Discipline Equals freedom Field Manual by Jocko Willink

People look for shortcut. The hack. The shortcut is a lie. If you take a easy road, it won't take you anywhere. To be stronger, smarter, faster , healthier and better, there is only hard work, late nights, early mornings, practice, rehearsal, repetition, study, sweat, blood, toil, frustration and discipline. DISCIPLINE.
DISCIPLINE IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL GOOD QUALITIES.
Discipline gives you the way of freedom. How do you become stronger, smarter, faster, healthier? How do you become better? How do you achieve true freedom?  There is only one way. The way of discipline.
Where does discipline come from? Good question. Discipline comes from within. Discipline is the internal force. Because external discipline is not strong. It will not survive. It can not stand on its own. What you need is self discipline.
It comes from you. It will make you free. Do not procrastinate. Start right HERE. Start NOW. The person you can control is you. So, focus on making yourself who you want you to be. FASTER. STRONGER. SMARTER. More  humble. Less  ego. Discipline your body. Free your mind.
Control your mind. Do not excuse. Make a strong decision to control over your emotion, fantasy.  Weakness doesn't get a vote. Sadness doesn't get a vote. Mind control is very very important.
if you have weakness, it's okay. But change the weakness into the force. Move forward. Stress is good. But uses stress as a power. Think of those soldiers who are fighting in the battle with the rebels, the people in a capsized ship, stranded people in the middle of the sea, running people away  from volcano. Think about them and boost your energy.
And WORKOUTS. Anything PULL, PUSH, SQUAD and RUN. Do not give up. Consistency, continuity AND CONTINUITY. Do not excuse. Do it. Start. Now.
And many more in DISCIPLINE EQUALS FREEDOM FIELD MANUAL by JOCKO WILLINK

उनी

“ऊनी”नेपालि समाजभित्र बिभिन्न बर्ग, पेशा र समुदायमा रहेका महिलाहरूको कथा हो। ऊनीभित्र धेरै उनीहरू अटेका छन जसले नेपालि समाजभित्र रहेक बिभिन्न पेशा, ब्याबसाय र परिबार समालेर बसेका महिलाहरूको प्रतिनिधित्व गर्दछन।
लेखक पत्रकार हुन। यो किताब पत्रकार महोदयले फरक फरक महिलाहरूसंग  लिएको अन्तरबार्ता को संकलन भएकोले उनीहरूको जिवन भोगाइको नालिबेली आफ्नै आवाजमा सुन्न/पढ्न सकिन्छ।
जम्माजम्मि ३६ महिलाहरूसंग गरियको कुराकानि समेटियको यो किताबमा गिट्टि कुटेर जिबिकोपार्जन गर्ने लक्ष्मी राई देखि लियर बरिश्ठ मुटुरोग बिशेषज्ञ लुना भट्ट र यौनकर्मि सिता बराल, जेन्डर परिबर्तन गरेर चर्चामा रहेकी केटलिन पन्त समेतको मार्मिक तथा रोचक कथाबेथाहरू छन्।
सबैजसो महिलाहरूको आआफ्नै जिबनभोगाईको अनुभब छ। जिन्दगिको भिन्न भिन्न बुझाइ छ। दुख, सुख, माया, प्रेम र योनिक अनुभबको निकै मार्मिक कथाहरू छन्।
कतिपय महिलाहरूको खासगरि उच्च बर्गका महिलाहरूको बनावटी रंग पनि झल्किन्छ भने सिमान्तकिंत महिलाहरूको बास्तबिकता।
मोडेल स्मिता थापाको योनिक अनुभवलाई महिलाहरूको स्वतन्त्रतासंग जोडेर गरियको ब्याख्याले महिलाहरूमाथि नै अन्याय भएको जस्तो लाग्यो।

