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

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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.