The Questions of a Born Loser

It’s not that I didn’t try, I did. But I could only secure 73.25 percent in my SLC exams, while my friends secured distinction. There were others too, who didn’t even get first division. Now today that I think of them, I can’t even imagine how they are managing their life.

I don’t know how I knew it. But I knew that I should not study Science. It would have been a real struggle for me. So, I didn’t. Instead I went for Commerce, as I was somewhat comfortable with my math and accounting. My guardians also told me that Commerce would be best for me. I did too at the moment. But nobody could guess then that I might not even pass in Commerce. You see I always took learning to mean getting more knowledge and understanding the concepts within. Back then I didn’t know, getting passed in a subject actually meant showing what you learnt during a whole year in just 3 hours.

I’m not complaining here. I know that in lack of a better system of examination, the current system is what we have, and we will have to make do with it.

Anyhow, I passed out my college. But I couldn’t pass my bachelor’s degree. There I failed. I did manage to pass all my practical papers but the theory papers were different story. I don’t know if I never learned anything, or just that I never got, what actually, if not what I read in my classes, to put in those theory subjects’ exams. I could never pass those theory subjects.

But fortunately I would say, due to my not so strong financial backgrounds, my routine was not only limited to the college hours. I had to make some money too.

I still remember the time when I had to search a job for the first time. I don’t know how other countries fair in this, but in my country, believe me, searching a job in the start of your career is like searching gems in a riverbank. But my sister helped me out there.

I got a job for $50 a month. No, I am not bluffing here. And this wasn’t so far back too, I guess this was during 2010/11, I don’t know. And I did the job. I am not bragging here, but my employer was very happy with me. I had to work with a software there, which I never used before. And in just over a week, I managed to understand the software more than my employer himself. And after that, he started to come to me if he had any doubt. He even gave me extra 50% bonus over my salary during the holiday seasons that just happened to occur at that exact time. So, in 2 months, I managed to earn 3 months’ salary. But at the lapse of 2 months, when I asked my employer to raise my salary a bit, he didn’t agree. Maybe he was not happy enough after all. The office was some 25 kilometers away from my residence, and to attend the office punctually, I had to leave directly from my morning classes without getting to return to home for lunch. So, the salary I was getting wasn’t enough to cover for the bus fare and lunch outside. I had to leave the job, and so I did.

By now, I had quite some reputation in my class, as a very bright student. But my brightness was limited. I was bright in only practical subjects. Math, Accounting and Logic were my best hits. The reputation came in handy, when a fellow student introduced me to his elder brother, who worked as a local tax consultant. He hired me with great promises. Allured by the promises I gave him my best efforts and worked as bookkeeper in his firm. From 9 to 6, I used to sit in front of a computer and work. To prove that I am worthy of the job, I even used to take some work home with me and work until I slept. But, in just one month I had to leave the job. Actually what happened was, it was the season for filing tax returns. And I volunteered to work hard during the heavy work load only to be told that they don’t have any more jobs for me to pay me. I didn’t even get paid what was promised. By now I had a pretty good idea of accounting and bookkeeping.

Similarly, I worked in some other places too, none of where I felt my hard work properly evaluated.

Making the long story short, I borrowed some money from my sister to go study Chartered Accountancy in India. As it happened I failed twice in the 2^nd intermediate level. So, now I had to be financially strong to support my education. So, I returned to Nepal to find the most worthy employer of my entire life.

This time, I got a very generous and understanding employer. He used to value my work rather than my punctuation and other irrelevant things. Just give me the work and take the money you deserve, he used to say. His was a bookkeeping and taxation consultancy firm with not much work load. So despite how much I liked it there, I had to look for somewhere else where there would be more work load, so that I could get paid more.

And with the hope of getting the right market and more work load, I came to Kathmandu, our capital city.

I guess you know the rest of the story (which is not a happily ever-after one).

You ask me why I told you all this? You will tell me that other people have more pressing issues than this, and I should be content with what I have. Then please read on.

You see I wasn’t explaining my sorrows to you, no. I was just asking a question. If you didn’t see any question marks in the lines above, you should probably try to improve your English. Because in each line and everything I’ve stated yet, lies a question.

Where did I miss? What did I do wrong?

