Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus was trying to escape punishment after killing his nephew Talos. He escaped from the king of Athens and travelled to Crete where King Minos welcomed him. He built wonderful buildings for King Minos and created a labyrinth below the city. King Minos was pleased with the labyrinth but he did not want anyone to know the way in or out. He decided that he would imprison Daedalus and Icarus to protect his secret.
 

They soon got fed up and decided to try and escape again. Daedalus made frames and fastened feathers to them. They learned to fly and prepared to escape. Daedalus told Icarus not to go high, to keep right away from the sun.

They climbed up onto the windowsill, leapt into the air, started to fly and soared away into the clouds. They went up and down, twisted and turned. Icarus got so excited that he left his father. he went higher and higher. His father shouted for him to come down.

The sun saw Icarus getting close. He turned his rays onto Icarus. Icarus tried to get back down, but too late. The sun melted the wax that held the feathers in place and Icarus' wings fell apart. He fell to the ground and died.

Greek Mythology

Narcissus

The story of a young Greek boy who fell in love with his own reflection.

 

Narcissus was a beautiful looking boy. He had long, flowing, blond hair, beautiful, bright, blue eyes and even, white teeth. Many young ladies fell in love with him including the nymph; Echo.

Nymphs were lively spirits who lived near streams and lakes and protected trees in the forest. Echo had upset the Queen of the Gods; Hera. As a punishment Hera made Echo unable to speak except to repeat the last three words of the person she was talking to.

Poor Echo fell in love with Narcissus but could never tell him how she felt. Narcissus teased her and she ran away with tears pouring down her face. Aphrodite, the goddess of love saw what happened and decided to punish Narcissus. As he came to a pool of water Narcissus saw his reflection and fell in love with the vision he saw...it was of course his own reflection.

Poor Narcissus watched his own reflection, every time he tried to touch the face of the vision he loved it broke up on the shimmering surface of the water. Narcissus stopped eating, lost his beautiful looks and pined for his love. Eventually he faded away and died.

Aphrodite took pity on him and made a flower grow in his place on the bank of the lake. Narcissus flowers can be found to this day growing wherever you can find water and trees.

Greek Mythology

Rescue At The Sea

Several years ago in a small fisherman village of the Netherlands, a young man has taught the world about a reward that a person can get from putting aside one's own needs.

 

 

All of the people in the young man's village earned a living in fishing industry; therefore, volunteers for rescues were so much needed in emergency situations.

One night, the wind blew strongly, the clouds moved so quickly and a great storm almost drowned a fisherman's boat. In panic and fear, the ship's crew sent signals of danger, S.O.S.

The captain of the rescue team sounded the alarm and the villagers gathered looking at the harbour. When the rescue team ran their boat and tried to pass through the wild wave, the villagers waited at the shore while feeling worried, with lanterns on their hands to give light to the way back. An hour later, the rescue boat returned and the villagers cheered happily to welcome them.

As they exhaustedly fell on the sand, the volunteers reported that the rescue boat was not capable of taking more passengers with them and they have left one person back there. If they had taken the person, the rescue boat must have drowned. Even though it was only one person, he could endanger the lives of all of the passengers. The captain asked one more group of volunteers to save the person who was left behind.

Hans, a young man of 16 years of age stepped forward.

However, his mother held his arm and begged, "Don't go. Your father died in a shipwreck 10 years ago and your older brother Paul has been missing in the sea for 3 weeks. Hans, you're the only one I've got."

Hans replied, "Mother, I have to go. What would happen if all people say, I can't go, let others do it? Mother, this time I've to do my duty. When there's a calling for serving, we all have to join and play our role."

Hans kissed his mother, joined the rescue team, and soon disappeared in the darkness of the night.

A few hours has passed, but for Han's mother it felt like forever. Finally, the rescue team's boat returned with Hans standing at the edge of it.

 

Clasping his two palms, the captain shouted, "Have you find the person?"

