Dinesh Wagle's Commentaries

Latest stories – पछिल्ला टिप्पणीहरू

  • British Train: First Class Journey

    Things that you didn’t see or experience while growing up often generate curiosity in you whenever you come across them. The level of curiosity increases if such things are not yet part of your daily routine. They invoke a desire in you. The desire to own, control or use them. Rail network is one such thing that we don’t have in Nepal. Many in Nepal want to see a functioning railway network in their country. They want to travel in trains.

    Many of us get our first rail experience in India because of the country’s geographical proximity and other socio-economic reasons. My first real train journey (not counting the metro rail commutes in DC and NYC) was in India in 2008 when I traveled to Trivendram in south from Gorakhpur. It was a long and tiring journey that also gave me a story to write for my paper at the time. More than anything else, that particular journey provided me an important glimpse of the wonder that the Indian railway network is. (धेरै…)

  • Edinburgh

    This text has been updated. See below for photos and additional text.

    Amit the photographer..takes a photo of a tourst at the Edinburgh Castle at the latter's request.
    Amit the photographer..takes a photo of a tourst at the Edinburgh Castle at the latter’s request.

    People had told me two things about Edinburgh: 1) The place is very beautiful. 2) It is very very cold up there. If you think London is too cold, take a lot of clothes with you if you are going to Edinburgh.

    The first piece of information is correct. I admit that the hills are not as tall or big as I had imagined them to be but this place is beautiful and it feels nice to walk around. If these small hills (thumkas not dandas) look bigger than they actually are it could be because they are so close to the sea. Who has seen their reflection on sea water? I think I took more photos here than I took in London.

    On second point: weather has been so very kind to me. I arrived here on Wednesday afternoon. Beautiful day, clear skies, great view and it’s so warm yesterday and today that, for the first time since I arrived in the UK, I took my jacket off. I couldn’t have imagined walking on streets of London and York without wearing a jacket. (धेरै…)

  • York: the Town, Railway Station, Rivers and a Plate of Momo

    A cyclist passed by as Dinesh Wagle posed for camera at the Millennium Bridge over River Ouse in York. Pic by Bishnu Pariyar
    A cyclist passed by as Dinesh Wagle posed for camera at the Millennium Bridge over River Ouse in York. Pic by Bishnu Pariyar

    It was a friend of mine who asked me if I wanted to go to York and, through that question, encouraged me to go to the place where he had spent 10 years of his youthful life procrastinating and photographing the walled city and, in his last years there, taking time out to earn a PhD from the University of York in Environment and Politics. He connected me (Thank you, MP!) with a young and energetic man who, like my friend, had recently finished his PhD from the same university and was living in York along with his family. (धेरै…)

  • An Empty Speakers’ Corner of Hyde Park

    An Empty Speakers’ Corner of Hyde Park

    Protesters in front of the UK Supreme Court building at Parliament Square, London.
    Protesters in front of the UK Supreme Court building at Parliament Square, London.

    Protest: For an average Nepali citizen like me understanding the UK’s health care system is challenging. It is ‘complex’. Especially so if I attempt to compare it with our health care system in Nepal which is incredibly simple: Got money? Get treatment. No money? Die (unless your letter to a national daily newspaper begging for donation to transplant kidney touches hearts of some generous readers). One of the problems with our ‘simple and clear’ system is that our government doesn’t have enough money. That’s just a guess. Governments here give money to hospitals so that they can provide free treatment to qualified people. Now, if I understand correctly, national health service is facing cuts. People are not liking it. That’s why they are protesting. I saw one small group of protesters last week at the Parliament Square in London. Peaceful protesters. No shouting and sloganeering. No one was making any speeches.

    Speakers' Corner, Hyde Park, London.
    Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park, London.

    The Venue: Not even at the Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park where I had gone a week earlier to see if someone was talking about some random issues. There were none. The place was empty. That was disappointing.

    Tana Sarma describes animating activities that he saw at the Speakers’ Corner in his book Belayattira Baralinda in such a way that the description had remained with me for long when I first read the book during my high school days. A friend who spent 10 years in York and earned a PhD from the University of York before moving to Sweden recently reminded me of the same book just before I left Nepal. I re-read parts of it just before I arrived here. This time I didn’t find the book as interesting as I had found it last time. I was surprised to see that the book was actually written (and detailed events) in the 60s and that it was now one of the many travel books written by Nepalis on Belayat. But I didn’t change my decision to visit Hyde Park and the SC. May be I wanted to write an update to Tana’s version. (धेरै…)

  • York

    london victoria coach station 1 It was a long drive that involved two buses and a taxi but not as tiring as one would expect given the distance covered (about 330 kilometers). I found the section between Leeds and York particularly enjoyable. One, I was sitting at the upper deck of the double-decker bus (second one, changed at Leeds) with better view of the area I was passing through. Two, window panes were not tinted as they were in previous bus. Three, the atmosphere, I felt, changed for better. More open spaces, reasonable space between two houses, less people on streets and fewer cars on road. Overall, the atmosphere was welcoming and energizing.

    london victoria coach station 2

    People usually mention or write about things that they find new. For me, seeing ‘gates’, like in airports, in a bus station (London’s Victoria Coach Station) was new. Thus these pictures. I boarded via gate number 18 that didn’t have pigeons sitting on its noticeboard.

