24*7*365 days – Cocktail of Past, Present, and Future.

The clock ticks seamlessly for 365 days. The beautiful greenery are gone; trees are hibernating for the snow that might precipitate any time. They look insanely naked, utterly natural, and blatantly transparent.The sun loves to hide, most of the time. I didn’t realize that time is moving so intensely yet with subtle experiences, and everlasting spatio-temporal memories, keeping myself in the verge of litmus test.  Nevertheless, the year 2011 has been phenomenal for me.  It’s been exactly a year in Carbondale, and I remember vividly the white snow, when I arrived here last year, the very same day. Paradoxically, the global myth of climate change or the hoax that was always there which has never been noticed before, at least invincible for the penguins marching in the poles, and perhaps, absence of snow in Carbondale. Personally, the military attire is  relinquishing, and fading away faster than ever, hopefully, good things are staying forever.

As we walk around the Carbondale main-street, the downtown of Carbondale, Friday nights seem to be extraordinarily and plethora in enjoyment. The beautiful wind and midnight, PK’s and Fuss ball, Cali’s and the DJ’s, are bitterly enough to get rid of the natural beauty ,and humans encroachment, the dynamics and the vibrant Carbondale, at least on the Friday night.The Cali's has been wonderful place with dance music drumming our minds and  souls , dragging our body  to dance seamlessly.

Other day, we watched the captain America, in school’s theater and figured out that it was one of the worst movies I ever watched. It merely takes the advantage of veterans and inertia of status-quo, molded for commercial ratification, absolutely fusses for me. The temperament of erotic kiss, the notoriously masculine life of soldier was not merely an extreme but coupled with hyped bio-technology that not only pushes this world towards techno-human but inherently degrades the aesthetic value of environment.

I remembered the time in the Bangkok in the year 2004, an art of striping! I remembered the movie Pretty Woman each time when we were in Desoto-the club!, cultural shock again but resembles the beauty of woman shielded into the gas chamber and the thin layer of vacuum that separates an individual with the realm of reality, and makes you feel hyped, take you to the virtual eternal soul, explicitly fenced by the gleaming and smoothing wax, that get excited for the insane rein of masculinity.

The temperature began to drop sharply and we feel the coldness of the winter knocking in the door, making you ready for the cold days ahead. The football game was more than excitement than we were wondering; the participation of Nepalese Team was really encouraging and playing for the first time in a team and in a match was again another personal achievement for me. Also we took a participation in table-tennis completion and as usual ended up with nothing in our hand, but a sense of experience to play any sports in more professional, and structured paradigm.

The other day, I went to Fredrick Town, the small country town in the MO and was trying to portray as a cow-boy for a while, looking at the farm house, and seeing the hay getting ready for the icy-winter. The enjoyment and the fun, was certainly the ballooning of the feelings in early teens when we used to watch the cow-boy movies. It was so much fun to learn horse –ride, knowing little about the saddle and behavior of this wonderful animal, yet it inherently pushes you to start the cow-boy life in rural area, with a  pacifist insignia in a mind. That was one of the most subtle memories of the year 2011. Thanks to the wonderful creatures and who cares them.

Again, We went to east of the Carbondale and watched entire seamless united states as much as we can with our greedy eyes that want to see everything far up to the horizon. It was a flat land yet I could see the some ridges of the small so-called mountains. Being Geography major, it’s a shame to me as I couldn’t locate east or west!

GIS student society was instrumental in starting the different GIS related documentaries and we watched couple of them with Soda and get amused with geo-spatial technologies having huge impact in our daily lives,  technology is changing faster than ever and shaping our life to understand it more vehemently and apply to solve the problems of the all disciplines. Thanks President Amber, for the refreshment and encouragement you showed up to start our club.

Playing Geo-caching was a noble idea for me, Thanks to Nicholas. It was fun when we start to figure out the Geo-cache around our school area and get excited to write the name of GIS society of SIUC in those miniature log books. That was one of the exciting game I played.