 

Not being able to restrain himself, Hans shouted excitedly, "Yes, we've found him. Tell my mother he's my brother Paul.

A Simple Prayer

My son Gilbert was eight years old and had been in Cub Scouts only a short time. During one of his meetings he was handed a sheet of paper, a block of wood and four tires and told to return home and give all to "dad."

That was not an easy task for Gilbert to do. Dad was not receptive to doing things with his son. But Gilbert tried.

Dad read the paper and scoffed at the idea of making a pine wood derby car with his young, eager son. The block of wood remained untouched as the weeks passed.

Finally, mom stepped in to see if I could figure this all out. The project began.

Having no carpentry skills, I decided it would be best if I simply read the directions and let Gilbert do the work. And he did. I read aloud the measurements, the rules of what we could do and what we couldn't do.

Within days his block of wood was turning into a pinewood derby car. A little lopsided, but looking great (at least through the eyes of mom).

 

Gilbert had not seen any of the other kids cars and was feeling pretty proud of his "Blue Lightning," the pride that comes with knowing you did something on your own.

Then the big night came. With his blue pinewood derby in his hand and pride in his heart we headed to the big race.

Once there my little one's pride turned to humility. Gilbert's car was obviously the only car made entirely on his own. All the other cars were a father-son partnership, with cool paint jobs and sleek body styles made for speed.

 

A few of the boys giggled as they looked at Gilbert's, lopsided, wobbly, unattractive vehicle. To add to the humility Gilbert was the only boy without a man at his side. A couple of the boys who were from single parent homes at least had an uncle or grandfather by their side, Gilbert had "mom."

As the race began it was done in elimination fashion. You kept racing as long as you were the winner. One by one the cars raced down the finely sanded ramp.
 

 

Finally it was between Gilbert and the sleekest, fastest looking car there. As the last race was about to begin, my wide eyed, shy eight year old ask if they could stop the race for a minute, because he wanted to pray. The race stopped.

Gilbert hit his knees clutching his funny looking block of wood between his hands. With a wrinkled brow he set to converse with his Father.

He prayed in earnest for a very long minute and a half. Then he stood, smile on his face and announced, "Okay, I am ready."

 
As the crowd cheered, a boy named Tommy stood with his father as their car sped down the ramp. Gilbert stood with his Father within his heart and watched his block of wood wobble down the ramp with surprisingly great speed and rushed over the finish line a fraction of a second before Tommy's car.

 

Gilbert leaped into the air with a loud "Thank you" as the crowd roared in approval.

The Scout Master came up to Gilbert with microphone in hand and asked the obvious question, "So you prayed to win, huh, Gilbert?"

To which my young son answered, "Oh, no sir. That wouldn't be fair to ask God to help you beat someone else. I just asked Him to make it so I don't cry when I lose."

Children seem to have a wisdom far beyond us. Gilbert didn't ask God to win the race, he didn't ask God to fix the outcome, Gilbert asked God to give him strength in the outcome.

When Gilbert first saw the other cars he didn't cry out to God, "No fair, they had a fathers help."

No, he went to his Father for strength.

Perhaps we spend too much of our prayer time asking God to rig the race, to make us number one, or too much time asking God to remove us from the struggle, when we should be seeking God's strength to get through the struggle.

Gilbert's simple prayer spoke volumes to those present that night. He never doubted that God would indeed answer his request. He didn't pray to win, thus hurt someone else, he prayed that God supply the grace to lose with dignity.

Gilbert, by his stopping the race to speak to his Father also showed the crowd that he wasn't there without a "dad," but his Father was most definitely there with him. Yes, Gilbert walked away a winner that night, with his Father at his side.

From: heartnsouls.com

A Pillow and A Blanket

A long time ago, a young, wealthy girl was getting ready for bed. She was saying her prayers when she heard a muffled crying coming through her window.

