The thing that attracted Prince Harry's heart!

From serving in Military alongside the Gurkha to actually landing a visit to Nepal, how has Nepal attracted the heart of Prince Harry?

The answer might be simple. You got to visit Nepal, to get attracted to it! And that's exactly what Prince Harry found after concluding his official visit to Nepal at the 200th anniversary of Nepal - UK bilateral relations.

This is what he said:

Source: The British Monarchy

Prince Harry's tour included visiting the UNESCO World Heritage sites of Kathmandu and a disaster relief camp housing people made homeless by the 2015 earthquakes, visiting Bardia National Park, being welcomed as a guest into a Gurkha widow's home for the night, becoming 'Head Man' of the village of Leorani, celebrating the festival of Holi, supporting the Nepal Girl Summit, and paying his respects to Gurkha Soldiers and their families.

          -The British Monarchy

With so much going on in his daily schedule, he has truly fallen in love with the hospitality of Nepalese, and the country itself; he expands his tour to 6 days working with TeamRubikonUK to assist with the rebuilding of schools.

This truly shows that, if Nepal can win over the heart of Prince Harry, then surely we can win the hearts of millions of people around the world. What we need right now is to gain the trust of all the tourists that think Nepal is still unsafe after the earthquake, to make them visit Nepal! With this tour of Prince Harry, positives can be taken into Nepal's rebuilding process and it's tourism industry. We hope our hospitality could help us win the hearts of millions around the world.

Jay Nepal!

Writer: +Bijesh Bajracharya 
blog: bijeshbajracharya.com.np
twitter: @Bajra_b
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Apply today to be a part of 3rd National Astronomy Olympiad 2016- Nepal!

Nepal Astronomical Society has announce 3rd National Astronomy Olympiad 2016- Nepal! The selection around will be held on Saturday, March 26, 2016 at Baratnagar, Birgunj, Chitwan, Kathmandu and Pokhara.

Introduction:

The National Astronomy Olympiad Program is an educational program designed by Nepal Astronomical Society (NASO) and ESPRO Foundation to encourage Nepalese students who pursue further studies in Physics, Math, Astronomy and Space Science. This program is a national qualifer for all three International events on astronomy astrophysics for pre-university nepalese students: International Astronomy Olympiad (IAO), Asian Pacific Astronomy Olympiad (APAO) and International Olympiad in Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) that will be held during August-December every year.

Eligibility for Application: 

Student who meets the below criteria is eligible the National Astronomy Olympiad 2016- Nepal 

• Must be Nepali Citizen
• Must be born on or after January 1, 1997
• Must not enroll at University level programs like B.Sc. 

Application Procedures:

• Interested and eligible students can collect the application form at one of the following places paying NRs 100/-. 

Kathmandu Valley – Nepal Astronomical Society (01-4110344)

Biratnagar- Mr. Gopal Niraula (9842369861)

Birgunj- Mr. Milan Rai (9845409422)

Chitwan- Mr. HC Regan Babu Bhatta (9855062676)

Pokhara- Mr. Anand Gurung (9803189651)

• Deposit the application fee: NRs 1,000/- at Megha Bank Nepal Ltd. (Click here to find a branch near your place). Bank Account details will be provided with the application form.
• Visit our office our representative mentioned above and submit the application ( Complete application form, copy of SLC certificate or equivalent, Copy of Character Certificate and bank deposit voucher- while making deposit please make sure your write your complete name as same as in your certificates)
• Attend the selection exam at nearest exam centers (Details on exam centers will be available at our website:www.nepalastronomicalsociety.org and our facebook page: www.fb.com/NepalAstronomicalSociety)

National Delegation of maximum of five students and two team leaders will be facilitated to participate for upcoming 12th Asian Pacific Astronomy Olympiad (12th APAO) during September-December (host country not decided yet), 21st International Astronomy Olympia (21st IAO) during September-October (Bulgaria) and 10th International Olympiad in Astronomy and Astrophysics (10th IOAA) during December 2016 (India). For more details, please contact us during our office hours.