In my classes I was focused on learning something, rather than passing out the exams. So, if our education system don’t recognize my skills, where is my fault in that? But alas, these are the questions that I will never get answered. The ones who are willing to answer these questions are not in the position to answer them, just like me. And the ones who are in the position to answer them are content with the system, so they are not willing to answer the questions. So, I know I will not get my questions answered. But even though I will not stop asking.

Who is going to pay for my bills for me, if not myself? Am I so unworthy for failing my exams, that now I will not even get to live a decent life? Is the society so humane, as it claims, when the more capable people believe that it is their right to live a more content life than the ones not so capable like them? Have our society moved even an inch from the time when the more powerful people used their arms to extort people weaker than themselves? If a first division student thinks that he should lead a more luxurious life than a second division student, then how can we look back in history and claim that we have become more civilized and humane than we were a thousand years ago?

I know a lot of you will just ignore my questions claiming that even asking such questions is lame. But I know these questions are very authentic, because I raised them myself. Some of you will even refrain from reading even first paragraph completely, claiming this article is boring. Well, I wasn’t trying to entertain you.

For those of you who actually read the whole thing, and also aren’t too narrow minded to see the alternative approach of morality that I’m showing you here, I want to ask you, which category do you fall in? The one willing to change but not capable of, or the one capable to change but not willing to. Or is there a third category too, where people both willing and capable of change fall under?

I envy the ones more able than me and pity the ones less able than myself, I guess that’s just human nature!

Is Term Limit the right answer? - by DHAKAL

Some countries have prime minister as their head of the government, whereas some other countries are run under the governance of the president. Whoever is the head of the government, generally a major power is assigned to that official by the constitution of the country. USA is governed by a President as the head and India by a prime minister. But whoever heads the government needs to be elected (or nominated in some cases) by a voting procedure. Generally, the requirement to win the office is more than two third or more than half in some cases like USA.

But today I’m not discussing how this election process works. Instead I want to speak about the constitutional limit on how many times a person can run for the head of the government. India doesn’t currently have any restrictions as to that matter. But US does. Yes there is a limit. Any one particular person can’t be elected as the president for more than two times, known as tenures, in USA. This restriction is mentioned in the Constitution itself. So what do you think is the purpose of this restriction? This tenure limit in USA started, I think from the time of Franklin Roosevelt since 1951. And the purpose was to eradicate the possibilities of monopoly.

You see, a head of the government tends to have a great power. And with that power he can increase his chances of winning the office again and again. The rise of Hitler has to be considered as an equivalent example. Just because, the Indian PMs and other similar heads of other countries could not continue to become head of the country despite the lack of any such restrictions doesn’t mean that such restrictions are unnecessary. It just means that nobody yet has come with the strategic capacity to use this loop to his advantage. But somebody might. And that day, the country might follow the path of Germany via dictatorship.

The not so powerful Asian country Nepal is in its verge on promulgating a new constitution. Many Nepalese people are even insisting on following the ways of US instead of their neighboring country India, and putting the term limit for their prime minister in their constitution. But the issue is not so simple. Being of Nepalese origin myself, I know the tendency of most Nepalese people to take significant decisions, despite the lack of proper understanding and analysis. The term limit on such above mentioned offices doesn’t only have advantages.

Nepal has just escaped from the grasp of monarchy. And in doing so, it has also escaped from the authority and care of a king. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing. I’m just saying that, before now people didn’t need to choose the supreme power of the country by themselves. But now, they do have to choose who is going to rule over them and how and they have to choose wisely. Nepal is yet to face many stages of development via government by public choice. And one of them is corruption too. So, how can we ensure that a prime minister is going to perform his job responsibly? And how can we ensure that somebody does his job responsibly? Simple, by acknowledging their effort and rewarding their hard work and integrity. This is not just a method to be used in politics. Every business and management student knows that reward for good work and punishment for bad work is the surest thing to ensure that somebody does his work responsibly.

So, how can Nepal reward any government head for his good work? At least by not limiting his tenure limit via constitution. This is of course not enough. But at least this way there will be something that the prime minister will be looking forward to in order to do his work more nicely, don’t you think? I’m not a political expert, but this is the matter of very common sense, isn’t it? If you promise somebody a possibility of reward, then at least they might perform better.