 

A little frightened, she went over to the window and leaned out. Another girl, who seemed to be about her age and homeless was standing in the alley by the rich girls house.

Her heart went out to the homeless girl, for it was the dead of winter, and the girl had no blanket, only old newspapers someone had thrown out.

The rich girl was suddenly struck with a brilliant idea. She called to the other girl and said, "You there, come to my front door, please."

The homeless girl was so startled she could only manage to nod.

As quick as her legs could take her, the young girl ran down the hall to her mothers closet, and picked out an old quilt and a beat up pillow.

She had to walk slower down to the front door as to not trip over the quilt which was hanging down, but she made it eventually. Dropping both the articles, she opened the door.

Standing there was the homeless girl, looking quite scared. The rich girl smiled warmly and handed both articles to the other girl. Her smile grew wider as she watched the true amazement and happiness alight upon the other girl's face. She went to bed incredibly satisfied.

 

In mid-morning the next day a knock came to the door. The rich girl flew to the door hoping that it was the other little girl there. She opened the large door and looked outside. It was the other little girl.

 

Her face looked happy, and she smiled. "I suppose you want these back."

The rich little girl opened her mouth to say that she could keep them when another idea popped into her head.

 

"No, I want them back."

The homeless girl's face fell. This was obviously not the answer she had hoped for. She reluctantly laid down the beat up things, and turned to leave when the rich girl yelled, "Wait! Stay right there."

She turned in time to see the rich girl running up the stairs and down a long corridor. Deciding whatever the rich little girl was doing wasn't worth waiting for she started to turn around and walk away.

As her foot hit the first step, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder, turning she saw the rich little girl, thrusting a new blanket and pillow at her.

"Have these." she said quietly.

These were her own personal belonging made of silk and down feathers.

 

As the two grew older they didn't see each other much, but they were never far from each other's minds.

One day, the Rich girl, who was now a Rich woman got a telephone call from someone. A lawyer, saying that she was requested to see him. When she arrived at the office, he told her what had happened.

Forty years ago, when she was nine years old, she had helped a little girl in need. That grew into a middle-class woman with a husband and two children. She had recently died and left something for her in her will.

"Though," the lawyer said, "it's the most peculiar thing. She left you a pillow and a blanket."

From: heartnsouls.com

A Mad Elephant

Buddha never forgot the promise he make to king Bimbisara to return and give him teachings. So when the time was right, he journeyed to Rajagriha.

 

Outside this royal city was a hill called Vulture's Peak, and Buddha and many his disciples went and lived in caves there.

King Bimbisara often went to Vulture's Peak to hear the words of the Buddha. The people of the city went also, and soon the number of Buddha's followers grew very large.

After some time, the King and several other rich people gave Buddha and his followers parks where everyone could stay and listen to his teachings in comfort.

Buddha's cousin, Devadatta, became very jealous. "He has so many people following him, " he thought, "and everyone shows him so much respect. But they all ignore me, and I am as great as he is. I must destroy him !"

He knew that he would need help in killing the Buddha, so he went to King Billiards's son."Don't you want to be King ?" he asked.

" Why should your father have all the wealth and power ?" Come, if you help me kill the Buddha, I shall help you kill your father. Then you can become King in his place." The King's son listened to these wicked words and agreed.

Then the two of them tried many ways to murder the Buddha.

One day, while Buddha was sitting in meditation near Vulture's Peak, they rolled a very large boulder down the hill towards him. But just before it was going to crush him, the rock split in half, leaving Buddha unharmed.

Another time, Buddha was walking through the city with several of his closet disciples.The two men knew he was coming and were ready. They had bought an elephant and gave it lots of liquor to drink.

When the elephant was quite drunk, they beat it with sticks until it was crazy with anger. Then they released it in the direction of the Buddha, hoping the elephant would trample him to death.

When the disciples saw the enraged elephant charging towards them, they ran away in fear. All except Ananda, Buddha's closet companion, who stayed by his teacher's side, holding onto Buddha's robe.