The growth of SSA (Secular Student Alliance) at SIUC this year has been instrumental in shaping the secular movement and sharing the secular values to the larger community in the region. From five members to more than 30 members, we are really excited to keep the spirit and momentum of our movement. The death of Hitchens was really a big setback for the entire community and around the globe. Some other day, we attended the in-house concert in the university premises and get indulged into the phantom of music in no-time.

In the outskirts of the Carbondale, neighborhood looks beautiful and amusing, the houses and streets are decorated with lights and garlands, waiting for the snow to come and flush away the bad memories forever , reviving the fresh hopes, expectations, motivations, and initiations,  for the year  2012. The semester is over and the schools looks completely deserted and is keenly waiting to revive its presence in the year 2012. I am excited to travel 3000 miles to feel the New Year in New York and Florida, next week, hopefully my last plan  for the year 2011. Good bye 2011! and  Happy New Year and Holiday to all of you.

Fall in Carbondale

The Garden of Rocks, IL is a colossal pinnacle of rock that tranquilizes the thought far beyond the horizon. As we watched the Shawnee National Forest, we can feel ourselves in the foothill of Himalayas in front of us, mesmerizing the wonderful high cliffs and rocks with aesthetic beauty of the nature. The multi-color of leaves with the leaves falling apart and the changes in the weather symbolizes the analogy of life cycle of all the living things in this beautiful nature. We realized that the first fall in America has already started to emancipate vividly in our gray matter and it would be resided forever in the spatio-temporal facet.  As we climb the rock and see the spectacular colorful forest, we were struggling hard to capture the images, inherently trying to be more natural than we are, thanks to the development in digital photography that helped to portray it endlessly and seamlessly in our electronic memory sticks. We were tired of capturing those endless images and we were being inherently insatiable and demanding to feel the nature.

The Trip to garden of gods was not only memorable in terms of peculiar natural beauty and aesthetic rocks but was also a phenomenal in the sense that we were able to dance and sing Nepali folk songs with delicious Nepali food. It was analogy to the picnic organized and barbecued dozens of times in the foothills of Nagarkot, Nepal, one of the most popular tourist destinations of Nepal, the reminiscent of my past! That has become the milestone of my life

.

Watching movie Hanger 2 was one of the fantastic moment in the auditorium of student center and the movie was not more than a typical Hollywood settings dominated by Bollywood story. It was fun to wash the residue of the long and hectic week with so much of laughter’s- the best medicine. Going to Pk’s bar is a typical Friday night schedule, intrigued with the rock bands and crowded environment has become the normal schedule.

The school looked inherently busy in the month of August. Students seem ubiquitously occupied with the books in their hand and the academic environment entices the learning and knowledge sharing environment in diverse society.  I was so surprised and curious to see so many people in the school at this time of year that I never felt before watching the dynamics of peoples in front of the library and fanner hall simulating it with movie Matrix in the grids.

Riding the motorbike for the first time in US with Eric was not only fun but a subtle change that I was looking for even though I spend all my life riding a motorbike in Nepal. The fall was the most beautiful time of the year and the nature was giving a good company to enjoy the perennial beauty, both in vibes of physical beauty and spiritual feelings.

Nepalese Student Society (NSS) organized the barbecue and it was fun to feel the culinary skills of some of the Himalayan chef, the delicious food lasted inside us forever. The football game participation was not only fun but it was a co-incidence that we played a first game with India, our neighbor.

I was more confused, surprised, and amazed when I was unanimously nominated for the secretary of Nepalese Student Society that was something I never thought of.  Ice-cream at Dairy queen in mid night was not a noble requirement to live a decent life in Carbondale but it was more memorable and something that we always enjoyed in the Carbondale main street. Dr. Schoof promotion party was not merely a formal place to talk much about our professional goals but it was a juxtaposition to share culture, ideas, perceptions all the way from east to west, north to south, and the 360 degrees of Geography and all through the spatial space. The Geog500 was typically a demanding course but it helped us to understand the diverse research paradigm that exists in the Geography Department and helped to know each other’s.