Yellow Tape

I was walking down the stair to the basement kitchen to monitor the alarm panel in shoe chef’s office. At the door, a long yellow caution tape was stretched to block the way. I stopped for a while to read the sign which clearly says “do not cross it”. I bend on to my knees and moved forward.
“Stop."
 Somebody shouted  from the back. I looked back and saw Abdillahi  standing at the ballroom doors. I stepped back and asked him why he was he shouting at me. I can read the sign and it was my decision if should go or stop there. Abdillahi came close to me and said,” brother don’t mind. I was just trying to help you. You know that Lilian crossed the barrier yesterday and what happen to her. She was removed from the schedule and the manager handed a letter of termination over her.”
My head reeled.
Lillian, a tiny little woman from Salvador was a bee clean employee. Last week when she came to the office for cleaning up, she asked how long I had been with the company. I told her “long enough.” She laughed and said ‘tell the year’.
"Two years” I said.
She was laughing ironically and told “I worked fifteen years in this company. This was a small company with a handful of employees. Most of them have left already and many new staffs show up every day. But for me every day is the same.”
 I asked many questions and she answered my every questions without any objection. She was fifty-five years old. Her husband left her when she was forty-two. One night, her husband came home drunk and fought with her for no reason. Next day, he apologized to her and said that he was fired from the job and could not feed her. She remained quiet like a rabbit in a hole.
Next day, her husband left the home. After two months,  her husband’s friend Haaji Ali told her that her husband was in Fort Mcmurry working in a camp.
Lillian could not speak English. She asked to the people she knew about a job. Everybody told her that it was hard to find a job without English. She went to the immigration settlement office and asked for help. They gave her some contact information where she could get the financial support. They advised her to enroll in the ESL class.
Next day, Lillian went to Alberta Works to talk about living aid from the government, but she could not talk to them due to the language barrier. As she was standing in a line for an hour at Alberta Works, a white lady approached to her and asked her name. Lilian could tell her name. When the lady noticed that Lillian could not talk English, she asked her about her first language. She said “Spanish”. The white lady offered her a chair next to the help desk and went inside. After a few minutes, she came with another lady about thirty five looked like Caribbean. She greeted Lillian in Spanish. Then Lillian told her story. The lady took her in to her office and read the documents she had. She assured her that she would apply for the financial aid to support her family for the short term until she finds the next job. She also asked her if she was interested for any training which could help her to find the job.
From next month, Lillian started getting five hundred from the government directly deposited into her bank account. She started going to the English class. Rohit was her language instructor. He used to work in an entertainment industry organizing the events. He knows a few contractors working in the large venue.
One day, he asked Lillian if she wanted to work as a cleaner in a stadium. Lillian was desperate for the job. She learnt to speak English even though in her accent. Rahul asked her to make a resume. She went to the settlement office and asked them to assist her in building her resume and cover letter. Next day,  she gave the application to Rahul who dropped her application to the Bee clean office and also talked personally with the hiring manager  Abdullah.
Next day, she received a call for interview. She never been interviewed before. She was nervous. She rode on the bus and head to the office. She was asked a few questions like her name and regular stuffs. She was asked to fill up the paperwork. She signed the paper where they asked to sign. She did not know what was written in the papers. The Manager congratulated her. She did not know why he congratulated her since she was not told that she passed the interview.
 From the next day, she started working under the supervision of Mellisa for the training. Since then she used to go home and sleep and come back to work. She had no adventure in her life. No vacations. With the the money she earned from the company she could hardly pay the bills.
The company she worked for was hub for the entertain in the city. She never understood what changes were made but she remembered that each time she had to work in a new office, had to clean new bathrooms. Nobody wanted to talk to her. Often staffs used to smile at her. She never knew why.

