Friday, August 27, 2010

Two Week Adventure in South Island

New Zealand Travel Diary, Entry #11

Studying abroad at University of Auckland has been great so far. I am not fond of large classrooms and big lecture theaters but hey, the course load is lower than that at my home university. It is also because it is finals that are really intense and so students can relax and take it easy till then. Besides studying and academics part, I have been able to socialize with so many people from all over the world. There are students who have come here for exchange from all over. 

I decided to do something extra crazy while I am here, so I got dreadlocks the day before. One of my friends has amazing dreads and he along with other friends helped me get it. My hair looks so different now and I get unusual attention everywhere I go. I was walking on the streets yesterday and some guys outside a bar asked if I had some smoke. I laughed out and said I didn't.
I am excited for the best part of studying in New Zealand: traveling during the two week mid-semester break. In a few hours, I am heading to South Island for two weeks. South Island of New Zealand has pristine landscapes, yes you've seen it in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings and Cameroon's Avatar. I always wanted to travel independently in a foreign country and that wish has come to reality. I planned so that I will be touring the South Island on my own for two weeks. I am ready for this adventure to begin. I will update you all on this after I come back. Wish me good luck for a crazy adventure!

Read Entry #10 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here

Read Entry #9 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #8 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #7 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #6 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here
Read Entry #5 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here
Read Entry #4 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #3 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #2 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #1 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
 

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Most Gay Friendly Nation on the Earth

Which is the most gay friendly nation on the Earth? The same one that has the second happiest people among nations. Still clueless? Alright, the same country where Buddha was born. Not India, stupid. Buddha was born in Nepal despite the publicity stunt by Indian government to promote India as the birthplace of Buddha. Siddartha Gautam (original name of Lord Buddha) was born in Nepal but he achieved Enlightenment while meditating under a tree that is present in modern day India so rhetorically speaking, you could say although Siddartha Gautam was born in modern day Nepal, Buddha (Enlightened being) was actually born in the place that lies in modern day India. Oh and also, pronounce it as Buddha, not "Buda" as Americans say it. 'Buda' means old man while "Buddha" means knowledge. Anyway, what a tangential offshoot to begin with.

Back to discussion of Nepal being the most gay friendly nation on the Earth. You ask why? Here are my reasons:
  • It gives away national identity cards that have "third gender" category. Soon, we'll have third gender bathrooms. We don't even have sufficient public bathrooms.
  • It is openly promoted in international media as a lucrative, welcoming and safe destination for LGBTs in order to boost tourism from LGBTs. Even ordinary people don't feel safe.
  • It has an openly proclaimed LGBT representative in constituent assembly.
  • And now, Nepal becomes the first nation on the Earth to host a foreign gay marriage. , Even the United States of America, allegedly the most democratic nation on the Earth that values personal freedom and values is still grappling to allow gay marriage the same status as heterosexual ones.
And who performed the first foreign gay marriage? A Hindu priest. What are we seeing here? Globalization? Does Hinduism permit same sex marriage? I don't even know so I choose not to comment about it. But one piece of advice to the priest, "Well done, purohit baje. Must have received a handsome payment in return." Make Hay while the Sun shines. Our politicians are so engrossed in their own never-ending tussle of power. It was the fifth round of voting for new Prime Minister that failed, wasn't it? I would like to see it go up to at least a dozen, wouldn't you? At least Sunil Babu Pant is making a name for himself and is staying true to his cause by promoting what he believes in. The only politician who seems to be efficient at this time. Remarkable.

What if we are not seeing any perceivable economic development, this event signifies quite significant gender development in Nepal. To add it, Blue Diamond Society (society of LGBTs) awarded a cash prize of US $200 to the married couple. Wow! Last time the government only awarded a couple thousand rupees(<US $50) to promote an inter-caste marriage.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

The Facebook Experiment

This post is a break from my usual crisp style travel log entries. This one is an occasional rant that I had stopped for quite a while. Seems like I need to take up this again. This one is about Facebook, the second most used website in the world, first being Google, of course.

If you are a Facebook user, you must have seen ads on the right hand-side of your browser. You tell me how appropriate they are. It's always about "Meet Hot Singles in your area" or "Come Meet Me" with a scantily dressed pretty girl's image. You know what I am talking about. We have all seen it and despised it. I devised an excellent plan to get rid of these spam style ads that are customized for every user based on the information they have entered in their profile or contents of posts/status messages. All it took was one single variation in my profile information page and I have never seen those inappropriate ads again.

Well, what did I do, you must be wondering. Simply unchecked the box "Single" in relationship status page. The profile page did not display anything about my status and so this "benefit of doubt" worked out in my favor. Facebook ad program assumed I was not single anymore and stopped displaying ads with pretty ladies. Now I get ads about "Fly Cheaply to China" or "Rent Textbooks Cheaply". Much less annoying.

