Summer Love by Subin Bhattarai

My Review: 3/5

Every time I have someone coming from Nepal, I ask for some Nepali books. When my sister-in-law came to Germany, she brought me 'Saaya' (Part 2 of Summer Love'). So, I read part 2 before part 1. 

After reading Saaya, I needed to read part 1. I really wanted to know what happened in part one that made the story turn out like this in part 2. So, next time, I ordered 'Summer Love' with my grand parents. 

I must say the writer did great job in putting two books together. Once you read both books, you can really see all the pieces falling into place but there were some things that didn't really make sense to me somehow. 

Synopsis: 

After being accepted into a Masters degree in the Tribhuvan University, Atit Sharma falls in love with Saaya Shakya through her name. He sees her name in the list of entrance topper and immediately gets smitten by it. It was kind of cute and reminded me of the love story of a popular Nepali singer Sugam Pokharel and his wife. They have a similar story. His wife found his name so unique that she called him to talk on phone. That's how their story started. 

So, going back to 'Summer Love', Atit is already in love with Saaya even before he saw her. Once they meet each other, the first introduction turns into friendship and friendship turns into love. Then comes the role of their family who have to come in between them. The problem of Atit and Saaya is mainly due to their caste difference but I bet even if they were from the same caste, there would be some other problems. Sigh! seems like most Nepalese family have a problem with their children's choice. 

My View:

Although the story is ordinary and addresses every problem a Nepalese couple go through, you are kind of confused thinking why it happened the way it happened. In the middle of the story, Saaya is completely changed and you have no idea why and just to find that out, you have to read part 2. It's kind of annoying sometimes when you have to do that. On the other hand, the character, Sushmita seems so lame and nonexistent. I don't think there ever existed a woman like her and neither will be there in future. And Saaya's father, Dayaram or Dayabir whatever his name is, he doesn't seem to be 'Dayalu' even though there is Daya in his name. He calls Atit all the way from Dhangadi to Kathmandu just to humiliate him. And the author ends the book in such a way that you saw part two coming miles away but in his defence, he had to write part 2 otherwise, it would be one of those times where you convict a prisoner without hearing a defender. So if you want to know the full story,
Read Summer Love (part 1)- Atit's part of the story
Read Saaya (part 2)- Saya's part of the story

Then sit back, relax and punish the convict!

Last but not least, the biggest question I kept asking myself throughout the book- 'Why is it called Summer Love?'

Education in Europe vs Asia

I saw someone asking somewhere, how education systems differ in Asia and Europe? I intend to share my experience here.  

Germany:
Few months ago, I had an oral exam; one of the exams I must pass in order to get my PhD degree. In Germany, if you are an international PhD student, there is a different rule. They look at your previous qualifications and depending upon which department you have enrolled, if there are modules in their list you haven't done before, you have to pass that in order to be fully enrolled. 

Oral exam is more popular than written here. Obviously, there is written exam and in some cases, presentation exam too but most of the examiners prefer oral exam because they believe that it is the only way to know if the students have actually understood the materials. So, if you want to get a decent result, you cannot skip a single chapter or part. You have to master everything. 

First of all, oral exam, the name itself was stressful for me. I had never done it before and I was as scared as hell thinking what it will be like. It won't be like a written exam where you can have some time to think about the questions. Plus in written exam, if you don't know one question, you can choose to come back to it later. I didn't think it would be possible in oral exam while two examiners are staring and waiting for you to answer. I was really really nervous. I am not even joking. 

So, in oral exam, I already mentioned, there are two professors. One to ask questions and another to write down whatever you answer. The professor in charge of writing can also ask questions in the middle.  

After spending 2 years in Germany, I know for sure that education here is all about understanding. Students are very knowledgeable. They certainly know what they are doing because they value education more than grades. Here, I have to confess that I struggled in Germany during my first few months as much as I did when I came to UK from Nepal. 

