on quotes and citations

Status

I have realized in the past two months that research, the empirical one, is not my cup of tea. I am fine with reportage, in-depth article and long form writing (non-fiction). But I do not enjoy a bit of the scientific method of data gathering, analyzing (quantitative) and presenting them in an organized manner. Respect to all scientific researchers out there but, given a chance, I would happily opt out of the business of empirical research. I think I like quoting people much more than citing them.

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Nepali Journalists’ Convention and New Leadership (tweets)

The Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) held its two-day general convention that ended today with the election of a new Central Committee. Here are my tweets from (and about) the convention and poll results.

Today’s Tweets

Yesterday’s Tweets

[झक्कुलाई झापड] A Man, Teashop Owner, Slaps a (Maoist) Lawmaker (Tweets- for the record)

For the record: Premraj Devkota, the teashop owner just outside Kantipur complex- where my office is located- slapped Maoist lawmaker Jhakku Prasad Subedi. Like many staffs at Kantipur I too have gone many times for tea and quick snacks at Premraj daju’s place (though its not my favorite teashop- didn’t even know his name till today. Is it Premlal or Premraj? Ok, will go with the latter). Last time I was there was some five days ago when a doctor from Nepalgunj had come to see me at my office. A week before that I had gone there at his teashop along with a representative of American INGO NED. Premlal dai is a politically conscious person- that I know from his talks. He almost always talks (a lot) to his customers- especially to journalists- about politics and gives his own analysis of the situation. He had voted for the Maoist party in the CA election- to Jhakku himself who was elected from Kathmandu-2. I also voted in the same constituency though I would not like to reveal my electoral leaning here :) So here are my tweets of the incident. I couldn’t gather much info during the day as was busy translating a long Osama bin Laden obituary for the paper..so just presenting tweets here in reverse chronological order.

The slap to a CA member comes months after a similar incident in which a man in eastern Nepal slapped JN Khanal who, after couple of monts of receiving the slap, became the Prime Minister of Nepal. Here’s my story, in Nepali, on shabasad that appeared in last Saturday’s Kantipurबिचरा सभासद !

Kathmandu Valley Banda After a Long Time (Tweets, for the record)

Kathmandu experienced a general strike (popularly known as “banda”- closure) today after a long time. I tweeted my thoughts about the strike. I present those tweets (in reverse chronological order) here for my record. I spent a couple of early hours of the day talking to two Maoist lawmakers- one of them was too shy to speak words, he communicated mostly by moving his head- and a Maoist journalist at the residence of one of the CA members and the journalist. The banda was withdrawn sometime around 3 pm which meant that I could go home in a public vehicle like I always do.

And this tweeply:

The person tweet-mentioned me, after reading my tweets, that I would get habitual with the bandas soon. I said: It’s not that I haven’t been habituated [with the banda culture]. There could be no Nepali who is not habituated with the banda.

Related: Nepal Banda and Power Cut