and disarrayed communist movement in post Jan-Andolan(Peoples Movement) years. Once the believers of Maoist guerilla warfare,UML is now playing a responsible role of opposition party in the parliament. He propounded the Bahudaliya Janabad(Multiparty Red Movement)and in doing so effectively moderated the powerful extreamist in the party.Looks like that we have nothing to fear from the Nepalese Communists and they will be always be there to safeguard the democracy.

9)Narayan Gopal was the most popular singer ever to live in Nepal. Thousands of Thousands of Nepalese grew up with his music and they developed a sort of personality cult Nepal had ever seen in the mass level. He was a genius and his talent lied in attracting people of all ages. No doubt he started a popular culture in Nepal and changed the face of Nepalese music forever.

10)Surya Bahadur Thapa- this cunning politician is the longest serving Prime Minister in modern day Nepal.Once failed in a exam for the post of Khardar,this guy was the PM during the National Referendum of 1980-1981.During the difficult time he was the only person with guts that the Palace could rely upon.He is the person who shaped the Panchayat Period of Nepal-to a more or less extent.He has accumulated alot of wealth and presently leading a party formed by his panchayat coteries.

Unfortunately we could not find a great artist,industrialist or scientist in the last centuty. Also I could not find any woman to include in the list neither I could find anybody from Dalit class or from Terai origin.

Please send me your comments on
s9100209@chudich.cse.rmit.edu.au

*********************************************************************** From: tca938255@rccvax.ait.ac.th To: nepal@cs.niu.edu Subject: Searching Dr. Bidhya Ranjit.

I am searching for a person named Bidhya Ranjit(Manandhar).She did her Ph.D. in education from University of Connecticut,Storrs. If somebody knows her, pls. forward my message to her. Binaya Manandhar, Asian Institute Technology, Bangkok. E-mail No : TCA938255@RCCVAX.AIT.AC.TH Thanks.

********************************************************************** Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 12:06:30 -0500 To: nepal@cs.niu.edu From: rajendra@coos.dartmouth.edu (Rajendra P. Shrestha) Subject: Visa fees reduced

Headline: Visa Fee Reduced Source: The Independent, June 8,1994 Kathamandu

        His Majesty's Government (HMG) has announced Immigration Regulation 1994, categorizing visas on the basis of the nature of jobs held, according to a Home Ministry spokesman. Rules to be followed by agencies dealing with foreigners have also been laid down.
        Under the regulations, foreigners investing in the business and industrial sector of Nepal, authorized agents of such business and industrial institutions and foreigners investing in the export business in Nepal can be provided multiple entry visas, each valid for five years
        Likewise, there is also a provision for issuing non-tourist visas to leaders of tourist groups coming to Nepal and foreigners staying here a miximum of six months for industrial and trade feasibility studies. Foreigners married to Nepalis will now be provided visas, and those investing at least $1,000,000 in the industrial sector will be given resident visa at once.
        The regulations also provide for visa and trekking fee discounts for foreigners' children upto ten years of age and visa fee discounts for foreign-passport-holding children of Nepali parents until they reach the age of 16.
        Foreigners desiring to live in Nepal by spending $20,000 or its equivalent will be provided resident visas. Tourist visas can be issued for 15 to 150 days.
        The visa rates have been changed, effectively July 1, 1994.
        The fee for visas of 15 days' validity has been fixed at $15, and $25 for visas valid for 30 days. For the convenience of tourists, provision has been made for issuing single, double or multiple-entry visas, and for giving visas to family members of foreigners here on student visas, according to the spokesman. (RSS)

*********************************************************** Date: Sat, 18 Jun 1994 14:11:57 EDT To: The Nepal digest Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu> From: "Pramod K. Mishra" <pkm@acpub.duke.edu> Subject: women in Hinduism

Dear Editor:

I've been reading with some interest the articles by Miss S.P. on the status of women in Hinduism. I thought I should say something about this excavatory effort to find out how women fared in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Puranas, and the great epics.

