Why We Like What We Like

Central argument: Alva Noe argues that people act the way they do because of the influence of their environment they are in rather than being what they would like to be. This is one of the very few interesting articles that I have read and I completely agree with Noe because I know that a lot of people act the way they do because of some influence and not out of originality.

I have a stack of fashion magazines back home and every season me and my friends go through it and see what's "hot" for that season and then we shop accordingly. At one point this winter one of my friends also pointed out that she wouldn't be able to survive a day out if it weren’t for the super amazing fashion magazines. Come to think of it, I think those magazines have controlled our minds along with a lot of other sources that I will talk about later on.

We, especially us teenagers, want to fit in the society and be as popular as we can. To achieve that, we have to act accordingly and one of the easiest way of doing it is by dressing up the popular way. My mom jokingly told me to save up all my clothes for my children as fashion runs in a cycle and what is popular today could be popular in the next 20 years or so. That is true and this is where the lack of originality kicks in. People do not come up with new ideas, they just re-use the old ones.
Media has a very big hand in encouraging the people to act the way everyone else does. The way of speaking, wearing your hair and putting on makeup all comes from here. If you wear your hair the way people did a few years ago, it will probably be uncool and if you are a highschooler there is a high possibility that you will be named "loser." Especially with the dance steps. If salsa was popular a few years ago, it is now taken over by b-boying and it might get changed any time. This is the problem I face. I hate dancing, but as I want to fit in I learn the "cool" steps and when I am done learning there are new "cool" moves created already and the moves I mastered are already "so yesterday." Seriously, I think it is easier to climb up Mt. Everest than to try and keep up with the trend nowadays.

Almost all my friends have either one of the apple products. Why? Because it is "cool" to have one. It is not that it is better than other electronic devices. In fact, when it comes to phones, I think the most reliable phone is the old black and white nokia cell phone. However, people don't use it anymore because it is no longer in fashion. A lot of people have switched from normal earphones to beats because it is "so in." People buy those unreasonably expensive headphones even if they don't really have any interest in music. They do so thinking that this will make them more popular in the society.

If noticed I have used a lot of informal phrases and words under quotation marks. I did so because that is how we normally speak. It reminds me of this movie named Never let you go where a couple of clones try to imitate the people they see in movies so that they can fit in the society. The only difference between them and us is that we aren't clones. Noe is right about her argument. We aren't newborns and every individual can come up with unique brilliant ideas. However, we choose to act the way we act according to our environment and the people's expectations.

Please Read This Story, Thank You.

Central argument: Linton Weeks argues that people have stopped using "polite" phrases while speaking because people nowadays are so casual in every manner that it even reflects on the way they communicate and act. I agree with Weeks because I have noticed that a lot of people, including myself, think that using polite words is being too formal and it is best to avoid words and phrases like "please," "thank you," and "you're welcome."

My mother always tells me that kids from our generation are "just ill mannered." She keeps reminding me of how much they used to respect elders when they were young and how much "we" disregard them now. In a way I think it is true, but can we really blame our generation for the way we behave? I mean I am sure we weren’t born impolite. Time changes and with time so do people and their ways of behaving. A few centuries ago women didn't even have the rights to speak and now they are in the peak of success. I don't think they would have been where they are now had they not changed the way they behaved. As the people's way of behaving changed, so did their way of communicating. The way we communicate nowadays may seem rude to older generation, but to us it is normal.

When I chat with someone on facebook I normally right things like "what's up" or "how is life?" I realized that I never really asked them how they were in a proper manner. As the use of jargons have increased so has our casualty. If someone has to thank a person then this is how they do so: "OMG, I owe you one man." And, the most common reply to this is " LOL. It's okay man" or "LOL. No problem." Yes, this is how a conversation takes place in today's context. There are very few people who actually make proper use of the traditional phrases and I think media should hugely be blames for this. Movies that we watch and the songs that we listen to always try to bring up new ways of talking and acting. In almost all movies that I have watched, the characters portray the type of role which shows that being casual in the way you are speaking is the new cool.