Buddha saw the elephant coming and , instead of being frightened or angry, felt great love and pity for the poor beast.

Even though the elephant was drunk and crazed, it felt the power of Buddha's love.It stopped charging and walked over to the Buddha meekly, and then bowed down its large head at Buddha's feet.

Buddha patted the elephant gently an turned and said to Ananda,"The only way to destroy hatred is with love. Hatred can not be defeated with more hatred."

This is a very important lesson for all to learn."

From: heartnsouls.com

When My Fingers Grow Back?

A man came out of his home to admire his new truck. To his puzzlement, his three-year-old son was happily hammering dents into the shiny paint.

The man ran to his son, knocked him away, hammered the little boy's hands into a pulp as punishment. When the father calmed down, he rushed his son to the hospital.

Although the doctor tried desperately to save the crushed bones, he finally had to amputate the fingers from both the boy's hands. When the boy woke up from the surgery & saw his bandaged stubs, he innocently said, "Daddy, I'm sorry about your truck." Then he asked, "but when are my fingers going to grow back?"

The father went home and committed suicide.

From: heartnsouls.com

The Three Hairs

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. "Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today." So she did and she had a wonderful day.

 

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head. "Hmmm..," she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today." So she did and she had a grand day.

 

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head. "Well," she said, "Today I'm going to wear my hair in a pony tail." So she did, and she had a fun, fun day.

 

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. "YAY!" she exclaimed. "I don't have to fix my hair today!"

Attitude is everything. Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle. Live simply, Love generously, Care deeply, Speak kindly.

 

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to dance in the rain.

 

From: thestorytelling-resource-centre.com

Who Owns The Air?

Wyoming is a Red bastion! They have only voted thrice for a Democratic candidate throughout their history, and the last time that happened was in the 60s. So this year was no different. Every media predicted the election to be fierce one… neither candidate could be considered front runner… so their fate was to be determined by the swinging states. North-East and West was all blue, South and Mid-West was all red… and much depended on the swinging states mainly California (?), Florida (?), Ohio and Colorado… which had huge chunk of electoral college votes… most of them turned blue and President Obama was re-elected with 303 votes to Mitt Romney’s 206! ps: Final vote count Obama 332, Romney no change! [11/10/12]

 

The Next Day

Professor Alexander is a self confessed Republican. So her class began with the election results… she was upset but still had her smile intact as usual. She was teaching ‘Rules and Gains from Trade’ in her Economics class… “in Wyoming and Montana if the oil or gas is discovered under someone’s land, that would be a public property, i.e. the land belongs to the owner but the resources underneath to the state or public…” so she asked:

“Who owns the air?”

Greg: "O-B-A-M-A!"

The whole class erupted in laughter, including Professor Alexander! The way it came up, the tone, the mood... second to none. 

Post script: Now don;t ask me why I don;t complain going to school at 8 in the morning all this year! 

From Heaven to Northglenn

“There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go.” - Tennessee Williams
 

I should consider myself lucky in that case as I have both the reason and a place to go. So that eventual day finally came. Most of the people back home asked me if I would ever return. Some suggested I should never, citing the crisis that loomed over the country.  And some suggested ‘you should call Mamu-Daddy to US as well”… and what not… I did nothing but listened… and that’s the best thing you can do when the suggestions outnumber the people… that is more or less typical Nepali way, listen from one ear and let it pass from the other!

I was running out of time… had hard time getting the tickets... classes were to start on 27th August with orientation on 22nd… Professor Saffer was happy that I was finally coming, so he wrote that I need not worry about the orientation too much… after much ado, finally got my tickets confirmed. August the 18th, Kathmandu – Abu Dhabi – Dublin – Chicago and finally Denver… now it was a 36 hour affair, with transits ranging from 4 to 6 hours, across three continents. I was short of time but made sure I could meet as many friends as I can from both work and college. Then there was shopping. Arguments what to take and what not to… and I was like ‘It is me who is going, I will decide!’… I was imagining having hard time carrying those luggages, so didn’t want to carry much until I felt it was important.