Nepal:

My memories from Nepal is, we were memorising all the time. We even used to memorise 2 pages of essays and by the end of it, we knew where all the full stops and commas were. The students are highly competitive there. Getting high scores in the exam is more important. Whether you understand or not, but if you score high, you are smart enough. Oh, there is also a good thing. The students are more disciplined. And my God, they are studying all the time (I mean the serious ones).

UK:

In the UK, for my subject, it was all about understanding the application without memorising. You don't have to understand the theory as long as you know where and how to use it. As an Engineering student, I learnt a lot about working in a group and communicating well because at the end of the day that matters a lot wherever you go.

UK vs Germany:

In the UK, its extremely competitive to get into University. The ranking of the University is very important. Higher the rank of the University is, more difficult it is to get in. On the other hand, from what I hear, its not that competitive in Germany to get into University unless you are studying medicine. But the story doesn't end there. They make exam really tough that only smart ones can survive.  

Oh, here is another thing, every German University is fee-free but the UK has increased its tuition fee from 3000 to 9000 grand (only for home students). 

Germany is also the place where internships are favoured, encouraged and the must, whereas the UK is more rushed to its degree. For eg. Engineering Bachelor and Master's degree (MEng) can be completed in four years in the UK but in Germany, students finish in their own time. Some students finish bachelor in 3 years, some in 4 years. It totally depends on when they are ready and because everyone finishes in different time, there is no graduation ceremony here :O. And here is another thing to note: British students do their part time job in restaurants, pub or retail stores but Germans students work in the institutes or the Company- impressive indeed!

 

Europe vs Asia

So, in Europe, education is not only about reading books. It's also about thinking and questioning everything you see, solving the problems you are interested in. Students are encouraged to contribute in community projects to make them open minded and confident. They do lots of volunteering work plus paid work from early age. They travel and learn to become independent from the beginning.

Asian students start learning very complicated math skills since they are in grade 7 but now when I think about it, the sole purpose of all those hard work was only to pass the exams. We had different mindset. We studied to get high scores in exams rather than considering how we could use what we learned to solve interesting problems. Voluntary works and paid works were not common (Not sure about it now). We were occupied with all kinds of lessons and homework, and we hardly explored. Most of us were used to wait other people to tell us what to do. By the way, that was called being disciplined.

There are vast differences between the education systems in these countries. There are good sides and bad sides everywhere. It's certainly difficult to say which system is better for who. It all depends on where you grow up and which system you are used too. If someone is constantly shifting from one system to another like me, it's a real adventure but does make you adaptable. 

Summer University in Switzerland

Whenever I got chance to travel, I chose other countries but Switzerland because I always had this one on mind for my honeymoon destination. As they say, some things are meant to happen, this was one of those opportunities that I knew I would regret forever if I missed.  

Everyone knows by now that I love travelling. There is no doubt but you know if something is too much, its dangerous as well. By this time, I had travelled every weekend for more than a month and I was exhausted. When it was time to actually go to Switzerland, I wasn't as excited as I was when I received an offer letter. I was exhausted but still I knew I was not going to step back. 

Switzerland is not only popular for its beauty but the gloomy weather too, similar to Manchester. There is a joke that goes around when you are new in Manchester, 'Why did you choose Manchester?, for it's weather?'. It rains all the time there but still for 4 long and beautiful years, I never owned a single brolly. When I think about it now, I can't imagine how I survived. Anyway, those are the gone days. I can talk about Manchester for hours and bore you. So, let me go back to talking about Switzerland.  

The first day, I was in Zurich. I can't even describe how tired I was. I went to Zurich lake and fell asleep by the side. For people there, it looked normal because the weather was so beautiful that everyone was enjoying the sunshine by the lake. I heard Switzerland hardly has a weather like that. They said, 'when an angel travels, the weather becomes nice'. We were just too lucky.