Speaking of media, songs, especially the R&B and hip-hop ones, bring up new ways of using words and phrases. What they sing doesn't really make sense but still they are a hit in the music industry and the wannabe listeners of make it a trend. I don't know since when swearing at every sentence you use became normal whereas being polite became too formal. Week writes about how people in shops do not do their job well and I completely agree with her in that one. The salespeople in almost all the shops I have been in are ill mannered in a way that they are always grumpy and could not care less if we wanted any help.

Reading this article actually enraged me and writing it made it worse as I realized that Weeks is right and I fall under the category of this new "rude" generation. People nowadays have forgotten their etiquettes and the only way to bring it back is by practicing it as frequently as possible with as many people as possible.

Evolution of the meaning of words

Robert Lane Green thinks that words like awesome and terrible are used so often and are overrated because the meaning of those words have changed completely over time.

When I read this article I was awestruck or let's say I felt "awesome." Green tells us about how words evolved so much over time that it now has a completely different meaning to it. The words that were then used to define God and his powers are now used to define random people and things by people who have absolutely no idea of what the meanings of those words are.

I do not know how the trend of using those words started, however, in my life it started after I met my friend's annoying brother who called himself awesome all day long. To be honest, he was pretty cool so yeah I kind of tried to imitate his coolness and maybe just maybe that might be how I started considering myself as "awesome." This has not only happened to me. A lot of my friends also tend to pick up those word trends from someone they look up too, and as Green mentions in his article, that someone is mostly their parents. Parents have a huge role to pass on characteristics, especially a way of using words, further on to us. Green writes in his article that we must be the ones to "adopt" ourselves in order to stop the future generations (our to be children) as we are the ones they will look up to.

Who knew that a word like terrible was used to describe God at one point of time. If I called someone a terrible person in junior school (hopefully not in high school,) I just might get myself into a huge trouble with the teacher. Imagine calling God terrible at this time in midst of a group of strictly religious people, they would probably execute me. Another meaning of word that I had picked up while watching television was "sick" and "dope," and I unconsciously started using those words while talking to my bewildered mother. I would tell her that the new mall she took me to is sick and she would innocently tell me that she honestly thought that I would have liked it. After explaining her that the meaning of sick is great or amazing, she told me that our generation has come up with all the words to confuse the people of her generation. After reading this article I finally cracked the meaning of the word "safe" to the people from Britain and now I might of unconsciously encoded it in my mind as well. A few years back there was a big trend among my friends from the United Kingdom to say "stay safe" after every conversation that we had and till the time I read this article, I thought that the wanted me to actually "stay safe." Not knowing that "safe" is the new awesome, I would tell them that I could take care of myself and they would just laugh when I said that. Now, I just find myself stupid.

What Green, wrote in his article about words taking a new form of meaning is totally true. It is funny how people twist and turn the meaning of words and give it a whole new meaning. Terms like that is "retard" has started becoming cool. I don't know how that is anywhere close to cool, but yeah it just is. I think that evolutionary is not doing justice to words.

Limits of science

Anthony Gottlieb argues that science does not always answer all you questions because at times they have a limit to resolving certain issues.

Anthony Gottlieb, the writer of an article named the "limits of science" which was published in the INTELLIGNT LIFE magazine, writes that a majority of people in this world believe that science is the answer to every question that they have. Now days people have depend so much in science that a lot of people no longer have any faith in something beyond science.

I grew up in Buddhist family, and while my grandparents were very spiritual, my mother was very down to Earth and told me that there is always a balance of nature in what we believe. She always told me that I have the right to believe in whatever I want to and by saying that she gave me a lot of flexibility along with a lot of complexity. I didn't know what to believe in. I knew that science has all the proof that it needs and our religious texts have some things that make no sense at all. I have also seen and encountered a few paranormal activities in middle of some religious ceremonies and that always made me wonder if that is actually something that is more spiritual or just another branch of science that needs more explaining to do.

There is always a limit to science and Gottlieb writes that this can be proven for science has not come up with all the necessary answers needed. For instance how long have scientists and doctors tried to come up with a cure of HIV AIDS? So far they have only succeeded to prolong their lives not cure the virus. Similarly, if science had the answers to everything why are there still so many spiritual groups that do not believe a bit in what science has to say?
I have met people who believe that the almighty has everything to do with the existence of literally everything and I have met some people who think that science is everything and don't have an ounce of faith about anything divine. My friend's cousin had fits sometimes and felt like she got possessed by something paranormal. She was taken to many doctors and psychiatrists all over the world. However, after a lot of failed attempts her grandmother took her to one of the renowned witch doctors in Nepal and surprisingly she got cured after that. We don't know if this had something psychiatric to do with this but all we know is that she got cured by someone religious after a lot of failed attempts by science.

