The Beauty in you

Apparently, when things come to you, it is that they must come to you. Nature gives unto you its fruits as you have sowed. What you get is what you deserve. How can you expect a sweet mango fruit when you have actually planted a bitter neem plant? This is where we all fail to understand the law of nature.

By Barry

Look at the trees; look at the flowers; look at the birds. Do you see what I see? I see in them the symbolic of ‘growth’. Growth speaks of life. And where there is life, there is happiness and peace.

Life is but one chance to feel beauty, within and outside. Yes, and beauty can be felt without really ‘trying to feel’. A paradox, isn’t it?

More often than not, we all want to be happy. And we try to force it out. While in essence, it comes out naturally! If you’ve ever wondered, the more you tried to get rid of your thoughts, the more they pursued you till they left you stressful, snatching away your precious moments of joy. That wasn’t what you called for. You wanted bliss and you got misery. You desired for peace and you got hold of confusions. So, how could you expect to value life’s beauty? How could you say life is magnificent?

What went wrong then? Where did you stumble?

You have been spreading most of your life fighting and grumbling. Be it somewhere within or out there. You have hardly learnt to accept things as they come. No matter what, you have almost habitually chosen the ball to be in your court. You have wanted the river to flow against its own direction, the sun to rise from the west and the earth to stop rotating! And life’s unmatched delight lies in valuing beauty as it is.

Apparently, when things come to you, it is that they must come to you. Nature gives unto you its fruits as you have sowed. What you get is what you deserve. How can you expect a sweet mango fruit when you have actually planted a bitter neem plant? This is where we all fail to understand the law of nature. When it comes to the end result, all we want is a
pleasant smile. We just want things our way.

The true measurement lies in how a being organizes himself at the face of difficult times. If he realizes that the moment, whether favorable or adverse, is to be merely witnessed, he is a gifted man. He is the man who can smile genuinely. He is the man who can say ‘come friends, let’s all share the graceful beauty!’

Heritage tour 
Patan Durbar Square

By Razen Manandhar

Asmall but rich in uniqueness city lies just six kilometres south of the capital. The city of Patan or Lalitpur, named Yala in local language, was a separate state three hundred years ago and the kings ruled from the Patan Durbar Roayl Palace till Nepal was conquered by King Prithvi Narayan Shah in 1769.

The Patan Durbar Square is called Chaukot Durbar and Mangal Bazaar, which is derived from Manigla or Manigvala, the ancient name of the palace. It is no less significant than that of the Hanumandhoka of Kathmandu though it is smaller in spatial distribution.

Probably there had been a administrative office by the 7th century as the King Narendra Dev had addressed the area as Yupa Grama in his writing. A chronicle adds that a 11th century king Bara Dev started living in the palace as his father abandoned the throne. Similarly, contexts that King Rudra Dev constructed different courtyards in the palace by 1170 AD but lacks strong conformations.

On the foundation of chronicles, what today is seen there is mostly the creation of three of the prominent kings of the state of Patan King Siddhinarasimha Malla, Sri Nivas Malla and Yog Narendra Malla in 1619 to 1705 AD.

The present status of the Durbar Square has three courtyards - Mani Keshar Chowk, Mul Chowk, Sundari Chowk, the Bhandarkhal Garden and Kamal Pokhari in its complex.

The major temples can be found in and around the palace are : Bhai Degaa, Maharani Pokhari, Octagonal Krishna Temple, Shiva Pagoda, Hari Shankar Temple, Shiva Temple, Narshimha-Vishnu Temple, Jagat Narayan Temple, Krishna Temple, Vishwonath Temple, Bhimsen Temple, Mani Ganesh Temple, Degutale Temple, Taleju Temple, Shiva Pagoda, Ganesh idol, Hanuman idol and Hanuman idol.

The Big bell, Statue column of King Yognarendra Malla, Statue column of Garuda, Mangal Water spout are also the parts of the complex. Besides, the public building of Taha Phalcha, Aayoo Guthi House and the platform of Mani Mandap also have their significance being the public places which shows the cultural proximity the palace permits to the public.

The Patan Museum is sophisticated but it also stands as an example of the intrusion of the foreign technology in conservation of the archaeological monuments. Many archaeologists objected in the form the conservationist gave to the inner courtyard of the Keshav Narayan Chowk.

Further, Shiva Pagoda Temple, Temples of Saugal, Ibahabahil, Machendranath, Minnath, Purnachandi, Kwalakhu area, Hiranya Varna Mahavihar, Kumbheshwor, Chapat Ganesh Rudra Varna Mahavihar and Mahaboudha Temple are some other temples which are close to the historic palace and they all combine to make the Durbar Square a zone of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

But though, this Durbar Square is waiting for conservation. Shops for modern appliances are rented in the Durbar Square and a rows of curio shops, squat upon the main area. One side of the palace is used as a school whereas the other side is left idle, after using it as a district court. The precious doors and windows are decaying and the local Royal Palace Protection Office, a section of Department of Archaeology is waiting for budget to renovate the heritage zone. The masterpiece Tusaa Hiti or Sundari Chowk is closed for several years afer a constly documentation, in the pretext that some international agency would come and renovate it for our sake.

Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City started levying entrance fee from the tourists in Janaury 2000. Out of the money, it has recently stated renovating several temples outside the palace. But Department of Archaeology is yet to show its existence in the World Heritage Site. The modern buildings are rising in the vicinity against the Protected Monument Zone Act. The whole complex is standing without a single security personal to safeguard the mass of priceless monuments.