Do you remember when I wrote about Denmark, I said I felt like I was eating money there? Everything was so expensive. Well, wait till you go to Switzerland. I had known it before that it is expensive there but I didn't have a slightest idea that it would be that expensive. Everything is triple of what we pay in Germany. For instance, I wondered how people survive there. Of course, they have higher salary and low tax but still, you got to be kidding me when you say a donner is 10 CHF, which we get the same amount in 3.5 Euro in Germany. Now, since 1 CHF is almost equal to 1 Euro, I felt like I was robbed in every possible way. Looked like the only affordable way to eat in Switzerland is by buying from supermarket if you are not cooking yourself. Still, 'I am in Switzerland' made up for everything. Out of all my travelling, this is one place I hardly saw Asian tourists. There were some like me, who were there because they were in Europe or they came there for work but not typical tourists you commonly see hanging out in group with cameras taking pictures of every possible strange things they see. 

In Zurich, the lake is the most popular destination for everyone. Not only the tourists but also local people go there for a nice stroll and fresh air. The lake itself is so beautiful that I am not even hesitating to say I have never seen this clean and beautiful lake before. 

Popular Zurich Lake

There is a famous street in Zurich called Bahnhofstraße near main station. That place is for people who have too much money and don't know what to do with it. You can literally burn your money there. Most of the people were mainly there for window shopping including me. I was mainly there to see what kind of people do shopping there. Obviously, there was no way I could buy anything but when I come for honeymoon, my husband will have to empty his wallet there :P. 

Next day, I decided that I would like to do some hiking. So, I went to Üetliberg mountain. Its not a kind of snow mountain but more like a hill, but they call it mountain. Whereas coming from Nepal, I always have an impression that its only called a mountain if it has a snow. I remember when I went to China, we had an excursion where they took us to a mountain. I was so excited thinking that we were actually going to snow mountain but it turned out that it was a bamboo forest mountain. 

Panoroma view of Zurich city from Üetliberg mountain

  

Here is me with my regular pose overlooking Zurich city

While going up to the mountain, I took train but I hiked while coming down. It was deadly forest but there were more people than expected. It took me about 3 hours to reach city centre from the top. I was exhausted but it was worth it. 
 
Next day, it was time to go to Falera. Travelling from Zurich to Falera was one long and beautiful ride. The landscape was beautiful. It was like I had always imagined what Switzerland is like.

In Falera, 60 participants from 29 different countries gathered for 2 weeks summer university to study Energy Technology. The course mainly focused on renewable energy, such as solar energy, PV technologies, wind energy and thermal power. In the first lecture, the director of the programme showed us a chart that showed from which part of world people have come from. There was 1 participant from the UK, 1 from Nepal and 12 from Germany. I wondered which category they put me in. If they had put me either in UK or Germany, there should be someone from Nepal. Then I actively started searching for this one Nepali. It didn't take me long to find out that I was actually searching for myself. Yes indeed, I was that sole Nepalese participant. Ok, that was not surprising, but what was more surprising was that some people were surprised that Nepalese people are also interested in renewable energy. Some of them who came across me were like -'Oh, you are the one from Nepal?', 'You are from Nepal? I always wondered who it was'. People from asian countries made a decent guess that I was from Nepal. 'You are from Nepal, right? we have lots of Nepalese worker'- A nice woman from Qatar said. Some of them would talk about Earthquake and some would tell me how they went to Nepal for a honeymoon and in answer to my question 'Would you go there again?', 'I think my wife would prefer to go to developed country'. I was actually tired of people's reaction. Why is it so surprising that a Nepalese is learning a renewable energy? At some point I wanted to scream at everyone 'Yes, Nepalese people learn too'. There were also people who genuinely had nice things to say about Nepal, such as Mount Everest is there, country of Himalaya, Nepal is beautiful etc etc.

In bright side, some people knew Nepal and in dark side, some people knew nothing about Nepal. In the beginning I was bit lonely. I started hanging out with people from Mexico though there was nothing much to talk than Javier Hernandez. Everyone was allocated in a nice house with some other random participants. I was lucky because I didn't have to share house with too many people and the view from my house was magnificent :)

View from my house of two weeks

Ok, honestly, how many of you get a view like this from your home? For two complete weeks, I woke up every morning to see this view. The first week, the weather was very nice but it started getting gloomy in a second week. 

