चाेखाे माया डट कम: जन्मभूमि नेपाल र नेपालीहरूमा समर्पित

  As your hair grays, does your mind rust? Well, you have the luxury of choosing to not split hair over the graying and the rusting.  Or you can ponder over one of the phenomena to begin with—graying—given that this thing called the brain is much too hard to understand.    A general tendency is to blame stress for graying, premature graying in particular.    But Robert H. Shmerling, MD , Senior Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publishing; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing, goes much beyond while answering the question: Why does hair turn gray?  In his blog at the homepage of Harvard Health Publishing, Shmerling compares the photos of Barack Obama taken before he ran for US presidency and after he left office, noting that he had “far more gray than brown” after he left office.    Most of the 8.2 billion homo sapiens (including this scribe) do not have much of a job (so very stressful, isn’t it?), leave alone a job a...

  Devendra Gautam Between a monastery and a tourist bus station in the tourist hotspot of Swayambhu, a faint, young girl aged about eight years or so sits on a damp road one cold February morning, with a baby on her lap and an almost empty steel dish in front of her. She throws a look at every passing human being, perhaps expecting them to give some money.  Similar sights come a-haunting in the metropolis every day, giving a milling humanity going about their respective rat races shocks one too many.  At the foot of Swayambhu sit a couple of people, asking passersby for generosity.   In the middle of the road close by Keshar Mahal at Durbarmarg, a dish-wielding, middle-aged woman carefully navigates vehicles awaiting the green light, expecting the humanity on wheels to open its purse strings for her and her dependants. Along the same busy stretch, this sapien has also encountered a fellow in his makeshift vehicle (a cart) going about his job along with another g...

Devendra Gautam The Oli mission First things first: It’s not a hunting trip beyond the national borders nor it’s a marriage procession, in response to a cordial invite. Rather, it’s an official delegation heading up north to discuss some serious business with the leaders of the world’s second largest economy in terms of nominal GDP ($18.273 trillion), the largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity ( $37.072 trillion ) and the third most powerful country in terms of available firepower with a PwrIndx of 0.0706, lagging only behind Russia (0.0702) and the United States (0.0699). So, it’s only fitting for Nepal to send under Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli a 78-member delegation to make things happen, isn’t it? As the saying goes, two heads are better than one and 78 heads, as yours truly feels, are far better as the amount of grey matter in each brain adds up to make a huge mass that can come handy during negotiations. Also, if airplane seats are available, why not make the most of...

Devendra Gautam Call it sheer confidence. Just days after an internationally-educated and renowned economist floated a Monroe doctrine 2.0 projecting the sphere of influence of the world’s largest democracy and the fifth largest economy with smaller nations from the neighbourhood forming the periphery and the semiperiphery, Bangladesh erupted.  There’s no dearth of experts, who call it the corollary of the Sri Lankan crisis that erupted two years ago, and those who differ, arguing that Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are like chalk and cheese. This scribe leaves it to experts par excellence to conclude whether or not it’s a domino effect playing out in our neighbourhood.  A groundswell of protests against the Sheikh Hasina government, especially over her labelling of those protesting against the generous job quotas for the children and the grandchildren of the 1971 war of independence against Pakistan as the Razakars (the collaborators of Pakistan in that war) brought her regime char...

  एक    भुल्को कविता     देवेन्द्र   गौतम जीवनको दुर्गम भेगमा दुइ दिनको यात्रा पनि धेरै लामो भो तर अब म जान्छु प्यारो छोरा     ढुङ्गामाटोको शरीर हो कहिलेकाहिँ बिसंचो होला त्यतिबेला एक सुराही कविता राम्ररी उमालेर स्वाट्टै पार्नू तिर्खा लागे एक पेट कविता घटघटी पिउनू , नपुगे निर्जन वनको झरनामा जानू निर्झर आँसुसँगै मन लागेजति पिउनू एक खोला , एक झरना , एक सागर एक महासागर , एक आकाश , एक धर्ति रोएर फर्किनू निर्वाण नजिक - नजिकै पुगौला कि ?   भोक लागेमा दुइ - तीन मुठ्ठी कथा , कविता निबन्ध , निर्बन्ध , लघुकथा , गीत आदि प्रेसर - कुकरमा ३ - ४ सिठ्ठी लगाएर दिनमा २ - ३ पटक खानू ए साँच्चै , ग्यास सिलिण्डर रित्तै होला दाउरा झरीमा रूझेर ओस्सिएका होलान् के गर्नू म थला परें , तिम्रालागि केही गर्न सकिन केही छैन मेरो साहसी छोरा आफूभित्र दन्किएको भोकको आगो अनि  विद्रोहको ज्वालाले तिम्रो खाना पाकिहाल्छ   बरू कहिलेकाहिँ मुख बार्नू धेरै साहित्यले स्वास्थ्य बिगार्छ छोरा

Munsi Premchand’s Shatranj ke Khiladi offers a grim reminder of the vulnerability of weaker nations at a time when great power rivalry is at its height Awadh ruler Wajid Ali Shah’s noblemen Mirja and Mir die an ignoble death while ‘protecting’ their ‘kings’ on the chessboard, letting Awadh collapse like a house of cards In the global chessboard of geopolitics and geostrategy, Nepal must move ahead with extreme caution Devendra Gautam Playing against Magnus Carlsen must be really tough even for FIDE grand masters. Though an extremely difficult challenge, a few minutes at the chessboard with the maverick (with a standard FIDE rating of 2832, rapid rating of 2827 and blitz rating of 2888) as your opponent must be one of those moments to cherish forever. It can be a real confidence booster for those lacking self-confidence.  While the 34-year-old maverick remains ensconced in his lofty citadel as the 16th undisputed world chess champion and the number #1 player in the world since 2011,...