Since the day she started the job, she hardly took a few sick leaves. She remembered that one day in a couple of years ago, she slipped off the snow and had to go to the hospital. She stayed three days at home for the rest.
Abdillahi was right. I turned back and thanked him for reminding. But the face of Lilian hunted me for long. I went back to the office. Checked the camera if I could see the area under construction. In camera zone –8,  it displayed the main kitchen area. I checked the emails from the manager. There were two emails regarding the construction and the pass issued to the contractors. There was nobody at the moment. I came to know that there were stoves removed from their original place for annual clean up. There was a big vacuum machine in the Hall-D behind the kitchen. There wasn't  any immediate danger to get into the kitchen.
Around midnight, I received a call from Tyco company regarding the burglar alarm in the Basement. Immediately, I took the north elevator down to the Kitchen. There was a beer storage next to the shoe chef’s office. I entered the door and noticed the red light flashing on the focus panel. Some points were abnormal. I typed my password and reset. Then the Aram was silenced. When coming back to the desk, I passed through the kitchen again.
I stopped. There were only two girls working in the dish washing. They were both blacks. They hardly communicate in English. They often avoid the eye contact. A young black girl about 25 was ringing the dishes. I went closer to her. She didn't notice my footsteps because she had an ear buds in her ears. She was listening the music, probably the African music. I stopped by her and greeted, 'hello”.
She did not respond. I pated on her shoulder gently with my two fingers. She turned towards me and smiled. She wiped her finger and removed the ear phone. And said” hi””.
“How long you guys working?”
“There are a lot of dishes to finish before we go.”
“Are you a student?” I asked.
Yes, I go to Kings college for my nursing.”
"Why are you working here?”
She laughed, " hi- hi -hi."
After a while she said “what should I do? They don’t give a good job. I am not sure yet if I get the job in my field after completing my nursing, I have to work this job.”
I knew she was't lying. This is a situation of first-generation immigrants. Later, she told me that she had already Bachelors in nursing from back home. She said that her family moved to Canada in 2015. Now she has to do the basic course for the same subject. It was ridiculous. And another dark side of the study was the student loan. When they were offered a course, they tell them the success rate of the students100 percentage and job market over 95 percentage. But most of the time after completing the school, they were back to the earlier job sometimes,  even worse. They hopelessly keep applying for the job for a year then finally give up the hope.
I did not say anything. Her innocent smile hunted me like a shadow. I came to the office and started monitoring the cameras. There were only few people in the building since no events going on. A few building attendants were seen entering the building. Many of them were the cleaners. All the cleaning staffs were the blacks. Some of them were medical doctors back home and some others were teachers, accountants. All of them were educated and skilled in their field. But in Canada, their skill is packed all in their travel suitcases.
 Many of them worked in the night. They cleaned the toilets, mopped the floor, dusted  the offices, cleaned the glasses and go home in the morning. When day starts the white men and women would come with smiling faces, go to their offices and start chating with their friends and families. But they worked hard too. No kidding.
The afce of Lilian hunted me day and night. I had a true apathy to her.
"What did she get after working so many years in the company? How would she pay the bills? How could  she afford the expensive room rent? Did she find the another job? Who would offer her a job in this age?",  I monologued.
 My heart filled with apathy.
A new mail popped up on the screen. I opened the email and read. It was the email from the Manager about the changed role and responsibilities of the employees for the next year.
 “Why do they change the roles and responsibility every year?  Why should we check the fire extinguishers? Why should I log the everything which were not even important? ",  I banged the table in anger and left the office.
I was a fire marshal in Manilla. I did my master's degree in political science. Later I got the job in the National Fire Department of Philippines. It was a good job. But something was not right with our finance. My total income used to go for the grocery and kids' school fee. I had to send money to the family to support my mom and the youngest brother for his tuition fee.
One day,  I talked to my wife and we planned to look for the better opportunity. The same day, I met one of my friends Joan at the train station. He told me that he had applied for Canada. I never thought of Canada before. Most of my friends were in Australia. I went home, talked to my wife. Both of us open the computer and started searching about Canada. We read many good stuffs about Canada. The most focused was the social security. Then we both husband and wife went to an agent to get more information about Canada, application process and the application fee. The agent assured us that we can meet the merit system for FSW1 program. He asked us to book for IELTS exam. Then we collected some money for the application processing. I prepared for the exam. Everything was going well. Finally, we got the visa and we arrived Canada as a permanent resident. When we first time received the confirmation letter, we were thinking that we were the luckiest one.
The first year was super exciting for us in a new place with new people. Everyone was smiling, offering help, greeting"hi- hello." It was awesome.
When we started fighting with the hardships every day, we already started missing the homeland. We missed our family and friends.
There were a few people seen on the street. People were working some places or sleeping at home. Nobody had time to loiter around. Snow piled on the street in the winter.
When I first came here, I worked in the gas station. First few days,  I worked with a woman from Jamaica. She was black. I thought she was from Africa. I was thinking that the blacks were all from Africa. After a week, I started working by myself. The logo of the company was kangaroo that means the employee should have to jump to the pump like kangaroo to serve the customer. I had to clean the windshields and window glasses if  request by the customer. Sometimes, customers used to give a couple of dollars tips. The tip had a great value for me at that time because every dollar was immediately converted into Philippines peso.
