Subir Pradhanang

Another historic win for India, this time at the Gabba! By winning the finals of the CB Series 2-0 against the Aussies, it was a record of sorts for the Indians Down Under:

• their first ever tri-series win in Australia
• their first one-day championship win in Australia in 23 years since they won the world championship here in 1984-85

Taare Zameen Par (TZP) - an exceptional movie by the multi-talented Aamir Khan! I, along with Neer, Paru didi, Noora and Nishma, had gone to Kumari cinema the other day to watch this movie. All of us were really moved by the movie.

Aamir Khan confesses in the movie that he himself was a victim of dyslexia. But my intuition is that the story is based on the real life of Aamir Khan himself. He must have been through similar kind of stuff in the past.

What a turn-around at the WACA after what transpired in Sydney! Perth has the reputation of being the fastest pitch in the world. To beat Australia in Australia, more so in Perth itself is like winning the test world cup. They say that history repeats itself. So it did! A famous win at Perth for the Indians came in the way of the Australians who had been trying to register their 17th successive test match win. This time too, no team other than India came in their way to spoil their party like they had done in 2001 at the Eden Gardens.

This test will not only be remembered for Pathan's all-round performance, but also for other statistical reasons (not to mention Kumble's 600th test wicket). By beating Australia, India became:

• the first side to beat Australia anywhere since 2005 (since England beat Aus in Edgbaston)
  
• the first side to beat Australia in Australia since 2003 (since they last beat Aus in the Adelaide test)
  
• the first side to beat Australia in Perth since 2007 (since West Indies greats like Curtley Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop ran through the Australian line-up)
  
• the first sub-continent team to beat Australia in Perth with their first win here

With Australia leading the series 2-1 with one to go, the focus now shifts to Adelaide Oval where the fourth and final test of the series is to be played. It remains to be seen whether India would be able to carry on their inspired performance to Adelaide. The Aussies have been hurt by this defeat and would certainly come back with all guns blazing.

It's really good to know that the Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2007 prize, the XO laptop, has arrived in Nepal. But has it already? Too early to celebrate yet I guess as the customs people are giving us a hard time clearing it. I've already visited the post office in Sundhara three times this week, but with little success. Let's see when and how we can clear it.

As you may already know that FOSS Nepal Community had been declared one of the three winners of the SFD 2007 Best Event competition in November. The other winners were SFD Nicaragua 2007 Team and Beijing Software Freedom Day (China).

Update (Jan 14, 2008): Thank God, we finally got the XO machine today after one week from the date of its arrival to Nepal! Also bundled with it are some t-shirts, stickers, notebooks from Google, one of the prizes sponsor.

After receiving an invitation for a livejournal account from our very own nepbabu , I finally decided to put some of my happenings online. This is the first time I'm actually trying to do so though I'm not particularly good at it :). Am starting off with our one-day trip to Sindhupalchowk last week on December 31st though I don't have the pictures of the trip with me at the moment (will upload them once I get hold of them from Roshendra).

Roshendra, Dayaram and I were the ones who made it to Sindhupalchowk last week along with Hari ji of Save the Children Norway, Nepal (SCNN). It was for a site survey of Koldoung Devi (कोल्दौङदेवी) school in Thumpakhar (थुम्पाखर) VDC of Sindhupalchowk district, where a pilot project of ltsp deployment is to be done with the support of SCNN. It has to be termed as one of the most memorable trips for all of us. After two and a half hours drive, we reached the Thumpakhar VDC, where the office of SCNN's local partner, Tuki Sangh (टुकी संघ) was and from where we had to trek for about one and a half hours to reach the school. While Hari ji stayed there in Tuki Sangh itself for his work, the rest of us were guided to the school by a lady teacher of the school starting from the point of trek. Though not easy to go up the hill, it was real fun moving up enjoying the natural sceneries of Nepal.

Sindhupalchowk, which is not that far a place from Kathmandu as compared to other places, seemed so remote to me. If it seems like that, then we can well imagine how the other remote places must be which take more than 2-3 days of trek to reach. It was good to see so many kids attending the school in such a 'remote' area. The teachers were receptive and the hospitality was great. We stayed in the school for about 2-3 hours knowing more about the school, its facilities, etc. By the time, we started to get back from the school, it was already 4:45 and we had to trek back for about one hour or so to get to the point where our vehicle was. It had already become dark when we reached there and Hari ji was waiting for us get back to Kathmandu.

We briefly stopped by in Dolalghat to have a cup of tea while coming back like we did in the morning while going. Neer, didi (who's here in Nepal from New Zealand with her kids for holidays) and others were already waiting for me in Thamel to celebrate New Year's Eve. As it was already late (around 9pm) when we reached Kathmandu, I was so disappointed not to have been able to join them in time to celebrate it :(