September eleven passed away leaving behind a decade long tragedy that reminded me how I was curiously watching the BBC in Nepal, one of the worst attack for the humanity and civilization that changed the political and economic dimension of the world. 

Also, it was more interesting when I was proposed for the vice-president of GIS club.  We visited the geospatial services department in the Morris library and get acquainted with activities over there. We were so surprised to see the different kinds of maps and satellite imagery that were backed up for so many decades. However, we were also bit disappointed as SIU’s GIS service has not been much emphasized and the need of digital maps and cartography infrastructure is the need of an hour. The other Saturday morning, we went to Marion for volunteering for the Crab Orchard, it was wonderful time cleaning the trash around the lake area and making the place beautiful and clean.  The two antique beers we excavated were much more interesting and got surprised what peoples do when they got drunk!

It was so much fun in Cali’s, the Friday night passed in no-time leaving back the long weeks.  Dashain Festival Celebration in Evergreen Terrace, and spending time with two boys of Chris was incredible experience to understand children’s psychology and temperament, taking me further away twenty years back in Katunje, Bhaktapur.

The change of the leaf is clear notion of the change that is inevitable, that we can feel and perceive and it’s the nature that will be driving us seamlessly, all we do is we follow the rut and trace it for our destiny. Good luck for the journey!  And embrace the natural beauty of the fall in Carbondale.

The Summer of 2011

As the sun gets more hotter and the days become muggy and humid, the life in carbondale conspicuously  irks  in the mid-day of August. However, the greenish environment and the schools dynamics with new students keeps the city cunningly vibrant and beautiful, leaving back the spatio-temporal memories of climate in the horizon.

I was quite surprised and scared  to see the hives of mosquitoes that were chasing me in the garden in pleasant-hills, have never seen the mosquitoes chasing the humans like this before - was a kind of scary like a bio-mutant fiction. The passion of learning how to swim and some of the cultural shocks were common phenomena that i came acquainted in the beginning.The other day I went to hiking with Jay in Giant City, the eastern part of carbondale and see how early inhabitants of carbondale -Nomads lived in the cave hundred of years back.

The commencement ceremony drives me  to remember the time when i graduated from Kathmandu University. Although the environment looks pretty much different, nevertheless the goals remain unchanged. The new graduates were excited after the achievement they made and were flanked and in vanguard of their friends, classmates and educators. Couple of Nepali friends were graduated and we share the happiness, success and prosperity for the days ahead. Good luck and Congratulation Salukis!!

Dr. Carver’s  Linux system Administration course was not only a tech-savvy lecture but was a kind of philosophical in the sense that people knew very little about  open source , open thoughts, and freedom they can enjoy in the computing environment.  It was a humorous , interesting and mind-blogging class i ever had in my life.

The other day  as I reached the department, Jennie was showing mom’s picture in Daily Egyptian, I was a kind of surprised and shocked when mom’s picture is in front page with caption “ Gardner’s from Root of Himalayas’, We shared the happiness all the way from Carbondale to a half-way of world, Nepal. Gardening is something that's always what mom wants and she is fond of!, Finally she got her appreciation from DE. Congratulation mom! for being celebrity.

The other day we went to golf-training school in the eastern side of Carbondale. I  had realized that golf used to be the game of elites back in Nepal and its not the same in US. Tried to make the few shots and missed hitting the ball several times until Eric taught me some entry level gizmos to catch up with. It helped me to wash-up my frustration and praise Tiger wood( although i suppose he is in pain!). It was fun and excitement, and have never imagined the internal mechanics and ingenuity needed to succeed.

