Winter Field Trip

Trip to Pharping Power House

Dear friends, can you imagine a day without electricity? A day with no lights, electric gadgets, fans, fridges etc. you can say it is probably impossible to live without electricity nowadays. But, people have lived without electricity nearly a hundred years ago. We Nepalese got a glimpse of electricity at 1911 A.D which is about a 107 years from now. Before that there was darkness in the houses of Nepalese people.

Do you know about how the first hydro power plant that was established in Nepal? If you don’t know, don’t worry. Here is the story:

A hundred years ago, the Rana Prime Minister, Chandra Shumsher Jang Bahadur Rana, ruled Nepal from 1901 AD until his death in 1929 AD, by overthrowing Dev Shumsher. He went to England 1907 AD. There he was amazed to see the light bulbs in every house. He wanted the same to be in Nepal. The Rana Prime Minister requested the British Government, so he was gifted with the machines to make a hydro power. He then came to Nepal and started the construction in 1907 AD at Pharping. The construction was completed after four years in 1911 AD.

The electric circuit was connected to the royal palaces and some street lights and some homes. In those times, only the rich and privileged people could afford the high price of electricity. The second hydro power plant was built in 1936 AD during Juddha Shumsher’s rule at Sundarijal. After the end of Rana regime, more power plants were constructed and more people got the electricity connected to their homes in a cheap price. That was just the beginning. The third hydro power plant was built in 1965 in Panauti.

I visited the first hydro power plant of Nepal which is known as Pharping Power house built by Chandra Shumsher. Pharping is about 12 km south of Kathmandu, on the road to Dakshinkali Temple. The road to Pharping Power house is still earthen road and its bumpy. It was quite an experience through the road.

When I reached the power house, I was amazed to see that the power house building was in a good condition. I couldn’t believe how the old power house survived two massive earthquakes of Nepal in 1934 and 2015.

Inside the power house, there were two sets of large machines, a turbine and a generator. They generated 500 kilo Watts of electricity. They were very difficult to understand but my father explained the functions of the machines. We also got a glimpse of a small mechanical crane which was used to lift the heavy machines, still functioning. We also examined the penstock pipe which led the water from the reservoir situated in the hilltop to the power house. At present, this power house is a museum and it explained who designed it, how much it costed, etc. I was really amazed to know how such heavy machinery was transported to Pharping, when there were no roads or trucks in Kathmandu, and people had to carry them.

The main water reservoir was 566m above the powerhouse. It was a circular pond of 61m diameter and 5.5m deep. At present, this reservoir pond serves as a drinking water supply pond, which supplies water in Lalitpur area. The scenery from this is pond is very good.

On our way back we went to visit an ancient pond known as Tou-Daha. This pond has now been beautifully renovated. We can walk around the periphery and also feed many fish. Lastly, we visited the statue of Manjushree situated at Chovar hill, which is a ten meter high beautiful stone sculptor, made by Nepalese stone sculptorer.

Dear friends, if you are wondering where to visit during this winter vacation, you can go to Pharping, Dakshinkali and Chovar areas with your family. There is a public bus service, if you do not feel like walking. Enjoy your trip, as we did.

Trip to Bajrabarahi

Trip to Taudaha Lake

Annual Day - Award Winning Day

Annual Day - Award Received on 22 Dec. 2018

Award for : Read to the Principal - First Place

Dr. Ajay Kumar, Deputy Chief of Mission, Indian Embassy, Kathmandu

Mr. Prem Lashkary, Nepal Bharat Friendship Society

Group Photo with Parents

Shuvanjali's Article on Flower Exhibition

Shuvanjali's Article on Flower Exhibition 

Dashain Tihar Vacation Work

Dashain Tihar Vacation

                      

Contents

1.              Dashain Vacation

2.             My visit to Fun park

3.             Flower Exibition

4.             My visit to Sundarijal and Dhap dam

5.             Tihar Celebration

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1.             Dashain Vacation

-                 October 13, 2018

a.             Visited to Kathmandu Durbar Square and Kumari Ghar

I visited to Kathmandu Durbar Square and Kumari Ghar.

It was a good time there as I got some idea about the cultural heritages of Nepal.

The following are the places visited there.

·                Kumari Ghar

·                Gaddi Baithak

·                Kathmandu Durbar Square ( under renovation)

·                Swet Bhairabh

·                Akash Bhairabh

·                Kaal Bhairabh

·                Taleju

b.            Visit to the Central Zoo

We there had a lot of fun with an elephant. And we enjoyed seeing the animals. There we also touched the zoo's elephant.

 

Our family took membership for "Friends of Zoo."

c.             Dashain and Tihar Celebration

During Dashain and Tihar we visited our grandparents’ house.

We also visited the following temples:

1.             Badra Kali Temple

2.             Kalikhasthan

3.             Naxal Bhagwati temple

4.             Maitidevi Temple

On Maha Astami we celebrated our father's birthday. And in the evening we had a big feast.

Main items of the feast are as follows;

1.             Different varieties of chicken and mutton meat.

2.             Different  varieties of beans.

3.             Different varieties of vegetables

4.             Different varieties of sweet meat, yogurt.

Vijaya Dashmi

Celebration of family puja. Receiving of Tika, Jamara, blessings from grandparents and parents. We visited relatives to receive Tika. We also flew kites as a source of entertaintment.