No matter how much we try to salvage the prestige of Hinduism by saying that caste system did not exist in ancient Hinduism; that untouchability was not a problem in the idyllic Hindu past; that women were worshipped in ancient India (remember the Sanskrit shlowka "Yatra nari pujyate ramante tatra devata"?), our experience remains bitter about how women have lived in modern-day Hindu society. Hinduism has "worship of women" associated with the abode of gods, on the one hand; the condemnation of women and her sexuality, on the other. Of course, there have been famous Panch Kanyas, Five Virgins--Sita, Tara, Kunti, Draupadi, Mandodari, tatha. Of course, if you need to give example, you can say female goddesses--Chandi, Kali, Saraswati, Laxmi--abound in Hinduism and the worship of the mother goddess is a daily practice in Hindu society. And, of course, while talking about modern society, you can easily give the example of Indira Gandhi as the Hindu woman who ruled the "largest democracy" on earth for many years with iron hand. Women as mother, of course, becomes great in any religion. The problem arises when we begin to talk about how a woman becomes mother--sex, blood, sexuality, desire, independence.

We haven't forgotten, have we? that concommitant with "wherever women are worshipped, gods live there" goes "a woman's character, a man's destiny, not even the gods' know, what to speak of a human being?" Well, Mr. Editor, here is a quizz for our dear readers of this famous slander against women: How many of us know that "Triya charitram purushasya bhagyam daivo na janati kuto manushyah" is only the tail-end of a longer Sandkrit shloka? Growing up Hindus, I wonder if any one of us has not heard this tail-end Sanskrit stanza from the blabbering mouth of our male elders--fathers, pundits, the village chief, the macho man. But if you asked about the rest of this stanza, most of them would probably say the rest of the stanza does not matter; what matters is what they have just said. Then remind them about the rest of the stanza, and I quote here in full: "Nripsya chittam kripanasya vittam manoratham khaludurjanasya triya charitram purushasya bhagam daivo na janati kuto manushyah." Translated it would mean: "The king's whims, the miser's money, the wicked's intent, a woman's character, a man's destiny, not even the gods know, what to talk of human beings."

Now I wonder why in the folk memory of the Hindu society, much of the first half got cut off as an unpleasant, bitter part of a cucumber and the juicy and invigorating latter part became the daily chant of the patriarchs. I try to find reasons. First of all, the king, the miser, and the wicked traditionally used to be men (even now I'm not sure if otherwise happens) and the stanza clearly points out the fault in these three very powerful figures in any society. The king rules with his army, physical force; the miser rules, exploits (if I may use the loaded word) and sucks the blood of the poor in Hindu villages in Nepal and India with another kind of power--money, capital--and the wicked manipulates the simple-minded, at times the smartest of the smart with his twisted ideas and tricks, that is, with his mind. These male figures, given their unbridled power, have unpredictable qualities. But why should our village pudit remember the bad qualities of his bread givers? So in course of memory's habit of forgetting unpleasant experiences, our pundit baje forgets the first half of probably the most famous Sanskrit stanza and choses to remember only the latter half that serves the system that feeds and maintains him--"Women's character is unpredictable; men's destiny is unpredictable." Huh!

At this stage, I ask myself, Why so much emphasis only on the latter half? An interpretation of this second half should clear matters a little. This antithetical tail-end seems to imply that a man is a man, a woman is a woman. A man may be a beggar, might have fallen in really bad days, losing everything--money, character, credibility, status, prestige. He may have been reduced to dust, to nothingness, to a mere straw. But to ignore his presence is a grave mistake, to refuse to accord him respect, credit, a chance to rise is society's fault. Reason? Because no matter how fallen a man may become, he may rise out of his dust and become a mountain, creating an earthquake; may become a king, winning a war, or, if nothing happens, then stake everything one last time in his gambling bid and become a man of destiny. That is why, a man's destiny is unpredictable, even gods do not know, how can a two-legged man can know?

On the other hand, a woman is nothing but her character. She is not a human being like the man, with abstract destiny and abstract qualities of bravery, courage, status. She is mere flesh and blood; mere body, her sexual organs out of which her character arises as though it were a jinny.
Her character takes place in her body, in her sexuality. She is in this way reduced by Hinduism to her meat. Hinduism in such moments does not remember her as mother goddess but as meat, her sex, her blood--at once intriguing and profane. That is why, when we Hindus talk of mother, we forget about our mothers' sex and her blood. When she has menstruation, we declare her an untouchable; to see her face on such occasions makes our bad day. If you don't believe me, ask your elders or go to the libraries and read the wretched, most evil document of all, the Manusmriti. If a girl in a Hindu home even now in Nepal gets her first period, she encounters the shock of her life. For over twenty days, she is kept secluded, hidden in someone else's home, hidden from menfolks, for to see her face would bring the greatest calamity on earth. The girl who emerges out of this trauma never recovers her self-esteem for life, always considering herself the polluting creature on earth.