What I meant by that story is that there could be something more than to what we just want to believe or are proven with. Science does have a lot of evidence that it is right but it does not have enough evidence to prove that other faiths are wrong.

"Of Youth and Age"

Central argument: Sir Francis Bacon believes that it should be the youngsters who should get hired for jobs that help the society rather than the old people. I believe with him as every day as a new child is born, so is a new creative mind with powerful imaginations that overrules the ones that are already existing.

Youngsters today, are more daring and challenging than the older generations. The generation of today, know what's going on with the world on today's context and what would be the right measures to follow in order to come with a solution for it. They have newer desires building up amongst them and in most cases do not think twice about accepting their ideas as challenges. The youngsters have more energy compared to the old people to do everything possible and they are more enthusiastic too. When it comes to travelling to difficult places or adapting to different lifestyles, youngsters are much more into it. Taking more work than a normal person and loading themselves without over thinking is also what they do better.

As people grow old, they tend to become more fragile both physically and mentally. Many of them even fail to think outside the box and have a mental set. Their narrow ways of thinking will not help the people or the world to go any further in life. People who are old have seen a lot that has been going on in the world, this leaves their mind corrupted unlike the young and fresh ones. The will make decisions based on what they think is right and not what is actually right.
I remember my mother taking interviews for a few positions in an U.S. Aid organization that she used to work in. There was this post where a lot of designing took place, and according to my mother it was a lot of hard work and effort. When she was done with the interview she chose 4 people who were in their early 20s and when I asked her why she took only the young ones who didn't even have much experience she replied by saying that these young and creative minds are the ones who will model our future and that they would take more challenges than any other aged person.

Come to think of it, I completely agree with my mother. Before coming to Woodstock I met an alumni who had passed out about 7 years ago and is in her early20s. When I asked her what she does, she told me that she is doing journalism in Afghanistan. When she said this I was really impressed; working in a strict and chaotic country like Afghanistan for a Hindu woman is not easy and still she was motivated to do so. If it was someone elderly, they would probably think a million times before deciding (in most cases not) to go to unlike the young girl. As I mentioned earlier, older people tend to over think which stops them from doing a lot of things.

There is a whole different world to discover, create and enjoy. However, this is a job that is done more easily by the youngsters, for like Bacon said, " young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams."

Of Marriage and Single Life

Central argument: According to Sir Francis Bacon, a person should marry only after they have a career and contributed in some way to the society, and is ready to take responsibilities as a married person. I agree with him as I think that marriage before career only leads to unhappiness in life.

Bacon writes that marriage imprisons a person to a certain boundary. They do not have the freedom to do the things they want, when they want and have a lot of difficulty in managing time. A true creator needs space and time to come up with things that will help the society and him to build his career. These are the two things that is needed the most and a married person in most cases to not have access to any of those. For instance, I have heard from a lot of mothers that they had to give up their career because they had to look after the children. Today I watched a movie named "Le petit Nicolas" in French class which has a character who keeps telling his son how he would have been an expert on something he wanted to, hadn't he married his mother. This does not just happen in movies; my uncle who is working six days a week for a reasonably fine salary tells everyone he can that he would have pursued to be a pilot if he hadn't married. To a lot of people marriage and children stops them from being successful in life. Yes, having a family is good but before that people should be confident that they are responsible enough to support their family.

Being unmarried has a lot of advantages, especially if you have an unmarried companion. The unmarried people can be the best of friends, masters and servants for they have enough time to spare for others. They however, do not have enough sense of discipline and responsibility. A lot of people start working hard and start keeping a grip of reality only after they have a family to support. From what I have seen in movies and from some of my family member, people, especially men, tend to quit a lot of bad habits like smoking and drinking after they have a kid that is born. In psychology class we watched a video of this man in the United States who was addicted to drugs for a decade or so. However, he promised to be clean and admit himself to a rehab after his first son was born.