   

Other works done during Vacation

a.             Writing essays

My Essay on "Stage Fright" was published in the Kathmandu Post on 26 October, 2018.

b.            Practicing piano

My favourite tunes are : Bethoven, Mozat, Frozen Intro & Chorus, and others

c.             Practicing my favourite sport  - 'football'

d.            Learned to cook the following foods

§  Momo

§  Pizza

§  Omlet

e.             Learnt some card tricks

f.               Learnt some household works

2.        My visit to Fun park

On 23^rd October I along with my mother and sister visited a funpark in Kathmandu. As from my first view it was a very scary park as I felt  so scared while attending the rides that it felt like I'd lost some weight.

It took a while to get our ticket and then we went for the games. The first game was the 'bumper car'. It was a fun car as we could control the car ourselves and bump anyone who we like to bump into.  Next game happened to be the 'toy train'. It was a small train which went in tracks and in a circle. The next game was 'teacup-teacup'. It was a dizzy game as we kept on ratating till the end. It was not bad but it was not good either. Then we had the 'crazy boat'. It was so scary I nearly cried there as I was so scared that I was going to faint.  I thought that it was the end of my life.

The next one was the 'mary-go –round' and it was pretty boring and the seats were so hard, but my small sister enjoyed it a lot.  The next one was the 'tarzan ride'. It was the most scary one of the rides as it felt like floating in the air. lt felt like we could fall in any moment. I could not walk after the ride because I felt so dizzy and weak. At last we had the boat riding. Among all, this one was my best one. We enjoyed so much in the boat as it was so interesting on the boat.

We enjoyed the Fun Park very much and I will remember it for a long time.

3.   Flower Exhibition

On November 1^st, I got an opportunity to attend a flower exhibition at Jawalakhel. The main theme of this exhibition was Chrisanthemum flower. This festival is celebrated every year in the month of November. It has been around 12 years since this festival began. Here, some of the best plant sellers displayed their work, in the ex for our pleasure.

As we got the information about the exhibition we planned to go there and enjoy the scenery. As a matter of fact, l went to visit and found myself in a beautiful place.  There I had my precious camera in hand and set it to work. And according to my calculation I got a total of 37 pictures. There were hundreds of flowers there and it was very difficult to choose which one to photograph. So at last I inspected all of them and unhappily said goodbye to the place.

4.   My visit to Sundarijal and Dhap dam

On November 4^th I, along with my father and sister, visited a cliff of the Shivapuri Range. It was a beautiful hill with greenery everywhere.

We packed our belongings and we headed northwards. It was boring in the roads because there was nothing we could do. Halfway through, we picked dad's friend and continued our journey. After we reached the cliff, the road started becoming bumpy. Even though the the road there was bumpy we enjoyed it as it was our first time in such a bumpy road. Then we stopped in a restaurant situated in a hill.

In the meantime we went to explore the jungle. After a little bit of exploring the jungle we got a glimpse of a beautiful waterfall. It was such a magnificent waterfall I just wondered why it wasn't in the seven wonders of the world . We also got to to touch the cool, flowing water.

There we also got to know about Pani Ghatta.

A Pani ghatta is an idigenous machine which grinds corn,  wheat, rice, barley, etc. It is very important for the Nepalese people as it it is not very complicated and can be undurstood very simply.

How it works:

-                 Below the Ghatta there is a propeller. That propeller is roated by the flowing water.

-                 A big circular stone is attached with the propeller and when the propeller rotates the circular stone attached also rotates.

-                 In the middle of the circular stone there is a hole and in the hole we have to keep small amount of corn in the hole.

          

-       after a minute or so small corn dust will start coming from underneath the stone .

Then we came back and ate some lunch. The food there was very tasty. There we had a good time talking with the villagers. Then again we set out to go higher up the hill in the windy, bummpy road. Then, finally we got there and we got a glimpse of a huge lake and some construction of a dam – known as the Dhap Dam. There I and my sister ran and played when my father and uncle examined the dam's construction works going on.

The importance of Dhap Dam

Nowadays the river Bagmati is becoming very polluted. So the Government decided to to make the dam to flush the dirty water of the Bagmati River and flow clean water in it. So for this reason the Dhap dam is being constructed.

After an hour or so we returned through the bumpy road . During our return, in the car, I asked many riddles and I fooled my dad and uncle a lot.

Construction of Dhap Dam

6.              Tihar Celebration

We celebrated Tihar in a festive way. We cleaned our house in a very good manner and put light decorations. We had lot of fun playing Deusi Bhailo. On the last day of Tihar we celebrated Bhai Tika.

THANK YOU !!

Photos from Flower Exhibition

Me and my Sister at the Flower Exhibition

Stage fright

During their first stage performance, everybody is afraid. They think that if I make a mistake, in front of everyone, the audience will think that I am not good enough. But you just have to fearlessly say your part on stage, even if you make some mistakes. Because of this fear, most students are shy and do not take advantage of the opportunity to be on stage. But that is a mistake.

During my first time on stage, when I was in grade one, I too made a lot of mistakes, but I was admired for being the first grader who spoke from the stage. Some of my friends also teased me, but when our teacher said, “You are wrong to tease him, as none of you dared to even go up on stage.” From that very day, I have always looked forward to these opportunities to be on stage.

Therefore, I encourage all students to speak fearlessly and fluently on stage. If you don’t speak now, when will you have the courage to speak in the future? If you don’t try and make mistakes now when you are in school, what will you do in the future? On stage, mistakes made will be admired. So please friends, at least try, because there is no best, there is only good and striving for the better.

Shradheya Krishna Manandhar

Grade 5

DAV Sushil Kedia Vishwa Bharati