Puppet of Buddha

Two mirrors stare,
a puppet of Buddha,
between them somewhere

A reflection clear,
of puppet Buddha,
sees one on another

And how desires burn,
to see the reflection,
into their own

Little realizing,
of the Buddha,
already within smiling,
until the day,
the puppet goes away.

Labels: literature, poem, ramblings, Society

Website Review - Art at Work

The theme for this time is

"Art at Work - communities that promote art & artists"

Started in the early 90's as a private theatre group in Nepal with handful of people, Aarohan Theatre Group has come a long way today as being a creative group that promotes local art & culture. It has gained international reputation as being a great cultural institution as well as national reputaion as a revolutionary institution.

And now with its own art school Gurukul, it has produced a number of new theatre artists, some of whom have even been succesful lately as movie artists. In a way, Aarohan / Gurukul has single handedly started a theatre culture in Nepal. Not to mention other out of the box activities, such as street dramas to longest painting art from Dharahara. And a nice website too.

Another untraditional organization in Nepal - Photo Circle. Established just a couple of years back, photo.circle have been providing amateur to professional photographers & artists a common platform to showcase their work to a larger audience.

In their words, they have been building a community of storytellers who continuously create, share and learn. And getting a lot of partners to do so as well. A great community & a simple website - well updated.

Labels: aarohan, arts, community, nepal, new nepal, photo.circle, website review

Government Signs

The original sign

GOVERNMENT APPROVED.
NO COMMISSION.

The lousy government sign 1

GOVERNMENT COMMISSION.
NO APPROVED.

The lousy government sign 2

NO GOVERNMENT.
APPROVED COMMISSION.

Labels: government, nepal, new nepal, satire, Society

Internet Marketing in Nepal

The concept of professional web services & internet marketing is still rudimentary in Nepal. There are very few companies or freelancers who provide professional SEO (search engine optimization), and internet marketing services in Nepal. For many, SEO and internet marketing is still just a complimentary service.

The sectors that seem to understand the benefits and value of professional internet marketing and SEO in Nepal are the foreign dependent sectors, such as tourism & export business, where the competition can get tough at times due to direct competition from foreign markets. Within the domestic market, the internet, or business based on internet penetration is still negligible, and dominated by few news websites or entertainment portals. For most companies, online business still means a cheaply made website, which basically isn't any better than no website at all.

The level of online advertisements targeted at domestic market is even reflected by the advertisement awards in Nepal. These are dominated by paper ads, radio or TV ads and even street Billboard ads, but have no place for online marketing or internet advertising.

But with more and more people getting conscious of power of the internet and online business, competition is bound to happen. Until then, we could seek cheaper alternatives to the existing global internet marketing that could be targeted to local markets only. Local companies in Nepal will also need to upgrade themselves to cope with the global trends of internet marketing or develop cheaper mechanism for local SEO and internet marketing.

Labels: business, internet, internet marketing, nepal, SEO, Web

Say

Don't Say.
If you don't want to.
Don't Say.
If you don't have to.
But when it comes to saying,
Don't wait for the crowds.
Don't look for your circles.

Because.
After all -
Society is none but a part of you.
So.
Say.
When you want to say.
Say.
When you have to say.

Labels: literature, poem, ramblings, say, Society

Ghandruk

Pictures of Ghandruk (also known as Ghandrung). It is one of the popular trekking routes of Nepal and also the route to Annapurna Trekking and Poon Hill.

The view seen from the trekking route of Ghandruk. Ghandruk is considered as relatively easy trekking.

Beyond the trekking points the best way of carrying goods are using donkeys, or ass. You can also find many porters carrying goods at their back.

On a clear morning you can see the beautiful view of Annapurna range from Ghandruk, including Machapuchre. The view is even better from Poon Hill, but you have to do some extra trekking.

Goats fighting over a cliff in the Ghandruk route. Amazing balance I have to say!

A typical house in the Ghandrug Village. The majority of people are Gurung and you can find them in their traditional Gurung dress in Ghandruk.

Labels: annapurna, ghandruk, nepal, poon hill, trekking

Website Review - Political Parties Nepal

The theme for this month is

"Political Parties of Nepal"

The red website of Maoist Party in Nepal. The website was blocked during their underground days for over 10 years, when they were tagged as terrorist group by the then government. The maoists are now leading the Government of Nepal. But looks like their website is still an underground website from 10 years ago. Time for updates maybe.

Here's the link to the website of Maoists Nepal

This is the best website among the political parties of Nepal. Regular news updates and a pleasant interface website. Too bad the feedback form page is under construction.

Here's the link to the website of Nepal Communist Pary (UML)

Congress is the oldest party of Nepal and the site looks quite old too. There are historic pictures gallery and the bulletins are from 2005.

Here's the link to the website of Nepali Congress Party

There are some 20+ political parties ruling the small country currently and 600+ people in the constituent assembly. But looks like most parties have no website and even the major parties have no updates to their sites. Seems like these people can't manage a website and definitely not managing the country at the moment.

Want to feature your website or blog here too? Drop a mail at nepalsites@gmail.com with some description about your website with the subject line "Website Review".

Labels: congress, Maoists, nepal, politics, UML, website review