I used to wonder why some people love dogs so much. I was just not very interested in them. I didn’t like their smell. I didn’t understand why people around me were so crazy about them. I was once chased and bitten by a dog when I was playing with my friends. From that point I low-key hated dogs. Dogs for me were bone-eating mindless creatures that have no sense of right and wrong. This was how I thought of dogs until I met my dog, Seru. One day, one of my brothers was feeding a dog. He was actually trying to get the dog out of our house because the dog wasn’t leaving. We carried him outside but he kept coming inside so we finally decided to keep it. At first, my mom and my dad were pretty skeptical about keeping a dog because my mom had a cat allergy and thought that she would have a dog allergy too. But we kept the dog anyway. We named him Seru. I didn’t hate the dog but I didn’t like it either. I used to wash my hands every time I touched it. Now that I think about it, I was an ugly douche and hate myself for doing that to this day. Days went by and he was becoming more and more like a family. He was a young dog so he would do some stupid things. He would sometimes irritate us by throwing things around and biting stuff. Even though he did those things, we still loved him and treated him well. I’m pretty sure he loved us too because he used to be really excited when we got back from school or work to home. We were getting closer and closer then, one day he decided to chew my uncle’s laptop charger. The charger was torn into pieces. My uncle got so furious that he told us to leave the dog somewhere on the road. I thought he wasn’t serious but to my surprise, he really wanted that dog out of our house. I tried to convince him but he wasn’t taking any of it. Even though my mom was quite sad to leave him on the streets, she took him and left him somewhere. He was gone for six hours and we were already beginning to forget about him. But after six hours, there he was, wagging his tail and being all excited like we never left him on the streets. I almost broke into tears. At that time, I realized why people love them so much. There are no other creatures more loyal, loving and humble than dogs. There was no way that we were leaving him again. Now, Seru is the fifth member of our family. He is busy barking at his own reflection and playing with tiny insects most of the time. He is still a very playful dog and loves irritating us. Seru and I go on a walk every morning. Although he is not perfect, we all feel happy when we see him after a long day. Seru changed the way I think about dogs. Now, when I see a dog on the street, I have to pet it. I also feed street dogs sometimes. Seru brought a change to my personality so he is one of the most important things that have happened to me.

“Hey, you are on your periods. Don’t enter the kitchen.” my grandmom said to my mother. I was at the age of 6 when I first heard this. And I was totally unaware of the ‘periods’ and the ‘barrier’ that stopped my mother to enter the kitchen. “Mom, what period is?” I questioned my mom. “Nothing.” She replied. And she gave me my toys to play with and at that instance, I didn’t care what period was and why my mother couldn’t enter the kitchen. Now all I could understand was that there’s something called periods that happened to my mom and that period won’t let her enter the kitchen. In the Newar community, there are lots of festivals to be celebrated. And during the month of December, we were invited to our maternal home for Yomari Punhi. We reached there early in the morning as it was just a few moments walk from my house to my maternal house. After reaching there we had our breakfast. When all the relatives gathered in the maternal house, now the work got dispersed. Kids started playing with each other. My mother and aunts started their work in the kitchen. And my uncles started to talk about politics, drinking, and playing cards. At mid-day we all kids, uncles, and aunts gathered at the kitchen to have our lunch. Everybody took their lunch and were having their lunch with a conversation regarding the social taboos and the decreasing rate of beliefs on social taboos. One of my cousins Subha who was on periods got up to add some Yomari. As she was heading towards the kitchen, one of my aunts said, “Hey you are on your periods. Don’t enter the kitchen.” And that was the same statement that my grandmom told my mom some years back and now that was the same statement that my aunt told Subha. Now here’s the point where the conversation got a new breakthrough. My sister totally disagreed with the thought my aunt had. She tried to convince her why the women were restricted to enter the kitchen during their periods in past times. She gave the clear clarifications to her saying, “At last the people had restricted the entry of the girls on kitchen or temples on periods because they need rest in their periods as it is a very sensitive time and a time of intense pain for girls.” But my aunt wasn’t in favor of accepting the fact. And again started arguing giving her some religious beliefs like “Women get impure during their periods and so on.” My aunt couldn’t get it and there are still some people who wouldn’t get it. But I got that thing in my mind and why my mother was restricted by my grand mom back then. It was all the wrong belief that was in the mindset of my grandmom. And I didn’t know why but I was also with the same mindset which got changed when I got the clarification for the restriction of women in the kitchen or in the temples during their periods.

I always hear your laughter in the breeze
While I walk along
The lonely country roads.

On cold mornings
I still look for you,
As I did those many years ago.

