I have been extremely busy in the past two weeks. Blogging was the primary (or caucus? ha ha ha) casualty. I was completely into journalism, my primary profession. Reporting, writing, managing and editing.

The assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto came as a shock and I found myself in our newsroom tracking the sad and dramatic development as it unfolded in Rawalpindi. Pakistani newspapers Dawn, the News, American papers NYT and Wash Post, wire services and the web sites of BBC and CNN. And Wikipedia too. All were my sources for the report that I prepared and was published on front, almost entire, page. The only other news report, also written by me, on the front page was about the until-then-top-secret-number of the Maoist combatants released by the United Nations Mission in Nepal (UNMIN). The front page of Kantipur, the next day, had belonged to me, as one colleague at the business bureau put it. Continue reading →

Kya alchhi lageko hau!

What to do when you don’t want to do anything but still want to do something? My friend Sudeep tells: sutne! [sleep] or go to movie. Those are nice ideas but what I did a few days ago was this: No, I am not telling this right now because if I do that somebody might read that here, steal the idea and turn that into a nice story before I do!

The point to be noted here is that I did. Yes I did. And I did. Not only once, but more than once, less than twice. That is not a big deal though. Anyone can do it. People might actually be doing that right now, at this very moment when I am writing these lines.

That’s it. I might write more about my experience after I write about the work in print. That’s how I save both my job and the scoop.

The trip of Bhaktapur a few days ago to do a story on a street drama was okay though I wasn’t very well. Thank god, I didn’t fall ill for more than a day this time around. I was smart enough to drink a lot of water and that really helped. Falling sick, when everyone is waking and running, feels like a really bad idea. Continue reading →

Theme of the blog: I have put an auto response message to the senders of Happy Dashain mass emails requesting them not to send any such emails next time. Plus, questions on loneliness and on Ram Ravan dilemma.

Once I had read a news report about a website called tired.com that talked about people’s responses to the only question posed by the site on the middle of the page: “Are you tired? Tell us why.” The answers, according to the report, aren’t published on the site and the report was based on the journalist’s interview with the owner of the site and samplings of the emails that were sent to the site. I haven’t visited the site since the day I read that news but today I am posing similar questions here: What do you do: When you don’t want to talk to anyone? When feel lonely but don’t want to mingle with anyone? If you want to answer, feel free to use the form below though I must assert that I completely retain the right to publish or reject the response(s). Or, may be I will write a news story based on ’em! [Okay, I just visited the site and found that it’s same: there are only two lines on the home page that I have already mentioned and the word “us” links to the email address tired@tired.com] Continue reading →