Education via Nepali:

I share Sajan Subedi’s worries expressed in the Midway piece “Love of Nepali” (THT, Jan. 11). I agree with his plea to create an awareness to preserve and promote Nepali as a

native language. There have been similar responses from other communities in Nepal whose mother tongues are on the verge of extinction. According to Subedi, such a plight may be ascribed to our shift of focus from Nepali to English. And he is right. But it may also be due to the growing educational use of Information Technology (IT), which has been restricted mostly to English. Initiatives have been taken to reduce this digital divide through localisation of IT in Nepali. The project Nepali Language Resources and Localisation for Education and Communication is being carried out at Madan Puraskar Pustakalaya to further integrate Nepal into the Information Society. This EU-funded project includes the development of corpora from Nepali written and spoken texts and preparation of an online Nepali dictionary. In

addition, this collaborative project will also work on developing a full course in corpora and computational linguistics for TU Master’s level in linguistics. The completion of this work may contribute to introducing language technologies in Nepali and help education through Nepali medium.

Yogendra Yadava, TU, Central Department of Linguistics

Unreported:

I am worried about the security situation in the Kathmandu Valley. Last Friday when I was heading towards Bagalamukhi temple, a bomb was planted on the Bagmati bridge.

The next day I was dumbfounded to find that no media had reported the incident. It was as if nothing had happened. Everybody knows the bomb was planted with the ill-intention of blowing up the bridge. Whoever may be the planter, the destruction of that bridge would have caused great inconvenience to the public. Damaging public property will serve no purpose.

Sumit Pokhrel, Shankhamul

Ironical:

Nepal is gifted with natural resources like water. Unfortunately, we have been unable to make the best use of our resources because of the lack of infrastructure, technological expertise and economic problems. The media has reported that the government is planning to buy electricity from India. It is really ironical that Nepal has to buy electricity from another country. If we utilise our resources properly, the power thus generated can fulfil the demand of Nepalis and also generate revenue through exports.

Hemraj Basnet, JAM, Campus

Disturbance:

The number of mobile users has dramatically increased in Nepal. Though life has become a little easier with mobile phones, we overlook its dangers. Mobile phones use very high frequency radio waves to receive and send calls, which are very harmful to our health.

Besides, most users have no sense to switch off their phones in public places. In many countries, the use of mobile phones in hospitals, cinema halls, schools etc. is strictly prohibited. We should adopt strict rules so that those who do not use mobiles are saved from the disturbance.

Deepak Joshi Pokhral, Kirtipur