The summer concert in the school was one of the most exciting part of the carbondale. From bands Space Capone to Fools of Rowan, there were no words for excitement and fun, enjoying the music and dancing in the dusk. It was one of the most beautiful experience in the school in the humid  days. The 2011 Sunset Concert series comes to  an end with performance by alternative rock/pop group Fools for Rowan. “Burnt around the edges”, “Dead” Mullin’s vocal, Aron's bass and Jordan’s drum was still vibrating in the ear-drums and the vibe will be echoed inside the tributaries forever. As the bass get inside the ear-drum, it travels all the way through heart and soul, the physical body keeps on moving seamlessly, revamping and reincarnating spirit with triumph of happiness, excitement and enjoyment. Thank you guys! It was wonderful time. I loose couple of pounds!

Eric and I spend endless hours in Irish bar , taking about our dry ideologies and thoughts. Sometimes i used to drink coke, Eric likes Beer. It used to be all the way from social science to politics, from cartoons to science fiction, from celebrities to Nature, and from quantum technology to radio-active substances. As we see the world in mulch-facet and multidimensional way, it was really a tough job for us to come with some solid ideas to pacify our boiling thoughts.. It is  seamlessly interdisciplinary that has a discrete yet interrelated ideas and needs strong empirical justification , far more than quantification. We were trying to mess up sociology, economics, politics, international relations, nature, science and more importantly philosophy. Our ideas are reinforced by the susceptible and sustainable pillars of human, environmental and scientific values.

Common grounds has been the place for us to discuss the issues in free-time as we end up in playing with chess and drinking smoothies. Sometimes we play ping-pong in recreation center. Oh i learned how to swim! Yet I have to testify my null hypothesis.

The other day Eric taught me how to play poker!  I love it, he made me the gambler!..lol ;) No, that was my destiny..Oops..i should have been in Las Vegas.  And one day we end up in one of the so different house in carbondale, it was so scary and different.  I have never imagine life could be like this and people can be insanely crazy! I was so scared , finally we made out of the place at 4 in the morning and went to Eric house to sleep. Those were creepy yet scary  Friday nights in carbondale in the hot summer days.

The trip to Madison was fantastic. Oh.. i drove in the high-way for the first time. It was fun but a kind of scary-fun, a juxtapose. I have no idea how people can concentrate on driving like that. But i was more comfortable when we were coming back. 

We were lucky to attend reception ceremony of Nepali couples and was more suprised to meet one of my friend from Nepal. It was so amazing and suprising. World has been global place, you are going to meet someone whom you know wherever you go. In fact, Kathmandu is small and  has the strong social and cultural foundations that links Nepali society  perennially .  We went to see House on The Rock , it was fantastic place to see especially the infinite room, the kitchens and the lavish house itself built on the top of the rock. Then we went to see University of Wisconsin, Madison. Wow, the school looks great but i feel carbondale is better in terms of natural environment. We walked around the downtown madison, ate a pizza and took a bus to the university apartment. The previous day, i was more suprised when one of the guy acquainted with us and he asked about peace process in Nepal I  felt like world is keeping eyes wide open locally and globally.

The scuba diving was one of the most exciting adventure i ever had in carbondale and perhaps in my life. It was so much fun and interesting. At first i was scared as i even dont know how to swim properly but when we submerged inside and get assimiliated with artificial respiration system and appliances. It was so much to see the fish underneath the water, it was completely a different and exotic experiences. My instructor was awesome. I love it. Finally i have been in the surface of the earth for a long time, have fly entire world ! 360's, from East and West,  and down to the earth couple of meters in Scuba! awesome experience...

As we go to PK almost every friday night, we just get crazy and listen to local band. The clock goes to 2 in no-time and the summer was running out!.  The RSO  fair was so much fun as many people get signed  up in our RSO.

Finally, the first meeting of graduate students kicked off in Brian’s house. Thanks Brian for “Thesis-Mhessis”  It was lot of fun and the fall semester starts. Its going to be busy days again, intrinsically busy this time!! 

Enjoy the Fall and welcome back home Salukis.