18th August

I remember humming ‘Leaving on a jet plane’ in my head and call it a coincidence or what it matched my situation as well as was written by John Denver who was christened the name Denver after the place where I was heading. Bimla Di joined us to the airport. The best part, no one cried. My SIM expired just a day before, but I was still carrying my phone. Stupid, I was. Checked in. Waited in the lobby… On, on and on. The flight was delayed. Most of the fellow passengers were Nepali heading to the Gulf for work. I took out my camera from my hand carry hoping I could get few snaps. My bad! I left the battery on the luggage. Got one or two snaps from my phone but with too many prying eyes, I felt awkward!

After an hour and half the aircraft finally arrived. I was happy as now I would have less transit in Abu Dhabi due to that delay. Boarded the plane… Asked the guy seating next to me if he could lend me his phone so I could call home. Turned out to be a good fella. Kilo One. Kilo Two. I was done. I won’t say the airhostesses were out of the world but they were mmm… graceful and a bit pretty. You had a limited range of movies to choose from. But I could neither fall asleep nor felt like watching movies. Time and again the air-hostesses passed by, that kept me occupied. Ha ha… just kidding.

Abu Dhabi, UAE

Finally felt relieved to know two fellow Nepali students who were heading to US as well. Bishan heading to Virginia  and Elena heading to Washington, the state not the district. And an elderly couple going to meet their son in Oklahoma. Bishan was heading to US via London and rest of us were on the same route till Chicago. Abu Dhabi International Airport was huge!  And the best part, they have internet kiosk. So there we were busy updating our status in Facebook, sending messages, bla bla bla. That was a good time pass. But then the lobby was so damn cold… I mean the temperature must be something negative… donno if those Emirati were fond of that cold a temperature! Forgot to say, Etihad serves awesome food!

En route to Dublin my eyes were set on the screen that showed our current position. The sun rose when we were flying over Romania. I was matching the places outside with the map on the screen. Danube went winding. Germany. And here we crossed the English Channel. Once we crossed the mainland Britain, the sky turned foggy. Fog. Fog. Fog. Everywhere.

Dublin, Ireland

Dublin, Ireland

I wonder if I am half Irish… but now I feel like…  flying over the cotton clouds, crossing the misty Irish Sea, the aircraft headed to Dublin… I could see some idyllic islands off the Dublin coast… the first my eyes had sighted in real… that felt nostalgic… as of now those islands are still implanted in my memory… they will remain there for eternity, probably. The aircraft hovered around Dublin and my eyes were wide open, felt as if they forgot to wink… mesmerized by the beauty of Dublin that radiated with the early morning sun. Organized settlements, beautiful houses, black-topped smooth roads, green pastures, and white sheeps dwelling in the farm basking the sun… it was surreal… was I dreaming? I don’t know… but it was something like ‘luff at first sight.’

By this time my head made no sense of the time zone… it was entangled somewhere in the meridian… what I always remembered was, I will land in Denver at 5:45 pm Mountain Time… nothing else. At Dublin International Airport we were to check out from Etihad and catch the American Airlines (AA)… as we came out through the tunnel, there was a lady from AA who just marked everyone going to the US and told us to follow her… and we did… but she walked so fast that she disappeared somewhere in between.

The Eire Fiasco

It was a clear sunny morning in Dublin… had three hour long transit and I was hoping it to pass smoothly… but maybe God had some other plans on store, again… the old couple checked in and entered the lobby of American Airlines, just when I was about to check-in, the staff told Elena that she needs to get her boarding-pass first. I had all four boarding passes of mine but she got only two from the staff at TIA… so since there was enough time and trying to be a Good Samaritan, I decided to help her out and didn’t check-in…

US Custom Official, Ireland

Running here and there, being in line, time and again… cleared the immigration. STAMPED. I literally checked out at Dublin Airport. Tell you what? Ireland was AWESOME! Even that caps lock fails to tell how impressed I was with Dublin… feels like I can recognize an Irish anywhere around the globe, any day… their eyes, their hairs… that is something distinct… maybe that’s how they differentiate themselves with the English!