One day a lady gave a quarter. I refused to take. But she insisted and said, ” keep it, you can buy a house with this money.”
I felt offended. But I put a smile on my face and accepted the tips. Some moments were happy and some were sad. Then I left the job and went to work for a store.
Working in Home Depo was easy at the beginning because everyone was helping me as a new staff. I was trained to operate the fork lifts. We used to move the stuffs from one ails to another. We had to pick stuffs from the shipping and receiving. After a month, the work was getting harder. I had to work myself. Driving the fork lift wasn't a fun game. We had to be extremely cautious. If we lost the balance, there was a chance of hurting ourself and others. I had to lift heavy loads with my hands sometimes. I was physically weak than others. On the other hand, I had never worked such physical works. After working three months I resigned from the job.
The day I left the job, I found myself more stressed and hopeless. Friends were talking about the depression and anxiety. However, I was always aware of it. To avoid depression, I always kept myself busy. I read books, go cycling or play with kids. But the problem was how to survive.
Then I applied for another job in the community service. As a support worker, I had to clean the houses of the clients, bath them, change the diapers of the disables. I had to do almost everything as a house maid, as a nurse.
Sometimes, clients used to have behaviours and dangerous to work alone. It was not a my type job definitely. Most of my friends were working in the same field. They were happy enough working with these companies because they could work a lot of extra hours. And also, they could sleep on the site. There were overnight sleeping shifts too. But I personally, did not like this kind of job. After working about six months, I joined this company as a Guest Experience Staff.After working for three months, I started working as communication agent. 
That night, my brain was reeling with different thought of Lilian. I checked her Facebook account. She had not updated her account for months. I was friend with her since December. She had only a few friends on her friends list. Last summer,  she went on vacation to Mexico with her friends and posted pictures on her Facebook. She had five likes. Among them I was one. It also reminded me that how many friends did she have?
Next day I went home. I was not happy, so my litter daughter asked me “dad why are you not playing with us?”
 I smiled and played with her. I could not share anything with her. They were very innocent. I thought if they were back home, they would have more friends. They would play with grandparents. They could play with the neighbor's children. I remember my childhood. I used to go my friend's house to play and spend whole day. My mom was never worried about me because she knew that I would get food.  I would be taken care by her neighbors. But here, my children are locked in the apartment. I never let them open the door. I didn’t know who was living next door. May be priest. May be a terrorist.
" Everything looks perfect if you can function as a machine. With your pay cheque you can pay the bills. You can purchase the grocery. You can take your kids to the swimming pool. You have owned a house you can pay the mortgage. But the day the pay cheque stops coming. You are cut off of everything. Nobody can survive without pay cheque", I monologued.
Next day, I went to the job. I read emails. The morning huddle had been cancelled. I asked Dindo, a safety coordinator of the organization, for the reason. He said,” Jeff is absent. Chris is in the training. So, they cancelled the huddle.” Later somebody told that Jeff was admitted in the hospital in emergency ward. Everyone was sad. I came to know that Jeff slipped at the door onto the ice and had his back bone broken.
Jeff was the event manager. He was white. His parents migrated from German. He was superior by nature always talked about the German  people. But he was born in Canada. He used to live with his girlfriend in a condo. He was smart and friendly. After a month, Jeff came to work on a wheelchair. "Life is very unpredictable." I said. " Nobody knows what awaits at the door. Roads are icy and slippery. They look like the roads for the sinners in the hell. Why people call this heaven. This is heaven for those who can offer an expensive car, buy a house with attached garage so that you don’t have to go out."
Days went so fast without a sound of whistle on the ear. One day after five months, I went to the Basils Center to volunteer. It was an organization feeding homeless people with the aid of charitable donors. My shift started at 9Am with three other volunteers. We helped in the kitchen. We cleaned up the tables and replaced the garbage bags. Around 10:30 AM, the flooding of the homeless people, most of them were drunk and high. I was busy in serving them the food. There was sufficient foods donated by the hotels and other food banks. We served them burger, hot dogs, pizzas, burritos, coffee and sodas.
At the far corner of the lounge, there was a woman shivering with cold almost hiding her face in the  rages. Two of the native men were standing close to her and asking if  she was okay. The most beautiful thing with these homeless people with different criminal background was to help other homeless people in need.
As I was passing by that way serving order to the men sitting on the corner table, I saw the half of her face. It triggered my nerve and I felt uneasy. When I returned to the counter, I remembered an image known to me in the past. I put the dishes at the sink and went back to the corner where the lady was sitting lowering her head almost on the knee.
“Madam madam! Are you okay?” I asked.
When she heard me she raised her head and looked at me. I was stunned. She looked at me with her cold, blank stone-like eyes. She did not speak a word. She was wearing a sweater suitable to the spring weather. Her shoes were damp and had no socks on.
“Madam, are you Lilian?” I asked.
She stared at me with wide eyes like the wells with no water. I stood like a statue in front of her and watched her fall on the ground.
I dialled 911.
 There were cars outside with red and blue flashing lights in five minutes. Two EMS staffs rolled her over the stretcher and loaded on the ambulance.
Three police officers entered the the lounge shortly after, interviewed with the manager, wrote notes on their notebooks and left.
                                                                                                 