Amazingly, it is one of the most favoured platform for the Cummunist leaders to hold mass meeings. Even the radicals, who show their existance by dismantling historic temples in remote districts, choose the velnerable zone to hoist cycle-and-hammer flag on temples being renovated.

"In 1997 work on heritage conservation plan for Patan began with funding from the German Technical Corporation (GTZ) under its Urban Development through Local Efforts programme. Its publication, Patan heritage Conservation Action Plan, 1998, was prepared by Sandy Kentro Associates. This provides detailed suggestions for strategic, physical, and managerial planning with significant inputs also from the Department of Archaeology, but fails to relate its own recommendations to the historical background of earlier planning proposals for the Patan World Heritage Monument Zone," states an evaluation report of International Safeguarding Campaign for the Kathmandu Valley 1979-2001.

Intellectual Property :A bridge between  brain, brawn

The philosophical and practical base to provide intellectual property rights is to promote research and development (R& D). But both proponents and opponents of the IPR have equally strong arguments. The proponents say the protection of IPR is a must and otherwise R&D may cause loss to the invented and discovered. IPR provides incentive to researchers and thereby promotes inventions to benefit the human civilisation.

By Rudra Sharma

Compliance of Intellectual Property Rights(IPRs) is one of the main pre-requisite for the accession of Nepal to the World Trade Organisation. Though the Doha ministerial conference has extended the time for compliance of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), its compliance will be compulsory once the grace period exhausts. Though, there are some laws like Copy Rights Act and an Act about patents and trademarks to regulate matters relating to intellectual property, they are seldom enforced nor complete. We people do not care so much about the compliance of intellectual property rights. Photocopies of university texts books are openly sold in the market. After buying a computer set, it is not necessary to buy software. The hardware seller may readily provide software too, free of cost.

Besides, we traditionally mean intellectual property rights as the right that relates to educated people and their literary creations. Worst of all, the prevailing Nepal laws still do not attempt to tap the immense biodiversity even after the threat of bio-piracy.

That’s not all about IPR. As a UN member, Nepal has to cope up with World Intellectual property Organisation (WIPO) which is a specialised agency of United Nations Organisation (UNO). WIPO administers Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the greatest international instrument of Intellectual Property Rights(IPR) under WTO.

IPR experts define intellectual property rights as the rights given to the person over the creation of their mind. But, what is the creation of mind is not easy to define. There are wide range of things that are included under IPR.

Although IPR is traditionally divided into two parts copy rights and related rights; and industrial property, there are nine categories of IPR under TRIPS.

Copyright and related right: Copyrights protection is provided to the author of the original works of authorship including literary, artistic and scientific works. It has also been extended to protect computer software and database. Unlike patent copyright protects the expression of idea ,not the idea itself. Another right similar to copyringt is ‘ Neighbouring Rights’. Neighbouring rights relate to phonogram producers, performers and boardcasting organisations.

The owner of Copy Right can generally prevent the unauthorised reproduction ,distribution (including rental rights), sale and adaptation of an original work.

This means, authors of computer programme and producers of sound recording, films and performers must have the right to prohibit the commercial rental of their works to the public. The protection of copyrights and related rights generally lasts for the life of the author plus fifty years or fifty years or more in the case of works belonging to corporate bodies.

Trademarks: Trademarks are signs or symbols ( including logos and names) registered by a manufacturer or merchant to identify goods and services. A valid trademarks allows the owner to exclude from the commercial imitation of the trademark likely to mislead the public. protection is usually granted for ten years and is renewable as long as the trademark continues.

Geographical indications: These are signs or expressions used to indicate that the product or service originates from in a particular country, place or region. Before the Doha ministerial conference, the this rights was provided to wines and spirits only. But, the Doha meet agreed extend this rights to other areas also.

Industrial designs : It normally protects the ornamental or aesthetic aspects of an industrial article. Industrial designs are characterised to their appeal to eyes.

Patents: Patents are granted by a government authority conferring an exclusive right to make, use or sell an invention generally for the period of 20 years. An absolute novelty of the product is the pre-requisite of the patent. An obvious next step is not patentable.

Layout designs of Integrated Circuits: It allows the owner of the design to prevent the unauthorised reproduction and distribution of such designs.

Trade Secrets : It relates to the confidential business information such as list of clients or recipes which are most valued asset of an enterprise. If such information are disclosed in an unauthorised manner, this provides a way to civil and criminal actions against the disclosure.

Breeders Rights : This is a separate form of protection of conferred on plant varieties that are new, stable, homogenous and distinguishable. Since our country is rich plant varieties and there are hundreds of plant varieties found abundantly in the different parts of the country, this right is most important for us.

Utility Models : Under this category, protection is given to the functional aspects of models and designs, generally in mechanical fields.

The philosophical and practical base to provide intellectual property rights is to promote research and development (R& D). But both the proponents and opponents of the IPR have equally strong arguments. The proponents say the protection of IPR is a must and otherwise R&D may suffer causing loss to the invention and discovery. IPR provide incentive to the researchers and thereby promote inventions to benefit the human civilisation.

But the opponents say IPR protection is not necessary as a quality product can easily capture the market and bags benefit. The proponents sometimes warn stern consequences such as monopoly of market causing undue disadvantage to the public.

A Herculean debate for and against the patenting of pharmaceutical goods pervaded the Doha conference. Finally it was agreed not to grant patenting rights to essential drugs.

The role of IPR became more important because the brain and brawn are twin blades of the scissors called success. However, as life became more and more important for variety of reasons, the role of brain became more and more crucial. Therefore, time has come for

the government and concerned authorities to develop proper, reasonable and timely legal regimes about IPRs.

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