Spotlight on...Kumar Bhandari

Kumar Bhandari is currently in his International Foundation Year at Softwarica college of IT and E-commerce in Nepal. Upon completing this qualification, he hopes to continue his studies with an IDCS. “NCC Education qualifications are up to date and challenging, practical and interactive.” Kumar, who is interested in travelling, swimming and jogging, also enjoys computer programming and data base management and would one day like to own his own business.

Kumar decided to study a NCC Education qualification after hearing a seminar conducted by Softwarica college, and through browsing the NCC Education website and ezine. The Accredited Partner Centre provided facilities including high speed internet, friendly teachers and a well equipped lab. He would consider studying away from his own country, “I would like to study in the UK, because of its highly recognized education.”

My Spotlight on Nepal

Between the two giants, there is a small but divine place – my country Nepal. It is the youngest republic. It doesn’t have an excess to the sea and its area is approximately 147181 square kilometres. It is more or less rectangular in shape and is predominantly covered by hills and mountains.

Nepal is a country having uniformity in diversity. Such diversities can be found in the physical features of the county. The northern part of the country is roofed with the snow caped, young folded mountain chain known as The Himalayas, which includes 8 of the world’s 10 tallest mountain peaks including the world’s tallest The Mount Everest also known as Sagarmatha in Nepal. The climate in this part of the county is very cold and glacial and has got very fewer types of vegetation. If we gradually move towards the southern part of the country then we can discover high Hills, which covers more than half of the total area of the country, this region is known as hilly region. In this region there are many valleys including Kathmandu and Pokhara valley. In the extreme southern part of the country there is a plain land which is known as Terai in Nepal. This region is very good for agriculture because of its fertile alluvial soil and is sometimes referred as the store house of grains. This type of physical diversity is rarely found in a small county like Nepal.

Similar diversity can be found in the culture and customs of the people living in different geographical regions of the country. The mountain region is on the whole inhabited by the Sherpas and Tamangs. They follow Buddhism and celebrate festivals like Buddha Purnima and Lhosar. In the hills and terai people mainly follow Hinduism and Islam and these regions are mainly inhabited by Brahman, Chhetris, Newars, Gururngs, Magar, Yadav, Tharu, Rai etc. There is a remarkable difference in the food, clothing, shelter, culture, traditions between the people living in different geographical regions, yet the people have more or less the same norms and values, religious tolerance and unity.

Nepal is a hotspot for natural, cultural and adventure tourism. The rich natural beauty, diverse culture and friendly people who treat tourists as God, makes Nepal a favourite tourist destination. Mainly tourists visit Nepal for trekking, hiking, mountain climbing, rafting, mountain flight, jungle safari etc. Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange for the country and one of the main sources of revenue for the government. Nepal is also famous for pilgrimage, Pashupatinath, lumbini –birth place of Gautam Buddha, Swargadari are some of the prominient pilgrimage sites for Hindus and Buddhists The upcoming year 2011 has been named and the Tourism year and Nepal is expecting more than two million tourists.

Nepal is the land of Gurkhas, who astonished the world with their bravery in the World War II. Several Nepalese (Gurkha) soldiers who were in the British Army had been awarded the Prestigious Victoria Cross. Once football legend Maradona even said that, “if I had ten thousand Gurkha soldiers I would have conquered the whole world”. In 2007 Mahabir Pun of Nepal was awarded the Magsaysay award considered by some to be the Nobel Prize of Asia, in recognition of "his innovative application of wireless computer technology in Nepal, bringing progress to remote mountain areas by connecting his village to the global village."

Nepal is still a developing nation and is still in a transitional phase. A new constitution is being written which eventually will decide the country’s future. Power crisis (load shedding), political instability, and foreign interference and interests are retarding the growth and development of the country, in the last decade Nepal has made a considerable development in the field of health and sanitation, education, human rights, telecommunications, information technology etc. And I am very proud to be a Nepali.

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