But that’s still not the solution that I suggest to be put in the constitution. I have a far better solution to this debate.

But let’s summarize our debate first. If we don’t restrict the tenure limit to any significant office of government, then there is a possibility that the office with a great power can use its power to ensure its continued term in the office and that will be equivalent to dictatorship. And if we restrict the tenure limit to those significant office, then while on the last tenure of their service, the particular officials will have nothing to look forward as reward for their better performance, so they might go careless, or worse they might use whatever time period they have left in the office to secure wealth for personal interests and this way invite corruption.

My suggestion would be that the constitution should include in it a clause, which requires a higher portion of supporting votes to win the office, for any particular candidate, for each successive tenure.

If the requirement of a candidate to win as prime minister of the country is say two third, i.e. 67%, for the first time, and suppose he won. Then in his second tenure he should be required to secure a higher percentage let’s say 70% to become the prime minister. And if he won even that tenure, then in his third tenure he should be required to secure higher portion of votes still, may be 75%! And this increment should go on like this until he could no longer secure the votes required to be secured by him at the time. But other candidates who are running for the first time should enjoy the privilege to get elected just by two third votes, as this is their first time, and they don’t have the power like the already elected prime minister.

This will achieve two things. First, for every successive tenure the prime minister will perceive a chance, no matter how small, to win again in the next election. So, he will try to retain his good image by doing better work still. Secondly, as the requirement of votes in his favor gets on increasing with each successive tenure, he doesn’t have complete power to manipulate the next elections. May be he wins two or three tenures, but then there will always be somebody who votes against him. And if he gets on winning and even happens to secure unanimous vote in the extreme? This is simply impractical, but even if we consider such a scenario, then I think that’s the best thing we can hope for. What in the world can be better for a country then the whole people of the country being united under one leader. That will surely be the exemplary state in the whole world.

This clause in the constitution can actually be the problem solver. But will it reach the ears of the politicians in charge of writing constitution? Answer to that question depends solely upon the efforts of the readers of this post to make this idea public, and also upon the open mindedness and readiness of the politicians to break down the traditional ways and accept new things in new ways.

You see, no society lack great ideas, but only those get to be known as founders of great ideas who express those ideas first and actually work upon them.
                                                                                                       -DHAKAL

Avoid paying alimony after divorce

Marriage is a bond of love and trust. But if the whole structure of marriage is supported just by the financial threats of alimony, the juice from the marriage will dry up. If people have to be afraid of their spouse and remain dominated for the rest of their lives just because they might be sued for alimony, then the very essence of marriage won’t be present in the institution of marriage. So, how to sort out this issue?

There is now a tradition somewhere of making an agreement before marriage that would help you decide terms in case of divorce. This type of agreement is called premarital contract or prenuptial agreement. This type of contract before marriage will decide everything from alimony to terms of divorce and the process to be followed for it. Asking your fiance for a prenuptial just before marriage may not be that romantic. But it will surely show your open mindedness and understanding.

Drafting such agreements doesn’t show you are in any way doubtful of the marriage, it just shows that you are prudent and far sighted. It will also remove any restrictions from the institution of marriage so the marriage will be bound only by love.

Want to help poor kids study?

Your small help can really be a big change

The old car or any vehicle, you are using no longer might help a child somewhere complete their study. Your big heart can change the world slightly. If you are from states like Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Austin, San Antonio or even any states in USA, you can tow away your old car for free. And more you’ll also get the Tax Deductions if you donated to an IRS Approved 501 (c) 3, non-profit charity company.

In your donation 100% of the net proceeds go to the kids. You don’t even have to worry about the Paperworks. Such companies have staffs who are knowledgeable and friendly donation specialists.

Think of it. It is the way you are going to be able to help small children with their study and you’ll also get the highest possible tax benefits. They take your cars, trucks, vans, boats, motorcycles, RVs, campers, jet skis, forklifts, trailers, and also other any type of vehicle whether they are running or not.

These donation process are also DMV notified, so your vehicle title will get removed out of your name. And the main thing is there will be no cost to you in these donations. That means the donation is fully free of cost to you.

Don’t wait and think, that way some child is going to have to leave his education. Help, them and feel good that you’ve helped to change the world. And of course don’t forget to do the paperwork to collect your tax deductions.