When you chose away
My loneliness
With your whispering smiles.

I loved you so much back then
I love you so much today.

When I feel a warm breeze 
Touching my cheeks
I turn to see

If that’s you walking
The road of life with me.
 

शान्ति कहाँ छौ तिमी यो अत्यचार र विसङ्गतिको देशमा 
फेरि पाइला चाल्दै आऊ शान्ति तिमी आफ्नै भेषमा

यो कस्तो अवस्था अायो देश रक्षकलाई मारे भालाले (सन्दर्भ:टिकपुर घटना)
त्यही देशद्रोहिले शान्ति तिम्रो महिमालाई ढाले 

तराई जुट्यो,पहाड जुट्यो,हिमाल जुट्यो
तर बुद्ध जन्मिएको देशको शान्ति खै कस्ले लुट्यो

डाँडाकाँडा गाउँ बस्ती सबै तिरबाट अहिंसा मेटाइदेऊ
जसरी अनन्त आकाश अटल छ त्यसै गरि तिम्रो अस्तित्व कायम राखी देऊ

हुन त अहिले सबैले गाउँछन् महिमा क्रान्तिको
तर देशको निम्ति मुख्य मन्त्र बनाउ सबैले शान्तिको

लालीगुराँस, डाफे, र बुद्ध सबैलाई शान्ति भनी पुकार्छन्
असहाय र  बृद्ध पनि तिम्रै सहाय खोज्दछन्

शान्ति अब फैल तिमी देशका हरेक कुना अनि ठाउँमा
म मरे पनि जहिले शान्तिकै नाम सुनु म
 

I want all of you to imagine yourself in a scenario in one of the countries in the middle east. You see a man wearing long kurtas and with a child under his arms, coming along the dirt road. Your manipulated mind automatically switches to the term ‘suicide bomber’ but no, that’s just a struggling father accompanying his child to school so that his child can grow up and not be bothered by his stance as a Muslim in the world. The father struggles because his crops have been destroyed, his farmland turned into a warzone, his home is in poor condition but still; he is happy that he is still alive, which he cannot say for so many others who were mistaken for terrorists and viciously shot down.  This is just a small view of the conditions in countries like Syria and Iraq. Upon deeper inspection, you start to realize that all these are influenced largely by the media. Not just terrorism, but everything that the West deems “not relatable” like communism is degraded by the media. I mean, how many war or action movies have you watched that show Muslim terrorists as antagonists or Russian commies as the bad guys? The number is insanely high! I don’t know how but somehow, we have managed to blame almost 1.8 billion people for the deeds of a few 100!  Connecting this to the 4-way test of rotary is a bit difficult; this being a broad subject. IS IT THE TRUTH? Is it true that the media is indeed discriminating Muslims as bad guys and terrorists? It is. We don’t have to look far to find all sorts of examples. From the portrayal of plain racist stereotypes in movies to rude and condescending news articles, the Internet is full of examples of the portrayal of Muslims as bad guys. Coming this far into the point, I’d like to make something clear. I do not deny that there are terrorists out there. I do not deny that action should be taken against them. However, I do deny the abuse that is being served to many, many people for the crimes they never committed and the injustice they never did.  Moving on, IS IT FAIR TO ALL CONCERNED? Of course, it isn’t! If the media, the core, the source of most of the information we get, stigmatizes one particular group from the rest then the public will follow, regardless of their doubts. It’ll build discrimination in people. Muslims will be stared at and pushed around in every part of the world. I’ll borrow an example from a show called “Home” which is essentially about a Syrian refugee living in England to escape the violence and protect his family. However, he is proclaimed a coward and a terrorist in some places but as time passes, people find out that not all Muslims are bad and the main character finds out that there are people capable of overlooking discriminations.  WILL IT BUILD GOODWILL AND BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? However, if the media were to provide consolation and aid to the Syrian refugees as well as civilians then the mentality of the public will change. After all, the fear instilled is a product of the media. So, if the media does indeed change its ways and focuses more on empowering Syrian civilians and providing aid and consolation, I believe that the public will be more lenient towards Muslims overall. This will indeed build goodwill not just among different people but also among different countries and hence, develop closer bonds.  IS IT BENEFICIAL TO OTHERS? Rather than answer this question directly, I would like to give a counterpart. If the media continues to bully certain ethnic groups, it’ll only develop more hate and resentment in those people. Steadily but surely, it’ll give rise to rebellions. People will stop and say,” I’ve had enough” and start taking action. There’ll be more deaths and governments will receive even more pressure. Since the situation will only worsen, it will serve as a benefit to all concerned if things can be stubbed as the way they are with the least collateral damage.  We often say “Don’t hate the player, hate the game” but this is, in fact, the opposite of what should be done. Hating the game means hating everyone involved, this includes innocent children and striving mothers, all of whom have suffered at the hands of a few people who did wrong and now more and more people suffer because of them and I think we have enough proof to relay that people are suffering while we, as a group, have been blaming a lot of people for things they never did.