SUDAN : Race, Religion and Violence by Jok Madut Jok

When I was in Nepal, I heard about the civil war in African countries, starvation, malnutrition, disease and death. Nepal was also suffering from political instability, unstable government and Maoist insurgency. Often political leaders and independent writers used to give example of Sudan and Somalia in term of failure state due to long civil war and political instability. The national wide debate on the ethnic and religious issues brought up the concern of possible ethnic clinging like in Sudan.
Here in Canada I met many friends from African nations like Sudan, Ethiopia, Eretria, Nigeria, Uganda, Chad, Somalia. As a Resident Manager I know some of them very closely and very often talked about the war and the reason of dislocation. Although every African countries has their own story of brutal civil war, the root cause is the same; division of the people by the colonizers to extract the resources even aftermath of independence.
SUDAN: Race, Religion and Violence is a book which is well researched and well written about the history of war in Sudan on the pretext of ethnicity and politics. After a decades of war, rebel uprising throughout the country, and power struggle, in 2011 it gave birth to the world's newest country - South Sudan. However, the birth of south Sudan was not a easy birth. It took the lives of over two million people and dislocation of the millions of citizens from Juba Mountains and Darfur.
Sudan was long been ruled by the North Khartoum. It was under British colonial rule from 1898-1956 known as Anglo Egyptian Sudan. The elite ruling group was the Arabs who discriminated the non-Arab people living in the South. In 1958 Ibrahim Abbud came in power with the military coup. His rule for next six years led by heavy handed military dictatorship. The country was already hit by seventeen year long North- South civil war when Arab soldiers came to replace the British soldiers.
 Sudan got independence in 1956. After independence Abbud's policy of cultural homogenization, and division of Arab and non-Arab Muslim and Islamization escalated the relation between the South and the North.
Sudan is the nation of 175 major ethnic and linguistic groups and 325 other smaller ethnic groups. The majority of the people (over 80%) live in the south are Christian and majority over 90% people of the North are the Islam. The main cause of the war between the South and North is the religion. During the dictator rule of the Islamic leaders of the North, they heavily bombed the villages of the South Juba mountains. More than two million people lost their lives and thousands of them took refugee in neighbouring countries like Chad, Eretria and Ethiopia. Many women were brought to the North to work in the houses and provide sex service to the army.
Another genocide took place in Darfur. The Arab Muslim indiscriminately killed the people who were not the Arabs and Islam. It was one of the greatest human disasters in the human history according to UNDP.
In 1989 Omar Hassan  Ahmad al Basir, former brigadier of Sudanese army, came in power with his military coup and became the seventh president of Khartoum government. He sent the state army to kill the people who oppose his rule, who were not the Islam. It was a ethnic clinging. People were killed, women raped and mutilated, food and medicine was banned, even the Khartoum government stopped the foreign aid to the war torn areas. Millions of people died and millions of them were taken as a refuse by  Chad and other neighbouring countries and, later by the US and Canada.
In 2011, North and South officially separated and became the independent nations. However, there is still political instability and civil war ongoing.  
This book offers everything you want to know about Sudan, its history of civil war and consequences.

            

Kalangama Hamala ( Jumla; A Nurse’s Story)

Experience is a subjective approach of incidents that take place in our life and its impact on our future. We see the things happening. We judge them. We construct a truth on the basis of our judgement which is purely subjective because we use the tools from what we’ve learnt from the past.
Khalangama Hamala is an example of writer's experience with the people who live in a remote part of Nepal struggling with hunger, disease and untimely deaths. This is also a war narrative in the form of memoir.
Radha Paudel, a daughter of a middle class family, a nurse, a government officer, a friend of those who are in need of her support.
Her father is a mentor for her career who sow a seed of compassion and generosity in the work of humanity when she was a child. He told her that there were people who lived a life of extreme poverty than  them. As she grew up and educated as a nurse, she started her career as a nurse in Bharatpur hospital where she saw the extreme cases of three different female patients; a seven year old girl who was raped, a woman who died not getting the medical attention on time while giving birth of child , and third one was an elderly woman who survived a terrible womb operation. These three critical cases in the town like Bharatpur, reminded how the people in Humla and Jumla were surviving the epidemics where they had no access to the minimum medical facility.
Later she got chance to work as a District Coordinator of Safe Motherhood Program in Jumla, experienced the hindrance, survived the brutal attack of Maoist rebels in the district headquarter Khalanga bazar, Jumla. Despite all the hindrances and challenges,  she was able to bring the reforms in health sector working closely with the local people. She won woman peacemaker 2012 from the University of San Diego  and  peace award 2012 from UNDP.
In this book she has recorded the vivid nightmare of the Maoist attack at Khalanga and loss of lives. She is not politically biased while pouring her thrilling experience in the words. The scene she brought up in and around the Tila river in post war period reads like a 19th century Gothic tales.
Khalangama Hamala is one of the bricks of  the war literature in the form of memoir and history.
Paudel was awarded nationally and internationally for her social work. The book won the Madan Puruskar in 2013.
The English edition of this book is entitled Jumla; a Nurse’s Story.