In countries like Nepal and India, people need to marry before a certain age or else they will be taunted by the entire society. This is mainly pressurized on young women. If they do not marry in a certain age then they are considered to be a disgrace to their family. In many parts of Nepal people still follow the Dowry system where the family of a girl needs to give certain amount of money or goods to the bridegroom's family. Marriage of a woman is that important that people go to up to the extent to buy it!

The importance of marriage, however, is as important as standing on your own feet and being able to support yourself. Therefore, instead of wasting your time being good for nothing, you should have a certain goal in life, which you should fulfill before taking the responsibility as a married man.

Rick Santorum, Meet My Son

The central argument of Emily Rapp is that women should have rights over their body so that they won't regret anything in the future. Emily Rapp was born with physical deformity and later gave birth to a child suffering from a genetic disease called Tay-Sachs which does not have any cure yet. This article shouts out Rapp's emotion and all the pain that she goes through. She clearly doesn't want any other child to go through all the pain that her beautiful kid has or let any woman suffer the way she has.

Ronan, Emily's son, is only two years old and has already suffered from various apnea seizures. Not only does he have to go through painful seizures but is also blind, paralyzed and increasingly non-responsive. His condition will keep getting worse until he turn completely into a vegetable. Ronan can die any minute, and Emily is getting ready for she knows that, that day is not very far off.

I can't imagine what women like Emily go through when they know that their child is dying and they can't do anything about it. Emily regrets not aborting Ronan and I can tell why. Seeing her child suffer with every breath he takes must be very difficult. Emily, however, didn't know that Ronan was going to have Tay-Sachs. She had to undergo various prenatal tests and Tay-Sachs was one of them. The test results didn't show that there were any signs of abnormalities in her unborn child though. Had she known that her child would be a victim of this rare genetic disease, she would talk to other parents who had children suffering from Tay-Sachs and learn more about it. After doing so, she writes that she would abort her child. It might sound very unethical but it is better to abort an unborn child then to let him suffer after he is born.

At the time when Emily was born, there weren't ultrasounds or any type of advanced technology available. Therefore women back then weren't free to choose whether they want to abort a child or not. However, now they do. Yes, sometimes things might go wrong like it did with Emily, but women should still have the choice to make their own decisions. Emily's mother didn't have a choice to make and Emily didn't know about the situation to make a choice. Women should therefore be careful on what they choose to do and must make sure that they have prior information that is accurate.

Some people believe that we should respect a living thing no matter what for it takes or what quality it comes with. Thinking from a spiritual view this might make a lot of sense. However is it worth all the suffering? No, it isn't, at least not to me or to a lot of women like Emily.

TV: Empowerment box or Stupid box?

According to Joel Waldfogel, watching TV is good because it helps to empower the women living in rural areas. A lot of people would disagree with Waldfogel and hence, give names like the "idiot box" to TV as they think that watching TV only encourages the people to become lazier. However, after reading the article Waldfogel wrote and witnessing the change in women, I can't help but agree with him.

Rural places of India and other third world countries like Nepal, where I come from, are very gender bias. Women are dominated, discriminated and publicly humiliated, and they have no say in this. One of the reasons why the women are so quite about all those physical and emotion harassments could be because they do not know that it is wrong. According to the survey done by Robert Jensen and Emily Oyster, a lot of women think that it is necessary to ask their husbands' permission before doing anything and that they deserve to get beaten by their spouse.

We can't run away from the bitter truth that stereotypes who think that women are made only to cook, clean and have sex still exist, but the least that we can do is educate women and aware them of their rights. The problem here is that a majority of women in rural areas aren't educated and there aren't enough adult literacy programs being organized. So, this is where the "idiot box" comes handy. House wives are known for watching a lot of family dramas on TV and those dramas are actually educational, for they show how women are independent. Those TV shows portray women as independent workers who take charge of their lives and choices. Watching those characters have a say about their lives and do things the way they want to inspires a majority of women in the rural areas. Eventually they apply those in their lives and therefore gain more independence from the society. According to this article, a certain study stated that there was a vast improvement among the women who started watching TV shows with women empowerment.