    More photos of the day and details of what I did in York this evening later.

  • From inside a bus

    Posting this update just to take advantage of the free WiFi connection (pleasantly surprised, I must admit) in this moving bus that is taking me to Leeds. Left London- the city and the crowd and the buildings- about two hours ago, now I can see a lot of windmills on both sides of the highway. Many small villages/settlements and lot of green fields and small hilltops.

  • Northward

    There are so many things to write about. This evening’s bus ride, branded shops of Oxford Street with ridiculously high prices of the products on display and malls that sell things surprisingly cheap stuffs. The famous bridge of London, museums that I visited, television studio that I liked, portraits that I saw, food that I ate and people I met including the hobbyist singer with whom I just exchanged email address in a pub. But I don’t have enough time to write about all these things and select, edit and post photos. Will try and do that when I am back in Kathmandu.

    Now I must get some sleep. I have to wake up early tomorrow morning to catch a bus that will take me to a northern city of York via Leeds. And then to Edinburgh in a train.

  • On Weather Again

    Image

    London: today

    Last two entries have given the impression that the city is so very cold, that I am freezing here in London and that I am about to die of hypothermia (exaggeration). That’s obviously not the case. Last week was all normal. I mean I needed a jacket but going out was no problem at all. Plenty of sunshine and less wind. Evenings were friendlier to walk weather-wise; didn’t need to wear two caps (again that’s for me only, not for the brave bald heads that I mentioned in the first entry). So for me it was all ‘normal’ week- cold but bearable.

    But not for my friend from Bahrain- he was shivering most of the times when we went out together last week during lunch hours and was complaining how cold the city was. I had to tell him that this week was nothing compared to the previous one. So the cold, as I learnt, is dependent to your resistance capacity/ability. I think this capability is partly determined by how (conditions including weather) and where you were born and grew up. Kathmandu doesn’t get as hot as Bahrain gets in summer- and it also doesn’t get as cold as London gets in winter- which should explain why my British friend in Kathmandu was surprised to learn through my first post that I found London cold and that I was surprised to see my Bahraini friend complain about the London weather that I had found pleasant.

    (धेरै…)

  • Pasta and daal, for free, in the name of Lord Krishna

    London-hare-Krishna-food-1

    Just as I was about enter through the main gate, someone waved at me and extended a warm invitation.

    “Come, eat,” he said. “It’s a very cold day today. You should eat something. It’s free.”

    The white man, with a bald head and a huge tuppi, was wearing a yellowish dhoti. I was in central London at the campus of a well-known British school. I had gone there to see a Nepali-speaking professor. I had reached at the gate a good 30 minutes earlier after tiring myself of walking around and inside Hyde Park for a couple of hours. I needed to kill time.

    I was hungry too.

    Pasta, very thick daal and an interesting conversation were waiting for me.

    The person who invited me for this surprise late afternoon lunch was accompanied by a man who looked like a Southasian and a white lady.

    I could instantly recognize who these people were. A small board with words from Bhagawat Gita was stood on the food stall that stood on wheels. But I didn’t need to see that to conclude who they were. I happily accepted the invite. I was instantly given a plate full of food that I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish.

    I ate along with other students who were offered the food in the same manner I was offered.

    Some Indian students, while eating the same food as they stood not far from the food stall, were cracking some dirty jokes in Hindi.

    I quietly listened to them while strolling around to suppress my laughter.

    I couldn’t eat that all.

    “Can I take a photo of you distributing food, please?” I asked.

    “Yes,” said the Russian man. I was just guessing his nationality based on his ascent. Turned out i
    I was correct.

    “Oh, Nepal,” he reacted after I answered his question. “Ratna Park! I know. I have been there. Budhanilakantha. There is temple.” He was correct. Long time ago, I had gone to interview a Russian at the ISCON temple in Budhanilakantha. As far as I could remember, this man with thick tuppi looked like the Russian that I had met in Budhanilakantha in 2004.

    The Southasian guy turned out to be a Sri Lankan. “I have a friend who worked in Nepal,” he said in a very excited tone. “He coached the national Cricket team of Nepal. Do you know Roy Dias? He is my classmate.”

    “I know Roy Dias,” I told him, “But only through media. Not personally.”

    “I believe he was quite a star in Nepal,” he added. “Many girls wanted to marry him. I understand that the boys (Cricket players, he obviously meant, I assumed) liked him as well.”

    (धेरै…)

  • A tour of the BBC building

    At the BBC Recording Studio
    DW

    Better late than never. Continued from my Feb/March London/UK trip.

    I visited the newly refurbished BBC building to see newsrooms and recording studios. Liked the design and overall feel of newsrooms/sections (lobbys to gather and discuss) which are open and very much connected with each other. Impressive glass walls received the highest score. (From a BBC website: At the heart of the building is the newsroom, a column-free space, surrounded by technical areas and day-lit by the eight-storey high atria above.)

    A big thanks to Bhagirath Yogi who works at the Nepali Service for giving me a tour of the $1.59 billion building. If you want to read more about the building here’s a Guardian article. Want to read about New York Times’ new building? Here you go: Architecture Blog: New York Times Building Vs Kantipur Tower!).

    Newsroom
    DW
    DW
    Dinesh Wagle