Year End Review 2018

Life is like riding a bicycle: you pedal along and try to steer, but first there is mud, then a pothole, then you have a swerve to avoid a sharp stone. But if you stop pedalling, you will fall off. 

We are super busy with our family life, profession and social spree. When the whole year ends specially, we review our past year with some trickles of hope and whole lot of regrets. Personally, I don’t regret on my choices of good works and bad works. However, there are so many things happens just like that which we can’t stop. 

We all try our best to live our life more meaningfully. The question often asked and answered in various perspectives is how can our life be more meaningful? This is a dumb question. There are tons of books written on this topic.  

There are many electronic devices and apps accessible to us today. They are overloaded with tons of information in every milli second. We are distracted everyday by every bits of information. Facebook, viber, twitter, snapchats are at the tip of the finger unless you are holding your stuff for pee. 

I decided to be less distracted from these tiny monsters and stumbled on books most of the time. I love nonfictions. I love travelogues. I love historical fictions and autobiographies. I feel more content and satisfied when I read a good book and realize the absurdity or beauty of the life. Books are the best trustworthy friends forever. They are there; quiet and decent. When you need, they unfold the mystery.  

I read number of books in 2018. I set a target reading five books a month. And those books were not all award winning but heart winning.  

Here, I am going to mention the name of the books I read and actually I liked them. 

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanidhi is one of my favourites. This book gives me more pain then the pleasure making me realize the ultimate fate of human being. Many of the self-help books say that life is in your grip. But how far and what extend? Paul Kalanidhi has reviewed his life through constant struggle and success. Living with immigrant parents in Arizona, he learned life lessons from his parents, studied hard and became a successful neuroscientist at the of 35. But who knows what awaits tomorrow? He had a newly married beautiful wife, a new home, and a good paying job. One day, after working a 24 hrs long surgery of one his patients, he was diagnosed with a Cancer. He has a year due date for the death.   

He started writing this book with his childhood memories, struggles, success, experiences with patients. Due to his death at the middle of his book, his wife Lucy wraps up the last chapter of the book with her tear of separation.  

There is a lot in this book we can read. It makes you realize about the unpredictably of our life. It reminded me the book of Jagdish Ghimire. 

Buddha and the Terrorist: The Story of Angulimala by Satis Kumar is a profound book of teaching. When I first saw the title, I thought that it was a controversial topic. How Buddha and Terrorist go together? As I started unfolding the pages, it was actually the book full of inspiration and lessons about nonviolence. This is a story of Angulimala, who become a terrorist due to the social exclusion created by cast system. To take a revenge, he vowed himself to kill all the people, cut their finger, make a garland of them and wear around the neck. Everyone in the village was terrorized with him until one day Buddha meets him and teaches him what violence does. Buddha teaches him non-violence is only the tool to fight against any kind of injustice. Angulimala changed himself to be the follower of Buddha and becomes the Monk. His sins were forbidden by the King with the participation of the victims' families.  

The Glass Palace by Amitav Gosh is a bulky book which brings down the history of three generation of Burma mostly India, Thailand, Malaya as well. Due to migration from one country to another during British colonization, many families were disintegrated, suffered a loss of loved one because of war, rise and fall of young Indian entrepreneurs. There are stories of love, romance, separation, war, family disintegration and many more. There is, in fact, a lot to know about the impact of colonization in the book.  

The Remains of the Day is a 1989 novel by the Nobel Prize-winning British author Kazuo Ishiguro. The story is told from a first-person point of view. The narrator, Stevens, a butler, recalls his life in the form of a diary; the action progresses from the mid-1930s through to the present.  

Lord Darlington Hall is the setting of the writers' flashback where he worked as a butler, head steward of the hall. Miss Kenton worked in 1930s and 1940s with Mr Stevens.  