Finally Elena got her boarding pass… but by then a lot of time had passed… we were not sure about the time… thought we had little, so we hurried… take off your shoes, get your hand carry checked and check in again… we were running out of time… ran to the Terminal 2… but damn I too needed to follow the due diligence and fill up the form since I checked out… told the officer we were late for the flight, he helped us breach the line… filled up all the forms, security checks and all that in haste… Oops! Now they had another stricter one... face verification, finger prints and all that… I was worried, literally… ‘From the frying pan into the fire!’… And here we ran again… as the flight was already announced…

Another cross examination before boarding… looking at my passport the officer enquired – why did I leave the airport, did I meet anyone outside and all that almost got me a mini heart attack… I regretted helping the fellow passenger… I was like “is there anything wrong Officer?’… he was like – “we are cross verifying in the system” and all… stapled few papers on my passport… finally I was done… almost 15 minutes… that was nightmare… when I tried to head towards the craft, they told me to sit in the lobby… ‘The flight has just landed, there will be announcement for boarding after a while”… I was relieved, finally… and there they were the elderly couple, in the lobby waiting as well… I survived.

Dublin to Chicago

Aerial view of Greenland

Turned out that long due diligence was conducted by US Preclearance facility, as we were boarding on an American Airline from Dublin and the facility was in operation to reduce the workload in airports located in mainland America… took a long breathe after I was finally seated in the plane… but what… the Aircraft was no match to Etihad, smaller, less spacious, older air hostess/host… but I was happy to be boarding… I was not lucky to have a seat by the window… phew stuck in the middle… so finally bade farewell to Eire!

Clear morning blue sky… the craft headed west over the Atlantic… I tried to fall asleep, but couldn’t… the lady next to me was busy with her Sudoku… she was amazing… she finished them off as if she was flipping it… I tried to trace some out, that was difficult… she was mind-blowing! There were few children seated by the window who were going back home after their vacation in Ireland… lucky them… and then came the time, my first encounter with the American food… awww… cultural shock! The taste, the aroma…

After flying for some hour, there was a buzz… everyone was looking outside… Greenland! We were flying over Greenland!!! … I don’t know who came up with the name of that largest island on earth… there was snow everywhere… and yea could see some polar bears on their long march to the North Pole, probably… but not a single trace of life or color green… Finally, here came Chicago… bustling city, the craft hovered over the city for sometimes, maybe waiting for the runway to clear…. Dang! Here we landed…

Chicago, Illinois

O'Hare Airport, Chicago, IL

O’Hare Airport was huge! Cafeterias all around, with that American aroma, huge crowd… and that aisle with flags from countries all around the world… that aroma almost made me puke! Before we all headed to our destination we went to collect our baggage… waited for a while, but it never came… other fellow passengers got their baggage but ours was nowhere to be seen… after little enquiry, we were told that we only have to collect our luggage in the final destination… the elderly couple’s flight to Oklahoma was after 3 hours, mine was 2 hours and Elena’s was one and a half or so… so we went looking for our terminal… got them traced out… we bade farewell… and from then it was all down to me, alone.