Switzerland has 4 official languages: German, French, Italian and Romansh. Falera itself is really beautiful Romansh speaking small village at 1200 m from sea level. When I say 'village', trust me, it is a village. The nice thing about this place is everyone knows everyone there. It is a place where people don't lock their doors or cars because they trust each other that much.  In the morning when you are going to the class, people would smile at you and say 'Morgen' and that is if you see anyone. Most of the time you don't see anyone and I always wondered where they disappear to. Although there are about 600 inhabitant, it rises up to 5000 in Christmas time as it is a popular place for skiers. For me, this place is perfect if people need some time off from busy week.

Out of all, the most interesting lecture for me was solar thermal power. It's was Chemical Engineering everywhere and I was loving it. I didn't hide my excitement. The lecturer was a Chemical Engineer too from Stuttgart. The course itself was very intensive. We were studying all the time and there was hardly any free time. From morning to half 12, there was a lecture and from 2, a workshop with different experiments. Now when I think about it, I only remember being tired and hungry all the time. There was no internet at home. So the only possibility to use internet was in conference area and that also for limited time. On other hand, I was kind of glad there was no internet at home. Although there was hardly any free time, I used whatever was left up for some peace of mind.

So, towards the end of first week, I started becoming homesick. The weekend was left for us to decide what we wanted to do. By this time, I was alone most of the time because I was extremely homesick. Believe me when I say that is not so me. I don't know what happened to me but this time I really experienced a real home sickness. For some reasons, I couldn't wait to go back to Germany. Long back when my friends used to say they are homesick, I used to laugh at them. Now I understand how they felt. I really want to send nice apology handwritten letters with some compensation to all those friends I laughed at. I didn't once think I would face this one day.

So, on weekend, I dragged one professor and my friend Mousa to go on hiking. It was about 38 degree and we were hiking since 9 am to 6 pm. It was extremely long hiking and I was completely tanned but it was worth it. We were going around Ruinaulta Canyon, commonly known as 'Swiss Grand Canyon', which looked like a landslide but they say it's not. So we just have to stick with it.
 

 
Once you reach to the top of the Canyon, dare to look down! This is what you see:

Yes. we walked alongside that river all the way to this top

After Canyon, we went to see Caumasee, the lake that is popular for its beauty. Well, look at the picture and decide yourself.

Caumasee Lake

Next day, everyone decided to join everyone and we went to see the Cassons mountain.

Going up to the Cassons Mountain

It needs a hell lot of energy and determination to reach that mountain

Being registered as UNISCO heritage, this mountain has a strange hole (shown in picture below) in the middle which is 'must see' if you are in Falera. If you see in the picture below, there is a unique line that crosses in the middle, which is also popular among tourists. No one knows what that is and why it is like that but it is something.

Now we are going down

We have to reach that valley

The hiking on weekend was tiring but amazing. Still, in second week, I was more homesick than anyone could ever be in his/her life. The thing is I am not used to living in quiet area like this and besides I am a kind of person who gets bored all the time. In Hannover, even if you walk at 1 o'clock in the morning, you still see people walking in the street, and Manchester itself is a city of students. You see students everywhere. I remember Friday night when there used to be a long queue to get into the club, I was really missing that excitement, not that I am club person or I used to go there but even if you see other people enjoying, you kind of enjoy yourself. Actually sometimes in Manchester and Hannover, I have complained for being too noisy and here in Falera, I complained for being too quiet. I seriously don't know what I want sometimes. On the other hand, studying in Falera was not like studying in China where as you step outside, there are thousands of restaurant to eat at or thousands of places to go. Falera was extremely quiet and I hate to say not really student friendly. Will you believe me when I say a burger and french fries was 19 CHF there? There were lots of 'WTH' moment but obviously I have to remember that I went there to study, not for sight seeing.

