Apropos of the news story “Newly installed traffic lights go kaput” (THT, April 20, Page 3), where are we? Over one million vehicles, 2,594.67 km of roads, 300 zebra crossings, including the faded ones, and only four traffic lights, and none within the ring road! This is a huge setback from 12 years ago when Kathmandu streets were graced by “35 fully functional traffic lights”. If you go back even further, the traffic light system used to work well. Right now, there is an excuse for every problem in the country. The pretext for absence of traffic lights is lack of “skilled manpower” and “qualified technicians”, which seems like a poor joke. Even if you had trained a technician 12 years ago, s/he would have been ready to fix the lights by now. Or, if it was just a lack of technician, a traffic light engineer or two or ten could be hired from outside the country. India and China are willing to build railways in the country, according to the latest agreements and understandings. What happens if the railway traffic signals malfunction or die as and when we have Delhi-Kathmandu and Beijing-Lumbini railways? It sounds like an insult to Nepali society that there is not a single technician who can fix our traffic lights? Is traffic light rocket science? There are a lot of Nepali engineers who can fix the traffic light problem. The only thing that is required zeal in the concerned authorities. And as for tenders, when, how and where were the tenders called for the past six years? If there is not a single technician in the country, who had disqualified the tenders and on what grounds? Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu Knowledge This is in reference to the article “The spinning death machine” (THT, April 20, Page 8). I am convinced by what the writer summed up all the explanations and related epic Mahabharata with how modern science and mathematics work. When I was a kid I used to watch various Hindu epics on television. That time when I saw the protagonist hurl the chakra at the antagonist, I felt utterly consternated and thrilled. Another centre piece of this epic is that they portray not only chakra revolving but more importantly the characters were having supreme powers to voyage into the cosmological ocean. I am not a devout religious person. However, I have a message to those who like to be proselytised by foreign religions. I feel so sad to see people who are converting into other religions by disrespecting one’s own religion. I am so baffled at the thought that what they find in other religions that they don’t find in their religion. I am not saying people do not have rights to subscribe to independent views and ideology. All I am saying here is, a Hindu should understand his own religion inside out before he or she chooses to follow other because the modern scientists are largely inspired by what they see and understand from the nitty-gritty of our epics and language. Shiva Neupane, Melbourne