What about the married women? Well, I don't have time today to elaborate on them today. I would, however, point out but one tradition in Nepal, particularly in the easter region. In the old days--and I'm not sure if the practice does not take place even now--in the old days, if a woman, by some mishap or mischance got separated from her folks--father's or husband's-- and spent a night at a stranger's place, the next morning she was no longer the wife of the her husband; the society made sure of that. No matter how many children and how old they were. Before many of the Hindus living in the eastern Hills of Nepal permanently settled in the plains of eastern Nepal, they used to come down to the eastern plains during the winter with their cattle and after the winter was over and summer approached and the threat of epidemics became over powering, they returned to their hilly abodes. In those days, while coming down or going up, if any woman got lost in the thick forest between Dharan, Madhumalla, Letang and the open plains across the forest, she was declared an outcast. Her life was destroyed. That's why, even now a mother's marriage after widowhood is not only frowned upon but in many cases actively foiled by her sons to save family prestige; that's why, a mother's abstract image is sacred but her blood and sex are not; her happiness that comes from sexuality is not. If she is unhappy with one husband, she cannot remarry, divorcing her husband. The woman's parents become the first people to send her back again and again to her cruel in-laws, finally to be done to death. In this matter, the difference between India and Nepal is only small. I have come to think that the first enemy of a woman is her father, and thereafter the chain reaction begins, never to stop until she dies.

Mr. Editor, we, therefore, need to interpret all those stories of the ancient times from the perspective of the problems we confront now. We need not just to recount but to make our point and change the social structure as it exists for women. By doing that, we men also will come out of our male insecurities and god-given privileges (both go hand in hand) and free ourselves.

Sincerely, Pramod Mishra

%%%%%Editor's Note: Mr. Pramod Mishra is a Ph.D. candidate in %%%%%
%%%%% English department at Duke University. %%%%%
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

********************************************************************** Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 12:22:18 -0500 From: sshakya@lynx.dac.neu.edu (Sunil Shakya) Subject: News from Nepal

Headline: Children: Learning is a little different in Nepal Byline : By Susanne Neertoft

The school is made of straw and branches and can tumble like a deck of cards when the wind blows. Each time this happens, the teacher has to build it again. And for all its fragility the primitive straw hut represents the foundation of a stronger future for the children of a village near the town of Biratnagar, in Nepal's Eastern Region. The humble classroom also helps keep the village children from being exploited in KTM as cheap labor in the carpet factories or, worse still, the city's brothels. The school's 28 children either never had the opportunity to attend classes or they had to drop out before learning to read and write. Now they sit attentively on thin straw mats on the clay floor, their books in front of them. The students, all in the same grade, have two hours of lessons daily for nine months. Then most of them will be ready to begin third grade in the ordinary school. Among the students are Urmilla, 11, and Shanti, 7. By the time school starts each morning at 6:30, they have already been awake and at work. Before they can go to school, floors have to be swept and washed, firewood fetched, breakfast made over the open hearth and dishes washed. After classes, Urmilla and Shanti fetch water or more firewood, cut grass and watch the buffaloes and cows. But in spite of their long tiring days they faithfully attend school. Not everyone else in the village does. Sometimes the teacher has to go around the village and bring in the children who have not come to school.
"Some of the parents have to be convinced many times before they let their children go to school," says the teacher. "The children's parents are illiterate. This is why many of them do not understand the value of being able to read and write, and they especially find it difficult to understand why they have to send their daughters to school." The problem is a familiar one to Urmilla. "First my parents wouldn't let me attend school," she says. "Mother still would like me to stay at home the whole day and help her, but my father has changed his mind and now thinks that I should go to school." Sometimes the village is visited by men from KTM who offer poor families loans in exchange for sending their children to the capital to work in one of the carpet factories. The village has also had several visits from people in search of young girls for prostitution. One father let his son go with one of the men to a carpet factory in the capital. The boy managed to escape, and when he came home he told of the drudgery at the loom, the long work days, the inhumane conditions. The boy's story convinced his father that he didn't want his children to become virtual slaves in a carpet factory or end up as prostitites in KTM. He listened to the teacher and decided to send his children to school in the hope that education would give them a chance for a better future.

******************************************************************* Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 13:22:04 EDT To: The Nepal digest Editor <nepal-request@cs.niu.edu> From: Sanjay Manandhar <sanjaym@sni-usa.com> Subject: Hindi on the phone(again). Going back to Nepal

Mr Mishra and general readers:
Quite impressive that Mr Mishra actually called his MCI customer support about the Hindi prompts.