The story begins from the offering of the motoring trip to Stevens by the new employer Mr Farraday. However, the narrator opens with Miss Kentons letter and her interest to come back to Lord Darlington Hall to work with him. 

Then Mr Stevens remembers how he was loyal to his job and ignored the love and romance with Miss Kenton. 

Faraday also regrets for not having a bantering quality which his new boss likes.  

Lord Darlington hall used to be busy during second world war. Many of the political meetings would take place. As a butler, Steven's main duty was to please the boss by showing his loyalty and hard work. Miss Kenton wanted to draw his attention several times and gave hints of love and romance. Although Mr. Stevens knew it, he would think that it was unethical to have romantic relation with coworkers. But after many years he meets Miss Kenton, flashbacks and regrets about the past.  

1948 by George Orwell is another profoundly written book about dictatorship and its impact on the common citizens. I first read this book couple of years back while in the University. However, that was the reading of book seeking some important paraphrases for the exam. It wasn’t the justice. This book shows how's England look like under the dictatorship.  

Pablo Escobar: My Father is a book about the life of one of the greatest drug-lords of 20th Century from Columbia. Before I read this book, I watched Narcos a documentary drama series in Netflix. Unbelievable feat of a poor village boy into the Narco world, countless people killed ruthlessly, a single man in war with a State and the USA for many years yet an unfathomable loving husband, son and father of his two children. If you hear some saying that he goes from Columbia to Switzerland for birthday cake and stops Paris on the way back for antique wine in his private Jet, do you believe? Do you believe if someone burns twenty million dollars only to keep his daughter warm? Do you believe, more than fifty million is destroyed simply by flood, fire and mice??? If not read the book or watch Narcos. 

This book is written by his own son who now lives in Argentina.  

The Long Walk by Sławomir Rawicz, first published in 1956, an account of a young Polish cavalry officer who was arrested by the Russians, tortured and sentenced to 25 years forced labour camp gulag. Describes his 3-month journey from Moscow to the prison camp in Siberia, his escape with 6 companions and their journey across the Gobi Desert to Tibet and freedom. The writer narrates in a poetic language about the torture, pain, horror, hunger, struggle for freedom and survival and the death from the closer view point. This book is an account of human struggle for survival and freedom. 

Close observation of the death of their fellow friends is a heart-breaking event which compels us to roll the tears while reading. 

While the Gods were sleeping by Elizabeth Enslin is a story of love, devotion, social picture of Nepali rural village near Chitwan. Enslin is an American anthropologist who fell in love with Nepalis student in the university, got married, moved to Nepal and experienced all the hardships in the different culture and geography. As a daughter in law in a high cast Brahmin family with a language barrier and different social practices, she undergoes through tough time in her life. The description of the social scene, human behaviours, perception of the local people on her has been described in such a language that she walks you through the time and places of rural Nepal. 

Furthermore, this book is a social picture of a rural village in Chitwan, painful lives of women, cast system, illiteracy, political transformation and so on. Elsin's sense of humour makes reader smile throughout the book. 

Blood Brothers by Elias Chacour is a simple, beautiful and moving story of a catholic priest Elis Chacour and his contribution to bring peace in Palestinians explaining that the Jews and Palestinians are the Blood brothers as they share the same father Abraham. It represents the balanced view of Isreal- Palestine conflict unlike American bias judgement. The writer describes how Palestinians were forced to leave the land of their ancestors who lived there for hundreds of years and sow the seed of conflict forever. Chacour tries to bring peace through forgiveness, compassion, and cooperation. He has rebuilt villages destroyed by the conflict, established schools and only a college in Jerusalem that accepts Muslims, Christians and Jews students.  

The Artists of the Floating World by Ishiguro, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Brida by Paulo Coehlo are the novels I really enjoyed reading. 

The Day will Pass Away: Diary of a Gulag Prison Guard 1935-1936 by Ivan Chistyakov and I am Canada; Blood and Iron: Building the Railway by Lee Heen-gwong British columbia,1882 are two most powerful diaries with untold history of the railway workers of the two world's most powerful and longest railways: Trans- Siberian Railway and Transcanada railway. The Day Will Pass Away is an account of the gulag prisoners’ sacrifice while building the trans-Siberian railway and the second is the historical document of the Chinese railway labours and their exploitation, suffering and death while building the TransCanada railway through the Canadian Rockies in a harsh weather and difficult terrain.  It is the diary of the youngest Chinese worker Heen-gwong translated by Paul Yee.  