After the success of "get-rid-of-undesirable ads" mission, I decided to experiment with Birthday wishes posts on Facebook. I wanted to see how many Facebook users actually remembered their friends' birthday. On your birthday, your Facebook Wall is flooded by seemingly alike scores of single liner birthday wishes, yet that brings joy to your life because you are under the impression that there are so many friends out there who care for you. The fact that more than half of them may have simply written that because they saw birthday message post(s) on their homepage or saw the birthday notification does not even cross your mind. You want to think like an optimist. That's fine.

I devised an experiment to isolate the effect of birthday information on Facebook profile page. Two weeks before my birthday, I removed birthday information from my page which meant that my friends could not see any birthday notification on their home page. I wanted to see how many people would actually remember my birthday. In the past, I had received birthday wishes exceeding fifties on Facebook. Guess how many I received after removing birth date from my profile page? None. Nil. Right.

The experiment was far from complete yet. I still needed to verify that people solely depended on Facebook information for birthday wishes. So, a few days before April 1, I changed my birthday to April 1. Some people may have realized I was just trying to fool them but still I received more than 50 birthday wishes. I'm not kidding. This experiment that I carried out appears so silly that anyone would be highly reluctant to give it any credibility yet, it speaks volumes about behavior and reliance of Facebook users on the information displayed on Facebook page.

So, what's the moral of this story? You tell me.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Rain/Ruin in Auckland

New Zealand Travel Diary, Entry #10

Rain in winter. That's everyone's nightmare, isn't it? Growing up in Nepal where we have rainy season or monsoon as some romantics like to call it, came just before onset of summer or with it. So rain was more often welcomed by myself, other people living in inner city of Kathmandu and others living in southern plains where it gets quite hot during summer. But living here in Southern Hemisphere in New Zealand and experiencing rain during winter is the last thing anyone would come here for. Seems like I chose the second best semester to study aborad. The best would have been when it's Spring in Northern Hemisphere and summer here.

I came to know it rains less during summer than winter. What, really? For some people rain is quite depressing while for others, it can be quite romantic especially if you have someone to hold hands with and walk under the same umbrella. Haha. That's what we see in movies, especially bollywood ones, don't we?

Writing this on my desk overlooking the falling rain drops outside my window is not that bad afterall. Only when I have to go out and walk in the rain or plan a trip on a weekend, do I wish it didn't rain this much. I don't hate rain though. My grandparents were farmers and so I was brought up learning to appreciate rain and regard it as a boon since monsoon rain was all we depended on, there was no organized irrigation, just natural irrigation.

Last weekend, I went hiking with Tramping Club in Waitakere ranges and it rained the whole day. It was also quite windy which means umbrellas are virtually useless. The trails were muddy and slippery, sometimes even steep. The hike up to the hut was quite intense. I wished I hadn't gone. Only after I reached the hut, sat by the lit fire and enjoyed a shared group meal did I change my opinions. We played some "wicked" games and it was a fun night. We all joined our mattresses and slept together. It was one of the best nights in New Zealand so far because there was no electricity, no television, no internet to interfere with serenity of the night deep in the Waitakere ranges. I actually did quite well in a game called 'Phone Book' much to my astonishment. It requires great combination of alertness and balance, knowledge of center of gravity helps but I disagree that my engineering background gave me an unfair advantage over others.

The hike back next day was quite fun though. I slipped several times and my backpack was covered in mud, so were my boots and socks. The weekend before, I had gone to Pohuehue Scenic Park and it was raining then too. The trail was muddy and slippery. Our kayaking trip to Rangitoto this weekend was cancelled due to rain and bad weather. It's raining almost every day. And it's difficult to go outdoors in rain during weekends and New Zealand is one of the most outdoor kind of country. All of this due to my bad planning, I guess and making the second best choice among two semesters to come here.

Read Entry #9 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #8 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #7 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #6 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here
Read Entry #5 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here
Read Entry #4 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #3 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #2 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #1 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Rendezvous with a Stranger of Questionable Sexuality

New Zealand Travel Diary, Entry #9

I have not updated you since a week about events and happening in my Auckland life. Blame it on my laziness!

So, what has been going on? A couple days ago, a random guy walked up to me and said,

Guy: Hi, are you from India?
Me: No.
Guy: I see you a lot around the university and just wanted to introduce myself. It's a pleasure to meet you. I am from Bangladesh and doing Master's in Electrical Engineering.
Me: Oh cool, I am doing Electrical Engineering too, undergrad.
Guy: (bowing down) It's a pleasure to meet you.
Me: Ok. 

And I walked away not sure of what to make of this rendezvous with a stranger. Has a random person ever walked to you and introduced himself extremely politely and said "It's a pleasure to meet you" twice? It made no sense. I mean, we always see some faces regularly yet we usually wait for an opportunity or someone to introduce the other person to us. That's the accepted social protocol. This one was clearly an outlier, an act of bold social protocol violation. I mulled over it and tried to come with some logical reasoning. Maybe I truly stood out in this more than 40,000 student population at this university and importantly, among 1000 or more students of Indian origin who may(or may not) look alike to outsiders.

But this did not convince me. I know my facial features are not unique because several people in the past (while I was in Nepal) have walked up to me saying I resemble their brother. I am serious. However, I let this event pass attempting to convince myself that I was special.

