Sea of Garbage II: The Return of the Garbage Monster

Garbage is back. The streets of Kathmandu are again clogging up with solid waste to form reservoirs and lakes.

Disputed between the Locals residents and the authorities over the garbage disposal at Okharpauwa Landfill site, Nuawakot district has 're-erupted' due to which garbage disposal hasn't been possible.

It has been 13 days since the Metropolitan garbage disposal team hasn't been able to ferry the 350 tonne or so garbage that gets dumped in the streets of Kathmandu every day.

The only respite we can take in this chaos is that the chances of a disease outbreak is lower than in
June-July 2008 (click here) due to the cold weather.

For now, try and reduce your garbage production. Avoid plastics, re-use polythene bags, and eat less junk food.

Photos: Left- Jamal,
Right - Bir Hospital

Getting Places with Mampandu; A new era in Nepalese Internet

While I was just done with The Tonight Show and getting ready for bed, I happened to stumble upon something on the local internet. Now, this is something I've been waiting for for a long time...Behold, Mapmandu.com!

Now, as the name says it, its got to do with the map of Kathmandu city. Better, its a city guide, the very first of Kathmandu valley!

The company behind this is an unheard of firm called Savant Associates; they have truly opened up a whole new pool of information for the Kathmanduites. Mapmandu gives you google like maps and interfaces and allows you to search, restuarants, streets, 'gallis', schools, you name it. While the interface might be a tad less functional than that fo Google's standards, it does what it's meant to do and effectively uses Google's API.

I put a few searches in and it immediately gave me results which included exact locations on the map, phone numbers, addresses, short descriptions about the places and in some case, pictures! I had trouble finding a place some days back and when I put that in Mapmandu it promptly gave me results and pointed me to the right location. Bravo!

Go digital Kathmandu.

Sea of Garbage; Who Swims in it?

If you live Kathmandu, a little garbage here and there isn't really much of a big deal. I mean just a few weeks back they were just tiny puddles, just the right shapes and sizes to hop over. Oh how sweet were those days...

BUT now its a whole different story, that same old puddles have swelled, doubled, tripled a million times and now they have turned into huge seas!

The only problem now is that you can't swim on it or row your boat. You can fish, oh yes! But I must say, the water is really dirty...

I was watching the news some time back and even a developed city like Naples had such seas...some similarity (Girija can promise us Italy now rather than Switzerland. The pizza there is yummy.)

God! Seriously, how could you promise us Switzerland? Old people can't come up with excuses.

Above is a picture I took today, the biggest I have seen yet, location: Jamal. Reports say that the one from Basundhara to Maharajgunj is turning into an Ocean! I have to check it out. Or if anyone of you have seen it, do let us know.

Possible things to do:
1. Close everything except your eyes (wear glasses) and run.
2. Fish with a fishing rod. I think I saw a can of tuna. I couldn't really tell if it was empty.
3. Camp near it, wait for someone to clean it up.

Prime locations:
1. Jamal
2. Basundhara to Maharajgunj
3. Places every 50 meters. Trust me.

A Hero's Side-effects

I was positive that I could glide my way in a Micro from Patan all the way to home sweet home. It was 2 in the afternoon and vehicles had run out of petrol; it meant no traffic! Pure bliss. But to my utter surprise, vehicles had started piling up from Kupondole itself. Now, I have been plying on this route for 5 years now and being quite familiar with the traffic, I immediately sensed something different; the vehicles started clogging exactly 75.5 meters ahead of the Traffic Jam point. Something is wrong I thought, so I ventured to walk till Thapathali in high hopes that the turn to Tripureshwor would be less congested...10 minutes of walk, smoke from Kerosene + Petrol + Diesel, dust, and the never alleviating stench of the Bagmati; I reach Thapathali. But still no vehicular movement; it was clogged like the drainage system of Kathmandu valley.

So I continued my stroll towards Tripureshwor, thinking how this was one of the worst day of my life, battered with CO2 and bruises I reached Tripureshwor what I saw angered me to the very core of my internals...

First it seemed like a rally of some sort, I saw the jeep decorated with the painfully bright 'Yellow' poster with 'Rumpum Noodles' moving at the pace of a snail. Then I moved closer, on the side of the jeep was the picture of no other than....Kamal Nepali (the 'monkey kid' who rescued a little girl from a 60-feet gorge).

*Steam out of my ears.*

Please, end this stupidity. What is Khulla Manch for?