P.S. ( As i am writing this blog, NYC is evacuated because of IRENE, please be cautious entire-east coaster's  we are with you ;)

After Six Months....

June 24, 2011

Carbondale, IL

The days have already started to creep, inherently long and dry, explicitly muggy and humid, life seem to freeze in the mid-day and waiting for more severe hot weather to experience. The hot weather has puffy effect in the life-style of an individual compelling them to stay inside office mansions or in an apartment. Nevertheless, days were extremely lousy most of the time but a kind of juxtapose culminated.

Trip of Kentucky to visit the biblical museum was not a noble idea proposed by Ben as we love to get indulged with atheism and secular humanism; however it was the decent idea to think the same from another facet of the cube, a metaphor for so hyped rapture. The trip was exciting when the Irene’s car got broke in the middle of highway, as we try to do drama of mechanic; the idea got flopped in no-time. Luckily, we were successful in reaching the workshop near-by with Eric’s calmness to drive, then got our car fixed and drive towards the museum. As we reach the museum, I was blatantly shocked by the comparison of Darwin’s Evolution Theory with God’s Evolution or Revolution Theory of seven days or whatever it is..!.  We walked through the each of the chambers, passing through the devout Christian each time; it was an embarrassing and illogical findings and comparisons that severely lack empirical reasoning. The movie they show at last not only undermines the achievement of human-kind in science and technology but on top of it, it uses the animation technology to describe the Christian religion and refuses to anticipate the development of science and technology. Later, we move to see the some horses and strange animals that make us feel better and finally we move towards our way after having wonderful Dinner at Meditarean, Louiseville, seeing the huge Ohio River and make our way towards Carbondale, Illinois.

The other day, Ben, Irene, and I made the wonderful hiking experience at the little Grand Canyon. It was such a memorable experience as we lost the trail and we got freeze inside the swamp. The mosquito bites seamlessly and the bruises were all over our body, a kind of scary experience but fully interesting, thrilling and adventurous when we lost the trail and had to walk straight through forest to reach parking lot.  As the Ben uses his compass compassionately, we were successful in making our way towards the parking lot and got surprised when we reach the place exactly from where we started it. It was lot of fun with so many bruises, at the end of the day, sleep was so strong and deep that I never realize it could be so beautiful and perfect unknowingly!!

The following day, we went to tear trail hiking. The hiking was very short but was memorable in a sense that we nearly got caught up by tornado when we were coming back. We got so surprised to see the power outage in the small town of Anna and sneak inside the rural ice-cream parlor to have strawberry ice-cream.

The other day, we end up in paddling boat in campus-lake and felt so sad when we saw couple of dead turtles floating in the water. Absolutely free-ride in US, never experienced something free like this!. The poor squirrel got fall from one of the tree near Campus Lake as we walking to the trail, it was staying standstill and we thought we have missed of the beautiful creature of this world. After waiting for a while, and getting disappointed about the pain of the innocent squirrel, I made the way towards it to see from near. Amazingly, squirrel ran away and head towards his/her home. Watching movie Panda in the theatre of University mall was another fun with full of laughter and amusement. It was after ages I have watched the movie like this but it was beyond my expectation and I enjoyed it so much.

Murphysboro Wine and Art Festival was so much fun with so many wine-stalls and music performed. I was so happy to see many peoples in the surrounding after a long time and it was amazing experienced as friends got drunk taking the sip of 36 different wines, they can taste! absolutely after paying the ticket price!

Band Perry performance in Herrin was one of the most wonderful moment I spend listening the live music in my life. With thousands of peoples and the beautiful weather, the chord of guitar looms far above the sky and echoes the ear-drums in the dawn. If I die young…., is a wonderful country side song sang by Band Perry, it just stretches further away very far away from this materialistic world making your tributaries in your mind relaxed.