I must say we are so lucky and happy that we have a family so loving, caring and amazing. They have always been an integral part of our life and so we are in their lives. But, it's not the same in everyone else’s lives. In some corner of your town, there is a person who is broken both emotionally and mentally with loneliness and endless thoughts that never end. It's some sort of physical mark that never disappears and no one else cares. By broken family, it merely does not mean your parents are separated or don't live together, it also means isolation and a lack of attention we face despite having them.  Broken families may have several reasons. It can be child adoption, financial issues, misunderstandings, health conditions, and even early pregnancy. Whatever the reasons behind it, it severely affects the mental, physical and emotional development as well as the spiritual being of a child. People who grew up in broken families are always embarrassed, depressed and numb. They start comparing their families constantly with others and end up being aggressive, disappointed, and angry; leading to mental conflict. What must it feel growing up like this? Everyone else gets picked up by their parents after school, gets pocket money for tiffin, have many friends to hang out with, have parents attending school events and festivals. On the other hand, you are left with guilt and expectations that never come true. Most of all, you don’t like to share these with anybody else and grow up into a person different from the rest. Doesn’t It hurt? Yes, it does. Don't worry! At least our families are not broken.  It’s like we never know the tragedy, hardships, difficulties, and misfortune they are facing from their early ages. And we so-called ‘smart people’ never stop calling them anti-social, stupid, silly, unlikeable and inhuman. It needs to be noted that any judgment passed based on personal biases and experiences, it's never a judgment, but only one's outlook to others. People say they are difficult to deal with but who knows they just need a little love and care to change. Their outside is stone carved but inside, they must be a beautiful soul that they never like to show.  They are also the ones who know how to uphold people and happiness since they will do whatever it takes to stop losing more and more people in their lives. It just needs to make them believe that people do care. With their challenging life experiences, you can learn how to be emotionally stronger, independent, exist in an affliction, handle embarrassment and deal with sufferings that may knock at the door of your life in the future(let us hope not so!).

The Game of Thrones attracted a lot of viewers with their story development but made them realized all of them were wasting their time. Until now, I don’t think I have met or talked to one person who has actually appreciated the ending of Game of Thrones. It had a worldwide audience but towards the end, it seemed as if though, many of the viewers were forced to watch it to complete the story-line. Unnecessary death, unfinished tales, and sloppy execution made the end of the popular show very disappointing. I would mainly change these three aspects of the final season if given the power. Game of Thrones had a lot of characters. According to recent reports, it has been said that the game of thrones had the largest extras involved throughout the series. But, there were too many deaths of main characters, especially in the last season. The characters that were eventually thought to be one of the important factors in the conquest just died. Some of them were expected but many of them weren’t. Maybe we’re just sad of that death but it seemed like it added a lot of factors to why the end of it was not up to the standard. I would not like completely save all of them but I sure want to reduce the number of deaths. If the number of death had been as I wanted then maybe the end of many characters would have been satisfactory. A lot of characters didn’t have the ending they deserve. Their story was properly developed but in the end, they were recognized as no one. Some went to live with the southern people, some went to explore the world and the character that craved the throne the most was killed but the one no one thought was made a king in the end. That’s the irony, the characters that deserved the throne were “exiled“, but the crippled boy who lived in his stories was the king. I can’t really explain how but that is not satisfying. If I could change it then surely, I would have made sure that the throne went to the one who wanted it the most. Due to these problems the show, the story of the show was rushed with poor execution of the events. During the final season, it seemed like the story was going in rushed pace which is weird because all other seasons had a slower pace than the viewers wanted. Maybe this is the reason why there were those unnecessary deaths and the characters didn’t get proper end to a fantastic storyline. That’s why this is the most important change at the end of “The Game of Thrones” I want to make. If only the series had one more season then a lot of things would have been different. At least, I think so. If I had the chance to change anything in the world then I would surely change how this series ended. I personally being an enthusiast of TV series was very upset with the end. I would surely save a lot of people who needed to be there after the conquest. I would have given the characters the end they really deserved and I would surely have had perfect execution of the stories that would have been what many viewers wanted. This ending we have now is surely going to come back and haunt me so if I had the chance I would have prevented this for me and perhaps a lot of people.