I remember my helper telling me that women in the village she came from were scared and dominated by the men 8 years ago. However, now that they have TV shows to entertain and educate them, they have started getting a grip over their lives. According to her, the women in her village dress differently, talk more boldly and make decisions more frequently. She believes that watching female dominant shows brought this change in them. In fact her sister, who lives in one of the villages in Nepal, threatened to sue her husband if he didn't treat her and their daughter right. Surprisingly, men have now started reacting to these types of threats instead of throwing it off in the thin air.

It is true that watching shows like Gossip Girls and Vampire Diaries just mind-screws us and have no positive effect on our lives (except for creating secret desires like wanting to be popular like Serena or have a hot vampire like Damon be head over heels for you). But, TV shows also succeed in bringing drastic changes in a lot of people's lives, or at least in a lot of women's lives.

The most awesome song ever :)

Collide- By Howie Day

The most awesome song ever :)

Collide - by Howie Day

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Yk9G7OyKwLM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Most awesome song :)

Collide by Howie Day

click here to listen to it :)

Marijuana in Nepal

Marijuana is NOT legal in Nepal

I recently read this article which tells us that marijuana is illegal in Nepal and not many people know about it. However, there are various reason why people think that it is legal. Yes, the government and police have been trying to get rid of marijuana but there is only so much that they can do. The Maoist in Nepal have been believed to buy arms during the period of civil war by smuggling drugs. Nepal is a Hindu country and a lot of people take it as an excuse for smoking marijuana in many temples as Lord Shiva is believed to have been a marijuana smoker as well. To add to that smoking marijuana is legal on Shivaratri as it is considered to be a form of prasad (blessing) from  Lord Shiva. Almost all teenagers in Nepal have smoked marijuana at least once in their lifetime and according to the law of Nepal if an individual is caught smoking marijuana then he or she have to face an imprisonment of two years and pay a fine of NRs. 2000 (about 25 US Dollars).

This article caught my eye as I have met a lot of marijuana users and people confused about the situation of marijuana in Nepal. My mother gets worried when I go to tourist areas like Thamel or Boudha in Nepal as she thinks that I might end up taking some marijuana too. In many restaurants in Nepal one can find people smoking marijuana freely which has made it a heaven for hippies. If you are caught smoking, dealing or possessing marijuana then you can easily get away with it by paying a small amount to the police. In most cases the police is involved in the smuggling of marijuana as well. However, in Kathmandu the situation is getting better. There are frequent raids and checking every night in different parts of Nepal. The government is taking this more seriously and have burnt a lot of areas where weed was grown in the past few years. Despite all this effort I personally think that smuggling and smoking of marijuana cannot be stopped in Nepal and will be legalized soon enough.

Vocabulary:

A.i. Distillate: A liquid condensed from vapor in distillation.
    ii. "The distillate marijuana and hash are consumed by some Nepalese "

    iii. We learn how to distillate in chemistry practical classes in Woodstock.

B. i. Residing:To live in a place permanently or for an extended period

    ii. "Marijuana and hash are frequent to some Holi monks, priest residing in temples"

     iii. Girls residing in Midlands need to be back by 10:00 pm on the weekends.

C. i. Deemed: to be considered

     ii. Rules shall be deemed to constitute an offense under the drug law

     iii. My idea of adding a sleeping class in our daily routine had been deemed and will now be practiced. (I wish!)

Words that stung

Once while eating dinner with a friend, he made a blunt statement of how he thought that  I was incapable of loving someone truly as far as he knew me. I do not know whether he was serious or pulling my leg to make a conversation, but those words did make me feel like someone had punched me on my gut. He did apologize after seeing my reaction but that didn't help me feel any better. To start with I hate judgmental people. I have made various mistakes in the past that I am not very proud of but doesn't everyone have something they regret doing? No one is perfect and you can't judge people from their past. I do want to change a lot of things about me and people frequently tell me to do so but do they give me a chance to do that? Nope. Whenever I try to do something right they tell me that I won't be able to do it and if I carry on with what I've always been doing, they bitch about me. So, when the person told me about my incapability from his perspective I started to wonder if he was right which left me thinking about life and my role in it. On second thought I realized that he was just one of those judgmental people who thought they know me enough without even trying to know what I'm really like. I know that I am a better person than from what people tend to think of me. That night I did hold my tears back and told him what I thought I was capable of doing and how I thought he needed to get a life. I know it's not the worst thing that a person can say but those words were linked to a lot of other things that made it unbearable. The person who said I wasn't capable of loving did try to know me better after that incident and I think he knows how I am for real this time. I am thankful for his change of attitude towards me. Only if there were more people who shared the same type of attitude the world would have definitely been a better place to live in.