Again, the sunset concert started this month and it was so excitement seeing another “Space Capone “band in the school. The chaos of coke and bear cans, the trash getting full in no time and crazy folks (including myself) dancing was so much fun, the indication of hot but beautiful moment of the year in door-step. It marks the end of six months in Carbondale, still inherently struggling hard to adapt in the academia and to enjoy free civilian life after a long military-service but the shadow is going farther away, melting faster than ever unknowingly.

The Wind Moves On..........

It was blatantly a horrifying and a thrilling experience when tornado was about to hit the Carbondale. As usual I used to hear the Tornado warning siren every Tuesday in the school and used to be curious of its importance and its existence in the beginning. The tornado passed through Carbondale that evening and It seems that peoples were so scared although I couldn’t realize what was going on as it swept away in the evening. It was an amazing and scary experience in the juxtaposition of inquisitiveness and fear as we get piled up inside our house and continue to check the website for the weather updates.

The school keeps on moving faster than before and I realized that everything is going to end soon, at least for a while. So there were lot of papers to write, many labs to finish and finals to take.  One of the weeks was the busiest week for me in the Carbondale, I became cunningly busy. It was an enjoyment and make me feel that time is moving seamlessly and endlessly. There were couple of field visits in different parts of town for the sustainable development class and I really enjoyed the surrounding of the school. Chef Bill’s interesting lecture about making the dining hall sustainability, GMO’s to Laura’s briefing on Organic farming. It definitely aided to visualize multidimensional facet of an environmental problems and social responsibilities. Although, I had never taken any classes in Human Geography, I felt it was the best class I had ever taken in my life although the hopes for sustainability cripples and creeps in horizon despite of global awareness in climate change. The advancement in technology and green technology practices we are adhering shows some glistening hopes ahead in contributing towards the sustainability of environment.

Secular student’s alliance picnic on May 3^rd at Giant City Park was fantastic.  As we move our caravan towards the park, it was beautiful dawn and we missed the way at first and were traveling towards the cemetery. Barbecue experiences and playing golf for the first time were amazing retrospection that would never get evaporated. Lot of barbecue parties was happening in the vicinity of the Carbondale.  The other day we went to Hanger 9 and It was wonderful experience listening country music.  It was a great time to cool down the grey matter after hectic weekdays.

The other day I met one of the students from Iraq who would be studying Physics soon.  It was a great time sharing each other’s experience about different facets of life. What are the barriers for non-English speaking students and how he is striving hard to make it work in short-time to start his PhD program? The park was a good place to explore the naturalism and It has already been my best friend to share the joy and happiness.  As we used to walk through the bank of reservoirs, the strong wind splashes into the water and it makes the reservoir lively. The fish starts to pop up and the fishing rods are ready! I was flamboyantly trying to understand the people’s keen interest in fishing. I would continue to dig more.

The poster completion was incredibly interesting and I made first poster in my life. It was a kind of accomplishment for me and I realized what are the basic things that I really need to take care of to make the poster. The department’s fare-well program was inspirational and we were happy to share the achievements of so many members inside our department.

Finally the semester was over and I am looking forward to start my summer ;) I felt I survived!!! for 140 days in Carbondale. Enjoy the beautiful weather and a summer ;)

After 100 Days

  It’s been more than hundred days now.  Life keeps moving faster than before, conspicuously with the insignia of hope and ambitions flying higher and faster than ever. The school keeps on making me busy and I was moving vividly in the vicinity of indulgent philosophy towards the rationalism of religious neutrality, boasting myself away from the religious fascist and materialistic wilderness of surroundings.

I was busier in starting the local chapter of secular student alliance. It was exciting and challenging task as the school doesn’t have that society. We keep on posturing and chalking around the campuses, engaging ourselves for endless meeting to make it happen. The Newton fish we chalked in the school were fading away slowly but we were more excited when we realize that more baby newton fish started to cripple eventually. It was a big motivation and synergy for us. Although, we didn’t expect large chunk of students who were interested in our group yet we were firmly committed towards the presence of the organization which is going to be milestone of our movement. 