You can download the NAO2016 Handbook for more information about the program, sample question paper, syllabus, etc.

What to know what do our previous winners say about the competiton? Here you go:

What to know our winners from NAO2014? Here you go:

Note: NAO2016 is open for both class 11 and 12 students! Mr. Bibek Kumar Pandit (St. Xavier's College, Maitighar), one of the winner of NAO2014 and Ms. Shilpa Bhandari (Pentagon International College) one of the winner of NAo2015 was class 11 students during the competition year!!! So, feel free to apply! You may be in the list of winners this years!

The Modern Day Art of Photography

He's the kind of person that defines simplicity and is a man who finds beauty in everything. After 33 years of teaching English in various universities in Kathmandu, Mr Dipak Sakya has recently discovered the passion for photography.

Mr Sakya does not consider himself an expert photographer but has views on how photography can have an impact on people. He says, "Photography is turning creative thinking into critical thinking". Photography makes you think. It goes against the WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) convention and gives out various meanings the way you interpret it.

"It's like reading the work of Shakespeare. You can read what he's written, re-read it and get a different meaning out of it every time ." 

Mr Sakya believes that photography makes it a lot easier to explain the context to his students. "I don't even needs books to teach". On his English lessons, he often took photographers as guest lecturers to his class. To him, photography is an imaginative way of learning different things where the outcome is always different than what is anticipated. The result of an analysis of photography always comes out different than what he meant and the observers are never wrong.

"A picture is worth a thousand words, a caption is worth another thousand."

Just like David Bowie, Mr Sakya also likes to mash up things by adding a caption. He believes these few words set as guidelines assist in revealing deeper meanings of a photograph. He says the combinatory play of photography and literature with the inclusion of a little description makes a beautiful picture better. He usually goes with short witty captions.

However, he likes to capture the mood of the moment which has more beauty and meaning than those posed for. "There's a big difference between a smile when someone is looking at the camera and when I take a photograph of someone smiling." He likes to take pictures where the object and situation present itself naturally.

"Many times, I find something in my photos which I cannot imagine. Photography captures the beauty of the moment and is a way to revisit a happy memory."

Mr Sakya believes that there is a bad part about photography as well. A lot of what we see in photographs may be fake. The worst kind of fake is people showing they have helped and amplifying the effort they have put in. He also despises photographers who disrespect privacy and those do anything to bring their pictures to light, compromising the view of the actual live attendee of the event.

"People exaggerate about what is happening. If you take a bigger frame of the same picture, you will realise how little they've actually done."

Mr Sakya has also taught photography to a batch of some 5 groups for some 5/6 months. In his photography classes, he often brings in literature and finds it easier to teach photography to students with the help of poems and excerpts from books.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— 

I took the one less travelled by, 

And that has made all the difference."

-Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken

Mr Sakya says that in every field, we must be ready to face criticism by taking our own path and to understand ourselves. He says it is important to learn Rules and Regulations, but only to break them.

"Only by breaking the rules, it becomes your own views."

He also says that we must be ready to embrace ourselves from all the negative comments we might receive and consider it a different opinion rather than criticism, and these remarks will only improve you and make you a better person.

"To be creative, you have to be different, do it your way, and because of this people may not like you."

Now in his retired life, he lives in Kathmandu and does not travel much. When asked why he says he is a "kuwa ko bhyaguto" and says the valley has enough beauty in it yet to be explored. He always keeps his camera close, sometimes be it just a camera phone to capture the beauty of everyday life.

Mr Sakya believes that you do not need expensive cameras to start learning photography. He thinks you can always start with something simple and less expensive and get better equipment as you progress.

Some terrific piece of advice from someone who considers himself an amateur photographer right? 

His primary responsibility now is to be a good grandfather and takes care of the little child. Like most wise men, he enjoys the beauty of the simplicity of his self-fulfilled life.

Here're some of his photographs.

Follow Mr Dipak Sakya on Instagram for a view of everyday life and witty captions

Writer: Abish Shakya
Follow me on Twitter: @abishakya
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