Teenage Girls: Victims of hysteria?

 Adolescent Girls

This article written by Caitlin Flanagan tells us a few stories of girls all around the world who have suffered from an unidentified disease that makes them lose their self control. Just a few months ago a few teenage cheerleaders had facial tics, uncontrollable movement, stuttering and verbal outbursts which are suspected to be the symptoms of Tourette's. A similar situation had took place in 1962 in a girls' school in Tanzania, however, at that time it was a laughing epidemic that spread for several months. After doing quite some research, Flanagan came to a conclusion that these girls weren't a victim of some rare disease but just victims of hysteria. From movies to myths to books, the victims of  evil spirits or frightful fits are often confused adolescents. Flanagan believes that lack of support and space makes girls suffer from hysteria. A girl must be shown that she is loved and cared for since childhood and must be kept away from any traumatizing events.

As a teenage girl I keep having mood swings and sometimes it is very difficult for me to control my emotions. I feel like all my emotions get magnified which makes it more unbearable. This causes my family, friends and even my boyfriend to get tired of me and my dramas. However, they try their best to be patient and deal with me for they know that it won't last long. I believe what Flanagan wrote in her article is true as I have friends who have hysteria. They have had a bad childhood and been a victim of a series of mishaps. Therefore, I believe that experience and hysteria goes hand in hand.

Vocabulary:

A.i. "this weird arrangement of words flitted across the edge of my consciousness."

      ii. Flitted: to move lightly and swiftly

   iii. A bird flitted across me in the flagpole.

B.i. "A cheerleader was first to manifest the strange symptoms."

    ii. manifest: obvious; apparent; plain

   iii. In Woodstock school people outwardly manifest their views about different subjects.

C.  i. "In all of these cases, the ultimate diagnosis — unpalatable in our post-Freudian age — was good old-fashioned hysteria."

      ii. unpalatable:  disagreeable or unacceptable; obnoxious.

      iii. Wearing short clothes is unpalatable in Woodstock School.

        

Rules for dating me

Ten simple rules for dating me.

1. You can expect me to be in my best behavior if you promise to be in yours. So no "you're lucky to have got me" or "I am too awesome to talk to your friends and family."

2. It would be best if you learnt to keep your ego aside while you're with me. I enjoy sitting at random places, eating at random places and being nice to random people in the most random times. So if you want to be a part of that you should learn to appreciate it.

3. Love me for who I am. You can't just come to my life and expect to change everything about me. If you think am not perfect for you then go search for some other girl instead of wasting your time trying to change the person I am. If you have any problems with me then talk to me about it and help me improvise instead.

4. Don't even think of cheating on me. I will give you space and will try my best to give you some privacy. You can have a lot of good friends who are girls but that doesn't mean that you can go behind my back and flirt with them. This way you will land yourself and that girl with a blue eye J

5. You need to be patient with me. I might act weird at times but so can you in the future. So, we should have an understanding where we will try to be as patient as we can with each other.

6.When I say don't just DON'T! Not that I will act all bossy around you but sometimes you need to just understand what your limits are. By this I don't mean you stop doing things you like to do, like eating or spending time with your friends just because I told you to stop doing so. What I mean for instance is you need to stop tripping me or pulling my hair if I ask you not to do it.

7. Don't mess with my hormones.

8. Please don't underestimate me. When I tell you that I will do something don't ask me to prove it (I might tell you that I will push you off a bridge or throw a brick at you; just don't ask me to prove it)

9. When you are with me drop the "goody two shoes" or "I am so cool" act. Be who you really are, I would want to be with you, not some character you try to portray.

10. Last but not the least be honest. No matter how bad the truth is honesty always overrules it

Sleeping Class

Create a new class for your school.