The sustainable development lecture sound more interesting than before. As we watch the documentary Corporate – the hopes of sustainability were seamlessly at horizon and it was more than frustration, the ideal of ideality and the fictitious reality of environmentalist and green movement activists. The different buzz word really helped us to understand the multidimensional facet of sustainable practices yet looking around the capitalistic society, the receptions sounds inadvertently weak.

But the global impacts in the climate change is at alarming rate, the recent incident of leaking of radioactive elements at Fukoshima shows the havoc that is having a rippling affect throughout the globe in no-time, the worst nightmare for one of the  leader in the sustainable technology and a big challenge to the environmental scientists, economists ,and  political pundits. How the environmental ecology and catastrophe affect the social, economic and political equation?

The barbecue party, the cultural show and food festival was not merely a social event but it was the representation, collaboration, and cohesion among different countries to show up their food and cultural etiquettes in entirely a global arena. It was fun making the Momo whole evening – though I was not sure about how to make it ? It was merely breaking the tip of an iceberg and subsequently I learned a lot. Cultural and food festival were amazing. Thanks to the wonderful participation of many countries and especially our Nepalese counterparts for their amazing performance and showing the unity among diversity.

Retrospection of the last 100 days, there were environmental extremities that I encountered much with. As the silt and snowflakes fizzle away, it was exotic and adventurous event in freaking cold days. The last couple of weeks were extremely busy as the labs were infected with Trojans and viruses and that has to be cleaned with the strict protocols of IT department of school. It was long and tiring job but we were happy when the system was restored.

The weather was warming up and I could feel the heat coming far away. It was fun just walking in the park near-by and seeing the blue water in the reservoir where hundreds of ducks swims, laughs and smiles every day. The place where children play seamlessly, the environment where nature and human interaction was more natural than anywhere. It was just fun when seeing the matrix of the environmental entities and their actions envisioned in three-dimensional space. The worst thing about the park is all about fishing. I don’t understand how fishing could be such a great fun for the people. I would be exploring about it more in the days ahead.

The other day we went to watch the movie limitless directed by Neil Burger. Bradley Cooper  role as a young guy who got introduced with drug that will unfold the potentiality of human mind.  The movie was interesting to watch though it focuses more on materialistic empowerment rather than social and emotional manifestation an individual passes through with the sudden changes in body’s internal dynamics. The weird part of the movie was drinking the blood of human to inject a drug was not merely insane act but individual wish to survive till the last second.

As the spring was in our door-step I was busy in practicing and exploring new stuff I encountered in my life. The military attitude keeps on adherent and strong inside me and I have realized it will take some months if not years, if not decades to vaporize that has a deep legacy rooted inside.

After One Month

The change is inevitable. The change in life, the weather, the need, the perceptions and even ideologies changes with time although it has not been reflected so much inside and outside. It has been more than a month in Carbondale and still I am wondering about my past life and things I passed through. Each day is a new beginning for me with new sets of experiences and the life continues to be adventurous. The feelings of snowfall, walking in the snowflake, being a commuter in the university bus and just wondering in the middle of the class about my presence – being only the one international student in most of the classes were things that were happening so frequently and repetitively.


It is very usual for the temperature to go below the zero degree and life goes on even in extremes. We don’t feel it, people talks too much about weather and climate but again nothing is going to stop for the everyday business. The central heating system of the building won’t make you feel that the temperature is freezing outside.

I was lucky to get in touch with new friends and I have plenty of American friends. The assignments keep on bombarding and spoiling the precious time I am supposed to enjoy. The job has been so far very easy as my American friend is very friendly and she is teaching me so many things beside work. She is truly a friendly girl who has also been to India. She wants me to go to church with her some day. I am just trying to learn American perspectives in life, not trying to change the perception about religion that I have been adhering for long. Interestingly, there was first meeting of the secular humanist community and I took part in the meeting as I always dreamed of being member of larger community.

