Anyone who loves the music of Pink Floyd will know that Syd Barrett was the main person behind the formation of the band and its initial musical identity. (Un)fortunately, Syd was into too much drugs that caused him to be kicked out of the band that he himself formed. After three decades of solitary living, he died in the year 2006. But in his golden days of success, came the legendary album Piper At the Gates Of Dawn in the year 1967. Apparently Syd lived a troubled childhood, which showed in that album. It included lyrics that were childlike yet came from a psychologically disturbed person. And then there were trademark psychedelic rock music of Pink Floyd that made the album stand out. There were songs such as Matilda Mother, The Scarecrow, Interstellar Overdrive, Pow R. Toc H., Astronomy Domine, Lucifer Sam and of course Bike.

The song Bike went something like this..

I've got a bike
You can ride it if you like
It's got a basket
A bell that rings
And things to make it look good
I'd give it to you if I could
But I borrowed it

You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
Everything if you want things

I've got a cloak
It's a bit of a joke
There's a tear up the front
It's red and black
I've had it for months
If you think it could look good
Then I guess it should

You're the kind of girl that fits in with my world
I'll give you anything
Everything if you want things

Now flash forward to the year 2007 and I see the never ending line of bikes (motorcycles this time) in the streets of Kathmandu. Let's do some hypothetical, theoretical and practical maths and logic combination. Let's say an average person spends 3 hours each week in the queue for petrol. With around 52 weeks in a year, that means an average person wastes 3x52 = 156 hours a year in petrol queue. If we assume a half a million people queuing up like this every year, this means we are losing about 500,000x156 = 78,000,000 hours in a year. Again, by simple practical maths, there are 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year. This means the waste is about 8904 years in a single year! Let's continue our simple hypothetical logic. The life expectancy of an average person here is 60 years. So dividing that 8904 years by lifespan of a human being, that is 60 years, we soon realize that we are losing about 148 person in a year.

The summary is that the country is losing 148 citizens each year in the petrol queue. 148 citizens are disappearing while waiting for petrol for their bikes!

Damn, where are all the human rights organizations who have been carefully following the disappeared citizens?

About the Pink Floyd's bike, the last lines of the lyrics goes something like this

I know a room full of musical tunes
Some rhyme
Some ching
Most of them are clockwork
Let's go into the other room and make them work

May be it is good time to look for some alternative energy or hybrid vehicles.

Well the name of the show is Indian Idol. But the final contestant Prashant Tamang is equally or more popular here in Nepal. Partly because he's from Darjeeling, which happened to be a part of Nepal once upon a time. But mostly because he is a Tamang, a simple guy with Nepali origin. Also it is probably because of his simple behavior that has been able to capture the hearts of millions of people in India and Nepal. Or may be the harsh treatment by the judges at times, has been a factor for his massive popularity. Whatever the reasons, the fact is that he is extremely popular in his home town Darjeeling, overall India, and even Nepal. And being in the final two it is very likely that he is going to be the next idol.

It would be a great story if he wins the contest because he's not a trained singer and works as an ordinary Indian policeman. Also it can be said that Prashant Tamang would be a double idol - both an Indian Idol as well as a Nepali Idol. That said, he already is an idol for many people. The extravaganza for the SMS voting is something like never seen before. With free traveling and accommodation to his home town Darjeeling, the promotions is quite bizarre. Singing wise, he's believed to have a lesser edge against his competitor Amit Paul, but looking at the excessive hype for Prashant, its definitely a case of who performs better and gets the most votes.