A few days later, I met this guy again. I said hello. He reciprocated and shook my hands rather softly and said, 
You are looking good.
That felt uncomfortable, a lot more uncomfortable than the first meeting. Puzzles started unraveling and things started falling into place. That soft handshake and extreme politeness with a repeated "It's a pleasure to meet you" statements all pointed to his questionable sexuality. I tried resisting reaching this conclusion because Indian people usually do not express their homosexuality openly. I tried convincing my mind that the guy might be a genuinely nice guy just trying to make friends. But, I could not afford to take any risk, could I? The guy definitely seems to getting wrong ideas and his future looks bleak, to say the least. Since then, I have tried distancing myself from this particular individual of questionable sexuality. But, since we have classes in the same Engineering Building, that is not an easy task. Yesterday, despite my continuous efforts to avoid him, he gave me his mystic smile. I walked away not knowing how to respond.



Read Entry #8 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #7 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #6 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here
Read Entry #5 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here
Read Entry #4 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #3 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #2 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here.
Read Entry #1 of New Zealand Travel Diary Series here

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Welcome to New Digital Subway

Hello, my faithful readers!!

Do not be surprised by the change in Blogger Title page and the template. I thought it was time to give it a new look. This seemingly simple looking title bar isn't that simple. I created each and every part separately. If you look closely at the word "digital", you'll realize that it is not perfectly symmetric because I had this idea of creating the word by joining individual green lines. Painstakingly, I put it all together to spell the word correctly.

 This logo is copyrighted by Digital Subway. I mean it!!! :D

And, look at the word, "SUBWAY", you'll realize that it is not perfectly even spaced either. Due to limitations on human eyes, such a discrepancy may not be obvious though. I had this idea from riding subways in New York last summer. This was not hard to create though, a simple circle with different colors and letters, piece of cake. Making all of this new logo took me more time than I thought it would. My photoshop skills had become rusty. Actually I prefer using Adobe Illustrator while making logos because they are more flexible and appropriate.

Anyway, I will update you about my life here in Auckland in next post. There is one funny story to tell. Keep posted.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Study Abroad - Don't Miss the Chance

Hello from Auckland, New Zealand to all my faithful readers !!

I know you are in plenty and anxious to hear about my study abroad experience in New Zealand. Daniel in his blog told you "Please, Please Study Abroad". Well, I say it too. Don't miss out on this experience. It does take some planning to do and figuring out transferable courses, travel, accomodation, living in a foreign country on your own and preparing your own food might seem intimidating. But, these are the things you have to learn in life. Forget about it looking good on your resume or increasing your chances of employment. It's more than just that.

 Wellesley Student Apartment Building. Photo by: Digital Subway

More than half of all Trinity students study abroad at some point in their undergraduate education. And New Zealand and Australia are becoming increasingly popular destinations. The reason? People speak English and you get to travel to the other side of the Hemisphere. Best of all, Kiwi people are really friendly and laid back. Initially, when I had to find way, I would stop by and ask for directions and they would give me the most simple and detailed directions. You should consider yourself lucky if the same happens to you in New York or some other big US city.


Here, I can find a nice balance of nature, adventure and busy city life. I study at University of Auckland which has a total student body more than ten times that of Trinity. It is huge. And it is located in the heart of Auckland city. You could very well imagine New York University to get a mental picture. Everything is in walking distance. At Trinity and in most of Texas cities, walking is simply not possible as it is so spread out. I am liking this change since I did not have a car at Trinity. Not having a car in any Texan city could seriously limit your travel since mass public transportation is not nearly as good as some other North Eastern cities. Here students walk to major grocery stores, movies, restaurants, shops and even student apartments. My apartment is only three minutes away from the university.


Besides enjoying a great city life and night life on weekends and Wednesdays, there is a lot to explore in the wild. Kiwis party on Wednesdays because coincidentally (or not) it is their payday. Last weekend, my friends and I went to see glow worms in Waitomo caves. It is a very unique thing and popular among tourists. I also saw black sand beach for the first time. It didn't occur to me that black sand was a result of volcanic ash until my friend explained it to me. New Zealand has a lot of volcanic craters, many of which are active. I am serious! The last one erupted within this decade. There is also a lot of cultural influence from Maoris (origininal inhabitants) of this "Land of the Long White Clouds". New Zealand is one of the few countries to have preserved its indigenous population their cultural practices and language so well. In fact, every rugby game played by All Blacks (NZ's national rugby team) starts with Haka, a traditional intimidating dance performed by Maoris to intimidate their enemies. During our orientation with IFSA-Butler study abroad programme, we got to be a part of Kapa Haka performance and slept at a marae (a sacred ancestral home of Maoris). It was very special.

My friend Al walking past the billboard. Photo by: Digital Subway


Black Sand Beach that we went to.  Photo by: Digital Subway

I will keep you all posted on my future adventures and life in general here in Aotearoa (New Zealand in Maori). In the meantime, you could check out more photos in my Picasa if you want to.