Why give your car away for free?

Why give your car away for free?

Got any old cars or other vehicles that you don’t want anymore? Or buying a new car and thinking of disposing the old one? Well you can always donate your old vehicles to the charitable organizations around your locality, and they will repair it and make use of it in various charitable purposes.

Why give your car for free?

Technically, if you’re a tax paying citizen, then you’re not giving away your car for free. Your donation would sum up to a legitimate donation that will get you tax deductions while paying your income tax. Yes if you were to sell your car then you will have to pay tax for that income you generated by selling your car. But if you were to donate the car, its value will be regarded as a loss to you in computing your tax income. So, it will decrease your tax liability. Of course you’re not getting the full worth of your car this way, but then you get to have the feeling that you’re doing something good for your community and the needy people all around the world, for very low cost in your part.

Whom to give your car?

There are many charitable organizations dealing in donated vehicles. It’s a very long list. You can search one nearest to you by using internet browsing. There are also some manufacturers who take your cars as donated and repair them, and then give them to the charitable organizations on your behalf by taking from such charitable organizations only the repairing cost on their part. The legal works and gestures for your tax purpose will be easy enough as the charitable organizations have hired experts solely for the purpose to guide you through this process.

How will your car be used?

Either your car will be sold and the proceeds from there be used for some charitable purposes or they can also use your cars after a bit repair for transporting foods and other materials and even volunteers to places of need. This way your car can go different places helping the needy people around the globe.

Why donate at all?

The donations, for some people, seem unnecessary, not because they don’t want to help others but because they think that they can do this on their own without interference from any charitable organizations. They think they can themselves help poor people by giving away food to those poor people near them, or clothes or even shelter for that matter. But when you see the big picture there are places where there are people in need but nobody like you near them who can help them. And trust me they are in far more need than the poor people that you see every day. These are the victims of war or any natural calamities.

The role of the charitable organizations become vital here. They collect all the helps that people like you can give and take that help to the people in real need. A single man like you or a few man like you may not be able to help you but the purpose of the charitable organization is to make hundreds and thousands of people like you help those needy people. Only this way the help matters.

What is the big game in the game of thrones?

This has been the only question I have been asking myself from quite some time. I see people obsessed with Jon Snow's parentage, Daenerys Targaryen's return to Westeros, or else Tyrion’s chances of riding a dragon. Whereas the main character obviously lies north of the Wall, the crippled Bran, the broken (pun intended). And around that main character revolves the main question that needs to be discussed far more often than the parentage of Jon or the return of Dany to Westeros. Of course fans should have been the intentions of white walkers. Why they are coming and what will stop them. Yes, yes you’ll say of course the Valyrian blades I the hands of Westerosi warriors will stop them. But can they? Really?

I’m sure that Bran has to play a far more essential role than any other characters in the coming war of seasons, or gods as you might like to call it. The crippled needed to go over to the other side of the wall. And for him an escort team of two had arrived at the instructions of the three eyed raven. Nobody else (except for Stannis maybe) have got so much interest from any gods yet. And for those of you who think Brynden Rivers, the three eyed crow as some evil, black hearted deceptive guy, I can assure you that he is one of the most honorable man living in that world. Not honorable like Ned, who was so strictly attached to his ethical standards that he could not commit some not so honorable things even if that meant greater good. No, Ned did not quite understand that honor was to save the vulnerable and poor. No, he didn’t even think about risking his innocent daughters before protesting against Lannisters. Seriously if I were him I would have shut up for the realm and my daughters.

Brynden Rivers is different. For those of you who have already read ‘The Tales of Dunk and Egg,’ you know what I mean by different. In that book he was shown only at last for a brief part. But even I that short time you can know that the man is the purest one. And he is not afraid to taint his honor to do real good. Even in ‘A World of Ice and Fire,’ he is said to have killed a guest under sworn protection to end the long rivalry between black dragons and the red dragons, thus protecting the realm and its people from any future wars. For that same reason, later on, king Aegon, the Egg sent him to the walls. And even there he proved his worth and became the lord commander. How can someone be evil he spent half his life in the roots of a tree for some purpose. Such a purpose could never be unethical.