As human beings, we all have the right to be given equal treatment with social justice. Giving equal treatment is equality. Equality alone has flaws. In some cases when equality is followed then an advantaged group can reap more benefits than a disadvantaged group. So to correct this flaw, the concept of equity was introduced. Equity is the empowerment of backward sections of society by giving them special advantages over others. For example, a handicapped person can be given special employment skills and more priority can be given to the products of handicapped people. The adoption of equity has many benefits. Equity helps all people to rise to the same level. If equity is implemented properly then all the backward and marginalized groups will come to the mainstream. Also, discrimination will end. True equality can prevail in this way. The society also becomes progressive. If society follows this system then society becomes more advanced and just. Equity will turn out to be a great system for the welfare of all the people in society. The system of equity also helps to end the conflict. If equity is practiced in society then the conflict between the backward groups and high standard groups will not take place. This is due to the upliftment of backward groups. Since all people have opportunities  there is less chance of conflict.   So equity is essential to create a more peaceful and welfare-oriented society. A better environment will be created for the development of society. The adoption of equity will certainly help the world to be a better place. 

We should save our tree
Else we won’t be sin free.
We shouldn’t pollute our air
Else we  will  get punished bare.

We should respect our nature
Else we will get killed by creatures .
We should make our earth green
Else earth will be like if it is trimmed .

We should value every leaves
Else we will suffer from grief.
We should protect our animals 
Else we will have to be animals in carnivals
 

I still remember the date
I was messing around with my mate
Time stopped, eyes met
One remained stunned 
Something beyond science was found

One year passed by
Still one is stunned 
But he got no guts
Tries his hardest 
But is brought down by his own nervousness 

It kills him to see her with someone else
It leaves him lifeless to know 
He is losing her
But still, he got no guts 
Instead of cries inside 
One day she will be his or will she??
 

आमा त्याे पीडा मैलै बुझेकाे छैन जुन तिमीले पाएकी थियाै
म सानाे छँदा मलाई राखेर थाेरै तिमीले खाएकी थियाै
हाे आमा, कहाँ बिर्सिन्छु र तिम्राे अथाह माया मैले याे जुनीमा
तिमीले जति माया गरे पनि तिम्राे अभावमा रातदिन रूने म 

घामपानी नभनी मेरै निम्ति सुखका बालाहरू खाेजिरह्यौ
आफ्नाे इच्छा मारेर आफ्नाे सन्तानकाे निम्ति हरपल हरक्षण साेचिरह्यौ
हाे आमा तिमी अमूल्य छाै तिम्रा गुणहरू फुलझैँ चम्किरहेकाे छ 
तिम्राे आँटमा मेराे जीवनका पाइलाहरू अघिअघि लम्किरहेकाे छ

संसारकी महान् मेरी आमा मेराे खुसीसँगै आँशुहरू पियौ हाेला
जानी नजानी धेरै दुख मैले तिमीलाई दिएँ हाेला 
हाे आमा त्यसैले त तिम्राे खुसीमा मैले संसार जितेकाे जस्ताे लाग्छ
तिम्राे न्यानाे काखमा जति बसे पनि थाेरै समय बितेकाे जस्ताे लाग्छ 

आफू एकपटक मरेर पनि मलाई संसार देखाउनु भयाे
भाेकै बसेर कयाैँ दिन याे भूमिमा मेराे नाम लेखाउनु भयाे 
हाे आमा तिम्राे दस धारा दूधकाे गुण म कहिले तिर्न सक्दिनँ
तिम्राे स्वाभिमानलाई कुल्चेर म अरूकाे लागि गिर्न सक्दिनँ 

आमा त्याे पीडा मैलै बुझेकाे छैनँ जुन तिमीले पाएकी थियाै
म सानाे छँदा मलाई राखेर थाेरै तिमीले खाएकी थियाै
आमा कहाँ बिर्सिन्छु र तिम्राे अथाह माया मैले याे जुनीमा
तिमीले जति माया गरे पनि तिम्राे अभावमा रातदिन रूने म
 

 You walk through a slum area
And you see a beggar begging
Would you pass by in disgust?
Or would you help him?

You see an orphan
With his parents dead the earlier night
Would you try feeling him?
Or would you leave him with a heavy heart?

You see a girl
Who has been raped
Would you support her?
Or would you reject her as the way the society rejected her?

You see a mother
Who has been kicked out of her own house 
Would you give her warmth?
Or would you leave her the way she is? 

How has the world been?
Why can’t we help the needy ones?
Why are we paused with the question?
Is it because we are filled with sympathy instead of empathy?