Just for his information, I have written a letter to AT&T about this; the reply is still forthcoming I assume since they are very good about replying to customer dissatisfaction. I'm just letting you know that I don't take pleasure in hearing Hindi prompts (and I don't understand Hindi very well); it is annoying and jarring. But I'm trying to suggest a systematic way of resolving an inconvenience rather than spouting off on a mailing list using nationalism and strict ideologies as the basis for something that is really a technical and business problem.

Since Mr Mishra talks about "supply and demand" I would like to stress that very point. Say there is a At&T undersea cable, e.g. the PTAT in the Pacific or the TAT in the Atlantic, or a transponder on any of the communication satellites, I know that they don't allocate it by political boundaries, they allocate it by region. Can you tell me what percentage of calls go to the various south Asian countries? Even a wild guess will bring Nepal pretty low on customer "demand" list.

Additionally, say you want to route your calls to Nepal via Japan and use a satellite hop from there (each satellite hop adds approx. 100 milliseconds of delay and after 500 milliseconds, the conversation becomes unintelligible). The routing is done so that the customer get the best voice quality and minimum, delay, jitter, noise, echo, etc.

Also routing away from India might be 50% more costly. Already it costs approx $1.25/min during the least expensive time to call Nepal from the US. Would you be willing to pay $2/min just so that you get annoyed by the voice recording. Routing is NOT the problem here, changing the prompt depending on the country code is the problem. This is easy to do in software; but telephone switch software is very complex so the LD carriers may not be willing to listen.

Mr Mishra writes:
"Let us find out some practical solution by calling wherever it's possible, so that we may get easy access to our friends and family in Nepal; so that our sweet taste for popular Hindi songs may not turn bitter; so that we, the foreign educated ones, may not easily give in to our jingoistic selves."

        If you want to talk about easy access, I'd attack the pricing first. Why is it that even with all the promotions, it is 30-50% cheaper to call India? Calling Nepal is REALLY expensive. What don't we call and write LD carriers about that?

        I don't see how Mr Mishra goes from talking about telephones and jingoism (or warlike tendencies).

With due respect, I stress again, business problems are easiest solved by business solutions, not by nationalism or passionate ideology. Spare me your nationalism, regionalism, etc. etc. ad nauseum.

Rgds,

sanjay manandhar

ps: After eleven years in the US, I've resigned from my software engineering job and I'm thinking of working in hi, lo or medium tech in Nepal. Hence, I've started auditing this mailing list again after several months. Amazing to see how many participate. Anybody interested in corresponding and sharing insights about current situations in Nepal, please send me email. -sm

********************************************************************** Date: Thu, 23 Jun 1994 17:19:40 -0500 From: atuladhar@vax.clarku.edu Subject: Environmental News Update for nepal

Environmental News Update
=========================== This posting is compiled from ESCAP April 1993 issue of ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS BRIEFING, A SELECTION FROM THE REGION'S PRESS.

1. Pollution harms tourism: The Home Minister

The Home Minister Sher Bahadur Deoba inaguration the first national seminar on
"TTrafffic Management and Air Pollution Control".

The papers are as follows:

"Control of Accidents on City roads and Highways" by Dr. Shanta Vir Singh Tuladhar.

"Coordination and Interrelationship among Traffic Police, Transport Workers and Road Consumers" by general secretary of the Nepal Transport Entrepreneurs Federation, Hom Prasad Adhikari

"Control of Vehicular Pollution" by Ramesh Ratna Sthapit.

"Legal Aspects of Traffic management" by Rabindra Ratna Sakya

"Nepal Road Condition and Improvement" by Superintendent of Police: Amar Shah

"Problems of Traffic Managment and their Solutions" by DSP Sagar Thapaliya

The Home Minister warned that air pollution would adversely affect tourism in Kathmandu.

2. EIA for Water Resource Projects by Bidur Upadhaya

The author points to the need to conduct Environmental Impact Assessement for water resource projects in Nepal. he gives examples of how water resources projects have created environmental problems when this was not done.

For instance, The Tinau Irrigation Project in Butwal is a failure. In hill irrigation project, misalignment of irrgation channels along the contours result in landslides and slope failures while in Terai, poor irrigation results in water logging and salinity.

The Pokhara Seti Irrigation Project has depostied calcium carbonate in the soil making it less fertile while Chitwan Irrigation Project resulted in the influx of mica sediments to the channel of upto 51000 cubic meters a year. The authors complains that EIA is not mandatory but done aonly at behest of donor agency.