Study was good though. We were learning every bits of Energy Technology there. I was loving there but as I said before, I couldn't wait to go back to Germany. When I told this to one of the professors, he told me that its interesting I think Germany as my home already :). I know, right? To other people, I was known as 'The girl from Nepal'. When people talked to me, Nepal Earthquake was the hot topic, then came how easy the hiking must be for me since we have to walk like this everyday in Nepal. Forgive me but I was kind of sick of those remarks. I was like an alien to some of them. Here is another 'WTH' moment.  

Final day, I was overexcited. I couldn't wait to reach Zurich, then I couldn't wait to get on the plane and let me tell you, I have a fear of flying. At that time, nothing else mattered. I just wanted to run away. I was missing home desperately, comfort of my home, my bed, sleeping without anyone snoring, using the clean bathroom that I am used too. Still, there are bright sides too. Its was a great experience, great course, and with so many international friends and great stuff to put in my CV, it was finally time to return home :). How I felt on last day and how I felt when our plane landed in Berlin, I cannot even describe those feelings. I was just thankful to God.

Summer University: ISU Energy
Acknowledgement: Thank you Hannover School for Nanotechnology (HSN) for sponsoring me.  

Morning, Noon & Night by Sidney Sheldon

My Review: 3/5

There are few things that made me stare out of my little window and scratch my head in anguish-

1. What does the title mean? I didn't see any relation with a story whatsoever.

2. Tyler didn't know about his half sister Julia until an attorney told him. Still right the day after the meeting with an attorney, he managed to bring fake Julia from somewhere who was being trained for many days. This totally doesn't make sense. If you don't know what I am talking about, just ignore me.

3. The story line is really predictable and since the suspense is out bit earlier than expected, you kind of feel like 'what else is there to know now?'. 

Still, I am going to disregard all the flaws because I enjoyed reading this book. Even though there is nothing, there is something. It makes you keep going on, hoping there is something extra ordinary at the end even though there isn't. As the story goes on, you visualize the scenes unfolding before your eyes. I tell you my friend, that makes you more addicted and would want to categorize this book as 'a page turner'. Sometimes that's all it is about reading a book. 

Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks

 My review: 3.5/5

A divorced mother of 3 matured children, Adrienne is nearly 60 years old now. After her son-in-law dies, her daughter loses hope in life. She is struggling so much that Adrienne thinks that the only way she can help her out is by telling her a story that happened 14 years ago. That is when Adrienne, unfolds her past- the 5 special days and nights in Rodanthe.

''Outside rain is falling. Listening to the gentle tapping against the glass, she was thankful for its steady sense of familiarity. Remembering those days always aroused a mixture of emotions in her- something akin to, but not quite, nostalgia. Nostalgia was often romanticized; with these memories, there was no reason to make them any more romantic than they already were. Nor did she share these memories with others. They were hers, and over the years, she'd come to view them as a sort museum exhibit, one in which she was both the curator and the only patron. And in an odd way, Adrienne had come to believe that she's learned more in those five days she had in all the years before and after.''

Nicholas Sparks has finally focused on the love between two middle aged people. Its true, love doesn't have an age. This is not a typical love story where a teenage guy meets a teenage girl and they fall in love but about two people who have spent half of their lives struggling within themselves and have finally figured out the ideal lives they want to have onwards. Adrienne, who is 45 at that time gives a favour to a friend by looking after her Inn while she is away. During that weekend, Paul, whose wife had left him months ago, is the only guest in the Inn. As someone said -'the way its meant to be', two lonely people fall in love, but as faith would have it, Paul has to fix something before he can spend life with Adrienne- his relationship with his son who is in Ecuador now. Just in 5 days, he is madly in love with Adrienne that he promises to come back as soon as his son and he are in good terms but will he come back?

As great is the story of Paul and Adrienne, the story of Robert Torrelson and his wife is heartbreaking too; the kind of story that will hunt forever in the dark stormy nights of Rodanthe.

'''The greater the love, the greater the tragedy when it's over. Those two elements always go together.'''