We went to the theatre in Carbondale to watch the Tourist. It was fun watching movies, it was not a big theatre but they were showing up many movies at a time. Going to the grocery every weekend has been part of the life. Buying online from Amazon has been something very easy and cheap. I was more excited when I got my first pay stub it made me feel that I am worthy somewhere globally and spatially – in geographic perspective. The other evening we had chance to watch another movie in the community center of our housing. The movie talks too much about Christianity but again it was a kind of new experience and had chance to meet many people’s from other part of the life.

Morris library and the recreation center were most amazing things of this school. When I went to the library for the first time, I was totally surprised, amazed and curious. It has so many resources and when you can reserve the book online it makes the life easier and feels how technology can help us to make our life beautiful. We often go to recreation center. Sometimes it’s fun to run in the track but most of the time we are playing badminton. It was beyond my imagination how these resources are made available to the students as I came from the resource crunched country.

The course sustainable development was really bringing lot of discussions and ideas among all of the participants. Most of the time, we were very busy working on assignments and reading papers. Truly, Sustainable Development really needs to be invented sustainably – still lacking fundamental and operational pedagogy to act somewhere in real world Sustainable development course was a course that needs lot of discussion and attention in the classroom. It really stimulates the intellectual debate and it makes me very busy as you have to read lot of materials. The other two courses are bit technical so it was not so difficult to adjust in the frequency.

Some of the interesting things have already happened, I didn’t know how to use the ATM Cards in McDonald, and the lady taught me. I am so grateful to her. Something very amazing thing happened when I went to student center on one of the chilling day; I saw that ATM machine was asking me for the next transaction? I was wondering what the heck this is. Then I clicked NO, then suddenly ATM card popped out from the machine, I was quickly looking for the lady who has just used that system. She was in the elevator down the way; I raise her hand and shouted. She realized that she missed it but was confused and nervous to use the elevator to come up that is going down. I signed her to come back from the other side of building. Finally, I got beautiful smile, she got her card. She must be from Asia Pacific.

Eating habit has been changed completely and I am wondering how it’s going to change after couple of months. So the changes are going on and on and I am just feeling and passing through it, some are very subtle, some are delicate, some are not coming back and some you feel that you can’t describe merely in words, it needs to be felt at the tributaries of your mind and its goes on and on…

Transition I

The Transition I

Even after traveling thousands of miles, the transition continues. I was really worried abut my long and hectic travel as I have to travel more than thirty six hours. Traveling for the first time in plane was fun after that it has always been the pain in an ass. The military attire and flashback continue to rule me even after months away from the discharge. Nevertheless, I was excited, thrilled, and tempted to start the academic career and family reunion in the new environment. The worst part of the travel was I lost the wallet. It was an antique and I didn’t have the precious thing beside few dollars and driving license from Nepal.

As I reached the Carbondale, the temperature was freezing. The following day, it   snowed. I was so lucky to feel the snow for the first time.  We played with snow; it was fun and amazement for the first time. Since the university is closed till fourth of Jan, I was not able to finish administrative processing’s. We went to Wal-Mart, International Grocery and other stores in the town. Carbondale is the small university town 5 hours away south from cosmopolitan city, Chicago by train or bus.

Evergreen Terrace is the student housing for the students with family. I was glad to see mom and dad. Later Shashi , Katy and Ella joined. Kabita was stucked in NY for couple of days because of snowstorm. Finally she was able to fly to St. Louis.

All of us were together and we enjoyed eating nepali food in the family. It was fun and excitement. We also visited university premises although it was closed. I went to geography department, there were lot of postures and pictures. Later we went to one of the Japanese restauarant in the town and we tried Japanese food. The other day we went to theatre in university mall and watched tourist. It was fantastic movie. Since we don’t know much about this small city so it was fun going here and there without knowing where we are going.

I still remember the Nepal and my job vividly although it has been the past like the year 2010. All I need to do is to cherish the New Year 2011 as the transition continues. Carbondale is going to be my home for at least next two years.

Happy new year to all of you..