3. Impact of pesticides on ecology by Kishor Sherchand

A survey and surveillance done inKanchanpur of Nepal unveils the fact that indiscriminate use of certain pesticides has already created noticieable environmental and biolgical problems in rapeseed and cotton crops.

Pesticides used to keill the pests for commercial crop cotton are not resisted by the pests such as the pod borer known locally as "china ko kosha khane kira" and American boll worm. These pests now harm rapeseed or "tori".

Quoting a farmer," I sprayed my 'tori" with pesticides such as "Thiodan' and Decis but they don't get killed. They continue to attack and eat all the riperning pods. till last year tori was safe but now this insect has spread all over the field."

The authors notes how Terai tharus have used effective biological pesticies from the Neem tree and titepati. A new Pesticides Act was passed in 2050.

4.
pOLLUTED WATER MAJOR CONCERN, MINISTER OF WATER GHIMIRE

Water Resources Minister Laxman P Ghimire inaugurated a three day seminar on water quality and environment. He warned that water is becoming more polluteda dn genuine threat to all of us.

In developing country environmental problems stem from inability to exploit the natural resources in a balanced manner. Environmental degradation is due excessvie pressure on land forest resources to meet the growing food and energy demands.

(Amulya's comments: This news item is interesting because it gives the government point of view, a Neo-Malthusian view that seems population has the main problem with the express political objecting of occluding attention to the social problems exacerbating environmental problems.)of su adetoaer

5. Save Kathmandu for Pollution by Surredra Raj Devkota

The authors challenges the 1993 international scandle tht Kathmandu had the highest pollution in Asia. He maintains that except for lead , other pollutants in the air are actually less than World health Organizaiton guidelines. All is not lost for Devkota.

He thinks the "habtual tumult at the top level and the concept of isomeone will do at the bottom level will never ameliorate the environmental attributes. kathmandu environmentalists should act not preach, he says.

6. Poachers affect wildlife

Since last year, two rhino hornms weighing 720 gm and 920 gm, bones, teeth, and skins from wildlife such as rhinos, deers, and tigers have been recovered from poachers who smuggle them to China, Hongkon and Korea where theyare said to have aphrodisiac properties.

[Amulya's comment: If the Army used to patrol national parks consumes $ 4 million a year, is the intercept of a few poacher tokens cost effective for the bad will the parks earns from the local people?} Zer oand i oidan

*********************************************************** Date: Fri, 24 Jun 1994 14:45:52 -0000 To: a10rjs1 <a10rjs1@cs.niu.edu> From: SHRESTHA@VAX.LSE.AC.UK Subject: Royal GIS Again!

HRH crown prince is coming to GRID today. He will be accompanied by his teacher MS Manandhar and a friend of crown prince ( keshav Dhakal). Some other people are also coming incluidng Binayak Bhadra, Surya shakya, Pramod Pradhan and so on. CP will be here for a week after that he will start his royal visit organized by the palace here in Thailand. In that visit, Gyanendra and Ram Hari Joshi are also joining.

During his stay in GRID, training on gis is the prime objective but some other issues like nepal energy economics, nepal water resources, nepal gis plan etc. will also be covered by the experts. I will be deliverring two lectures one in Vecor Based GIS and other is a small demo on the land cover assessment of nepal using NOAA AVHRR data.

Nepalese Society here in AIT is going to organize a dinner party on 21st. It is an informal dinner so that every body can approach and discuss freely with the cp. Starting from tonight to thursday night he will stay at AIT Center (hotel).

Chandra Giri UNEP/GRID-Bangkok

********************************************************************** From: adhital@st6000.sct.edu (Arun Dhital) Subject: LITERATURE To: NEPAL@cs.niu.edu Date: Fri, 24 Jun 94 13:00:03 EDT

Will You ?

        Your heart, my sanctuary,
        I will come pure and clean
        will you let me in?
        I will worship my love there
        will you keep me in ?

                Your eyes, a cool place to rest
                when I am tired, will you let me rest?
                I will come smooth, and soft
                so that you wont feel uncomfortable
                when you close your lids,
                when I want to hide
                will you close me in
                will you hide me in ?

                        Your voice so soft and soothing,
                        when I wanna hear
                        will you sing to me, will you sing to me ?

                Your mind, a mine of vast knowledge
                when i ask
                will you teach me, will you tell me ?

Arun Dhital ( Norge)

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