The class I would chose to start in my school would be Sleeping Class. I remember having those classes when I was kindergarten and  the hyper me back then hated it. However, I would die to have a Sleeping Class somewhere in my routine in my junior year in high school. The reason I chose this class is because we always end up burning the midnight lamp just trying to get our assignments done. Not that the teachers are trying to kill us by loading us with assignments and tests, but like any other teenager we tend to procrastinate a lot. Despite knowing that we are going to regret a few hours before the due date, we still choose to watch a movie over doing our assignment. So, we end up piling our work and working late at night in the very last hour. Due to this reason I find it very difficult to pay attention in my classes. While the teacher teaches us I constantly remind myself to sit up straight and not to doze off. This has also landed me in various embarrassing situations where the teacher have asked me questions regarding what he or she just discussed about and all I can give them is either a poker face or a cheesy little smile. Getting zoned in normal classes is not the best thing to do so why not have a class where you are supposed to be zoned out. Sleeping Class will help us students to perform better and be attentive in other classes. Those short naps could help us perform better and make up for the lack of sleep that we had. It would also give us some time to think about our future and life as a whole. Hence, I think that Sleeping Class would be an ideal class to add in my school.

Korean movies in a Nepali version

Influence of Korean movies in Nepal

Korean movies have been inspiring not only the Nepalese teenagers but also the film industry. This article is sadly very accurate about the Nepal film industry. Blockbuster movies like " Sano sansar", "Mero auta saathi chha" etcetera are the movies that are highly influenced from Korean dramas like "My sassy girl" and " A millionaire's first love" . These movies were rated as immensely watched Nepal movies during the following decade. Hollywood and Bollywood were once a sensation but now a history. so, why Korean movies? simply, it's because Korean movies are based on ordinary subject matter and feature strong plots. Youths of this generation get easily attracted to the subject matter put forth by Korean movies. while the impression of getting more attraction are similarly shared by most of the directors. However, film festivals and other cultural influence could be imposing fact reasoning increasing Korean movie influence in Nepal.

In Nepal people not only watch Korean movies but also try to imitate them in every possible way. They talk, walk, eat, dress up and even take pictures the way Korean stars do in Korean movies. It is just very annoying! It's not that I have anything against Koreans, in fact I am very fond of them. The ones I have a problem with are Nepalese people who try to act like they are Koreans. Why can't they just be originals? I am a Nepali and I am proud to be one. I can't understand why Nepalese people want a Korean twist in everything they do. I have watched the movies mentioned above and they are the exact copies of the Korean movies so I wouldn't exactly agree to the statement that the film industry of Nepal is "inspired". NO THEY AREN'T. Copying the entire movie (including the dialogues) is not getting inspired. I really wish Nepalese people would get over trying t copy Koreans and instead put all that effort to improvise the situation of Nepal, in any way possible!

Vocabulary:

A.i.  "Youths are attracted to the plot sensitivity that is depicted in a very exact manner in Korean films. "

    ii. depicted: also found in
    iii. homely environment is depicted in woodstock.

B.i Film directors hailed the presentation of Korean movies.

   ii. hailed: to salute or greet

   iii. The Woodstockers hailed Mr. x as a Math genius.

C. i "This was the major factor that compelled filmmakers and directors to emulate it."

    ii. emulate: To strive to equal or excel, especially through imitation

    iii.  In woodstock we are expected to emulate exemplary students. 

Advice for a teenager

As a teenager I have been in several unwanted situations in the wrong time. Be it from bunking classes to landing in the jail with my friends because of some silly pranks that we pulled. Thinking back I do realize the mistakes I made but would I undo them if I had a chance to? Hell no! Not to say that I would repeat making the same mistakes or "have fun" the way I used to but I would still want to be in certain unwanted situation in the wrong time. I didn't turn out to be a rebel. In fact, I try my best to follow all the rules and bring the best out of me. However, I don't think this would have been the situation if my mother hadn't been understanding all this while.

Therefore eighteen years from now I wouldn't give a lot of lectures to a teenager. I would give him or her the basic morals but would not ask for much. I would let them experience various things in life but would make sure that they know what their limits are. However there are a few things I would advise them to do.