Along with the English language books, I also read number of Nepali books. Sakhi Ramlal Joshi is a social novel with various stories of poor community and the characters who were born and raised in poverty, discrimination, segregation. These characters represent different aspect of the society. Manav is the central character of the story who was migrated from Doti, a rural village of western Nepal to Dhangadi. As a young child, he was a friend of Sakhi who was a Kamlahari, a servant in his house. He teaches her to study, plays with her. However, when he goes to school, he meets Malati, a daughter of a local king called Chandra Bahadur. Malati used to sit alone in the classroom as per the command of Chandra Bahadur. Chandra Bahadur represents the upper class of the society who exploits the Kamaiya.  The owners of the Kamaiya often rape the women and impregnate them. Those impregnated women are arranged a second marriage with some poor person who agrees to do so with a few bucks. 

Sakhi is a girl who grows up in the Kamaiya family working as a servant. She befriends with Manav. Once Manav escapes the village after his letter to Malati was found by the teacher.  He was also beaten up by the gang of Malati’s brothers. Sakhi is raped by the owner. Then she gets married with a poor man of the village after being pregnant from her owner. After that she marriages with three different people, has three children. But at last she is left alone with three children. She actively participates in a revolutionary movement. She stands in the front line of everyday demonstration. She becomes the headline of every news.  

She again became a scapegoat of a journalist as purposed her to marry. Sakhi gets in relation with him thinking that her marriage with him can be a shelter to her three children. But later a white lady journalist starts relation with her husband and her marriage ends adding one more chapter of tragedy in her life.  

Then she starts working in a hostel as a dishwasher with the help of a teacher. With the help of the teacher she opens shelter to those people who were neglected by the family, mentally sick and homeless. 

Sarsarti Sansar by Jiba Laamichhane is a travelogue. However, more than a travelogue this book is a philosophical understanding of human life in various geopolitical background. Jiba Laamichhane, as a businessman visits multiple countries in Asia, Europe, America, Africa and the Middle east. Not only for the business purpose but in his family tour, Jiba looks the beauty of different countries with the lenses of politician, naturalist, visionary leader and a teacher. He documents a brief political history of the countries and connects with Nepal. Wherever he goes Nepal is always with him and he whines again and again why Nepal could not develop despite its vastness of natural resources and tremendous possibilities. 

Sansar  ek  Paadshala is Bishal Sitaula’s philosophical book in a form of memoir. Bishal Sitaula lived more than 35 years in Norway and worked in one of the reputed universities in Norway for 30 years and visited many countries. He documents his life experiences from different incidents, meetings with different people and places. He briefly touches every part of his life; his childhood, schooling, his dreams and hobbies, spiritual quest and greater meaning of life. This book teaches the art of living to the new generation.  

Baali by Jit Bahadur Katuwal is a novel written on a pauranik character Baali from Ramayana. This book teaches moral lesson from the ancient story of the Ramayana. Baali and Sugriv were brothers loving and trustworthy to each other. Baali becomes the King and Sugriv helps his brother in the palace. Once Hastinapur was attacked by the demons and Balli chased him up to the cave. Sugriv followed him and awaits at the entrance of the cave. When Bali did not return for long time, he assumed that Bali was killed by Demon. Then he blocked the entrance, returned to the palace, became a king and got married with the Queen, his sister in law. Later Bali came back after killing the demon. When he saw Sugriv as a king and his wife as a queen of Sugriv, he thought that it was a conspiracy of Sugriv to become a king. Then he chased Sugriv out of the palace. Sugriv, with the help of Rama, kills Bali in a war. However, Bali realizes his mistake and regrets at the end.  

This story has a lot of moral lessons to be learned by the leader, politicians and the general citizens.  

There are many other books I read in 2018; some of them partially finished and some half way stopped. 

Some movies and TV shows in Netflix were really knowledge worthy.  

Narcos, El Chapo, Kublai Khan, Cathedral of the Sea were the TV shows on Netflix I really liked. Sully, Captain Phillis, Django Unchained, The Way Back are movies made on the real incidents and events. I recommend them.  

I also visited home country Nepal in October, meet family and friends, celebrated Dashain festival, visited relatives in Chitwan, Nepalganj, Butwal, Kathmandu, Galkot, Kharbang and Rakshay. 

My mom's visit to Canada and days with mom for nine months was the most exciting and remarkable in 2018. I will write about this in my next blog. 

Afterall, it was awesome. One year competed with EEDC. I also started a new job with Excel Society as a Relief staff (CSW). I quit the Resident Managers job with Braden Equities.