In the final moment there was change in the terminal… rushed to the different one at the other corner… people were busy using the free WiFi on the floor, I was enjoying that… time passed by… finally headed to the aircraft for my final destination, Denver. The craft was way too small… I can’t expect a domestic craft to be as big as an international one and it does depend a lot on the destinations as well… how big the city is and all that… so here it was a craft with around 30 people to accommodate… I was damn tired… hadn’t slept for more than 2 hours in two days… the duration of the flight to Denver was two hours… and most of the passengers were lads this time… ten minutes or so after the flight took off, I was off to my dream… I don’t have any idea what went in between… finally got up fifteen minutes or so before the plane finally landed in Denver International Airport… looked like it was bigger than O’Hare…

Denver, Colorado

I was expecting mountains but turned out Colorado was one flat land… too huge a valley with mountains on its periphery… Switzerland of the US? Didn’t know where to head after I landed in DIA… took the elevator… wasn’t worried about my luggage getting lost at all… everyone took the train, so I followed… when I got out! There she was! My Sister! Had waited too long for that moment! Left Kathmandu on 18th at 6:00 pm and here I was in Denver at 5:45 pm (Mountain Time) on the 19th. Finally got the luggage and we headed to Northglenn!

From Heaven to Northglenn!

I Have Never [First Update]

I am updating this post exactly 8 months after I first uploaded it. When I went through this post lately, I wondered how things have changed in these months. And when I look at myself, I wonder how many new things I have done in past two months or so... left my home to study abroad leaving my family behind, cooked for the first time, went for white-river rafting in the Snake river, made new friends, and what not... so I just thought this post needs an update now! So, here it goes.. 

Jumped Out of a plane or a bridge - No plans to jump from a plane but yes hope to jump from a bridge soon! Bungee!!

Touched Snow – Have seen the snow covered mountains all these years but never touched the real ones. Witnessed the snowfall in Kathmandu some years back though. Update - Wyoming is almost synonymous to snow, they say it is covered with snow for almost 7-8 months of the year. When Laramie received the first snow shower I was a bit worried how would I survive a winter that long. But the next time when we had a snowfall, I kind of started loving it... it feels good going out there and enjoying it. So, it's a 'yes' now.

Smoked – NO!

Owned a camera – Yes, three at present, would love to own a DSLR.

Been to a Gym- Never, but people who have seen me think I should LOL.

Seen a Lion or Tiger – Yes but not apart from those I have seen in the zoos.

Applied for US Diversity VISA - 99% of Nepalese have probably applied once, I have

thrice. Update - Everyone does, so did I... actually just got lucky to fill up the form the very last day, yesterday. Finger crossed.

Applied for VISA of any country – Not yet, hope to. Update - YES! YES!! YES!! I am the same guy who got lucky the 'third time'.

Seen an Ocean - Not yet, but I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. Update - Saw the Atlantic from the air... wondered why the air between Great Britain and Eire was covered with a heavy fog.

Been Abroad – Yes, if visiting Raxaul in Indo – Nepal border counts else not. Update - Abu Dhabi, UAE during transit, but in Dublin, Eire I actually checked-out to help a fellow traveller... does that count? Ireland was awesome... I feel like I can recognize an Irish anywhere around the globe! 

Been to a discotheuqe – Never.

Met a Chinese - LOL. Met few at work. Update - Oops! This place has more Chinese than Indians, so I've met few here as well.

Seen an actual theater play – Had plans to visit Gurukul but never made it.

Drank Beer - Can’t stand the smell of that shit!

Been on a plane – Yes few times. Update - Etihaad is perfecto! But had hard time falling asleep, Kathmandu to Abu Dhabi and Abu Dhabi to Dublin was good. But the American Airlines from Dublin to Chicago, and then to Denver was like... umm... I got the reality check... American food!! I felt like puking with the very smell... now I am used to it.

Bunked – Few classes.

Been on TV Camera – Never, don’t wish to. Update - Actually they do record our presentations in class but due to some technical glitch we have not been able to go through those recordings.

Had a Crush - LOL. Twice to be exact. Update - Bring it on!!! LOL

Had a Credit Card – Yes.

Celebrated Birthday – Yes, with family but not with friends.

Received gift ever from anyone - I have but, of course, would be happy to receive more! So someone send me too!

And Last one,

Ever been admitted in a Hospital – Fortunately, not yet.