1. Do your assignments from the very start instead of procrastinating.

2. Enroll yourself in various extracurricular activities.

3. Be loyal to your friends but don't get yourself into a lot of trouble because of your loyalty.

4. Trust your mom when she says " That dress makes you look fat."

5. Don't go on diets, try working out instead.

6. Make sure you pick up stuff that were taught in class if u happen to skip it.

7. Choose your friends wisely.

8.  Spend some more time with your family; they are as important as your friends.

9. Do not break into your neighbor's garage to steal petrol from their bikes.

10. In case you drink alcohol make sure you are supervised by someone trustworthy and sober.

11. Your world won't come to an end if you stop buying designer clothes and shoes. Show some humanity, buy fewer clothes, and donate your savings to an orphanage instead.

12. Drink a lot of water and wash your face before going to bed without fail

My opinions might change once I turn thirty-five but I hope to come across this blog at that time. Hopefully teenagers will hate me less if I stick to those advices and be cool about the small mistakes that they make in life.

Baccha Posh

Women domination takes a different turn in Afghanistan 

Women discrimination is so bad in Kabul that the mothers are dressing their daughters as boys. Most of the little girls no longer play with their dolls or wear kurtas. They are forced to cross dress and act like a boy. There is also a name given for kids like these. They are called "baccha posh" which means, girls dressed up as boys. To save their dear daughters from the social evils, pressure and practices the mothers are being forced to do this. In Afghanistan people prefer having sons to daughters. They think that sons will help them economically and will make the society a better place to live in. As opposed to that, they think that girls are a burden to the society and have hence kept them dominated giving them almost no rights to freedom. Especially after a girl reached puberty she has no rights to make decisions at all. It is either her parents or some male member that makes all the decisions for her.

After reading this article I felt very sad for all the women in Afghanistan. I am proud to be a girl and wouldn't want to change my gender for anything in the world. However, these women in Afghanistan are just ashamed of being females. A person's gender should not constrict her from doing things that she wants to do, especially in today's context. People have traveled to moon by now, but the thoughts of the people still hasn't changed. Women should have equal rights and dignities as men. This is no rocket science, it's just general knowledge that one need to understand by using his heart and mind. I wonder when the people will get this.

Vocabulary:

1. A.  "It was possible to trace a practice that has remained mostly obscured to outsiders."

B. obscured:  Not readily noticed or seen; inconspicuous

C. In Woodstock we got obscured by the morning fog yesterday.

2.A. "There are no specific legal or religious proscriptions against the practice."

B. To prohibit; forbid

C.  Woodstock proscribes wearing shorts to school.

3.A. “Segregation calls for creativity.”

B. segregation : The policy or practice of separating people of different races, classes, or ethnic groups, as in schools, housing, and public or commercial facilities, especially as a form of discrimination.

C. Racial and Gender segregation is not tolerated in Woodstock.

What outrages me.

124. What outrages you? (Wake Forest)

Doing assignments

Waiting in the lunch line.

Walking up to school by myself.

When my boyfriend blogs about nonsensical stuff in his blog and forgets to apologize later.

Doing all my assignments in the last minute.

When people promise and don't keep it.

Walking to bazaar in heels and later walking barefoot on the rocky road.

Carrying my laptop to school.

Promising myself to go to gym every morning and failing to keep it repeatedly.

When people don't pick their hair up after showering.

When my so called "friends" b!t*h about me behind my back (just because they are worse than me and are jealous of my awesomeness).

When my plans don't go according to my plans.

When I look at the mirror and I realize that I have a new pimple.

When I am in the shower and I notice all the unnecessary fats.

When I lose something, search all over for it, and after hours of doing so I realize that it was in my pocket all along.

When I trip and fall in places where no one ever falls (in a straight paved road for instance)

When I get locked inside the bathroom and there is no one out to help me (a few weeks ago I got locked inside the bathroom and I was screaming for help but there was no one there to rescue me.)

When I am really really really depressed and no one believes me when I tell them about it.

People boasting about their GPA.

My GPA being so low.

When I'm distracted while doing homework.

People spreading false rumors about me or my friends.

Not finding the "right" clothes to wear for school.

Waking up early in the morning and still being late for school.