And the crippled boy whom Brynden Rivers sent for, imagine how valuable he has to be. Brynden is clearly worried about the coming war. And he also don’t think the warriors of the kingdom could save themselves and others from the soon ensuing war. And surely enough the CG’ied villains from the land of always winter (or much farther) are coming to kill or be killed.

At this point two things are clear. One the war seems inevitable. Another the living warriors could not by themselves win over dead warriors without some serious help from the supernatural. And even if we assume that Bran going fight among the livings against the dead, we know that he can control some animals and see in the past, future and everywhere else that there is to see, how exactly is he going to claim the victory that Martin will surely not deprive us of. Bran can’t possibly possess a lot of animals at once to fight against the dead. So, there remains only two things that Bran can do, and mind it what Bran is going to do is most essential in the coming war. Either seeing in the past or in the future Bran can somehow know more about the White Walkers, and inform Jon or somebody else about the strengths and ‘weaknesses’ of White Walkers. That task doesn’t seem to actually require Bran right. Anybody from the children of the forest can tell the night’s watch about Brynden’s findings, and they will of course believe the legendary children of the forest.

Or may be Bran is not just needed to gain and then provide to others the knowledge about Others. Maybe Bran has to do something that the children of the forest themselves couldn’t do, and Brynden couldn’t do it due to his frailty of age. Of course he will ride a dragon. There is no other answer to why he is so much essential for the coming War of Gods.

This my views only summarizes how Bran is going to play the biggest role of them all. Yet I also couldn’t still of any reasons why the Others are coming for this war. They surely don’t have a passion for war just to roam around in the territory of their ancient enemies with swords in their hands for fun. They have some purpose for coming here and they mean business. I won’t be surprised if they are back for revenge. But where were they this long? Hiding or preparing and gathering strength?

And don’t think Martin has yet issued any hints to that question. We will have to wait for other books to be published to know more about the nature and intentions of the White Walkers and an overview of the big game in the story.

Are we ready for the self-driving cars?

The technology around the world is evolving fast. And with the change, the science is producing many wonders for human convenience. Even the cars are now being made to drive by themselves. No human driver needed. And with it, the manufacturers claim, the potential of accidents due to human errors will also be diminished.

But the inevitable issue of the AI related technology also arises with the new invention. The issue of ethical dilemma. The long run debate of by what principal should we actually program the AI ethics. You might not actually know this but ethics is not so simple a matter. In many cases it’s actually very intense to point out what course of action would actually be right or better than all others. This confusion arises due to many existing principles for defining ethics. The Utilitarian approach among others is very widely accepted which stats that the best course of action is the one in which greater good is insured. But there are other approaches too. The Deontological approach states that the most ethical action is the one that best protects the rights of those affected in the situation. There are also other approaches, a combination of which can only decide for the true ethical action. But as I have already said that these approaches differ in their base, so the attitudes of people also differ in the concept of ethics itself.

So, the manufacturers of the modern technology are always in dilemma in one decision or other. Currently the debate is over how best the self-driving cars can be programmed so their action in each situation could be ensured to be ethical. But upon the survey that these manufacturers conducted to know the public view about the issue, their findings indicate towards a new emerging technological paradox.

Now let’s understand some crucial points in the programming of the cars. If the car happen to come upon a situation where either only the occupants of the car or only the people on the road could be saved, which action should the car take? The Utilitarian approach suggests that the number of occupants in real danger should be compared with the number of people on the road in real danger and the car should try to ensure the safety of maximum lives as best it could. But some ethical philosophers suggest that unlike the people on the road, the occupants actually agreed for the ride. The occupants, by occupying the self-driving cars actually agreed to a tacit contract that they are ready to bear any risks associated with the running of such cars in the road.

But however the logic is twisted, no one would actually agree to ride such cars which are programmed to their occupants in time of crises. So, the people in the survey, despite agreeing that the cars should save the people on the roads, no one agreed t actually ride such cars themselves. And therein lies the paradox.

The only road out of this paradox, I think is to make people understand how little there is any such chances of crises. The passengers are even today bearing such risks while travelling by airs or even the roadways. But the fact remains that in no way should a car try to save its occupants at ‘all’ costs. Some of such costs might actually turn out to be quite expensive for the people walking by the road sides who didn’t even benefit from this technological progress in the first place.